I am new grandmother! My granddaughter is now 17 months old and it is almost 30 years since I had contact with baby equipment.  Let me tell you …I wish they would send an instruction book for grandma’s on how to assemble some of these new dangled stuff.

For instance,  one evening my son and his wife were visiting with the baby he asked me to get the her out of her car seat.

No problem I thought. I soon changed my mind. I had her half way out and realized that part of her was still strapped in! Holy crap I though I was going to choke her before I got her out (which I didn’t in the end) and  getting her out was a hell of lot more complicated than I thought. I had an embarrassing moment there and like I said..its been a long time.

Those babies are so well strapped in there that they could land on the moon and still be snuggled in there safe and sound.

When I brought my son home 30 years ago he was in my arms and I didn’t have to wear seat belts then.

Whatever happened to cloth diapers? I actually like the new stick and seal diapers..(my way of discribing them). Took me a while to figure out back from front. Thank God for Elmo on some of them. When he is looking at me I know I have it on right.

Last Saturday the baby spent the afternoon with me and when it was time for her nap I brought out her new Graco playpen/crib/ that her parents had dropped off to me.  Back in my time it was called a playpen. Well I thought it can’t be that hard to put together. Huh!

It was in a neat little package with NO instructions on how to get it together. I searched that bag upside down. Oh God help me I thought. So I took it out and undid the ” thing ” it was wrapped in (discovered it was the mattress pad) .  I managed to get three sides up and now way in hell could I get the fourth side up. I sat on the big chair and pushed and shoved and jerked and struggled with the button and…nope.. It wasn’t coming up. I put the baby in the “playpen” and she laughed at me so much that I took to laughing. She tried to help by pushing a the button and looking at me to say “like this Nana!”..

After heaving and struggling for about 20 minutes I was tired out flat, the baby was sitting there sucking on her bottle and looking at me as if I had lost my marbles. So she had no nap.  I needed one by then. When I tried to get it back into this neat package again it was the same story. Three sides down and the fourth not budging.

Whatever happened to playpens with wooden sides with an easy latch to hook all four sides together. LIfe is so different when it comes to babies.

When her parents came to pick her up that evening I made them put it away (and he had trouble with it too)so I wasn’t completely an idiot and next time they come..they have to put it up too!

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