Skype...grandparenting from AFAR!!!!

Image via CrunchBase

Are you one of those grandparents that lives a long ways away from your grandchildren?  Or do you have older grandchildren across town that you just want to check on?  Or better yet are you taking care of grandchildren and need to leave them with a sitter?  Let me tell you that if you are not using the Skype video chat internet phone service, you are losing out.

Skype is a free phone service online that allows you to carry on a video phone conversation with anyone anywhere in the world the internet exists...anywhere!!!  We personally chat for 45 minutes at a time with out children in China using the service.  And that is only the tip of the iceberg.  We talk with children in Oregon while we are living in Arizona in the winter.  We chat with our oldest grandson that only lives across the city.  I talk with friends in the park model less than a block away.  Awesome should be the phone service name!

The photo you see above was taken with our computer while we were chatting with our children in Shanghai this fall.  It is near perfect.  We can text chat and send files.  Best of all, if you are the parent/grandparent that is not at home but just want to keep tabs, you can leave Skype on and just check on the account occasionally.  You will see and hear what is going on in your living room.  If you let the care giver know you miss your children during the day and want to see them, you are in the clear with using Skype in this way.

So being a grandparent from afar is not what it used to be.  Our young grandchildren recognize us when they see us.  The youngest thinks "papa" lives inside the computer when he is not with him.   We love it.  Give it a try!

b

NOTE:  We are Apple users and our friends are PC users.  It works well on both. 

Grandparents Toy List and a Movie Recommendation...a day with granchildren!

Website:  grandparents.com for grandparents, parents and children
Check out The Princess and the Frog...a definite recommendation.
List to Grandma Toys (all found in the kitchen drawers)

1. Tape measures
2. Set of measuring spoons
3. Kitchen pasty brush
4. Metal measuring cups
5. Old purse with lots of zippers
6. Sugar scoop
7. Copier paper
8. Old crayons
9. ....all of these are better than anything they have at home!!!!

Boy do I love being a grandmother....but when my son-in-law suggested that I might keep them forever I was afraid, I was very afraid!  Really, we can do whatever life demands, but somethings are better left to family much younger that I.  There are circumstances where grandparents must take over that job.   My hat is off to any grandmother that begins raising a grandchild/family at the age of 68.  If that is you, you are my hero!

The other day we spent the day with our two grandchildren that are home for the holidays from China.  Their life in Shanghai is lived with the help of two (2) nannys.  So when they come for a visit to my house they are experienced in the ways of aunties (ayi's).  In fact Maddie (6)  commented that I was like an ayi...sorta!  The only difference was I was her daddy's mom and, as I reminded her, in charge just like he is.  OHHHHH dear!

Grandpa and I are good at watching grandchildren play.  I don't have any toys so a couple of purses come out and they get filled with measuring spoons, tape measures and fake candles with tiny batteries.  When you have copier paper , a big can of crayons and scissors for the older grandchild, you are all set.  Or at least we are. 

It snowed really hard on that day.  Maddie had gone to see The Princess and the Frog with her cousins and Amelia (2) took a nap with me.  Then we bundled up and went for a walk in the snow.  Amelia is not a veteran snow lover yet and refused to touch it because at first glance it seemed very "messy".  Her little hands stayed hidden inside a fuzzy purple coat as we stomped down the street toward a snowman being built by a neighbor.  Now, you have to realize, Amelia does not like either the big Minny Mouse at Disneyland nor the Eagle mascot as her school.  I had the feeling that she was thinking that snowman might fall into the category.  We were only going to be an audience for it's building but not an up close touching kind of snowman friend.  After she realized  that the white guy did not move or make any noise we went in for a touch...what a relief.

 

Amelia sneaking up on the snowman!

Christmas Vacation 2009

We had a friend take a picture of us by the snowman and watched as the builder added carrot nose.  Then we stomped back home to tell Grandpa about our adventure.

Melia finds lots to be surprised by...the front door leads to the street and trouble, the machine on the floor spits pictures out of a slot when you press the button and the tape measure has a button that makes the tape fly back in the hole.  She explored every corner of my house and even consented to go potty in Grandma's Bathroom.

Amelia and the wondrous

copy machine!

Christmas 2009

I don't know if they learned anything but I do know that a day spent with grandchildren is better that any day spent on the golf course...believe it or not!

b

Tony Wheeler at Lonely Planet Schedule

The Alhambra, Granada, Espania

Tangier, Morocco

 Shanghai, Republic of China

Where will Tony Wheeler, founder of Lonely Planet be in 2010?  Check this out.

Tony was one of the first people to write a travel blog way back in the 1990's.  How long ago and far away!  In the mean time the rest of us were traveling and collecting memories.  Who knew we could have been writing a blog, founding a company and becoming a legend in our own time.  I love this guy's blog/website!

Have fun!

b

From Crone and Bear It...Why write a new post? She said it perfectly!!!

This is a wonderful blog from Crone and Bear It...a Old Decade worth of thoughts. So I am posting a sign that says:

WHAT SHE SAID ---->

A New Decade Looms…Can We Stop Being Hyphenated-Americans?

Having said all I really want to say about the past, let’s leap ahead to the future.  After all, we are entering into a new decade.  Does anyone know what we call this one?  The Tens?  The Teens?  Did we ever figure out what to call the first years of the century…the Naughts, the 00’s?  Year naming is confusing.  I can look back and recall something that happened in  ‘76 and just saying that word…Seventy-Six…doesn’t sound odd.  But in a few years we’ll look back and refer to something that happened in ‘10 and I’m telling you it’s gonna sound funny to refer to the year ‘10....read more.

Wanderlust....Thirst for Travel...Retiree's Quest!

Prompt 96: Wanderlust

Thanks to Tammie Lee of Spirit Helpers for this week's prompt, wanderlust.

 Barbara

(bottom right hand corner) 

People's Plaza

Shanghai, China

why

do we search the earth

wanderlust desire

looking for ourselves

in exotic places.

We are retired.  We have been trying to satisfy the wanderlust that lurked deep in our hearts for all of our working lives.  The journey has taken us to far flung places...Manila, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Malaga, London, Madrid, Seville, Shanghai, Beijing...we have looked in people's faces, bargained for their treasures and returned home only wanting more. 

What is that thing called wanderlust?  My grandmother was born on the cusp of a new century riding in a carriage drawn by horses.  Her home was a canyon that held mines and brothels.  The railroad was the one built by her father.  Even though she never traveled to far away places, she lived with her hat hung close to the front door.  If she heard the word "go" she would always be ready before the driver could find his coat. 

Maybe the lust for travel is a genetic link that caused men and women to search and explore the far corners of the earth.  Maybe we are descended from Magellan or Cortez.  Maybe....

b

Christmas reduced to a 4 minute imovie! Stop Action Movie Animation example!

I have heard that time passes for an individual in relationship to our size.  If you are a small child you need to nap more because the morning seems like eight or ten hours.  A grown adult, on the other hand, can go for 12 hours without sleep.  Christmas past is forgotten when you are young because it is such a long time between the holidays.  Grown-ups feel that gifts need to be purchased in January because "Christmas is just around the corner!"  No explanation...it is just the way it is!

I feel that acceleration of time mostly with my technology toys.  Things change so fast it is hard to keep up.  Year before last we started the tradition of taking pictures of our family adding one person at a time...we called it "Build a Hug!"  The lead up to the final photo was as fun to look at as the final picture.  The first year we even had to crop one grandchild in because he was not in the photo frame!  Sigh!

Final Xmas Video

2009

This year we set the computer up and videoed the whole process from beginning to end.  Little grandchildren passed out packages, each family member stepped into the middle of the floor to be the center of attention and then we all voted to rip open our present ALL AT THE SAME TIME!  We knew that we were going to be able to see the video over and over and watch different people with their prizes.  Then we took a video of the "Build a Hug", this year starting with my husband and I.

Below is a video my daughter-in-law put together of the family putting up their Christmas tree in their home in China.  In this case they set up their Mac laptop and let it run the whole time then edited out my son taking down the lights to rehang them and other oops incidents. 



We could have used a website SAM Animation (create stop action movies) if we had chosen to and the computer would have taken a picture every 10 seconds for the whole evening.  Either way the 3 hour party is reduced to about 4 minutes!  Here is a movie of Maddie making cookies using the SAM Animation application.  The video was posted on vimeo because You Tube is often blocked in China.  For me it is just a world blogophere reality check!!!


Maddie Makes a Cake from Andrew Torris on Vimeo.


I occasionally have trouble wrapping my mind around what we can do today if we own a computer.  The very fact that I am here talking to you out there in the blogosphere still gives me chills.

This grandma will go take a nap now...Christmas makes me feel like a child again!

Smile!

b

The Itsy Bitsy Spider...built a nest in the water heater...see, I told you I needed an iphone!!!

Iphone photo 

taken on 

an early morning walk

Christmas 2009

I carry my iphone like a western gun slinger.  The holster on my hip is a part of every outfit.  It serves so many purposes I cannot imagine a day with out it.

The plumber came last week to fix the water heater in the crawl space.  The problem was a tiny spider and the web it had built in the gas jet while the heater was turned off.  It turns out spiders love gas.  The repair man could not see the fitting even though the space was lit so he pulled out his iphone and turned on the flash light app.  I could just hear him telling his wife See...I told you that phone was just necessary!

When I hang pictures, I use the level app tool and when we travel I use the map to navigate cities and towns.  I find restaurants, phone numbers and take pictures. 

Was it hard to learn...well no!  If Amelia (age 2) can do it, so can I.  I may be old but I'm not through having fun!

Have a great day.

b