Our roles in life change continuously.  Sometimes it seems we engage in various lives during our reign of mortality.  Anne and I became grandparents on April 9 with the arrival of Roman in this town late that evening.  I neglected to post anything here during our long wait on the mountain for news (Roman arrived almost two weeks late) in part because all seemed so pre-climactic. 

Our winter was splintered.  It was good, but we were forever moving and becoming resettled.  Various times I woke and had to think where I was.  We opened the year on the mountain and waited word on plans for Mom and Dad Woods.  They went to Florida and so did we.  Their stay and ours was to be relatively short.  Gladly they stayed longer than expected and enjoyed a good time there.  No major health crises occurred.  Cool weather lessened time at the pool, at least while we were there, but they enjoyed the scene with family members and friends.  They stayed much longer than planned. 

We had made a commitment to visit Alex in February and bought our tickets, so we could not stay.  Other of Anne’s siblings replaced us and enjoyed time with Mom and Dad and south Florida in the winter.  We enjoyed a week and a half in the again golden city of San Francisco.  This city of the rich is much like a museum at this time.  The rows of town houses and gardens are gloriously maintained.  Alex was doing well and joined us in our explorations. 

Anne and I birded the desert and coast for a week finding oil fields, deserts, almond groves, and fabulous sea coasts in our travels.  We returned to San Francisco for a couple of more days before flying home a week before Elley’s due date.  We had much to get ready.

At home we rushed at first to take care of critical items and pack for New York.  Then the due date came and went.  Elley moaned at the discomfort and the delay.  Of course the baby was supposed to arrive before here “spring break.”  It didn’t.  Motherhood is full of such disappointments.  We found time during our wait to finish some home improvements and make diapers.

Finally the news suggested an imminent end of the pregnancy.  It did not seem so to Elley who was delivering it, but she had never had a baby.  We arrived in Brooklyn about an hour before Roman.  In this 21st Century his photo appeared in our communicator as we rode to the hospital.  We met him an hour later and were charmed.  Mother and child were worn, tired, and lovely.  They would be much brighter the next morning.

We had the Brooklyn apartment to ourselves the next two days as Dad stayed with his little family in the hospital room.  That was not an option when our children were delivered.  Saturday night, we drove to the hospital to bring them home.  They were glad of the return.  Now we are a crowded expanded  family enjoying the spring emerge in the Big Apple. 

I started vegetables in the back yard garden and installed a bit of shrubbery in the front.    We have become experienced walkers of pup, Marcy.  Anne does most of the cooking.  Elley does lots of feeding.  Many 21st Century babies are breast-fed.  Adam resumed work.  Baby provides challenges, of course. 

It is an awful and wonderful time.  A new life can be a blessing or a curse.  Roman wails often.  He has no clue how lucky he is to have so much love and support.  We toasted his presence the night of his arrival.  Life goes on.