Forging Family Connections

We live on the East Coast. Our closest relatives are my parents in Ontario, a 2 hour plane trip away. Hilary's Mom and Step-Dad live on the West Coast, as do her sister and our nephew.

Today we had the slightly unexpected pleasure of having her father come to visit. He lives in Whitehorse, Yukon, so not only on the other coast, but WAY far up in the north. We haven't seen him in over 10 years, since his last cross country trek.

I've always been concerned for Liam by our lack of local family. Grandparents, Aunts and Cousins are words that he hears and sees pictures of, but doesn't always have a connection to. It's hard to feel close to someone you've only met 2-3 times your entire life (granted his life is still on the short side, but to him it's a long time!) When it was just Hilary and I we celebrated the fact that family was several provinces away. This left us out of the day to day dramas and we built better relationships with our parents because we saw them less.

So it was a wondrous thing today to see Liam latch on to his Grandad, a man he has never met. All night it has been "Grandad, look at this! ", "Grandad come here!", "Grandad can you play with me??" Right now they are upstairs reading bedtime stories together after having cuddle on the couch watching some Scooby Doo. Grandad will be here for 3 days, so I hope that it is plenty of time to make some great memories together and of course to give me lots of photo ops.