I’m baaaaaack…

I got home today from a whirlwind trip to Detroit to celebrate Baby T & Katie at a shower with Anthony’s cousins and friends.   His Mom and his sister hosted a lovely event in a room full of love! 

As the countdown to Baby T’s arrival continues, getting all of the necessities is priority one and boy, have the family and friends shown so much kindness and generosity.   I love watching Katie’s eyes shine when she sees something that they carefully chose on their registry, selected and wrapped by a guest.  It’s so fun when she opens a package that is not something from the registry too.    The "handmade with love" gifts are truly tear jerkers!

I wanted to give her something off of the registry and a couple of weeks ago, I may have gone a little crazy at Von Maur…they had a great selection of unisex sleepers and I couldn’t help myself.   So yesterday, she opened a box full of assorted size sleepers.   It was topped off with a onesie that said, “Grandma was here!” and it was covered with red lip prints all over it.  

As much fun as those things were, I was able to provide something a little sentimental too.  Nearly 61 years ago,  in the nursery setup for me, my Mom had four small glass jars that sat on the dresser…I’m not sure what they all contained, but somehow, one survived all these years.   The frosted glass jar said “cotton” on it.   I had put it away for this time when I could give it to Katie to have in her baby’s nursery.

I filled the jar with small pieces of paper, fondly referred to as “float notes.”   These are the little reminders that I will encourage her to read when she is having a tough day.   Lord knows there will be tough days...especially at the beginning when sleep is a rare commodity and the feeling of being overwhelmed seems to be the new normal.  There are things that are reminders of the fact that motherhood is the toughest job and she’s doing great.   There are things that remind her to schedule a mani or pedi to treat herself.  There are notes about just taking some deep breaths on the back porch.   

Each note was produced for her to remind her that I’m thinking of her every minute of every day.   There are some little trinkets in the jar too.   I gave her a note explaining this gift.   I'm not sure if she will wait to read all of these notes, but I know as I prepared them, I had a few tears, knowing that there will be many days of tears for her...Spoiler alert Katie!!  

I have to believe that the timing of the upcoming arrival of Baby T could not be better.   It is a wonderful life event, fun for me to think about and participate in.   When days are not easy, I think about how I am going to be a Grandma and my heart nearly bursts. 

Counting down as Baby T is now the size of a butternut squash!!   Now, to unpack and get ready to head out again...xoxoxox