Ben!

You were the one who opened the door… welcoming me into the amazing world of grand-parenting (or in my case PaPa-ing).

I’ll always remember the day you were born… I was holding you in my arms in your hospital room… it was late at night and the lights were low. Grammy was there and of course your Mom & Dad.

I held you over my left shoulder…then in an instant I’ll never forget… you picked your head up off my shoulder – straight up – and looked at me and then around the room. So many emotions rushed through me… What a smart baby! What a strong baby! What a curious little baby!  This one’s going places.

I love this little guy.

This was the first time I felt pride in who you were… but it wasn’t the last.  That feeling of overwhelming pride has hit me a zillion times since as I’ve watch you transform from shy and hesitant to curious and bright to free and funny to a a competitor and achiever.

We’ve been through some amazing times together, so many adventures.  To this day – and always – there’s no better feeling for me than being around you.

Being my first grandchild, it was you & me without competition from sisters or cousins for over two years…we forged such a deep bond.  I love the photo of you and me in the “blue room” at my house when you used to live with us.   Every night we’d go up there after dinner and play with your Thomas trains… building incredible layouts. You knew every single train name.  I’ll always remember how you learned to move the trains so precisely on a sometimes fickle wooden track to make everything run… smoothly.  You were keenly observant and precisely detailed.

You were also a free spirit… you loved nothing better than knocking down the spiral roller coaster track I had worked on for an hour… knocking it down was a lot of fun.

At the end of our play time, your Dad would come upstairs and try to ease-into a challenging conversation of “it’s time for bed Ben. You have 10 more minutes.”  You hated ending it and would often let him know exactly how you felt. It usually ended badly!  You know what? I hated ending our play time too…  I could have done it until Midnight every single night and never had enough.

There are so many stories to tell about the Benjamin Baby who became Ben… and that’s why I created this blog… to remember the incredible times we’ve had together.

Thanks for being my special Papa Buddy.   I am the luckiest man in the world because of you. I love you.