Category: grandkids

One thing for sure about our grandson, Joey. He is all boy. Period.

It may sound cliche, but it’s a fact. Boys just do things differently than girls. (Pioneer Woman did a recent post on gender stereotypes you might enjoy viewing for yourself.)

Don’t believe me? Surprise, surprise, I have “a few” pictures to share as proof.

He really seemed to enjoying uprooting plants.

Walking in the gutter, which was of course full of leaves, instead of on the road was fun for him, too.

Oh look, another uprooted plant. He spent a few minutes examining the roots of this one.

Then he had to scamper into the woods—more off-roading!—to find a stick.

Here’s the “stick.”

Here he is pulling the tops off of weeds. He actually tasted this one for some reason. That was a pretty funny face!

He climbed on structures.

He climbed on hills.

He walked around the perimeter of the house looking for interesting stuff to get into.

He shoveled gravel. For hours, it seemed.

And he found G’s rocks.

He climbed on the woodpile.

And was quite proud of his accomplishment.

He found an old bolt, and a rock, and spent about an hour playing with the two.

Doing all sorts of stuff I can’t explain. But he was having fun.

The next day, he filled my flower pots with gravel, stones, sticks and such.

He was a good sport letting me take so many pictures.

Look how he is sitting on the very edge of the patio.

Oh the concentration! The pots were heavy, what with all the gravel he’d put into them.

This is one of my favorite shots. He rides in his car seat with his hands behind his head like that. I just held the camera up, pointed it into the backseat, and clicked. Figures, right?

I hope you enjoyed seeing the Joey pics as much as we enjoyed Joey’s company!

As you know, Joey was with us in West Virginia this past weekend. Joey adores his Pop. He likes me okay, too. But he LOVES his Pop.

My heart could be swollen with jealousy, but it isn’t. Instead, it’s swollen with happiness from the joy this little guy brings to our lives. How can you not get all choked up when you see pictures like this?

Just look at the unbridled joy and affection on Hubby’s face.

And look at the smile on that kid.

I mean, really. He was having so much fun playing with Pop.

He has the cutest little giggle. It’s a deep, belly giggle, too. It is totally infectious.

Joey is just the happiest little guy. And Hubby is the proudest Pop ever.

Grand kids are so much fun. One of these days, we’ll get all three of them back in West Virginia with us. Brianna, Gaige and Amy all have busy sports schedules (lacrosse, tee ball and soccer, respectively) through the end of May. So, for now, we just have to be content with Joey’s company.

He’s really such a happy little guy. And so easy to entertain!

Here’s Pop showing Joey pictures of Mommy, Daddy, Gaige and Brianna, which we took way back in 2005.

Speaking of easy to entertain…

I could just look at the back of this kid’s head for hours. That’s the plus side of his giving Pop most of his attention. I got to see a lot of Joey from this angle.

Look at those little ears. Don’t you just want to kiss them? I did. Many times. And that little tail of hair! (Eric always had one of those tails, too. )

Here’s Joey leading Pop through the woods on the dog trail.

And later, back in the house, having a serious discussion about knees. Joey hadn’t worn shorts since the previous year. He’s very conscious of his environment and found the short pants a bit strange. He kept pulling up his shorts and looking down at his legs as if to say, “What happened to my pants?”

That bit of seriousness didn’t last too long. Can’t you just see the love between these two. It’s almost palpable.

Doesn’t it just make you smile?

Look at those big, blue eyes on that handsome Hubby of mine. He was telling Amy, who had called to check in on Joey, how much fun we were having.

This shot chokes me up every time I see it. They both just look so happy. Pop was sitting like that for all of about a millisecond before Joey walked over and planted his butt in Pop’s lap.

This is a sweet shot, too. Isn’t it?

So, tell me. Did these pictures get you all teary-eyed and smiley, too?

I’ll post more, less-moving images of Joey later.

This past weekend, the last full weekend in April, temperatures climbed into the mid nineties. It was awful. Hot and buggy. Just the kind of weather I hate. I whined about the unfairness of it all. It being only April especially. Hubby swears it’s an anomaly. I sure hope that’s the case!

On a positive note… we had Joey with us for the weekend.

Here’s Pop helping Joey with his shoes.

Amy and family had a very full weekend scheduled. They wanted us to watch Joey on Saturday night only. But since we knew we’d be in West Virginia, and unavailable on Saturday, we offered to take him with us. They agreed.

Of course, I took lots of pictures, but I need some time to cull through them and select the best of the best to share. I knew folks would be curious to see how our weekend went though, so am posting a few to hold you over.

Joey is an outside boy. He didn’t think it was fair that the dogs got to go out without him. Here he is looking through the doggie door to see where they’d gotten to.

He liked our morning walk. I didn’t let him run down the big hill with the dogs. I just knew he’d pick up too much speed and do a faceplant. So I held his hand and walked fast, which allowed him to run. He giggled the whole way.

His giggles are infectious. I’ll post more pics later, I promise.

I did something completely different today. I went to a Saturday Morning Smackdown. It was really cool, too!

My five-year-old grandson, Gaige, is a wrestler. He just started wrestling a few months ago. I went to one of his tournaments today. It was not really called a “smackdown,” though.

I know NOTHING about wrestling, other than the fact that Gaige really seems to enjoy it. You won’t get any in-depth play-by-play from me, but you will get some pictures, of course.

Here he is getting a pre-match pep talk from Dad (my son-in-law, TJ).

Last-minute pointers right before the match.

The first match didn’t go so well for Gaige.

But he sure was having fun.

Look at the joy on the boy’s face.

This is my favorite shot of the day. I knew it as soon as I snapped it. I call it, The Agony of Defeat. He wasn’t nearly as dejected as he looks here. Don’t get me wrong, he doesn’t like losing, but he likes wrestling.

The other kids were there, too, as were some of TJ’s relatives.

Here’s Brianna talking to TJ’s Aunt Cheryl.

Joey staked out his own spot near the window. Here he is enjoying a morning snack.

Most kids would just use their fingers, not a spoon. But Joey is very independent and definitely walks to the beat of his own drum.

Joey’s cousin, Lucy, shared his space occasionally, too.

This was right before Gaige’s second match. Dad, who was coach for the day, is getting Gaige good and primed to kick some little “tot” (his weight class) butt.

Gaige did much better in the second match. His opponent was quickly frustrated.

Look at that focus. Remember, these kids are only five. And Gaige has only been wrestling for a few months.

This is near the end of Match #2, which he ultimately won. Look closely and you’ll see Gaige is still smiling.

It was a fun way to spend the morning.

If you’d like to see all of the pics from today, CLICK HERE.