grandchildren Archives - Mother 2 Mother Blog

How Do You Choose Grandparent Names

December 31, 2012 by Rhonda Gales

Did your children decide on their grandparent’s name or did your parents make the decision on what they wanted to be called?  My grandson ultimately made the decision for me. I had initially selected the name Gran, but it didn’t stick.

I was visiting my grandson one week-end, and when I walked into the house he said Mawmaw. Where’s Gaga (referring to his grandfather)?  At that moment, Gran went out the window.   I must admit, I was surprised he called me Mawmaw. I’ve often wondered how he came up with those names for us. Especially, since I had been calling myself Gran for almost 2 years.  His grandfather had been calling himself granddaddy. Isn’t it amazing how things can change in a split second.

Now, I must admit that I wasn’t exactly thrilled with the name Mawmaw.  I didn’t think it was a fit for me and it sounded so old fashion.  I felt somewhat disappointed. Afterall, I’m not your typical grandma. I’m a high heel wearing diva who’s into blogging, texting, social media, and a need for wine.  I just wasn’t feeling Mawmaw. I chose the name Gran because I didn’t want to end up with an old fashion out of date name.  Gran was traditional, but still had a sophisticated ring to it. My daughter stated, “Mom you have to be whatever he calls you”. I wasn’t sure if I was disappointed because I had spent 9 months selecting a name and it was suddenly gone or because the name sounded so country and out of date.  The only other person that I knew as Mawmaw was my 60 year old Aunt.   My grandson had thrown a wrench into the plans. My siblings had chosen their names, and I wanted that opportunity too.

Our grandchildren use a variety of names for us. In my family there’s Poppy, Nana, Granny, and Granddaddy. As I was discussing the name change with co-workers, I was surprised to find out that many of their grandchildren called them MawMaw. It was actually a popular name. Who knew!

As I continued to think about it, it suddenly didn’t matter what he called me as long as he called my name. My grandson had changed my life forever. I looked at the change totally different. What’s in a name? I realized that my grandson had a mind of his own, and he was demonstrating his personality, his individuality, and how he felt about me. I was a Mawmaw, and he believed it was a fit for me. He didn’t see me as a diva, texter, blogger or wine taster. I was simply his Mawmaw. He has made it clear over the course of the years with his cousins, that’s my Mawmaw. I have happily accepted the nomination. I’ve held that title for 5 years, and I’m proud to wear it. I now have a grandson and granddaughter. I will continue to strive to be the #1 Mawmaw, because that is what is truly important.

What do your grandchildren call you or your parents? Leave us a comment, we would love to know.

Filed Under: choosing a name for grandparents, grandchildren, grandmothers, grandparent names, grandparenting, grandsons, Uncategorized Tagged With: Parenting, Parenting blogs, parenting tips, Parenting-Kids, traditional grandparent names

Birthday Boy!

September 28, 2008 by Rhonda Gales

We celebrated Xavier’s birthday yesterday and I promised you pictures of my little angel’s day. Here they are. We were suppose to receive rain in our area the entire week-end. I prayed for sunshine. There’s something to be said about the power of prayer, we were blessed with a beautiful, sunny day on Saturday. It rained immediately after the last guest left. I truly thank my higher power for blessing Xavier’s day.

We posted zoo signs through out the yard(above), and tied jungle themed balloons on the posts. The “Xavier’s Zoo” and “Enter At Your Own Risk” were at the entrance of the tent. We had two others that said, “Lions, Tiger, and Bears” and “Don’t Feed Me”.

Stuffed animals from the Goodwill were used as center pieces for each table. After the party we give them to the kids as party favors, that’s after we made some of the adults put them back. We ordered jungle themed party favors from Oriental Trading and placed them into a jungle themed favor bag. Each child took home a box of the Barnum and Bailey animal cookies. Xavier loved the cookies.

We had approximately 30 guests, and served jungle burgers, warthogs, snake salad, quick sand, toad salad, floating grass, red fungus, swamp juice with ants, rolling rocks, and monkey bread. Better known as hamburgers, hot dogs, spaghetti salad, mac & cheese, potato salad, green beans & corn, stuffed tomatoes with crab, green punch with raisins, and hot dogs & hamburger rolls. We added mixed fruit with Whipped Creme to the menu as well.

Granddaddy Preparing The Warthogs

Xavier’s cousin, Ciarra, announcing She’s At the Party

In the picture above Ciarra, Xavier’s cousin, is telling one of her Uncles that she’s at the party. She just turned 2, it was hilarious.

We served jungle cupcakes (above). I had the bakery sculpt the icing in a grass texture and we used jungle shaped cupcake picks in the center. Everyone loved them. Initially we were going to use a cupcake tree, but we decided to just place them on a tray so the children could retrieve them easily. We did half of the cupcakes in chocolate and half in yellow with a butter cream icing. Everyone of the cupcakes disappeared. The children seemed to like them better than the cake.

The cake that we used for Xavier to stick his hand in had a whipped icing. As you can see, he decided to stick his face in the cake too. He was willing to share the icing with everyone by giving icing kisses. Gran didn’t mind. I love sugars from Xavier, lol. The cupcake shirt that he’s wearing is by Ambajam. They will be featured on our blog next month.

Everyone Singing Happy Birthday

Xavier Sharing Cake With Mommy & His Cousins looking On.
Mommy Wondering How She’s Going to Get Xavier Clean

Xavier received so many gifts my daughter and son-in-law couldn’t fit everything into their car. My daughter’s in-laws had to load half of them into their SUV. Guess who won’t be buying toys for Christmas. His favorite gifts were the Popcorn Popper that you push and the little balls pop up and down and his motorized car. His cousin is helping him with his new wheels in the picture below. My long drive way is finally good for something.

Opening Gifts With Aunt Nikki

Xavier With His Cousin Jordon

We played Pin The Banana on the Monkey and a board game similar to Candy Land, but with a jungle theme. The kids actually perferred to run and play football. Go figure!

We were worried that we would be unable to get the icing out of Xavier’s shirt, but with a little Tide and a good soak in cold water it washed up beautifully. It’s adorable, we’re going to let him wear it until he grows out of it.

We hope that you enjoyed the pictures. I’m not sure who had the most fun, the children or the adults. We will be doing a post on party ideas. Feel free to send your ideas to rhonda@gigglesnsugarkisses.com. We will add them.

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Filed Under: Ambajam, birthday party themes, grandchildren, happy birthday, Uncategorized

Happy Birthday Xavier

September 7, 2008 by Rhonda Gales

My adorable grandson is turning 1 at the end of the month. It’s hard to believe that a year has gone by since he entered this world on 9/28/2007 at 5lbs 13 ounces. He was so small I could hold him in the palm of my hand. He was actually the smallest baby born into our family.

It has been amazing to watch the milestones in his life from holding his own bottle, crawling, getting his first tooth, his first experience with baby foods, toddler foods, walking at 11 months and now celebrating his first birthday.

I call him my miracle baby. My daughter was diagnosed with a kidney disease at 16. As a result, she has taken high blood pressure medicine everyday since to ensure no further damage to her kidneys. I was really against her becoming pregnant, we knew that a pregnancy would cause more damage. She insisted on giving her husband at least one child. When she announced her pregnancy, I honestly had mixed emotions. I thought about the movie Steel Magnolias constantly. What if she dies from kidney failure. She and her husband thought about it too. They discussed which of the two would live if she ran into trouble during the delivery, her or the baby. She wanted the baby to live. Her husband decided that he would never be able to face me if he made that decision. She is my only child. Talking about emotional moments and a mountain of stress.

As a result of her risky pregnancy, the doctors decided to induce labor at 32 weeks. At 9:00 p.m. on 9/27/2007, Marisha entered the hospital anxious to give birth to her son. Xavier decided he wasn’t ready to enter the world. If we wanted him out, we would have to send a doctor to get him. After 30 hours of labor, they decided to do a C-Sect. The above picture is of Xavier when they brought him out of the delivery room. He was on his way to the nursery, but stopped for a brief moment to let Gran admire him and to snap a picture. He’s been posing for the camera ever since. I’m telling you, if you bring out a camera that boy will stop and pose for the camera. He has brought so much joy into my life. He is truly my little sweetie pie. I can’t wait to see what the next year brings.
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