Labor Day Baby: Cut from the same cloth

I've always felt incredibly lucky to be my mother's daughter. In both the literal and metaphorical sense. She is the most wonderful mother, friend and confidant anyone would be lucky enough to have. I consider myself blessed. I've always said if I raised my children doing half as well as my parents did I would have done a damn good job. She has been truly amazing during my pregnancy. At 53 I don't think she was planning on being a grandma but she has more than risen to that challenge. She has supported me and her grandbaby unconditionally. She retired this year from Baxter (after 33 years) and graciously offered to watch her grandchild while Matt works and I finish up school. We were talking about this yesterday and she was telling me how she felt so lucky to be able to spend this time with her granddaughter because she "wouldn't let anyone else watch her". She's not kidding either. "Everything is falling into place." she tells me, I remind her that yes, everything is falling in place for her lol.

I am so happy that my daughter gets to spend her first precious years in the arms of my mother. I couldn't ask for a better situation for her to be born into. I know that this is a little bit early for me, and a little backwards, but Scarlett will be raised how I was, with her grandmother. My dad's mom watched Tyler and I, her and my papa traveled to the cape and Disney with us. Some of my best memories of my childhood are with my grandma at their house. The love a grandmother has for her grandchild is parallel to none. Scarlett will get that, she will have that bond and relationship I had with my own grandma and I love that.

I know that most women say that they don't want to grow up to be like their mothers, but I am so thrilled that I have grown up to be like mine. Her and my dad did such a beautiful job raising us. We were always surrounded by love and laughter, praise and balance. I do not have single bad memory from my childhood. I know that I can give my own daughter that despite the situation being a little bit different. She will have both her Mommy and Daddy plus two sets of loving, wonderful grandparents.

I see so much of myself in my mom and I'm proud of that. I'm strong, stubborn and a little neurotic. I know how to get things done and fight for what I believe in. I can gracefully handle stress and pressure like she can. I can laugh at myself and have a sick love of anything medical/science. I certainly have my father's temperament, but my personality is all my mom. It really is a beautiful balance.

I didn't grow up close to my mother's mother; my Arizona Grandma. The distance made getting close to her difficult and because of that I grew up being my Shani Grandma's little girl. Over the last year however my AZ Gram and I have gotten incredibly close and I am so grateful for that. The internet is a wonderful thing and my 78 year old grandma with a laptop and email is a blessing. Her and I talk 2-3 times a week via email. I love that her and I have a relationship as an adult. I have learned so much about her and so much about myself over the last year. As I've said "I'm my mother's daughter" well, I guess technically "I'm my grandmother's granddaughter." In reality I am cut from the same cloth as these two incredible women.

My Arizona Grandma, Marjorie Jean, is a beautiful woman. Not in just the physical sense but in every sense. She is the oldest daughter of 9 children who became a bedside nurse and then nurse anesthetist. When she was pregnant with my aunt she left her dead beat husband (my biological grandpa). Mind you this was in the late 1950's. She was a woman ahead of her time, she had gone to college, had two beautiful little girls and became a single parent. She worked her butt off for her daughters, working at one hospital during the week and another on the weekends to make ends meet. (My momma also spent her early years with her own grandma during this time). This wouldn't be considered taboo now, but in the late 1950's early 60's....you didn't get divorced. She was a single parent until she met my AZ Grandpa when my mom was 8. She worked as a nurse until not all to long ago when she retired (still worked for several years at a container store). Now my feisty 78 year old grandma volunteers at the hospital's boutique and at the senior center library. (Yes, the senior center, she doesn't hang out there because that's where "old people are". This out of the mouth of an almost 80 year old lol). She's incredible. Like my mother she is head strong, stubborn, fierce, resilient and ahead of her time. She amazes me. I love hearing her stories about working at the "knife and gun club", her college education and her life. I look up to her, I know that if she can be a single mom while working full time and still find her happily ever after and not just survive, but thrive, so can I. Her and I are kindred spirits.

I hope that Scarlett gets these Gjertson women traits. I hope that she is strong, resilient, stubborn and determined. I feel like she is already, she could take the world if she liked. I know that she has our button nose but I wonder if she'll be tow-headed with big blue/grey eyes like her grandma and great grandma. I hope she does. I'm excited to be giving my AZ Gram her first great grandchild, a girl nonetheless, and my momma her granddaughter. Scarlett is going to be so loved and supported as she grows up. I can only pray that when she's 23 she looks at where she came from and feels proud that she to was cut from the same cloth.