Nice Surprise

I got a pleasant surprise earlier this week when a young fellow that I'm quite fond of came to visit for a couple of days.

Aaron is now 7, a bundle of energy and always on the go.

Technically, he is my step-grandson. When I married Marianne in 2001, her three children were already grown. The youngest, my stepdaughter, became Aaron's stepmother in 2002.
Now that she and Aaron's father are divorcing, Aaron is..

Wondering what to call us without getting in trouble.

See how hard all the "step" and "ex" labels get? It confuses me, for Pete's sake. I couldn't imagine being 7 and trying to sort all this stuff out.

We had a great time. Between swimming, baking homemade cookies, going out for pizza, playing checkers, making cheeseburgers, playing bat-and-ball and a one-on-one version of volleyball, the time just absolutely flew by.

I don't know what titles everyone else has come up with. I call him "Aaron" and he calls me "Alan." It seemed to work fine for us.

Aaron is a kid with major hurdles to overcome, due to his family environment. It is going to be very easy for him to be one of the "lost kids" our society seems hell-bent on creating.

I hope he always remembers that along the way, there is an..ex-step-grand..ummm..

..There is a grandpa who loves him.