My Grandfather

Exactly 9 days ago, on September 11th, we lost my grandfather.  The emphysema and pulmonary fibrosis that he fought so hard finally caught up with him.
He had had a good few days and then the Thursday before, he started calling everyone in his cell phone telling them that he was going home.  He had had a few episodes like this, where his oxygen would get so low that he would do things that he wouldn't normally.
My grandfather was an amazing man.  He was a retired "letter carrier", as he used to say, and had served in the Korean war in the Navy.  He was the most loving, caring, man I ever knew, always stopping to take care of his people before himself.
He and my Caleb had quite a bond.  Piper was born right in the middle of him taking care of my grandmother after her stroke, so even though he tried, they just weren't as connected as he was with Caleb.  My grandfather would drive from Garland to McKinney (normally a 30-45 minute drive), randomly just to see him.  He asked for him and about him constantly, checking on him and his health all the time.
I have to say, that even though we knew that his end would come soon, his passing was a shock.  True to form, when he was ready to go, he did so quickly.  My mom called me around 5:00 on the day, I was there by 7:45 and he was gone at 9:35.  We had hospice in place and they were a great support, but it's still so, so hard.
My mom and I are only children, so we were all really close.  There was a period of time when my mom and I lived with my grandparents.  I was even brought home from the hospital to his house.  So, this is so difficult.  Honestly, I feel lost without him.

Milestone

We don't have many milestones around the Mathis house anymore.  I've officially reached the point in my life where my youngest child is the age of many of my friend's oldest kids.  What this means is that many of my friends have children who are still in diapers, using pacifiers, not sleeping through the night, some even are infants which is a completely different level of torture.
Around here, we are all taking care of our potty business on the potty (even though I still have 1 tiny hiney that I have to wipe since Miss Diva refuses to do it), have given up our paci's, sleeping (mostly) through the night, and have thankfully given up all the other trappings of being a baby.
However, there are still a few things that we have yet to see conquored.  One of which, Jes and Caleb worked on this weekend: riding his bike without training wheels.
Admittingly, Caleb is not the most athletic child, most of the time choosing to read a book over playing a sport, but we really want him to learn this skill so off went the training wheels.
I've attached a couple of videos and in the second one, you see Caleb ride for a little distance completely unassisted.  For a kid who was late to walk and late to do most things physical due to his rough start, this is a huge milestone!
We are so very proud of our boy!  I just had to share!  Oh, and ignore my excited yelling!

Not to be outdone, here's  little video of Piper riding her scooter.  You get a little glimpse of my normal conversations with our little one.  I ask her what she's doing and she starts talking about a tiny bug.  That's my girl!