Catherine Sevenau's Blog: Writings~Rambles~Rhymes, page 28

I Like Kids, Preferably Fried

Stories for My Grandchildren To Satchel and Temple, with utmost love, Oma August 2019 Sonoma, California by Catherine (Clemens) Sevenau First Grandchild ~ It was a difficult delivery, going from natural childbirth to emergency Cesarean over the course of a two-day labor, and everyone was tremendously relieved when both mother and infant safely made it […]

Heaven at Four

My son ~ When I picked him up from Moon Valley School, I could see he was upset. “Mom, do you know what happens to us when we die?” “Do tell.” “Charlie sang a song about John Henry, and when he died, they buried him in the ground!” “Well, what did you think happens to […]

Letting Go

Dim Sum and a Monopoly Card ~ It took a while but we finally made it to Yank Sing in San Francisco. We drove and didn’t get lost. We parked in the underground garage. We ate. And ate. And ate. I told the waitress it was my grandson’s 15th birthday and that this was my […]

High Finance

Surf’s Up ~ “Oma, are these yours?” Temple (age 9) asks, checking out the box of Neofins in my garage. “Yes, as a matter of fact they are,” I answer, trying not to sound defensive. With an askance side-eye she says, “You don’t seem like the type.” “I wore them swimming when I went with […]

Spreading Wings

March Forth ~ Whoo boy… birthday ice cream, a book and a check from me, then off to testing at Taekwondo. He has on his backpack, a new 13-year-old birthday tee, and a slight, very slight, mustache. I say, “Hey, come here! Is that hair on your upper lip?” He answers proudly, “Yeah, and I […]

Birds and Bees

The Birds and the Bees ~ “Oma, you have to have a man and a woman to make a baby, right?” I think, “Why me, and why now?” My ten-year-old grandson can’t ask me questions like this when we’re alone? He wants to have a sex conversation with Miss Five-Year-Old Big-Ears sitting next to him in the […]

Just Plain Mean

Char Girl ~ I had my four-year-old granddaughter for the week-end. We’re making chocolate chip cookies and she begs to take over mixing the butter and flour. “I do it, I do it! Let me, let me!” After getting the cookies in the oven and cleaning up, as there was now batter everywhere, we put […]

Princess Imelda

Big Sur, California ~ Camping is everything I remember, which is a lot of work, kind of grubby, and not particularly comfortable. Other then my grandson having poison oak from stem to stern from his camping trip the week before and Princess Imelda having a meltdown because she had to wear her tennis shoes instead […]

Talk to the Hand

Different Strokes ~ The grandkids are here most Friday nights. Now that he’s older, Satchel sleeps in the downstairs bedroom while Temple still sleeps with me. She wants a taser for her birthday. Here’s the difference between these two… He was three the first time he spent the night (she was not yet born) and […]

Fashion Police

Righteous Indignation ~ I pick up my granddaughter from school on her third day of kindergarten. “So, how was it?” “Well,” she says, arms akimbo, “they have a lot of rules here.” “Like what? “You can’t throw rocks, you can throw the bark, you can’t tear the leaves off the bushes, you can’t climb the […]