2001 What an interesting year. 911 was a real wakeup call for most of us, the worst of last year.

The best thing that I experienced was the birth of a grandson. The joy of seeing and holding a brand new life that I am connected to fills my heart with love. The reality check is that you also have adult children there to remind you all the mistakes you made when they were young. Okay so I wasn't June Cleaver, but I loved my children and did my best. We didn't have the conventional household; 2 and ¾ kids two dogs and a cat. For those of you who don't remember, those were the national stats on the average family in the 70's. What we had was each other and, for a time, a one dog family.

What I like to remember is the fun times. To this day I still laugh out loud thinking about the time the girls and I were practicing selling marbles. This was an exercise to help them sell Girl Scout Cookies.

The oldest daughter had the advantage, as she was the more assertive and easily sold the marbles to her sister and I. The youngest, Rebecca, resorted to the sales pitch, "They would look lovely on your furniture." Sold.

Or how about when they didn't know I was listening, and heard them calling out faces. Now, this was not funny at the time, but there I can now see the humor in their effort. One of the girls would make a face and the other would guess what it meant. These were 'mom' faces. The answers ranged from, 'knock it off' to 'get out of my face' to 'I'm so mad I could blow a gasket'... you get the picture. I had a way of yelling without saying a word.

Then there are the times when I did the stupid stuff like sending Rebecca to her room for looking like her dad. We were divorced. I don't remember saying this but she does and I don't doubt that it is true. In my defense, I must have been having a really bad day.

Sixteen years later I was lucky enough to have a son. I am a different mom now, a little older and hopefully wiser. He has the advantage of being the only kid in the house. The drawbacks of being an 'only child' are you don't learn to argue, negotiate and play with a sibling your own age. I am happiest when we are all together.

So I made some mistakes and will undoubtly make more, but when all is said and done they knew and know I will always be there for them. They are the best thing that has ever happened to me and I am thankful everyday of my life.

So knowing I won't make the everyday mistakes with my grandson, I hope he will always think of me as the perfect Nan.