Another Gift

Our daughter gave birth to a little girl yesterday. It's our ninth grandchild. We've been blessed with grandchildren. Our two oldest are seven years old so you can understand when I say that these are the enjoyable years. When we have the chance to see the kiddies they're excited to see 'Gan' and Grandpa. In a couple of years, as they get older, things will change. It's fun to have them run and jump and smile when we come up the driveway. Our oldest, Oscar, gives me a hug once in awhile but we're now moving into the handshake stage of our relationship.
Grandmas and grandpas do a lot for their grandkids. My wallet is always open to them. Another thing about being my age is I've saved a lot of what people would call junk over the years. I'm sort of a pack rat. Oscar has glommed onto the baseball cards I've had for years. I always thought the cards would be of great value and I'd cash them in for a golf trip somewhere, sometime. Not so. The last time he was at the house he was looking at them and I said, "take what you want". Four year old Genevieve found a slew of padlocks and wanted to know why I had so many. "You can have 'em", I told her. Lord knows what a kid can do with padlocks. Maybe she has a closet full of diamonds, rubies and emeralds that need to be protected. Hey! She does have another grandpa. Grandpas are for giving things away.
Our new granddaughter has been named 'Murphy'. After the ninth I'm not as excited about being a granddaddy as I was for the first. I'm happy she has ten fingers and ten toes and the lungs are in working order but, really, all I had to do with her birth was pass down some genes. My kids like to name their children by using some aspect of family. Lizzie's mother's maiden name was Murphy; hence, she gets to use that moniker for the rest of her life. Maybe she'll marry a Murphy. I'm sure it's happened before. I don't know the reason why but whenever a birth is announced females always want to know the weight and length of the child. It must a girl thing. Anyway, baby Murphy is super sized; 9 lbs. 2 oz. I don't know her length. Guys don't care. It's not like she's going to be fitted for a prom dress any time soon.
Murphy's mother is 41 years old and this is her 3rd child. That's elderly for baby making and considering she didn't have the first until she was 37 she's done okay in that department. Maybe she's done. When Lizzie was born her mom was 42 and The Queen had two younger brothers after her.
If I had to put a Vegas bet on more children I'd say our kids are finished but being that they're all Catholics there's always a possibility of more. Since we have enough to field a baseball team it might be a good time to stop. And as I've always said to my kids when another is born, "all you're doing is diluting their inheritance.