Grilled Grandma: Carol

How many children do you have? 2 sons
 
How many grandchildren? What are their ages? 2 grandchildren. My grandson turned five on Halloween. My granddaughter turned five Thanksgiving week.
 
Any great grandchildren? No
 
What do your grandchildren call you? Grandma

Beyond the initial elation, what most concerned you upon hearing you'd soon be a grandma? People would think I was old.
 
How often do you get to see your grandchildren? About once a month for our local son and his family. 3-4 times a year for our distant son and his family.

What is the best thing about being a grandma? I don’t have to do all the hard stuff – clothes, schools, food, regular sleep schedule, Healthy, regular food schedule, consistent discipline. I get to do all the fun stuff – play, explore, enjoy the world around us, loosening the rules a bit.
 
What is the most challenging part of being a grandma? I would like to spend more time with my grandchildren, but we and they have a life.
 
Describe a recent time that one (or more) of your grandchildren made you laugh out loud. The two cousins running hand trucks in a circuit around our house.
 
What is your favorite thing to do with grandchildren who visit your house? Read to them, walk down to the creek.
 
What is your favorite thing to do when visiting grandchildren at their house? Walk around their neighborhood.
 
How do you maintain the bond between yourself and your grandchildren between visits? I write two books a year for them, one for their birthday and one for Christmas. Throughout the year, we take photos to put in the books.

What do you most want to pass along to your grandchildren? Their parents are already doing it. That they are loved.
 
What is one word you hope your grandkids think of when they think of you? Warmth.

What is one thing you wish you had learned earlier as a grandparent? Not everybody’s expectations for grandparents are the same.

What one bit of advice would you give a new grandma? Respect your children as parents, even though you have a lot more experience. Understand that they are getting current advice from peers and the Internet while your advice may be out-of-date.

Visit Carol, aka Granny-Guru, on her website, www.newgrandmas.com.

Grilled Grandma: Monique

How many children do you have? 2

How many grandchildren? What are their ages? 1, Ryan is 11 months old now

Any great grandchildren? No

What do your grandchildren call you? Nana

How often do you get to see your grandchildren? Not enough – (3 - 4 times per week)

What is the best thing about being a grandma? Watching them discover life and the excitement and pure joy in his eyes in the discovery.

What is the most challenging part of being a grandma? Sharing…definitely sharing!

Describe a recent time that one (or more) of your grandchildren made you laugh out loud. My grandson was watching my dog and his dog chase each other and wrestle.  He was so excited and yet so scared at the noises they were making and fascinated at how they chased each other and wrestled, that he was giggling, laughing then clutching and moaning within seconds of each other.  He didn’t know what to feel, yet he was mesmerized by the dogs.  It was really quite funny.

What is your favorite thing to do with grandchildren who visit your house?  Watch him discover and their unconditional love!

What is your favorite thing to do when visiting grandchildren at their house? Watch him play and talk to himself.

How do you maintain the bond between yourself and your grandchildren between visits? Phone calls and pictures through text messages that can be shared.

What do you most want to pass along to your grandchildren? Love and the ability to feel secure in their environment to do whatever is in their heart.

What is one word you hope your grandkids think of when they think of you? Love!!!

What is one thing you wish you had learned earlier as a grandparent?  There is no wrong way of doing things.

What one bit of advice would you give a new grandma? Cherish every moment.  It goes by too quickly.

Grilled Grandma: Jeanie

How many children do you have? I have 3 children....a son and 2 daughters. They are all married, so now I have 6 children.

How many grandchildren? What are their ages? I have 7 grandchildren, Jared, 10, Hope, 8, Justin, 7, Wil, 5, Ellis(E.J.), 2, Anna, 2 and Beck, 2 months.
 
Any great grandchildren? No, none of those for a long while yet.

What do your grandchildren call you? Grandmom or Grandmommy

How often do you get to see your grandchildren? They all live a half hour or less away, so I get to see them often. I feel very lucky to get to go to their soccer, baseball and basketball games, school events, plays, birthday parties and all the activities that are part of their lives. They don't get excited to see me the way they do with the grandparents that visit from out of town, but I am very grateful to be able to be a small part of their everyday lives. All of that and the fact that I don't have to go stay with them for a week and they don't have to come stay with me for a week are good things.

What is the best thing about being a grandma? Not being the mom. Seriously, I am very grateful that my grandchildren all have very good parents, so I can just be the Grandmom.

What is the most challenging part of being a grandma? For me right now it is time and energy. I am still working almost full time so I don't always have the time or energy to do all the things I would like to do with my grandkids.

Describe a recent time that one (or more) of your grandchildren made you laugh out loud. Well, as we all know with kids there is always something funny being said or done.
 
I loved when one of my grandsons told me I must not be old because I knew how to buckle his carseat.
 
One of my 2-year-old granddaughters pulled off her sock and said "Look, I have wingernails on my woes" (fingernails on my toes).
 
I laughed when my 8-year-old granddaughter was impressed with the manual windows on a loaner car they had because you could roll the window up after the car was turned off.
 
It always makes me laugh that kids these days think that everything can be fixed with new batteries.

What is your favorite thing to do with grandchildren who visit your house? I like having one of them at a time come to spend the night. I love the one-on-one time that lets me get to know them better. I don't do this as often as I would like, but hope to do it more when I quit working.

What is your favorite thing to do when visiting grandchildren at their house? I like that when I am at their house it can be just play time with them without feeling like there are other things I need to be doing.

How do you maintain the bond between yourself and your grandchildren between visits? Since they all live close I just try to see them as often as possible. With the older ones, it is harder as they have busier and busier lives of their own.

What do you most want to pass along to your grandchildren? Well, I'm sure they would all like some money to come their way some day, but apart from that, like most grandparents,  I hope they get a strong sense of family and an appreciation of the love and support they have from all the people that love them.

What is one word you hope your grandkids think of when they think of you? "Alive" is a good one for now.

What is one thing you wish you had learned earlier as a grandparent? That as fast as it seemed like my children grew up, my grandchildren seem to be growing up even faster.

What one bit of advice would you give a new grandma? Just be the grandmom or granny, or grandma or Nana that you are. Don't try to compete with other grandparents and especially don't try to compete with blogging grandmas. There is no way that I could ever keep up with all the craft creating,  granny camping, goody bag toting, cookie baking grandmas I read about on blogs. I admire them, I just can't keep up with them.

Don't let her fool you: Jeanie is one of those impressive blogging grandmas she speaks of. Be sure to visit her blog, Living Consciously.

Grilled Grandma: Sandy

How many children do you have? I have a super son and a delightful daughter as well as a sweet daughter-in-law. I thought about having another baby but I couldn’t face potty training again!

How many grandchildren? What are their ages? Liam is almost 6 and his little sister Mary will be 3 the day after Thanksgiving.

Any great grandchildren? Not yet, but I am hopeful.

What do your grandchildren call you? Grammy. I like Gran but it is what my kids call my mom so it wasn’t available. I’m too much of a control freak to let the grandkids choose my name. When they first started saying it, it came out “Dammy”, then “Gammy” but now they can both say “Grammy” quite clearly.

How often do you get to see your grandchildren? We have dinner together at least twice a week. Living in the same town with them is about the greatest blessing I can imagine.

What is the best thing about being a grandma? Cuddling.

What is the most challenging part of being a grandma? When they are not in the mood to cuddle.

Describe a recent time that one (or more) of your grandchildren made you laugh out loud. My daughter Abby has a boyfriend named Kevin and Mary, who is almost 3, is trying to figure out their relationship. One day we were looking at pictures Abby and Mary said, “There’s Abby, Kevin’s cousin.”

What is your favorite thing to do with grandchildren who visit your house? Read books and books and more books. I love books and it promotes cuddling.

What is your favorite thing to do when visiting grandchildren at their house? Same as at my house – read books.

How do you maintain the bond between yourself and your grandchildren between visits? I think the best way is to take an interest in their interests. Even when they are little if you show up at the soccer game or remember the name of their best friend at nursery school, it shows them you are paying attention.

What do you most want to pass along to your grandchildren? Faith. It is the one thing that can stay with you all your life.

What is one word you hope your grandkids think of when they think of you? Laughing.

What is one thing you wish you had learned earlier as a grandparent? That their momma and daddy need extra attention too.

What one bit of advice would you give a new grandma? Grandkids are for having fun. Don’t sweat the small stuff like stains on your carpet or marks on your table. Those things are temporary but love is forever.

Grilled Grandma: Gabriele

How many children do you have? Four. Two daughters and two sons. I always wanted the same amount of both, so I'm glad I was able to pull that off after four, instead of twelve.

How many grandchildren? What are their ages? Five grandchildren. Four girls and one rough & tumbly boy. Their ages are 17, 13, 7, 6, 17 months.

Any great grandchildren? Nope.

What do your grandchildren call you? Oma. That's what I called my European grandmother, who was my favorite person on earth. It's an honor to carry that name now.

How often do you get to see your grandchildren? Only a few times a year. :(

What is the best thing about being a grandma? Unconditional love!! And you can give 'em back when they're poopy, or crabby.

What is the most challenging part of being a grandma? Not seeing them enough, because they live so far away from me. That breaks my heart. I try to be there for the big, important times, like birthdays and dances, holidays, etc. But to hear a knock at my door and have it be one of them, on just an ordinary day - would be a dream come true!

Describe a recent time that one (or more) of your grandchildren made you laugh out loud. They're all goofballs - so this is a tough one to choose.

My son said he'd be right back, but took a long time.
My six-year-old granddaughter said, "Daddy's not right back."
Her five-year-old brother said, "He's a big liar."
She said, "He's not a big fat liar!!"
He said, "I didn't say a big FAT one!"

The best ones, are usually naughty. The ones that make you turn around, so they don't see you trying to stifle laughter! And they're almost always said in public - loudly. It's hard to correct a child, when you're about to bust a gut!

What is your favorite thing to do with grandchildren who visit your house? No matter if it's the oldest one, or the youngest one, we always do some sort of painting, or dyeing. Sometimes it's silk scarves and other times it's t-shirts. The last time the oldest ones visited, they made polymer-clay characters. My rule is: As soon as the kid doesn't want to 'eat' the art-supplies, he/she is old enough to play!

What is your favorite thing to do when visiting grandchildren at their house? The oldest ones and I have always had a 'date'. That's when I take one grandchild at a time and let them decide what they want to do.

It usually involves walking down the main street in town, (or mall) and looking through all the coolest shops.

I give them a certain amount of money and that's what they get to spend. I've taught them how to hand the money to the clerk, and how to count their change. And how to exchange something they didn't like - after ten minutes! (It's amazing how their taste changes in that amount of time.)

Our date always includes a meal at a restaurant of their choosing. (My favorite part!) It thrills me to no end, that the seventeen- and thirteen-year-old still want to hang out with their grandmother!

The younger ones and I love to cuddle-up and watch TV. Where, after a few minutes, they beg me to be the "Tickle Monster" until my arms fall off and I can't catch my breath! Dodging those little bony knees and elbows takes it outta ya!

How do you maintain the bond between yourself and your grandchildren between visits? Emails and phone calls. And as soon as I figure it out, i-Chat on my computer.

What do you most want to pass along to your grandchildren? Be kind to others. Have a good heart. But stand up for yourself, when you have to.

What is one word you hope your grandkids think of when they think of you? Loving.

What is one thing you wish you had learned earlier as a grandparent? Not to let everyone move so far away!!  :(

What one bit of advice would you give a new grandma? Savor every moment, every second, because they grow-up too darn fast!! Take a zillion photographs and videos! And write down all the funny things they say! Hug & kiss them until they run away!! :)

Gabriele has both a blog AND a website. Stop by both to tell her hello. Her blog is So Many Things To Love; her website is Gabriele Agustini: Specializing in Hand-painted Silk & Velvet Accessories.