If I were to continue this post in French, the title would be followed by ‘le divin enfant’. I won’t go that far but our newborn grandson has made a much-anticipated entrance.
Vincent Raymond Philippe was born on June 10th, just sneaking in (or rather, out) a couple of minutes before midnight. Not sure whether this was thanks to a Herculean effort on his mother’s part to avoid having two family birthdays on the same date or my advice that Friday’s child was possibly more advantaged than Saturday’s. Or perhaps it was his own choosing.
Anne, Vincent’s maman, fully gave herself up to the process of bringing this beautiful little boy into the world. A midwife herself, she was calling the shots throughout the entire 24-hour labour, which she pulled off with only a little help towards the end. Seems the little fellow was not optimally positioned for an easy birth and despite every effort to help him turn around he was facing the wrong way (not breach but head facing skywards instead of towards the mother’s back).
We finally met our grandson last week. He is the picture of a newborn baby, absolutely perfect in our eyes and those of his parents. To us he looks a lot like our son, Elliott, only a little smaller. Vincent weighed in at a healthy 3.6 kg whereas our son was a bouncing 4.7 kg. A kilogram of weight on a baby makes a big difference (especially to the mother, ha ha). But he also gets a lot from Anne as clearly Vincent is quieter and more cooperative about feeding and sleeping already after barely two weeks. To be fair this may have more to do with his mother’s determination and patience than genetics.
Anne and Elliott live in Aigle, a town at the opposite end of Lac Léman (Lake Geneva) from its namesake city, in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. We’ve been making frequent trips to that area lately as we’ve decided for various reasons to move back (more details in a future post). By early next year, we will be living just 30 minutes away from our grandson and his parents, with this beautiful view to boot.
Ain’t life grand?
The only struggle for me was deciding what I wanted to be called. Grandma was already taken by such memorable personalities in our family that I didn’t feel it could ever be me. Vincent’s French grandparents will be Grandmaman and Grandpapa. I thought about various clever and non-traditional options but in the end I have chosen ‘Grandmom’. For my husband, the jury is still out. I jokingly suggested Papito but he just shook his head and said there will be plenty of time to figure it out before the little one is old enough to call him anything.
Please join us in welcoming Vincent!
FranceSays 
Of course! How lovely to welcome a new member to your family. And welcome to your new role as Granny, as my grandchildren call me.
And I’m sure you wear it well! Thanks so much for the wishes. Just curious: was your grandmother ‘granny’ to you?
I never knew my grandparents, so it was not a role I understood well.
Sorry to hear that but glad it doesn’t seem to prevent you from making the role your own!
Félicitations Grandmom! and Grand-something! He is a beautiful boy and I am happy you will be moving and will be closer to family. Looking forward to the whole pourquoi of it all 🙂
Thank you, Dale! It is indeed a ‘grand’ and exciting time for us…being closer to family takes on greater importance as time goes by. We will also visit our Canadian family late summer in time for my Dad’s 90th! ❤️
Wonderful!
And wonderful to celebrate your father. I forgot what area of Canada you called home… Hope you have a fantabulous time! 🙂 💕
I hail from Toronto (or Scarberia, ha ha). The GTA no longer feels so much like home but the peeps are definitely worth visiting! ❤️
Hahaha! Better than Taranna 😉
And after so many years, I can understand. And of course there are peeps worth visiting! 💞
Congratulation et félicitations ! How exciting and wonderful to welcome this new life that is now a part of the family. Such changes for you with the move and another benefit for us to see all the upcoming news!
Sweet sentiments, merci! 😊 I don’t think I’ve fully realized the import of this event yet. Yet I am blown away at how life has this funny way of working out. We literally decided on our move just before learning that we would be grandparents. Vive la vie!
Those pudgy little hands are just the best, aren’t they? Congratulation, Grandmom. I can see why you’re smitten with this little guy.
Aw, thank you Ally. It’s all in the details, right? Pretty sure I’d be smitten no matter what but you’re right — those little mitts had me from the get go! ❤️
Congrats indeed Cheers
Merci Pedmar! Happy memories in the making. 🥂
Oh what a gorgeous new arrival! Congratulations to Maman and all the grands, including you and your husband. Oh..grats to the Dad as well. 😀
Thanks, Meeks! We are thrilled. As grands, it feels like winning a bonus prize in the lottery. 🤩
lol – I can just imagine. And how wonderful that you’ll soon be so close to him. I see a lot of nappies in your future. 😉
He is delectable! I’m so thrilled for you all. And it looks like you and I are going to be living back in France at the same time. So let’s meet up and toast grandies! I am known as GrandMummy by mine (technically just by Oenone Blossom since her baby brother Rocco is a little young to know that yet). Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy: I know you will ❤️
Thank you, dear Osyth! Would love to raise a glass to our grandkids together (technically we will still be in Switzerland but just a skip across the lake from Evian). So pleased you will be making a return to this side of the pond — we’ve missed you!
Congrats to Anne and Elliott (and you, of course) and welcome to Vincent (with two ears, one hopes). And then you drop the bombshell of moving back to French-speaking Switzerland… or even France? What an exciting time to be a grandmom!
Anne and Elliott are the ones who deserve the congrats but it is amazing as grandparents to get some of the credit. 🤩 We got the news last fall, virtually just as we had signed the deal to move back to the area, and somehow it felt like the stars were aligning. We are staying on the Swiss side for now but will be just across the lake from Evian-les-Bains. Lots to do and hopefully post about in the coming months!
Oh and yes…two ears for sure! And such a beautiful song (which the parents had never heard of 🙄) even if the artist’s story was tragic. I hope our Vincent will have a slightly less sensitive soul!
Looking forward to your posts on all that!
I am THRILLED for you. As a ‘grandmom’ (with the name of Madre, or Grammy Pammy) I attest to the unabated thrill to be a grandparent. Just so happens that yesterday I was hosting two grandsons (one from CA, one who lives nearby, both 13 years of age) and one of them noted “every grandparent I know has a different kind of name – like Meme or PopPop or something else. No one is called Grandmom or Granddad. Why is that, Madre?”) HA! I tried to explain to him that we baby boomers think we’re too “cool” to have a plain name. But you are proof that this is not the case.
Lastly, my daughter was born on June 10. And of course, she’s as perfect as Vincent. And a good Gemini. Happy to hear you’ll soon be living near this beautiful baby boy and his parents.
Cool names indeed! I feel honoured to have great boomer role models who’ve been enjoying the ‘grand’ life for awhile. Clearly it suits you! My daughter is also a Gemini, so we are doubly blessed. Well, triple if you could the upcoming move (although delays are in the air….🤨)
Oh not happy to hear about the delays. But as they say, anything worthwhile is worth waiting for. 🙏💓
Belated félicitations! What a happy event. And lovely that you’ll be moving closer to them. Seeing him grow up will be a lot of fun.
Thank you Vanessa! It will be wonderful to have them close by. And also a relief to speak French again. (I’m using this as an excuse to more or less abandon my efforts to learn German!)
Congratulations on becoming a grandparent. My father always used to say that it was the best role ever. You do all of the spoiling and then the parents are responsible to deal with the fall-out! Grandparents do have an important role to play in the life of a child so it is great that you will be closer…(Suzanne)
Thank you, Suzanne! I’ve heard others say this too. Certainly my in-laws loved the role with our kids and they really went above the call to support us when our kids were young — taking them in the school holidays and doing a lot of activities with them after school. I hope we will be able to pass it forward. And yes, it will be so nice to be close to family again!