Oldest grandson: from miracle baby to young adult - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

t walgamuth · #1 05-12-2016, 09:10 AM

I may have mentioned my oldest grandson here. He was born at 25 weeks, about the absolute limit a child can survive outside the womb. He spent 8 months in the NICCU. When discussing his odds at birth the doctors mentioned the good possibilities of him being severely disabled in numerous ways.

As it turns out he is intelligent and personable with some fairly minor difficulties with learning. His biggest result of his early birth is that he is legally blind probably. He can see well enough to do many things including playing basketball and of course computer games.

He has struggled a bit finding his niche but yesterday he found that he has some ability in track. I have included a picture of him kicking it to the finish in the 400, fourth in his grade level and provided an excellent start, putting his team in the lead in the 4 x 400 relay.

He is pretty pleased and I am so happy for him. He's a really great kid! He's in the red shirt.

oldsinner111 · #2 05-12-2016, 09:21 AM

so happy for him,and your family.

Delibes · #3 05-12-2016, 01:43 PM

A proud grandpa you are, indeed!

Thank you for sharing!

t walgamuth · #4 05-12-2016, 02:37 PM

Thanks guys!

Kuan · #5 05-12-2016, 08:13 PM

Right on!

barry12345 · #6 05-17-2016, 11:26 AM

We all like to see ours and others grandchildren do well. Especially when there might be some adversary issues.

What I personally do not like to see is where children with good minds and everything going for them. Just going totally off the rails. Or falling through the cracks.

t walgamuth · #7 10-02-2017, 11:48 AM

My youngest daughter just found out her second child is another boy. That will make 8 boys and 6 girls. Heh heh! I'd love a girl just as much but the little boys make me smile a little bigger.

barry12345 · #8 10-02-2017, 03:01 PM

You are lucky. Contact with the grand kids is hard to have sometimes. Physical distance alone is often the issue but not as bad as some. Still problematic in our case. . Also so many offspring are deciding to have no children. For various reasons.

I have really missed more frequent contact with two of my grandsons over the years because of the physical distances. It was confirmed one time that it was going to even be Russia for seven years. Just after they moved back from Victoria island to Ottawa. Only a thousand miles away. Instead of clear across Canada basically. The son in law decided to retire early thankfully. The grandson most like me is in Seattle now and likely to remain there.

Of our three grandsons only one is in frequent contact and easily accessed. They live only a couple of miles up the road.

t walgamuth · #9 10-02-2017, 04:02 PM

Four of my five children live here in Lafayette. The fifth is in Columbus OH. A half day drive anytime I like.

We like to imagine it is good parenting that they are here but I think its mostly that they like living in Lafayette, as we do.

barry12345 · #10 10-02-2017, 08:41 PM

The career opportunities for young females at the time where limited locally. Things have improved a lot over the ensuing years.

t walgamuth · #11 10-02-2017, 09:10 PM

I guess that is the price paid for living in a beautiful place?
....limited job opportunities?

barry12345 · #12 10-04-2017, 12:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by t walgamuth

I guess that is the price paid for living in a beautiful place?
....limited job opportunities?

Canadians went through two high periods of mobility with the young. The last being when the Canadian oil sands developed. Then subsequently collapsed with the essential demise of the crude oil prices.

If anything most people thought the oil prices would continue to increase. For all practical purposes the bottom just dropped out instead. The money they paid out in that area during the boom and other opportunities where a siren call to the young. Perks that went with the jobs really substantial as well. They were so short bodies out there that fast food places where even forced to pay 20.00 plus an hour.

The first mobility boom is when in many fields certain areas in the country became hot spots. For their respective fields. To some extent this is still the way it is.

Microsoft for example came seeking one of the two grandsons in Ottawa. They paid all expenses to move him to Seattle. He could have always found other employment in his field at home. He was already employed in his field.

At nowhere the money though. Microsoft wanted him because he had shown the capacity to organize people into teams that otherwise where hard to manage with their high skill levels. Technically he could also augment approaches in product development as well. Somehow or other Microsoft found out about him and made an approach he could not resist. Most likely a headhunter firm.

A daughter of ours some years ago was almost lost to The Toronto area. When the company she was with wanted her to move to their head office. I asked her why she declined. It was better in her opinion to be a larger duck in a smaller pond than a smaller duck in a larger pond in essence was her general response.

She had gotten their attention by making many changes that they then implemented throughout their total north American system. Taking their enterprises to a much higher standing in their industry's position. My guess is many of them today are used by that industries competition. Since they were first though they got the most benefits from them.

Another daughter married a high ranking air force officer. We never really talked about exactly what he did. Yet the rest of our family where subject to security checks. Posted all over the place in the world until he took earl retirement. Another daughter married a guy with mining interests. No mines around here. He works for the wealthiest mine in Canada now in northern Ontario. They divorced eventually and that daughter remains there.

The youngest daughter is married to a guy and we expect them to remain locally. Although the premier electrical mechanical contractor in our region. Is getting involved with him. The center of their operations is 120 miles away. At the same time they are everywhere in our region. This is a group where if you want the best in this field regionally and are willing to pay for it you use them on projects. So it is pretty much only commercial and industrial customers. What does bother me is they as a couple have a reasonably good income right here. Yet in my generations viewpoint have a horrific spending problem at the same time.

I am in the process of encouraging that forty year old son in law towards a local business of his own. At the same time his spending habits do concern me a lot. I went through this once already when I owned a business in partnership with someone long ago. I had figured this is a better way of passing down their portion of an inheritance than them just getting money.

Otherwise they have to wait until the wife expires if I depart first. We have cases locally where the parents bankrolled the purchase of even really good business ventures. Only to see their doors closed a few years later. Their son our local grandchild is far too young yet to do much for. Although the wife has set up an extensive educational fund for him.

Only certain types of enterprises can afford to pay premium compensations. Those tend to be centralized very profitable corporate entities. Or governments. That leaves the bulk of us with free enterprise approaches in areas like we reside in as the best options for decent incomes.

oldsinner111 · #13 10-05-2017, 12:45 PM

My grandson or son, we got him when two months old with his brother.He will be 21 next month.we had to take custody cause his mother only gave him 3 oz. of milk a day.He weighed less than birth weight when we got him.Lucky it did not affect him at all,except for he eats alot still like making up.They both are body builders.

t walgamuth · #14 10-05-2017, 01:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oldsinner111

My grandson or son, we got him when two months old with his brother.He will be 21 next month.we had to take custody cause his mother only gave him 3 oz. of milk a day.He weighed less than birth weight when we got him.Lucky it did not affect him at all,except for he eats alot still like making up.They both are body builders.

Good for you! Glad they are doing well.

barry12345 · #15 10-06-2017, 10:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oldsinner111

My grandson or son, we got him when two months old with his brother.He will be 21 next month.we had to take custody cause his mother only gave him 3 oz. of milk a day.He weighed less than birth weight when we got him.Lucky it did not affect him at all,except for he eats alot still like making up.They both are body builders.

Great you took him in. In my observations children do better with relatives than others. I was involved In a case that was the exact opposite. A baby was hospitalized but not related in any way.

I called them up and mentioned that the baby was seriously overfed all the time. I added I also was uncertain if that had any bearing on the current situation . Just felt they should have that information as it would not be volunteered by the mother in my opinion.

It seems to be a luck of the draw in what situations we all experience through life. You have had more than your share to deal with.