It was exactly one year ago last Wednesday that I met Hectic Grandson in person. I’d been waiting for several months to get to see him, and my level of excitement was sky-high that day. He is our first grandchild, and with that came a lot of expectations, nervousness, and anticipation. To get to him, I had to fly to Newark, NJ. When you live in an out-of-the way place like we do, you don’t have the luxury of just hopping on a plane and arriving where you want to go. There’s a car ride to start (an hour long ride, in our case), boarding a plane at our smallish airport (now called Wichita Eisenhower National Airport), flying to a hub (on that trip it was Minneapolis-St. Paul), and then flying to your destination. Once I got to Newark’s airport I was coordinating the arrival of H18 from her conference in Washington, D.C. as well as H25’s arrival with her car.

The added activity was great, because I was so nervous about meeting the little man, and seeing his Mom, that I would’ve been a wreck without something to keep me occupied. H18 was arriving by rail, but we were fortunate that Newark has both a rail station and airport on the same grounds. They are connected by an overhead monorail system, and the simple task of negotiating that method of transport kept me occupied for a while. Eventually I figured it out, and was waiting at the rail head when H18 arrived.

We then navigated our way to the pickup location where H25 was, and we met the little guy. Since I’m out in Colorado continuing to attend to H23 during her recuperation, I don’t have access to all my photos. I don’t have a photo to share of those first precious moments when I got to hold Hectic Grandson and begin to bond with him. I do have photos of him sitting in his carseat looking at me…trying to figure out who the heck I was.

It’s funny to look back at how small he was. One thing that struck me immediately was how intensely he looked at everything. I mean, look at that photo. That’s a six month old staring at me and weighing my very existence. He continues to be that intense to this day…but it’s an intensity that is balanced by the silliest laugh and the cheeriest giggles. He may be intense at times, but he’s also a total goofball. In case it’s not obvious, I’m completely taken by the guy!

At the time that I arrived in New Jersey, H25 was still debating if she was going to continue living there, or whether she was going to relocate. Her job situation was OK, but not great, and her apartment had some serious problems. Big hairy serious problems, like the hot water would stop working for days. Heat quit on a regular basis. Her cooktop only had two working burners, and the stove never work the entire time she lived there. Any one would have been a minor irritant, but having all of them piled up…along with an infant living in the apartment…made things unsustainable. But much like me, she hates moving. She had moved just prior to Hectic Grandson’s arrival, and the prospect of another move wasn’t something she could fathom at that time.

Over the next six weeks, I made three trips to New Jersey. The first one we had H18 with us. The second time I drove from Kansas with H21 on her trip back to school in Maine. In case you don’t quite understand our geography in the U.S., or you haven’t thought about it, the drive from Kansas to New Jersey is roughly 21 hours of driving. Any stops to eat, get gas for the car, or just to stretch our legs added to that time. The drive from New Jersey to Castine, ME where H18 attends Maine Maritime Academy for her university work is another 10 hours of driving. In between those two drives we spent the better part of a week visiting H25 and her little man.

By the end of the second trip, H25 had decided that she was going to move, but was still uncertain as to whether it was simply going to be to a new apartment in New Jersey or whether she was going to return to Kansas. In the midst of that decision, work opportunities arose in Detroit, Chicago, and Kansas City. She was pursing any opportunity, so they were all on the table. Needless to say, the relocation was a big decision, and one that was sapping her energy further.

During my third trip, all I knew was that we were going to pack her apartment and she was leaving New Jersey. The exact destination wasn’t completely clear at that time. I was there for about a week, and every day she would go off to work, I would start packing and simultaneously watch Hectic Grandson. Fortunately, he didn’t need much care! Remember, my youngest daughter was 11 at that time, so I was a bit rusty in the arena of kid-watching. I was lucky that many of the skills I’d once honed came back easily. I’m still quite adept at changing a diaper with one hand while baby-wrangling with the other. I was further aided that Hectic Grandson wasn’t very mobile yet, and the apartment was sufficiently small that I could pack and watch him in concert.

By the end of that week, our destination was Hutchinson, KS. Hectic 25 was going to alight there for a short while until she was able to figure out a permanent location and a new job. We raced through the final packing, dealt with the most inefficient moving team ever assembled, and finally packed ourselves into her car for the two day drive back to Kansas.

Fortunately, Hectic Grandson is a traveling angel. In fact, in most things he’s the most easy-going kid on the planet. He deals with new situations with great aplomb, and he made our travel a veritable breeze. He only fussed when he was hungry or needed a new diaper, and with a couple minutes of attention to those details he would happily go back to sleep or simply watch the scenery.

While one of us drove, the other would sit in the backseat and watch him in his carseat. Hectic Grandson traveled through all of New Jersey, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and Kansas on his first epic journey. Throughout those 20+ hours of travel he was great, and constantly gave us things to smile and laugh about.

The day after we arrived, Hectic Mom’s brothers and sisters were getting together for a mini-family reunion. To most families the qualifier mini wouldn’t apply. She’s one of ten siblings, and everyone has multiple kids, and several have grandkids. With a few strays that were brought along, we had nearly 60 people at the park where we gathered. After two days of driving, Hectic Grandson, Hectic 25, and I struggled a bit with that many people, but things went well. Our immediate family were, for the most part, meeting Hectic Grandson for the first time, and the entire extended family were also new to him. He did great, but by mid-afternoon we were all ready to make the hour drive back home.

Over the next couple of weeks, Hectic 25 managed to procure not one, not two, but three job offers. She finally accepted a position at the local community college in the Financial Aid department as an advisor. Since the school year had just started, the were very anxious to have her start working as soon as she was able.

Somewhere in the midst of all this, Hectic Mom asked whether I would be interested in being Hectic Grandson’s full-time caregiver. I hadn’t even thought that might be a possibility, so I hadn’t dared to dream that it might happen. When the subject was opened with Hectic 25, she jumped at the chance. We mutually decided that we would stick with this arrangement until Christmas, and assess what we were going to do after the start of the new year (2015). So on September 22, 2014 I started watching Hectic Grandson full-time. Because of Hectic 25’s schedule, full-time is close to 15 hours a day. They are living with us, so at 6:30am I get him from her and for the remainder of the lighted hours I get to hang out with my favorite little guy.

Initially, I had intended to write a post about the entire year we’ve spent together to complement the all-photo post. I’ve now realized that’s too much to cover in a single post. So I’m going to wrap this up here. The bottom line is that I’m having a blast as the primary source of entertainment for a nearly 18 month old (in five days, he’ll be 18 months!). He’s taught me so much. Not long after I started watching him, I introduced him to my blogging audience as my mini Yoda. It’s been ten months since that point, and the amount of things that I’ve learned from him continues to astound me!