A - Z Challenge 2023 - I is for Inventions

Please check out the April Blogging from A to Z Challenge
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This year I'm writing about things connected with Being a Grandparent.  For an introduction to my grandchildren check out my theme reveal here.

Oh my goodness.  So many inventions since I had my children to make life easier for parents. (Well at least that's the theory.)

Here are just a few:

Sterilizers - no microwavable steaming sterilizers for me, just a container we filled with water that required 1 milton tablet.  I didn't have to remember how much water to add - there was a line on the container or how long to microwave it for.  But yes if you want a bottle sterilized quickly now you can even just do 1 bottle on its own in the microwave.

Beds - come in all shapes and sizes now.  We had a carrycot and then an ordinary cot for ours.  None of these "Next to me" arrangements.  And our cot had a drop side.  Many don't seem to have them now and it's very hard getting a baby into a deep cot without nearly dropping them!  And then of course there are the arguments about how to keep the baby warm.  We had blankets and/or a quilt and we had bumpers around the cot all of which seem to be frowned upon now in favour of "Grow bags".

Car seats come in all shapes and sizes now too and you need a degree in engineering to work out how to get them in the car and that's before you try putting the baby in them.  I can remember just putting our carrycot on the back seat although the baby was strapped in to the carrycot and the cot did have straps around it too.  Our first car seat was also much lighter than the current ones - no weightlifting training required for it.  And of course if the baby fell asleep in the car seat we would just take it in the house and wait for the baby to wake up.  No limits for us on how long the baby sat in the seat like there are now.

And as for prams and buggies.  Well they can be all singing and dancing too.

I had a Silvercross pram and then later on a McClaren umbrella fold buggy - the sort you really could fold with one hand to get on a bus with.  We couldn't just wheel our buggy onto the bus as they do now - oh no it had to be folded and go in the luggage area and you had to sit with the baby on your lap.  That is one improvement I guess although sometimes you have to wait for several buses before one comes along that has space for you and your buggy.

Mine was similar to this - Vintage now apparently.

The pram was great for going anywhere within walking distance though.  It had a big tray underneath for shopping and all the paraphernalia you need to take out with you for the baby and, when our second child came along we had a pram seat that fitted on the top for the first to sit on.  No such thing as buggy boards in my day.  But that is progress in my view.  Although hard work pushing a heavy buggy with a little one in it and then an older child on the board.

Not sure I'd be requiring a buggy that you can run with though!

Of course formula milk was around in my day but not the convenience of ready made formula milk that can just be opened and given to baby which is a great help to our modern busy Mums.  And I don't think electric breast pumps were around in my time either.  Another game changer.

And as for all the toys and gadgets you can get these days, don't even get me started. 

A - Z Challenge 2023 - H is for Holidays

Please check out the April Blogging from A to Z Challenge
#AtoZChallenge
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This year I'm writing about things connected with Being a Grandparent.  For an introduction to my grandchildren check out my theme reveal here.

Holidays

Over the years we’ve had many happy holidays with our own children and now we’re enjoying holidays with the grandchildren.

There have been various times when we’ve all gone away together and we’re still speaking to one another lol.

We had a weekend away in 2018 to celebrate our eldest son’s 30^th birthday.  At that time only Nathan was with us, although there were 2 bumps as well.

By Christmas 2018 the first 3 grandchildren were all with us when we rented a house in Kent to celebrate Christmas.  It was a challenge with 3 very young children and an unfamiliar kitchen but again we survived.

In June 2019 we celebrated my 60^th birthday with a weekend in Norfolk again renting a house big enough for all of us that was on the coast so we got to go to the beach.  We even got to take responsibility for Rory on the last night as his parent had to get back to London for work commitments.  He actually slept quite well making life easier for us but he woke VERY early the next morning.  I do not do early mornings lol.

Chilling in the garden

Trying to get just a little bit more sleep!

Yummy afternoon tea the Mummies organised

Where we stayed

Of course we’ve also had our annual extended family holidays to look forward to in Kent each year, interrupted of course by the pandemic.  There we have the obligatory “staircase” photo taken.  Again there is the challenge of getting the children to sleep, especially as we’re all sharing rooms and the adults make a lot of noise in the evenings!  But it is lovely spending these extended periods of time with them all.

August 2019 (Pre pandemic)

August 2022 (Post pandemic)

Perhaps the most challenging of holidays with a grandchild though was our first one – if someone had told me I’d be travelling all the way to Australia with an 8 month old Nathan I’d have laughed in their face.  But that’s what we did.   My daughter and her wife wanted to make the trip and invited us to join them and, I think to everyone’s surprise, I said yes!

It was a fantastic holiday but we did do a lot of travelling.  One thing I’d do differently if I could turn back the clock would be to not underestimate the distances between places in Australia.  They are huge and of course travelling with a young baby means frequent stops.  And endless playing of songs on your phone to try and get them to sleep or at least stop crying!  We covered a lot of miles.  Definitely a holiday to remember though.

(I wrote several blog posts about the Australia trip starting here.)

Our next trip will not be so luxurious.  We’re all going to a holiday camp and staying in caravans at the beginning of June.  I’m sure the Grandkids will have a great time being together, taking part in the activities and spending time on the beach.  We’ll probably need another holiday when we get back!

A - Z Challenge - G is for Grandsitting

Please check out the April Blogging from A to Z Challenge
#AtoZChallenge
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This year I'm writing about things connected with Being a Grandparent.  For an introduction to my grandchildren check out my theme reveal here.

Grand sitting

I have done a lot of grandsitting over the last 6 years especially when you include childcare.

When my daughter went back to work after her maternity leave I looked after Nathan 2 days per week.  It was hard work as my daughter and her wife didn’t live that close to us and I had to use public transport to get to them – driving would have taken much longer and probably been more stressful.  It was daunting at first as it was all new again but we soon got into our routines.

Then it was Rory’s turn to have Nanny for a while.  Once he moved on to full time nursery I switched to Vinny 1 day a week and the plan had been to have Ella on a another day but Ella didn’t settle well at nursery and always seemed to catch every cough and cold going that before we could establish a regular routine her Mummies decided that my DIL would be a stay at home Mum for a while until Ella was a bit older.

So now I only look after them as and when needed.  Covering things like staff training days at school or nursery closures or doing school pick ups.  Or evenings when the parents want a night out. I think I’m doing more now that when it was a regular one day a week!

And of course some days are easier than others.

Until recently Ella would scream when left with me but the last time went much better so hopefully we’ve turned a corner there.

Rory and Vinny are good sleepers so doing an evening stint with them is no problem and, although we don’t see them as often, Noah and Miles also sleep well at our house so they’re usually no problem either.

I think one of the hardest days we had was back when Noah and Rory were still quite little (about 18 months old) and both their sets of parents had been invited to the same wedding.  This meant looking after both of them for the day and into the evening.  How hard could that be?  Lots of people cope with twins every day.  I had Hubby with me.  A doddle I thought.  Well I take my hat off to anyone with twins or multiples.  Everything took such a long time.  Getting them ready to go out for a walk in the park took ages – it was October so of course that meant hats and coats and shoes etc.  Then we had to feed them.  Not too much of a problem as we’d got two highchairs for the day until we noticed that Rory was trying to pinch Noah’s food so we had to move them further apart!

Bedtime proved tricky too.  Rory went down without too much fuss but Noah had had enough of us by then I think and wanted Mummy.  We did finally get him to sleep though.

Poor thing was exhausted - as were we.

Yes it’s lovely having them but sometimes it’s good to be able to give them back!

A - Z Challenge 2023 - F is for Favourites

Please check out the April Blogging from A to Z Challenge
#AtoZChallenge
a-to-zchallenge.com

This year I'm writing about things connected with Being a Grandparent.  For an introduction to my grandchildren check out my theme reveal here.

Favourites

Nanny does not do favourites. 

Even with my own children I tried very hard to treat them equally and fairly.  That wasn’t always easy and of course they ultimately had to learn the lesson that life isn’t always fair.  But I did try to ensure they all got the same share of things and we didn’t favour one over another.  Hard to do as they got older of course and we were probably harder on our daughter being the eldest.  When they first start testing the boundaries and exerting their independence naturally you want to protect them and we were on a steep learning curve with her.

By the time the boys were at the same stages we were probably more relaxed and of course we were constantly reminded of this by our daughter.

With the grandchildren I try even harder not to favour one over another, especially as we don’t see as much of Noah and Miles as we do the others although when you’ve provided childcare for some of them naturally you build a closer attachment. 

I do have favourite moments/memories of course.  The first time I held Nathan for example – being premature he spent the first few weeks in the NICU so it was a long time before I got my first cuddle with him so that was precious.  Spontaneous moments like when Rory turned to me and said “I love you Nanny” recently and this picture

This was probably the first time that Ella had come to me wanting to be picked up and cuddled.  For someone who is such a Mummy’s girl that was definitely special particularly as Mummy was in the room at the time.