"Owie"

This is Owen Martin Lloyd; age 8. He is my first grandchild. I remember the first time I held him in my arms...probably 30 mins or less after his birth. I cried as I looked down at his precious little face; 'he is a continuing part of me, I thought'. It was a very surreal experience to know that that tiny baby boy came from his mother and father and their mothers and fathers, etc. He was smart from the very beginning. His mama,(my firstborn, Nichole) started teaching him "baby signing" at age 6 months. He picked it up SO quickly. He was always the quietest and best baby whenever we were in a public place to eat or whatever, because he would "sign" to us what he wanted. Owen is a great ball player. He LOVES Autumn; he told his mama this past fall, "I just get this feeling all over me when it is Fall - that I cannot explain". She totally understood, because of all the seasons, Fall is her favorite, also. (Strong genes!) He also LOVES to hunt with Daddy (Jeremy). When he was about 4 and the next brother down was 2, Jeremy went turkey hunting one day and they CRIED when he came home empty-handed. "But daddy, you were supposed to come back with a turkey". He has been an AVID reader since the age of at least 6 or 7. You see him in the picture above reading one of his favorite series. Last summer when school got out, he started reading the Harry Potter series (controversial, I know...) but he had not understood them the year prior. Last summer, he "got" them~. He read every one of them before school started again in the fall. That is a lot of reading. He has a huge bookshelf in his room and said to me, "Nonnie, I have read almost every book on these shelves at least once. There are only 3-4 I haven't read because I don't "get" them, yet. He has read all the Chronicles of Narnia at least once each, also. He loves to read Shel Silverstein. My Mama always called him "Owie" and I find myself doing the same very often. Last Sunday, I kissed his cheek and said, "when it gets to the point where you don't want Nonnie to kiss you, tell me, okay?" But then, I let him know that his Uncle Paul (my second born) ALWAYS let me kiss his cheek no matter where we were or how old he was!!!! He was rather quite - and just looked and me and smiled, shaking his head in the affirmative.