{"id":551,"date":"2019-01-09T20:15:41","date_gmt":"2019-01-10T01:15:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wallyword.com\/?p=551"},"modified":"2019-01-09T20:25:21","modified_gmt":"2019-01-10T01:25:21","slug":"what-a-long-strange-tripp-its-beenand-continues-to-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wallyword.com\/?p=551","title":{"rendered":"What a long strange Tripp it\u2019s been\u2026and continues to be!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s finally happened. That magical time in your life\u2026no, not a lottery win \u2013 but, yes, a big win of sorts \u2013 we have our first grandchild! Wait, what? Are we really old enough?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I know you\u2019re expecting the old line \u2013 \u201cWhere has the time gone? It seems like just yesterday that\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, guess what? The line makes perfect sense! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a parent, you spend the early days with your child or children feeling like you are driving a car with no brakes. The first one is always the shocker right? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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You boil everything, wash the baby’s clothes 3 times a week, jump up when you hear the slightest cry. You freak out when they start crawling, then walking \u2013 time to baby proof the house! Everything is on a shelf which is much too high to reach \u2013 you hope. You change babies in the weirdest places \u2013 kitchen table, car, last row of an airplane, bathroom at McDonald’s\u2026and even your lap!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Whoops! Then it\u2019s the teenage years\u2026sports, cliques, school, video-games, friends in and friends out, funky fashion styles, and the ever-present line \u2013 \u201cHey Mom and Dad, why can\u2019t I do this, ALL<\/strong> my friends are doing it?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The kids do vanish a bit during the college years\u2026you create a level of trust you knew you never had. You are still connected, and freak out for different reasons, mostly hoping that they are safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then they grow up, get jobs, get into a relationship\u2026and have a child. Where have the bloody years gone? And what’s this grandchild gig like?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Indescribable”,<\/strong> one of my colleagues who is a grandmother said to me \u2013 \u201cyour life will change, and you don\u2019t realize it until it actually happens.\u201d I guess I just didn\u2019t realize what happens to the grandparents and rest of the fam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

True \u2013 sure, when we heard the news and also did the gender reveal (all within the same 45-minute period last June) \u2013 using a blue martini <\/strong>by the way (fitting for our family) \u2013 it all seemed surreal. While during the pregnancy we didn\u2019t see our daughter-in-law that regularly as they live away from where we are today \u2013 we were in touch often to check in on progress. Did you know there\u2019s an app<\/strong><\/a> for that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Our son operated his side of the responsibility coolly and calmly (on the outside at least) \u2013 operating with a \u201cyeah, we got this guys\u201d style. Joe Cool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We started thinking about what the baby should call us \u2013 a variety of good name ideas, but I said anything but \u201cgrandpa\u201d for sure. I thought \u201cSir\u201d was a good start!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then the day comes; well actually during the night \u2013 and these old fogy grandparents didn\u2019t read their mobile phones until after the landline call first thing in the morning to let us know we are grandparents. Bad form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Life has changed.<\/strong> This little guy named Tripp (yeah, he\u2019s the 3rd<\/sup> Wally, god help him), has mesmerized the family. His aunt and uncle adore him and want to know what he\u2019s up to everyday. His grandmother Grape (Grandma April for short) can just sit and watch him sleep for hours \u2013 but hey, she\u2019s been doing that with me on the couch in front of TV for 38 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He opens his eyes and moves his arms\u2026we\u2019re all ensconced. We\nall want him to take his time getting older already as we love this time and\nhim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tripp’s parents are seemingly cool \u2013 no visible panic per se; yes they boil everything, but they have great sophisticated machines for that now. They\u2019re doing a great job of getting the lad into a proper system of operation, which we all know Tripp will try to mess it all up at some point!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As my colleague said correctly, life has changed.<\/strong> We know there are many more fun times ahead, but for today – we\u2019re plotting ways to see him, checking in often, impulse-buying baby clothes and not a day goes by we aren\u2019t speaking about him or wondering what he\u2019s up to. Thank goodness for cell phones and Face-Time!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And look, if he wants to call me Grandpa <\/strong>\u2013 that\u2019s ok with me!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s finally happened. That magical time in your life\u2026no, not a lottery win \u2013 but, yes, a big win of sorts \u2013 we have our first grandchild! Wait, what? Are we really old enough? I know you\u2019re expecting the old line \u2013 \u201cWhere has the time gone? It seems like just yesterday that\u2026\u201d Well, guess what? The line makes perfect… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[13,12,17,1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2Clfm-8T","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wallyword.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wallyword.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wallyword.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wallyword.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wallyword.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=551"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/wallyword.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":566,"href":"http:\/\/wallyword.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551\/revisions\/566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wallyword.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wallyword.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wallyword.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}