Happy Birthday!

One of the great things about getting to So. California is being able to see our grandkids that are here...Allison who will be 7 in Feb. and Brian, our youngest who turned 2 today! He missed his grandpa's birthday by mere hours but that's o.k. A birthday should be "your own"!

We last saw Allison and Brian in March! Eight months doesn't seem like a long time, but wow, how a baby grows in that amount of time! Brian has always been the sweetest, happiest baby and this day was no exception! He showed us all his new tricks and lots of things he's learned in those 8 months! It was so much fun seeing him open his birthday presents and eating his birthday cake!

Allison was so happy to see us...it makes me feel so special when she is so excited to see me! She always has a great big hug and lots of things to tell me and show me! It seems like she is growing so tall each and every time we see her! She is almost as tall as her mom (who isn't very tall!) and in no time will be towering over her! We know that we won't be here in February for Allison's birthday, so we gave her her birthday presents a few months early! It was wonderful to see how very excited she was by what we gave her! Her exclamation of surprise and happiness was worth way more than the gift itself! I hope I can do as well with her Christmas presents!

The time we are here always flies by so quickly that it seems we have no time to spend more than just a few hours with the kids. I think it's because we have family, doctors and holidays while we are here that take up so much of our time. Add the hours for mom and dad at work, their family commitments, etc. and it really limits what time we have. When we are with our other grandkids, because we are "out of state" it doesn't seem like we have those things imposing on us. Or maybe it's just because we are "visiting" with just them. I think the next time we are near by, we need to just schedule our time with them exclusively or maybe they just need to come and visit us whereever we might be! That sounds like a great idea to me!

BTW...Allison just loves posing for pictures for me!