besotted, adjective
1. strongly infatuated
2. of or related to grandparents, esp. with regard to their grandchildren
Most recently brother Larry is a new grandfather to Noah Bey, Laura’s firstborn son.
He recently told me that he never really understood being a grandparent until he became one. I totally agree. Noah Henry Savolaine, my first grandchid, was born in 2004 and is now ten. I was in love with him from the first moment I saw him, an hour after he was born. It has continued ever since. As each new grandchild was born, I felt the same love all over again. In just a month we will be celebrating the “littles”, Josephine Leigh Manthorne and Jack Fritz Savolaine, our last two grandchildren who were born two weeks apart during “Snowmageddon”, a huge snowstormn complex in February 2010. We treasure them all.
Once, after Beatrix Eloise, Melissa’s first daughter was one and Noah was four, we were at the beach and I noticed Noah was being kind of mean to Beatrix. When he and I were sitting quietly, I asked him if he thought that,now that Beatrix was born, we didn’t love him as much. He nodded ruefully. I told him that it didn’t work that way, that with every grandchild the amount of love just gets bigger. It never get less. He thought that over and I noticed he was nicer to her. Now they are inseparable at family gatherings.
i think that the reason it does is that we were raised that way. It goes back generations. But Mom and Dad both loved us each as the unique people we are. They leanred that in turn from their folks. As an extended family we have all had the good fortune to have parents who loved us unconditionally. The Fritz, McElligott, Bruner, Johns and Podgurski families who are part of our clan have all had loving parents who showed us how this works and we are blessed by their examples. The new generation is equally blessed.
So for those of you for whom grandparenthood (and besottedness) is still in the future, you will not feel anything is missing from your life before they come and will have no idea how you could live without them afterward.