The Queen and the Little Prince

Well hello there! It's been a hot minute since I last wrote anything here but what better time than during a worldwide pandemic?!

There's a lot to get to, not the least of which is that two years ago this April, the hubs fell off our daughter's roof of the house he was building for her and broke three vertebrae in his neck and then the following April (last year), Tess was in the hospital fighting for her life with a superbug pneumonia and came so close to dying that the doctors came in on a Sunday to talk to us about what the coming week would look like and try to prepare us to say goodbye to her by the end of it.

Spoiler Alert for those of you who may still be readers but aren't family/friends of ours, she defied all odds and lived!!!

But since it's been so long since I've written anything, and let's face it, the world is a bit of a scary place right now,  let's leave the scary parts for another time and start with the good, shall we?

Good thing number one: Our eldest daughter, Blake, got married last March (2019) in Punta Cana and the hubs and I even managed to finagle our ever faithful She-She (nurse Sheila) into staying with Tess here at home so that we could go!

Huzzah!

It was a super fun trip and a good time was had by all. We spent about five days in gorgeous weather at a resort on the beach, and even went on a party catamaran to go snorkeling and meet up with other party people at a sandbar with a dj to dance and drink in the tropical waters.

Wedding party catamaran cruise.

Party Sandbar

Walking her down the aisle.

Found a way to have Tess be in the sisters photo!

So. much. fun.

Good news number two was when said daughter's hubby called me one evening in August to proudly inform me that I was going to become a grandmother in about nine months!

WHAAAAAAAAA??? I'm too young! I don't knit....or sew...or crochet...and I swear like a pirate. Not exactly grandmother material.

But I digress.

I was super excited and the time flew by and here's where it really gets good. We told Tessie she was going to be an Aunt! She was most appropriately impressed with this new status in life and confidently told us that Blake was having a girl whenever we asked her.

Turns out Tess is not the best prognosticator and at Blake's twenty week ultrasound, we broke the news to Tess that she was not having a niece, but rather a nephew! Wouldn't that be fun?!

Cut to Tess telling anyone and everyone (using her eye gaze communication device):

"I don't like that."

Well gee, kid, don't sugarcoat it.

Tess has spent the past four months repeatedly finding the button on her talker that says something along the lines of, "My sister Blake got married! I wore a pretty robe. I have some exciting news! I'm going to be an Auntie! Blake is going to have a baby boy.", then immediately going from that to the button that says, "I don't like it!".

When pressed about what she didn't like, it was confirmed that my little Queen did not want Blake to have a boy and steadfastly remained insistently sour about it for the rest of Blake's pregnancy. We figured that surely once the baby was born and she saw him, she would fall in line like the rest of us and just not be able to resist him and all his baby boy cuteness.

Dare to dream you daydream believer.

Gavin Charles made his grand entrance into the world late last week and it's safe to say that Tess had not changed her mind about not liking a boy.

Thankfully, Blake and Bobby were having the baby near where I am so decided to social distance with us here after discussing all of the island factors with her midwives so we have been so lucky to actually get to spend a little time with Gavin after he was born as well since they didn't want them going straight back to the island after he was born.

Naturally we're all madly in love and he is the most perfect, alert, strong, and smart baby in the history of the world and all the things that family's feel about their own babies that everyone else rolls their eyes at.

*Just to be clear, we're right though; He's perfection* ;)

I mean, come on. I just can't even. He's too perfect.. 

So alert. Such wisdom in those eyes. (I don't care who rolls their eyes and groans at my Mimi bragging ;) )

Then we made our way with him to Tess. She very grudgingly looked at him.

Yes, yes, there he is. I see him. Now take him and go!

Hoping I'll take him away.

We asked her if she wanted to hold him. She rolled her eyes.

We insistently put him in her arms (sort of) and to say she was unimpressed would be a gross understatement.

No. Just...no. 

No cute and heart meltingly perfect "Tess meeting her nephew" photos for this kid. Nope. No way. Not a chance. Get this kid away from me were the moments we managed to capture.

And when she saw Ellie, her Superlove holding him??!! The shade that kid threw could cool the nation.

What a proud Auntie should look like.

We hoped a good night's sleep might improve her...we'll just call it...attitude...about her nephew.

We are wonderfully dumb at times, aren't we?

By late the next afternoon there was a small thaw starting to happen. Her Superlove snuggled on the couch with her and then we tentatively had them both hold Gavin together and Tess even managed to smile.

Okay, well this isn't so bad maybe. 

Bump bada baaa!

And by the time Blake took him to her, a teensy bit of interest could be detected.

Honestly, Oreo has been way more interested in Baby G than Tess has.

Baby steps, people.

And this morning Blake took him in to see Tess, aka Aunt T, while she was still in her happy place, otherwise known as her bed, and Tess let him lie next to her and even looked at him and smiled!

Aunt T and Baby G. 

Well yee haw, cowboy!

When my dad and Ann called and I told them about Tess's attitude towards her perfect little nephew, my dad summed it up best when he said, "She knows she's not the queen anymore and doesn't like it."

Well, let's be real here, she still is the Queen but there's a new and very popular little Prince in town and she's not loving sharing the spotlight...especially with a BOY! Sheesh!

Long live the Queen...

Found a way to sneak in this pic of her epic Game of Thrones Mother of Dragons Halloween costume.