Thankful

I am waiting for Emily to wake up from her nap so we can go to the grocery, so in the meantime I thought I would take a moment to talk about my family.  Occasionally my stepmom can be a little "large" with Em and voice that she doesn't get to see her enough.  But I realized the other day how lucky I am, and how lucky Emily is to have grandparents who love her so very much.  Even if I have to occasionally think about putting a tether on her in case Grammy strikes and kidknaps her :), I am extremely thankful for how much she loves her.

Some kids don't have any living grandparents, or at least not all of them, and those that do don't have ones that will win grandparent of the year award.  Emily's grandma was taken from us far too early, but we are blessed to have my stepmom in our lives.  Sometimes she'll just hold her tight and I hear her tell her that she loves her so much, and that just melts my heart.  I had a grandma who loved me to the moon and back, her love was unconditional and I miss her every day, and I am so happy that Emily has grandmothers, both here on earth and in heaven, who will always think she can do no wrong and love her to pieces.  Her grandpa's are also so adoring of her and I am thankful that she'll have an older generation of both male and female figures in her life that she can look up to and learn from.

I was also thinking the other day of my extended family.  I have a big family, and most families have drama.  My family is no exception, some don't get along with this one, and some are hard to get along with, but overall for having such a big family, I think it's pretty amazing how close we all are and how little we want to kill each other compared to some families.  My aunts and uncles have a lot of nieces and nephews.....a lot, like 30 just on one side.  Some of my cousins and aunts and uncles are closer to each other because geographically they are closer.  But even though I don't see them that often, they never miss an opportunity to see us when they can, and are happy to see us.

They are just as happy to see and snuggle my kid as they are one of my cousins' kids whom they are closer to and see more often, and I just love them.  I am a very very lucky girl to have born into this family.  They may be a bunch of crazies, but they are my crazies.