I have had my own share of frustrations with gifts from grandparents for my circus clowns…noisy toys, toys I don’t want my children to have, gumballs, jelly beans and even no gift for forgotten occasions. At the same time, my father and Bill’s parents have helped us out by gifting to the clowns the things we could not afford but that the clowns have needed during times of financial struggles. Gifts from grandparents are great, good, bad and sometimes a little ugly. Note to Grandmom and Grandpa Tattoo, the gifts are mostly awesome in the eyes of your five darling grandchildren here.
But now I am preparing for the new role and title that I will soon be assuming. Heck yeah I am excited. I can’t wait for that coming attraction to be born so I can hold her. Holly tells me that she doesn’t want to hold the baby with all the delivery goop all over her so maybe I will get my hands on her first. Then again I have offered to Holly that in the moment your baby first enters into this world you tend to forget about all that yucky stuff slimed all over your child. I know I did since I eagerly hugged and kissed her slimy, meconium stained, GORGEOUS face and hands minutes after she was born.
I imagine there will be a few bumps here and there as both of us take on these new roles of mother and grandmother to the coming attraction. Being a first time parent wasn’t easy and I imagine that it is ditto for being a first time grandparent who must interact with, trust and support the first time parent while spoiling this precious grandchild rotten. I discovered a great book that is a guide to mastering the grandmotherly arts of grandparenting (look Bill, a new verb!). The Granny Diaries is the ultimate insiders guide for the new grandmother. Adair Lara offers up been there done that advice that is funny and wise. She offered up a lot of advice that I promise to try to take to heart. “Try” would be the operative word here. Remember that Holly when you think I am getting out of hand because I will. In fact I already have. Remember that dress and sweater Holly saw in BabyGap that apparently her baby girl wanted?

Yes, I bought it. I had to. My sweet grandbaby girl desperately wanted it and her mean mommy, a.k.a. Mommy~Dearest Jr., wouldn’t buy it just because she couldn’t afford it.
Pshaw
The coming attraction’s grandmom can and did.
Like I said, I have a lot to learn. Hopefully my daughter will be patient.
Over at the Parent Bloggers Network they are posting how parents and grandparents negotiate gift buying and giving for the kids. They even linked up a handy-dandy grandkids gift guide for grandparents to reference. In barely a month my grand daughter will be here so I bookmarked it.














Maybe it’s the heat but I’m actually tearing up. I know I’m not even close to having grandkids (fingers crossed) but I can’t wait to buy presents and also not having to be the bad guy all the time.
The dress is so cute!
That’s so sweet! I know that Holly will appreciate the dress and all the other gifts too.
what was fun was sending my neices & nephews obnoxious gifts…payback to my siblings! ha ha