Well, our little granddaughter is going to be three months old on December 31, and our grandson Wyatt will be nearly two and a half. She's getting more and more personality, smiling a lot and laughing. He is very articulate and verbal and seems to be aware of what he's saying, in fact he "practices" what he says by repeating it as if he wants to be sure he has it solidly in his mind and repitoir of expressions. His world, to me, is just grand. Every day he gets to do something he likes. Mindy (his babysitter) takes him to the park or the library or to the giant activity place (Stay N Play) or to Get Air, the trampoline park. Or in nice warm weather, she has taken him to her place to swim in her pool. She has a dog, Toby, and Wyatt says they go to Toby's house. When we have him, I pick him up around 9 and either take him some place (I'm really not comfortable taking him to a playground yet because I'm not able to climb up with him, and I worry that he will fall), or more often bring him back to our place, he calls it Papa's house. He always wants to know if Papa is in the truck and if not, if we are going to Papa's house to see Papa, "and Penny, too," (the dog) "and Baby, too" our adopted kitten. When we come here we have five acres to explore and end up "taking Penny for a walk" and just enjoying being outdoors, which he seems to love. Sometimes we take him to the mall playground (soft surfaces) and then to Chic-fil-a. for lunch then home for a nap then more play then I take him to "the office" where Mindy picks him up from Corey and helps her get through the dinner, bath, bedtime routine which has become quite the challenge with two. He doesn't have a boring life and I think he will be so much richer for all the diverse stimulation.

Oh, yes, we have an adopted kitten - a calico who was either born under the house or was abandoned there. She was about two to three weeks old when we heard her, and I enticed her out with tuna. Then she wormed her way into our lives, won Penny over (more or less) and then figured out how to get out the dog door and ultimately got pregnant before she was five or six months old, had an abortion and got spayed, recovered for about a week, then started going out again - at night only - she sleeps all day and hunts all night, most nights and has brought us two dead mice and one very alive baby squirrell who got away from her and we caught it and took it back outside when "Baby" wasn't around. No name has really stuck with her, so I told the vet it was Bibi. I tried JodieFoster, but that was silly.

On a more serious note, my extended family has decided I am a disgrace to my country - and to them - because of my Facebook posts and they want nothing to do with me. So, I guess once again, my mouth (or my words, at least) have gotten me into trouble. I'm not inclined at this point to stop saying what I believe to be true, to stop standing up for what I believe, and actually I have nothing to lose at this point. If your family will "divorce" you for your political/moral stand on something because they disagree with you, I think that's sad. What is a life worth if a person can't defend his or her belief system, can't say so when he/she sees something as unjust or unfair or outright wrong? Did it do me any good? I don't know; people said it did, but then they were people who agreed with me but didn't post as stridently as I did. I'm actually okay with strident. At 77 years old, I'm grateful I'm still able to be strident, and I'm not about to cow-tow to someone else's feelings about how I should live my life or speak my truth. If you're not making a difference, even a small one in your own little circle, then you're just taking up space. I'm indignant about this president and I'm allowed to be indignant, as they were allowed to be indignant about Obama. I admired and respected Obama and I didn't argue with them or decide I couldn't be around them when I knew they "hated" him. I just changed the subject. If they didn't like what I said about Trump, they didn't have to read it. My mother-in-law, I know, would be broken hearted to know of this rift. She won't hear about it from me. We plan to see her at the end of the year, and it has been too long since we saw her last. She will be 105 on December 28th, for heaven's sake. It's way too long to live for anyone so crippled up and deaf. She's totally immobile and cannot hear at all, so she's shut out from the world and in constant pain or is asleep. No one would want her fate, I'm pretty sure. 

Okay. I posted. Not my finest hour, but maybe next time...