It was Jane’s dog Ryder’s 3rd birthday.  January 30, 2005.  I was standing in Jane’s kitchen in Rhode Island and we were singing Happy Birthday to Rydie while circling her with a little cake. My cell phone rang… showing a call from Audrey who was living in New York City with Matt and 4-month old William. I will never forget [...]

7 years ago today was very much like today… a balmy, lovely late September day. It was a perfect day for apple picking. Well, if we weren’t waiting for a baby, that is. Our entire family had traveled from Rhode Island to New York City to welcome Audrey and Matt’s first baby.  We knew the baby was a boy.  We [...]

I should know better. I’m the Mom of 4, a Grandma to 9… and I taught high school English and Reading for 30 years. But it happened again.  Just like it always does… the discovery that kids remember the simplest, the most spontaneous, the most unplanned plans. This time it happened with Alex, my 5-year old grandson.  His 3 brothers [...]

Getting ready for a hurricane is no fun. Unless you get a visit from a son and son-in-law to help store all of the outside stuff that you don’t realize you have until it’s time to safely stash it from a hurricane… Strong man Matthew… admired by Audrey!   and a visit from 7 grandchildren AND a big red bowl [...]

What I mean is that a SPILL of any kind holds golden nuggets of fun for kids… if we let them. Take my little geranium pot SPILL, for example… I guess it’s my fault that I stick things into my garden pots.  Things like copper dancing fairies, Christmas ornaments, stone bunnies… and, of course, a dazzlingly sparkly magic wand to [...]

One of my favorite of all time poems is Carl Sandburg’s LIMITED… LIMITED I AM riding on a limited express, one of the crack trains of the nation. Hurtling across the prairie into blue haze and dark air go fifteen all-steel coaches holding a thousand people. (All the coaches shall be scrap and rust and all the men and women [...]

One day last week, I was watching all 4 of Audrey and Matt’s boys in their back yard. 6-year old William was climbing over a rather formidable pile of to-be-discarded tree trunks. 5-year old Alex was climbing all over a rock that’s about 5′ tall. 3-year old Henry was demanding asking that I please push him way harder than medium…. [...]

On Monday afternoon, I took my Mom to a doctor’s appointment.  The appointment was to discuss a possible surgery, and I that knew my Mom would benefit from a good dose of dinner at my home with a bunch of great-grandchildren afterwards. Audrey was delighted to bring over her brood and to visit with GrandmaRita, even on this most drenching [...]

Yesterday I was reading Audrey’s blog post What a difference 6 years makes… about how much has changed in the 6 years since her oldest little guy William was not quite one year old. This is true. But from my perspective as a Mom and a Grandma… well, just about nothing has changed. I see the same face in almost [...]

There’s one thing about climbing a mile, just about straight up, on a gravel pathway and sturdily built staircases that wind in and around the most spectacular natural phenomena of waterfalls, deep pools and twisted trees… THE FLUME in Franconia Notch, New Hampshire… But there’s another thing about Grandpa climbing through a hole in what’s called the Bear’s Cave that’s [...]