We have had the biggest thing happen in our world this past week. We became grandparents.
We are over the moon happy about this. Not only is it our first grandchild, but we had the honour to be there in the room when he was born. We have had several people around us become grandparents recently and now we understand why we have been inundated with pics of their grandchildren. It’s because it is truly the most amazing thing to happen.
You get to that stage in your life when you are kind of glad that the toys are becoming smaller. The shoe cupboard has bigger shoes, yet they are not velcro or waiting to be tied by you. There are no longer weird locks on cupboards and you can leave the house with just whatever fits in your hand, no diaper bag needed. At the same time, the house is sometimes eerily quiet. Rooms will go days without being used. You start to long for a text or call from your kids. You start to look at each other and say, “so, what now?”
The whole empty nest thing is a little tough to get used to when you have been surrounded by your family for most of your adult life. And just when you wrap your head around dating your spouse again, things change. Our son is our oldest child. He has been married for over 4 years now, so babies weren’t out of the question. We were waiting for it. Our world has once again been turned on its ear.
That instant love that you feel for babies is so much more when you are the grandparents. We are blessed that our kids don’t live too far away and we will be as involved with them as they want us to be.
One of the things that people ask us now is “ don’t you feel old now?” Grandma and Grandad always come with the usual images. I should take up knitting and sit in a rocker. Doug should be grumpy and read the newspaper all day. We should be “old”. But, yet, we are not. Two weeks ago we were just us, now we are grandparents and are supposed to be “old.” I don’t think so.
We are now the only grandparents at our gym. That is really cool. We are in better shape now than when we were raising our own kids. This is going to be great. With our newfound way of eating and our level of activity, we are in the best shape of our lives. We are not taking any medications. Don’t have regular doctor appointments. We are looking forward to chasing our grandkids around. We will be able to be right in the middle of things, just like them. We will run, jump, crawl, right along with our growing family. Keeping in mind that we will likely sleep longer than they will and nap right along with them, but we won’t be sitting in our rockers waiting for them to tire out to visit with us.
We started our get healthy journey for our own selves and now we realize that it has just become so much more. I have been saying for a while now that I wish I had chosen this lifestyle back when our kids were little so that they could have grown up with a much healthier foundation for their bodies. But, better late than never. Now, we get to pass on our love for fitness and activity and healthy eating to the next generation. Our grandson will have the best foundation possible.
Sometimes you just need to do things for yourself and in the process you will find out that your journey is way bigger than you thought and it will have more impact than just you and your own self.
The most important thing is to enjoy your life – to be happy – it's all that matters. – Audrey Hepburn
