A Poem in Your Pocket

April is National Poetry month. And so, tomorrow, April 30th, is "Put a Poem in Your Pocket Day". You are encouraged to carry a poem in your pocket and share it with someone. To acknowledge National Poetry month, I have written a poem about Samuel--also in honor of his birth. He will be 2 weeks old on April 30th.


The poem is written in the style of an *acroustic. I am sure it could be improved, but I am satisfied with it--for now anyway. If you click on the image, it should open in a new browser window and it may be a little easier to read.

*Acrostic poems are simple poems in which each the first letter of each line forms a word or phrase (vertically). An acrostic poem can describe the subject or even tells a brief story about it.

One Week Old

Sam is a week old today. Both he and his brother are doing well. So is Mom and Dad--although they are tired. I did not get to help out as much as I had hoped because of a nasty sinus infection. I am on medication, but am still coughing a lot and sound like I have a head full. Most of my energy has been zapped out of me.

I was able to take Charlie for the afternoon yesterday. We went out to lunch, played, read stories and took a nap. Both Charlie and Grandma fell to sleep for a couple of hours. When we got up, Grandpa was home. Mom and Dad and Sam came over. I have added some photos taken at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Charlie is so good to Sam. He doesn't mind the attention Sam gets and seems quite concerned when Sam is crying. He is a great big brother.

Content in Grandma's arms


Having a chat with Grandpa

Happy 3rd Annniversary to Michael and Kristi. They celebrated their 3rd anniversary on Wednesday, April 22nd. It is hard to believe it was only three years ago that we were in Minnesota having a wedding. So much has happened in such a short time--some good, some bad. But we have a lot of fond memories to keep us going and many blessings in our lives.

Mom and Samuel

The big event finally happened. Nikki, Matt, and Charlie have welcomed a new little boy into their family--Samuel David Fitzgerald. He weighed in at 7 lbs. 6 oz, was 21 inches long. He was born at 1:07 p.m. on April 16, 2009. Nikki and Matt chose to have a home delivery. Her labor began around 11 a.m. and a couple hours later Sam appeared. Both mother and baby are doing very well. Charlie happened to be at daycare while this was happening. He came home to a new little brother. He calls him baby Sam. He seems to like the baby but was more interested in his new big wheel and the cars and car mat I made for him. Charlie spent last night at Grandma and Grandpa's so mom and dad could concentrate on the new baby.

Samuel David
taken at 6:15 p.m. April 16, 2009

Grandpa and Sam

Charlie and his new car play mat

I will take more pictures of Charlie and Sam today and post as soon as I can. We are so thrilled. Sam is so cute! And Nikki was so relaxed after giving birth at home. Her mid-wife will check up on them today.

April Week-End

"Hoppy" Easter! It promises to be a beautiful week-end in Iowa. The sun is shining and it should get up to about 60 degrees today. We are still waiting for the baby to appear. Nikki is so ready--she is having a hard time playing the waiting game now that it is so close.

My excitement for the morning was a small fire on the stove. Nothing was damaged and it was easily extinguished--the reason for opening the windows even though it is only 44 degrees right now. I had put the water on to boil some eggs for Easter. I did not realize that there was something in the burner's drip pan. When I turned around there were flames. I took the pot off the burner and tried to use the lid of the pan to snuff it out, but that didn't work. So, I opened the cupboard and grabbed the salt shaker. I poured salt on it and that extinguished the flames. When the burner cools, I will clean up the smoke, etc. Steve is at work, so I am glad I don't have to tell him that he has to come and clean up a fire mess from our house. The dog and I were the only ones home and the dog was safe outside. The eggs are boiling now.

Charlie came over to visit. His mom and dad had some things to do, so Grandma got to have him for the rest of the day. We went to Great-Aunt Nancy's house to dye Easter eggs with the girls. He thought it was pretty fun!

Watch the slideshow of photos.

Kalub was not able to participate in the egg dying as he was in Minnesota with his mom and dad, visiting relatives there. Maybe next year....


I have discovered that there is something called "laminated" cotton fabric. I am now on a mission to find some. It would make great bibs, aprons, messy mats, tote bags, etc. I think it is kind of expensive, but what isn't now days! I have so many things to make--if only there was more time.

With Easter comes the promise of new life. Maybe today the newest little Fitzgerald will appear. Easter means hope!

Easter's on Its Way!

I was very busy over the week-end getting some things ready for some special little ones--and some older, special children as well. Although it is April, it still feels like winter--got a little snow on Sunday. It will be melted soon! I am hopeful that this was the last flake of winter this season. We haven't made any specific plans for the Easter holiday. We are waiting for baby to arrive--but you know how a baby can be--in their own time. I will certainly update this when Fitzgerald grandchild #2 arrives.

BubbleShare: Share photos - Easy Photo Sharing

Created with Wordl.

http://www.wordle.net/gallery/wrdl/717210/Dr._Grandma_Says

Where are the months going? I don't know when February flew by and March marched right past me without even stopping. It is now April and we are still fighting to see spring arrive. Winter keeps coming back to annoy us.

The above image was created with a web program called Wordl. Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. It has a lot of choices for fonts, colors, and layouts. It was fun to "play" with it.

We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of Grandchild # 3--baby #2 for Nikki and Matt and sibling #1 for Charlie. I can hardly stand the waiting. I keep making more things for the baby, for Charlie for when the baby arrives--it is getting out of control. What fun!