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Never Enough Toomans

31 Oct

As mentioned we have had 2 additions to the grandkid list since 2020, Our daughter Nikki and her husband Jake had 2 kids, William and Evelina Tooman. William is 2 years old turning 3 in January. Evie just turned 1 in August.

Finding out that Nikki was pregnant was fun also. Nikki and Jake had arranged to have their wedding photographer take family photos of each of the families and then a big group shots of all of us at the end. Just before the group photo Nikki and Jake produced a sign board that they told Elli to hold. We thought nothing of it, and the picture was taken. Then Nikki says “Elli what’s the board say?”

Elli turns the board and reads “Baby Tooman arriving January 2021” She then looks quizzically at the sign and then at Nikki. It takes a moment and then everyone finally realizes what Elli had just read and we got just a little excited. I was ecstatic, because I knew how much Nikki wanted to start a family. Little did I know that this would be the Tooman method for announcing pregnancies.

Our grandson was born during the joys of COVID-19 down in San Diego. Following his birth our daughter and her husband refused to tell us his name. Saying, “We will tell you when we get home.”

We were all obviously very curious, why the secrecy? We wondered. All I knew is that he wouldn’t be named after me, because I didn’t want my grandson to have to go through life with nobody being able to pronounce his name.

I grew up hating being called Lenny or little Lenny, and when I became an adult I couldn’t stand that everyone seemed to mispronounce my name as Leo-NARD! Not something I would ever wish on my grandson.

Well the big moment came the day they came home to their house, where EVERYONE was waiting. After Nikki and Jake climbed out of the car they opened the backdoor of their Jeep, reached in and pulled out their newest addition. Turning to us all they said, “Everyone, please meet William J. W. Tooman”.

I admit I cried, they had outsmarted me. William was named after me after all! They had just chosen to use my middle name. The amount of happiness and joy I felt when they said his name, can never fully be described. Needless to say I fell in love with him immediately.

By the time of Williams second Easter, Nikki was pregnant again. Her and Jake had already decided on the baby’s name. Again they decided to not tell anyone, instead they turned it into a game.

Every year we hide plastic eggs around the backyard, and let the kids go searching for them. We normally have a golden egg, that will have something special in it. Well this year Nikki and Jake declared that the finder of the golden egg would be given the privilege of telling everyone the babies name.

So the hunt was on. The kids went crazy looking for the golden egg, nobody could find it. Finally the girls were successful and Nikki gave them a board that spelled out her first name, EVELINA. The name was perfect.

They are developing into such fascinating and lovable characters. William has turned into quite a vehicle guy. Can’t get enough of trains, planes and automobiles. Every time I see him he wants to know where Papou’s car is and if nearby, he has to go ‘drive’ it. While ‘driving’ my car William likes to order me into different seats in the car. So I am constantly moving from the front to the back. Every once in a while he actually lets me ‘drive’.

Evie right now is busy exploring the world and is constantly on the move. Since she started walking she never wants to sit still. She is also terribly fascinated with our cat and is constantly wanting to pet her. Needless to say the cat isn’t too keen on that idea.

They are changing everyday and at least for this moment in time, they love their Papou….

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Granddaughter #4 – Welcome Makayla

25 Jul

In January of this year we had granddaughter number 4 join our family. The second child for our oldest daughter. My job on that day was Papouli daycare for Elliana, the brand new big sister. She stayed with me at the house while we waited for Makayla's arrival.

When we finally made it to the hospital, Makayla turned out to be a beautiful baby and she immediately captured my heart.  I really couldn't believe how lucky I was to be the grandfather to such a beautiful granddaughter. I think the thing that stuck with me the most that day was how quickly little Elliana stepped into her new role of big sister. She was amazing. I think Makayla is one lucky little kid.

For myself seeing Makayla for the first time was once again an amazing experience and I knew from that moment forward I would do whatever it would take to take care of her along with her sister and cousins. I have to admit I also thought WOW what a tiny baby, next her cousin Aria, who was only 4 months old, she looked so tiny! But she did have a good set of lungs on her. So I knew she would be fine.

Becoming Papouli

24 Jul

The greek word for Grandpa is Papou. When my first grandchild was born in 2014 we decided that Helen and I would go by the greek terms, YiaYia and Papou, while our son-in-laws parents would be called Grandma and Grandpa. Seemed like the perfect way to  differentiate between families.

When I retired in at the beginning of 2015 we had one granddaughter and another on the way. No big deal, we could handle it. Or so I thought. When my new career as Papou started I thought it would be easy, after all the plan was that when the grandkids visited, we would play with them for a bit, then load them up with sugar and then send them home to torment their parents. Every grandparents dream, right? Well to paraphrase the old saying – No plan survives first contact with the grandkids.

When our first granddaughter started to talk, one of her first words was Papou. Boy did that make me feel good. She was always looking for Papou, I was the man! When our first she was old enough to walk and talk, it thrilled me that every time I saw her as she would always walk up to me and say “UP” holding her hands in the air. Papou became the go to guy for fun. Wanted to go outside and play, just say Papou and it happened, wanted a book read, just hold the book up and say Papou and your being read to (this one also worked great with Yiayia).

Then one day she walked into our house and called me Papouli and I loved it. She had her own name for me!

And then my second granddaughter began to walk and talk. So now it’s stereo. I can no longer pick up one grandchild without the second one wanting the same treatment.  Now I know I could tell both grandkids No, but what kind of Papou would that make me? So instead I pick them both up and we walk around for awhile and then I put them down. Also the second granddaughter  really loves music, you put music on and she will start to dance. So I did something not so bright one day, music was playing so I picked her up and we danced. Now of course I have to pick up two of them and dance with them at the same time.  So now standard mode is if all the grandkids are together, I know I will be carrying two of them. No problem, it’s good exercise.

 

Road Trip 2016 – The Days Before

5 Aug

Last year when we took our first road trip, we moved out of our rental house putting everything in storage until we returned and moved into our new house in San Louis Obispo. For our second road trip we moved 2 families into their new homes. So on a Saturday, between the husbands and myself we managed to get both families for the most part relocated into their new homes. Both still had a bit to do on the following days but at least all the heavy stuff was relocated.

Because both families were in the middle of their moves, neither one was able to stay in their new homes for the first couple of nights, so we decided to have a family sleepover at our house. What an adventure! It was a little crowded but overall; it wasn’t too bad. The toughest part was the grandkids. Since both families had to spend the daylight hours organizing their homes, YiaYia and Papou (Helen and I) said no problem, we can watch the kids. I mean we figured how tough can it be? We’ve been watching them off and on since they were born, so a couple days straight was no big deal. Or so we thought…

We had raised 3 girls who were close to the same age differences, so this would be easy. What we forgot to take into consideration was sleep schedules and what we’ll call priority attention requirements. In the past when we watched the grandkids they had been on different sleep schedules, not now. To make things interesting Sophia had just gone vertically mobile earlier in the month, so sitting was not a popular activity for her and Elli was busy being herself trying to do everything as close together as possible. Needless to say, they ran us ragged (in a good way). The funniest moment came when we were in the kitchen fixing lunch for the kids and we asked ourselves how in the heck had we managed to survive raising our 3 girls, and then realizing that we would soon be doubling the number of grandkids, Uh-oh.

The Highlight though was that I think during this time that both of our grandkids grew even closer to us and made both of us feel special.  In Yiayia’s case, the highlight was Elli spending a couple of extra nights with us while her parents finished fixing up her room for her. During that time Elli would wake up at 2 or 3 am and start to cry, this would get Helen out of bed and into our office where Elli slept. First she would try and comfort her and if that didn’t work, she would bring Elli to our room and she would have her sleep with us. The first time it happened wasn’t too bad as Elli just laid between our two pillows and slept. The next time Elli was in my bed before I me!! So when I went to bed I pushed back the covers to crawl in and discovered that Elli had decided to sleep in the L formation with her legs filling up my side of the bed!

For me, I cherished the fact that both kids would come to me to be picked up. Only problem was that once one was picked up, the other one would show up and insist on the same honor. I began thinking that if this kept up where in the heck was I going to carry the next two when they arrived….

All in all it was a great way to spend the 4 days before we left for St. Louis, though it was a little sad leaving them there for the next 26 days while we were gone.

 

Welcome to the family triple a – Sophia Ourania Medina

29 Apr

Well 2 weeks ago our family grew by one. Eileen gave birth to a beautiful baby girl named Sophia. Her joining was a definitely long drawn out event that began on the Orthodox Easter. It began innocently enough with Eileen complaining of some back pains late in the day on Sunday. But everything seemed fine so her and her husband Adam headed for home. And then the next morning the text arrived that Eileen may have sprung a leak (her water broke – some) so they were off to emergency to check and make sure everything was okay. Well after a few minutes in Emergency  the decision is made that yep her water broke and they were about to have a baby. Good thing they went in, bad thing is that they left Eileen’s maternity bag in her car at our home. So the word goes out that littlest Medina will be arriving soon (hah) so everyone to their birthing stations. For Helen, Cathy, Ron, and I this was no big deal. We were close by so the hospital was minutes away, we would deliver the bag as soon as they were assigned a room.

Poor Nikki on the other hand had just driven home the night before not getting there until almost midnight. And she had to be in to work by 8 am the next day. Good news is she packed a bag so when she received the message she just told work she would be working remotely for a few days and took off for the 5+ hour drive that she had just finished 9 hours earlier. Of course now the question would be would she get here in time (da da dum).

So mean while back at the hospital Eileen is dilating quickly and then all the sudden not so quickly and the hours begin to stretch. So Nikki arrives and we are still watching the hours stretch. Finally at 11 o’clock that night we are told to head for home it’s going to be awhile, but they will text us when she begins to deliver. So everyone rushes home to sleep, Me I watch TV so that I can wake everyone up to head out, because I figure it won’t be long. At 1:00 am the message arrives and we all dash off to the hospital again Eileen is beginning to push!!!

So we get there and rush to the waiting area. Well most of us that is. On our way to the waiting area I notice that Helen isn’t keeping up, I turn and she is talking to one of the nurses. So I turn and head into the waiting room with Cathy and Nikki. After a few minutes when Helen doesn’t show up I go out in the hallway and she is gone!!! Only later do we find out she is in the room with Eileen.

So now we begin the wait.. And then my phone goes off, I have a text. It’s from Adam!!! They can see the top of the baby’s head!! Woohoo we are getting there!! So for the next 2 hours I am receiving regular updates from him on what is going on.  Then he sends a text that the doctor has arrived. Us in the waiting room go “WHAT?” we thought the Doc was already in. Turns out not to be so. Good news is 20 minutes after the Doctors arrival that we get word that Eileen and Adam are now parents! And that’s it! We have to wait for Adam to come tell us. So the longest 10 minutes in history have to pass before Adam shows up in the waiting room with his video camera rolling to record our reaction to the news that Sophia Ourania Medina is here and she and mom our doing great. Truly great news, but now we want to see the baby!! And when we do, She is beautiful. In every way. And when I get to hold her for the first time I start to cry tears of absolute joy, I am a Papou again and that after everything is said and done, I live a truly charmed and blessed life. Welcome to the family Sophia.

Mom & Dad with Sophia
Elliana – Sophia

Jan 31st The Arrival

13 Feb

Jan 31st has now become a very significant day in my life. No not because it means I have been married to the same fantastic woman for 34 years and 5 days, although now that I think about it, dang I am one lucky SOB. No; the thing that makes that Friday so special is that I became a Grandpa, a Papou. At 2:36 Elliana Mackenzie Slaughter joined our family and in only 2 short weeks has already brought a lifetime of joy and excitement into our lives.  I couldn’t be happier. I think the best part is that now I am a grandparent I am automatically wise and all knowing. I am looking forward to the years ahead as she grows and I get the opportunity to make her parents lives a living hell by spoiling this first grandchild so much, she will expect a 40″ TV in her room as well.

The day of Elli’s birth was traumatic, thank god for medical science. Cathy had labor induced that morning and I arrived at the hospital about 3.5 hours later. I could tell that she was hurting, but I chalked it up to normal childbirth pains. Little did I know that the nurse and doctor were beginning to get very worried. As they were monitoring Cathy they noticed that her blood pressure was dropping extremely low and they were afraid that they might have to resuscitate her. Fortunately they were playing it pretty cool so I didn’t know. Which is a nice way of saying that I didn’t freak out. All I know is that as it went on she was in almost constant pain, and even thickheaded me was beginning to worry.  Fortunately the doctor came in and talked with Cathy and they agreed that the best course of action was a C-Section, which Cathy agreed to immediately. The funny part was when the anesthesiologist came in to describe what they would do he wrapped up by asking us if we had any questions. We all said no and then all of the sudden from the bed you hear this weak voice go “HOW LONG?”.  Turns out minutes later they wheeled her off to surgery and 40 minutes later Elli arrived.

When I first met Elli she had just gotten to the room and the nurses were doing all the normal things they do to aggravate newborns, and when they were done, they pronounced Elli to be perfect, which we all knew.  And to be honest that first sight of her brought tears of joy to my eyes and I knew right then that she already had me wrapped around her tiny finger and I  would be that way for the rest of my life.  Holding her that first time was incredible, she was so tiny I was afraid that if I so much as moved I would hurt her she seemed so fragile. So while I worried about hurting her she just slept on and acted like she hadn’t a care in the world. I must confess Elli and I took a selfie, which I then proceeded to share with everyone in the family with just one word in the message – FIRST-.

I owe Elli a big thank you as well, until she was born I was unsure about becoming a grandparent, but I can now say with complete conviction that I am ready and I look forward to many adventures with Elli, her future brothers or sisters and her cousins (Eileen/Adam I am looking at you). Now I think the only way to end is with an assortment of photos of the new Slaughter princess.