Ask Me Anything

***Thanks for asking me a question, Elma! Elma wanted to know if we are having kids as our kids are having them.*** 

I had my first child when I was 19 years old. As that cute little bossy girl grew up, we always talked about having babies together. If she had her first at 19 like I did then I would only be 38 and as long as the old body wasn’t worn out, I would still be capable of having children. So when Bossy had her first child in 2004, I had 9 kids. My youngest was almost 18 months old. I had always wanted to have 10 and I was truly conflicted about my new grandmother stage of life. 

I was 39 years old and even though we had always talked and laughed about having babies together, I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to deal with my future. Most of my neighbors stopped having little ones right after we all moved in. They were nearly Empty-Nesters and definitely looking forward to grandparenthood. 
When Crafty was born in 2000, she was the only new baby in our neighborhood. It was nice when we had a couple of little girls move in, otherwise she wouldn’t have had any friends her age. After much soul-searching, I decided that my daughter's decision shouldn't really make a difference in our goals and hopes and dreams. 

As you can see, I had another baby, then Bossy had a baby, then I had two more babies. At this moment I have an 8-year-old (step) grandson, a 7-year-old son, a 6-year-old grandson, a 5-year-old daughter, a 4-year-old grandson, a 2-year-old son, and my 6-month-old Baby Doll. Sometimes it gets really confusing. Yesterday my 2-year-old called me "Grandma." I said (rather irritated), "I’m not your grandma." He answered matter-of-factly, "Your Burrito’s grandma." "Yes, but I’m YOUR mom." When Taco was little he used to call me "Mom." That bothered Bossy, but he was just too little to understand that the other kids called me mom because I WAS their mom. 

 We decided together that we would tell the kids they were just "friends" until they were old enough to understand the relationships. To tell my 2-year-old that his nephew was coming over just didn’t work. And to have the grandsons call my 5-year-old "Aunt Scout" just didn’t work either. When we are all together it’s just one big party and every day we are grateful that we just took them as they came…one at a time.