Great-Grandparents

Dear Carter,

You are a very lucky boy! In the short three months that you've been here with us, you've met five of your great grandparents. Five! I can't say how many great grandparents most people get to meet, but I feel like you're very lucky to have visited with all of them already. They love you so much! It's very important to Daddy and I that we tell you about these people, since they won't be around forever and you're too little to remember your visits with them.

Great Grandma Ruby & Great Grandpa Barney

Grandma Nancy calls these guys your "Grammy and Grampy." They are Mommy's grandparents. You spend 3 days a week at their house while Mommy works, and they love every minute of you. Grampy has Alzheimer's Disease, so he doesn't always remember you well (sometimes he even thinks you're a girl!) but he is always overjoyed to see you. You love him too, and you save all your biggest smiles for him -- all it takes is for him to make a noise or look at you and you're such a happy boy. He often forgets how little you are and wonders why you aren't walking yet :)

Grammy is a spitfire, and when you're older I'll tell you story after story about her and all her adventures. Grammy is just impressed with everything you do. She thinks you're the smartest, strongest, cutest baby she's ever seen....even cuter than her own babies -- in her own words! The other day we were at Grammy and Grampy's house, and Grammy heard you sneeze. She promptly said "Oh he just sneezed! That was the cutest sneeze I've ever heard!" She thinks it's cute when you sneeze, laugh, coo, cry... even when you pee. (She's not hard to impress.) She calls you her baby angel and says, at least 20 times a day, that you're a miracle.

Great Grandma and Grandpa Shear

Great Grandma and Grandpa Shear are Daddy's grandparents. They live in Buffalo, so you don't see them very often, but they're very important people to Daddy and I and we hope you get to spend more time with them. Great Grandma has Alzheimer's Disease as well, so she doesn't remember you much either, but she loves you.

Great Grandpa is one of the most important people in Daddy's life. He looks up to Great Grandpa as a role model, and tells countless stories about him. Some of Daddy's favorite stories are about his adventures together with Great Grandpa and Daddy's cousins, Aaron and Adam. Great Grandpa's name is Frederick -- you're middle name. We named you after him because he's been such a huge influence in Daddy's life, and in mine for as long as I've known him. We're very, very thankful for him and hope that as you grow, we'll see some of him in you -- maybe his humor, or his energy; his good nature or his hard work-ethic; maybe his profile... when you're old enough to understand, I'll show you a picture of him and a picture of Daddy -- they have the same profile.

Great Grandma Cool

Great Grandma Cool is Daddy's Grandma. She is a real character, and I'm SO glad we got this picture with her. She's pretty sick, and we're not sure how much longer she'll be around. When she learned how sick she was, she started asking about you and talking about you quite a bit. So, last weekend, we took you to Ovid to see her again, and we finally got a good picture of you with her. This is one of my favorite pictures of you ever.

Great Grandma Cool is quite the lady. Her husband passed away when your Grumpa was only 12 years old... so she spent a good part of her life raising three kids on her own. I've heard stories about how Grandma Cool was never afraid to walk into a bar on her own, and how she used to have to wrestle with mental patients in the hospital where she worked. She has so many great stories! She's from Nebraska, and she still loves and talks about Nebraska even though she's lived in Ovid since before your Grumpa was born. She's a big football fan, and she follows the Nebraska Cornhuskers and the NY Yankees. (Daddy and I hate the Yankees, but we don't hold that against her.) Back when she could have it, she liked to drink "red beer," which is half beer and half tomato juice.

There are SO many people who love you, little monster, but I think that the love you get from your great grandparents is some of the strongest and most special. You're they only great-grandchild any of them have right now! We're so glad you got to meet all of them and spend some time with them, and we're going to make sure you never forget any of them.

Love,
Mommy :)