Home Again

We're back from the first leg of Pop's memorial -- the Cleveland viewing and service at Rockport United Methodist Church. The second leg will take place at his burial on March 20 in Atlanta.

What a tough couple of days! Brad began his trip up to Ohio early Tuesday morning, 4:30am to be exact, and then Caedmon and I left the house at 6am to catch our 7:30am flight. Brad had to stop by a customer in West Virginia and Caedmon and I had a layover in Baltimore. Caedmon and I finally arrived in Cleveland about 12:45pm and Brad didn't get in until later that evening, but fortunately we were all able to make it for Pop's viewing. (Caedmon was so marvelous on all of our flights, and even took an hour nap in the Baltimore airport!)

The viewing was really nice. There were soooo many people there ... so many of Grandma's church friends, choir friends, golf friends and even Pop's buddies from Greyhound. Just about all of the Hottel family from Ohio was there as well.

Dad and Grandma did such a nice job organizing and displaying all of the pictures, Pop's Greyhound uniform with safety badges, and Pop's army cap. It was really neat to see all of that stuff. Pop's Prudential hat was even resting by his hand :). And to be able to meet so many of Grandma & Pop's friends and to be able to show Caedmon off was a joy! He really lite up the evening! People would come up to us from across the room and say, "This muuussst be Caedmon. Your Grandma has showed us all of his pictures! What a doll!" And even after not getting much sleep that day -- Caedmon usually takes 3 naps, yielding 5.5 hours of rest during the day and when he had to wake up 2.5 hours earlier than normal for us to catch our flight, only take an hour nap in the Baltimore airport (impressive), and then a short 30 minute nap at the funeral home, he could have cracked at any time. But miraculously, he was wonderfully happy and brought the smile and laughter that everyone needed at this time! Praise the Lord!

On Wednesday we had the service for Pop at Grandma's church, and what a nice service it was! Pastor Dan, Grandma's favorite pastor, gave the eulogy and painted such a neat picture of Pop, from the time he was a kid until his last days. He mentioned how family was so important to him and how he helped raise his younger brother Claire and care for his mother when his father died young in a car accident. He told stories about his service in Berlin during the reconstruction after WWII and how that sparked his love for driving. He spoke about how he wooed Grandma at a little restaurant where she worked to learn English. He spoke about the many trips that he, Grandma and Dad took during his "Greyhound Vacations" and his love for his Model A. He spoke about the great father that he was to Dad, and his service to Greyhound and his love for driving. And finally, he spoke of his love and support for Grandma, and that despite the Alzheimer's and the hardships they had at the end, that Grandma was faithful to her vows and how she deeply loved her husband of 58 years. Dan then went around and had family and friends share stories and memories of Pop, and I decided to share my story of Pop's cookies. Everyone snickered (ha ha). I found out later that afternoon that Karen & Jerry's kids always referred to the Little Debbie Nutty Bars as Uncle Lloyd's cookies and that a neighbor of Grandma & Pop's referred to them as Pop's cookies as well. How fun!

Overall, the trip was nice. It's always good to share special times with family, and especially in celebration of Pop's life, it was good to be together.










































Tatiana took some pictures of Caedmon, Grandma and me in her studio yesterday. Once she gets those pictures together and sends them my way, I'll share them.

Diaper Changing Conversation

Caedmon loves to "talk" as I change his diaper ... so please excuse the unsnapped onesie. We don't want to be too scandalous on Hodgson Tales. Here's a quick snapshot of our diaper changing conversations.

In Memory of Lloyd A. Hottel, My Pop

Wow, this has been a tough few months, I just wrote one of these back in November when Grandpa Snyder passed away. It's interesting how so many life-changing events take place all at once. Thank the Lord that I'm not alone in this -- God is mighty to comfort, gentle in the way that He brings peace, and how His Holy Spirit whispers sweet words of truth when we don't know what end is up!

For those of you that have been following this blog, you know that Pop has been battling infection and pneumonia for the past month and has battled Alzheimer's for the past 4+ years. (What a terrible disease that is!!! To think that every ounce of brainpower that someone acquires throughout a lifetime can be taken way in the matter of a few years ... and just leaves them helpless! For any of you that have seen this terrible disease, my heart goes out to you! Let's pray for a cure!)

After a long hard road, Pop ended his battle Friday morning, February 27. The nurses called my Dad to let him know that the end was near and he was able to have Grandma head over to the hospital before he passed. (Dad was in Atlanta at the time.) She got there in just enough time to sit by his side, hold his hand and comfort him before his heart stopped. What a blessing ... that after 58 years of marriage, she was able to be with him for his last few moments. But thank the Lord that he went as he did and Dad and Grandma didn't have to make any decisions about whether or not to "pull the plug." And now, Pop no longer has to live in constant confusion and pain!

At 90, Pop lived a good life. He was married to a wonderful woman that we affectionately know as Grandma Franny -- some of which call her Fanny, he he he. (He "picked her up" in a restaurant where she worked when she first came to this country from Yugoslavia ... she worked there to learn English.) He served in WWII and raised a great son, who later became my Dad, and drove many miles of road with Greyhound bus -- boy did he love to drive! He later became my "Pop" and affectionately called me his "Peashy." (I'm not sure what that means, but that's what he called me :). And to this day, I'll never think of the Little Debbie Nutty Bars the same because of him. That was his favorite cookie and for some reason, even though I could read, I always thought they were called "Pop's cookies." It must have been their "secret" name that only Pop and I knew. My friends growing up never knew what I was talking about and I would be like, "You know, Pop's cookies," and they'd be like, "um, Nutty Bars?" I just thought THEY were confused.

Thanks Pop, I'll always hold Nutty Bars close to my heart :). I love you Pop, you will be missed!!

A memorial service will be held for him on Wednesday in Cleveland. We're all heading up to Ohio tomorrow. (This will be Caedmon's 2nd plane trip.) Pop will then be buried at the National Cemetary in Marietta, GA, close to my Dad and where Grandma will be living in 2 weeks.

Disguise is Key

I'm happy to say that Caedmon tried avocado again today and he ate it well. I can't say that he had a smile on his face the entire meal like he does when he's eating bananas or sweet potatoes, but he did finish. They were not plain of course ... I mixed them up in his rice cereal and it worked like a charm. Not that rice cereal has an overpowering taste to cover up avocado, but it seemed to fool Caedmon. Congratulations buddy, you're developing more than just a sweet tooth!

Speaking of disguises, I was trying for the past 2 weeks to get Caedmon to drink his water -- only a Tbsp or two -- and I wasn't having much success. I even added a hint of prune juice so give the water a little flavor, but he wasn't very interested. Then, Nana and Papa Tony came for a visit this weekend and everything changed. Nana fed Caed Friday night and helped him tilt his head back to drink the water and it worked like a charm. The water was still spiked with prune juice, but he was at least drinking it and not making sour faces. And then I tried the unthinkable .... I gave Caed water without the prune juice and believe it or not, he drank it. There's still a little fighting, but he's coming around. Thanks Nana for your help!

On another note, we have some exciting news ... Caedmon is getting his first tooth in. It wasn't so exciting last night when he cried hysterically and wouldn't go to bed, but after a little Tylenol and baby oral gel (Brad had to run to Rite Aid at 10pm), we all fell asleep. Caedmon did fuss periodically throughout the night though and I had to give him an extra dose of oral gel about 1:30am, but it wasn't too crazy of a night. It probably helped that I was able to take a nap during Caed's first nap this morning ... poor Brad wasn't so lucky. He woke up at 5:45am to go play basketball with the guys. Sorry honey!

Tap Dancing

I caught Brad teaching Caedmon a little tap dance last Sunday and thought you guys would enjoy the footage.

Adentures in Solid Foods

Caedmon has tried several new foods since my last post about his experiences with rice cereal, including avocado, sweet potato and banana. After the rice cereal, I thought it would be fun to try avocado to see if Caed could develop a taste for it early in life and hopefully learn to like more exotic foods from the beginning. Sadly, he was not a huge fan of the avocado ... at least at 5 1/2 months. (We'll try it again in a few weeks.)
From there, we moved on to sweet potatoes, which he liked a whole lot. And they seem to agree with his system as well -- his diapers have an orange tint to them now and have other remnants of sweet potatoes too. (Emmm)

And finally, yesterday, we tried bananas and that was a hit as well. I gave him like 2 Tbsp and they were gone in no time. C has quite the little sweet tooth!

Here are some other fun eating pictures we've taken in the past few weeks:

Oh, the faces we'll make to help little Caedmon learn to eat well :).

Old Laundry Basket Finds a Purpose

Caedmon and I discovered a very exciting toy on Friday -- my old college laundry basket. It's been sitting around the duplex without a purpose since we moved in -- there's no extra storage closet for it like we had on Wilderness. I was about to ship it back over to the ARS warehouse. But then, I needed a safe place for Caed to hang out while I was getting ready on Friday and there it was, the laundry basket.

Caedmon has been increasing the strength in his core lately -- mostly from all the pilates he does in the morning -- and can sit up on his own pretty well these days. (It's always good to have the Boppy or something else soft nearby in case he looses his confidence.)

So, when I contemplated using the laundry basket, I thought that it would be a great way for him to practice sitting up while having something to catch him if he tilted over ... so we tried it. He liked it from the start and just enjoyed looking up at me and having his own little place to play.

Then, I added a blanket behind him for extra cushion, our Blue Cross Blue Shield neck rest behind his butt for extra support and two activity bars -- one strapped across his legs and the other directly in front of him -- and he was set. It was our homemade sitting-saucer or motor boat as we now call it since we can easily push him from room to room as we say, "Rrrmmm," just like a REAL motor boat :).

(It doesn't look like Caed is enjoying himself too much in this picture, but he's really just disguising his enjoyment.)

It's funny, my parents used to put me in their laundry basket when I was about Caed's age, except this one was more like a sleigh than a motor boat because they tied rope to the end of it and somehow attached it to our dog, Casey, gave me the "reigns" and off we would go. (How cool would that have been ... it did have reigns, but there was no way Casey was going to pull me around the house in the laundry basket.) I'll have to find that picture one of these days and post it.