Post #32: Nana's First Babysitting Mission
- Nana Beryl Jupiter
- Feb 19, 2021
- 8 min read
Updated: Jan 5, 2022
Once again it’s been quite a while since my last blog, actually almost twice as long as it was between the prior two posts. Mainly because my life has been busy with some major changes but unfortunately none of those involving our grandson. To be brief about the changes, my husband Jesse retired from his decades-long clinical surgery career and desired to be just as active in retirement as he was professionally. So we bought a condo in Telluride and moved with our dog to the Colorado mountains to ski for the winter. Coordinating all that has been very time consuming for me, leaving little time for blogging.
But I have missed communicating with you, my blog readers. Although certainly not as much as I have missed spending real time with our grandson Cooper during the past Covid-challenged year. Virtual time may be better than nothing but it is no great substitute for the long haul.
What I wrote in blog post #29 “Sad Nana” remains the same: “Our daughter still continues to make a concerted effort to FaceTime with us weekly. Jesse and I are thrilled to communicate with Stacy and Cooper, and occasionally Jason (who is quite busy running a restaurant). But I am not so sure that Cooper is as excited to FaceTime visit as we are.”
Stacy always aims her phone at Cooper so we can see what he’s doing at that moment, which tends to be their weekend mornings, while it is afternoon for me and Jesse. We’re typically not that busy and are thrilled to receive Stacy’s FaceTime calls. But Cooper has usually just gotten up at home and is already involved with his toys or some favorite video, or they are hungrily awaiting breakfast at Governors Cafe, where they can catch up with Daddy too.
“Coops, say hi to Nana and Papa,” Stacy prompts him. We are lucky if Cooper cooperatively repeats, “ Hi Nana and Papa,” before he resumes playing, watching or eating. We love seeing our growing grandson, and thank the contemporary phenomenon of digitally accessible FaceTime for that, but we are not making any new fun family memories. I can’t help wonder if four year-old Cooper is thinking, “Why do I have to keep talking to these little old people on the phone screen?”
So in the meantime, I am going back in time to blog about my first Cooper babysitting experiences from 2017, which I have yet to write about. But I did mention the inception of the plans way back in Blog #8 when Stacy proposed my first Nana babysitting mission. In April, 2016, when Stacy was just five months pregnant, she emailed me from a work meeting in California: “Our group is already talking about when we would have our next meeting here in Santa Barbara, which they may push back to around February so I might be able to travel with baby. Want to come out to Santa Barbara then to babysit? Anyway - there is plenty of time to plan/think about it, but I'm putting it on your radar. You'd definitely like it here. Love, Stacy”
Of course, I was delighted to accept this first babysitting assignment when I would finally be a Nana. The location was less the motivation than planning to be together. Admittedly, it had been quite a while since I had cared for a baby solo but I had plenty of time to be nervous about that later.
Fortunately, our Fiji holiday visit was already scheduled in advance of the Santa Barbara babysitting plans, so I would develop some notion of caretaking Cooper before February. However, during the two holiday weeks I rarely cared for Cooper by myself, just the occasional relieving Stacy so she and Jason could have some alone time.
Thinking about the enormity of my first baby Coopercare mission, I told Stacy, “We had better arrive in California a couple days in advance of your meeting so you can get me up to speed on caring for Cooper.” Stacy agreed to that, and additionally assigned me to locate a place to stay for the duration of her meeting. Rather than staying at the small meeting hotel, an apartment with kitchen and laundry facilities would be preferable.
So since we would all arrive initially in Los Angeles, Stacy & Cooper from Fiji, and me from Boston, I realized I might use a trade week from our Telluride Fairmont lodge ownership for nights in the Fairmont Miramar in Santa Monica. As it turned out, my brother David and his wife Tracy, along with their daughter Sophie and son Harley, intended to be visiting their LA-residing son Jacob about the same time. So I was able to book a couple more Miramar nights for them so they could spend part of their California visit with distant-living Stacy and meet six-month old Cooper too. That would be a great family start to the plans, even though the Abrams family were slightly cramped in their small family suite.
I arrived a day ahead at the Miramar than everyone else, to be ready the following day to promptly meet Stacy and baby Cooper at international arrivals at the Los Angeles airport. Meanwhile, Stacy and Cooper were en route, and Stacy posted on Facebook photos with the caption, “Getting lots of attention from the ladies in the hotel and airport.”
I figured Stacy would surely be tired after a lengthy trans-Pacific flight with an infant. Regardless, I had to allocate the first US arrival task to Stacy: securing the infant seat in the rental car van. Not familiar with that, I did not want to risk an erroneous installation.
As I had requested a crib for Stacy’s Miramar suite, we were also greeted by cute personalized baby decorations provided by the hotel. Shortly after Stacy got organized in her accommodations, we strolled Cooper to a nearby T-Mobile store for Stacy to activate a US cell phone number, an essential communicating component for her trip.
Stacy had previously made two requests for our brief time in Santa Monica. First, she had asked me to arrange a hair appointment for foils and cut, and plan to babysit Cooper for that duration. I located and booked a local salon through the hotel concierge. Second, Stacy wanted to go to Tiffany in the Santa Monica street mall to complete a purchase of wedding bands for herself and Jason. As they were anticipating marrying in the not-too-distant but yet-to-be determined future, they had recently looked at wedding bands at Tiffany at the Sydney airport at the conclusion of a visit to Jason’s family in Australia, and had noted their preferences (as mentioned in Post #23, The Celebrity Way).
With Stacy’s instructions for short-term Coopercare, I managed to fulfill my Nana duties while Stacy went for her hair appointment, good practice for when I would be babysitting all day long during Stacy’s Santa Barbara meeting to follow.
And Stacy was pleased with her hairstyling despite high LA prices.
Later that day Stacy, Cooper and I made the auspicious excursion to the Santa Monica Tiffany store for the purchase of Stacy and Jason’s wedding band selections, marking the occasion by family photos displaying the iconic Tiffany turquoise gift bag.
We intermittently caught up with the Abrams family: Santa Monica oceanside walks, Miramar breakfasts, and noisy dinners at local hotspots that Tracy had organized. Jesse showed up from a meeting in China, connecting with all at our last Miramar family breakfast. Coming from different earthly directions, we were all glad to be together briefly, even though the weather was somewhat chilly and decidedly un-southern California.
After two family nights in Santa Monica, the Jupiter family rental van departed for Santa Barbara on Monday morning. At Stacy’s suggestion, I had found and booked a two-bedroom apartment, through my first VRBO (vacation rental by owner) online experience, in the vicinity of her meeting for our several night stay, my additional requirement being two bathrooms. Fingers crossed that the online description would meet our needs and the location would work out, and generally it all did for family accommodations including the requested crib and high chair.
After being briefed on my “marching directions” by Stacy for Cooper feeding, formula composing, bottle cleaning, diaper changing, and sleeping expectations, Stacy left with little fanfare for her meeting on Tuesday morning. And yes, I was nervous to take on full-time Coopercare, having been decades since I was a baby’s primary caregiver. But the general behaviors did come back to me, and I was glad to have Jesse’s extra set of hands and eyes to spell me on occasion.
On the first full day of Coopercare, we mostly stayed in the apartment attending to Cooper’s infant needs as I got used to how to care for him. The day was somewhat overcast and chilly anyway.
By late afternoon the sun came out, so Jesse and I strolled Cooper to the nearby waterfront. We survived, and so did our infant grandson, on our first day of Coopercare. I texted Stacy with photos occasionally throughout the day to show her that Cooper was in good hands. We were relieved to have Stacy return by the end of the day, encouraging us to join the meeting group for their dinner plans.
Coopercare day two: we managed to get out earlier in the day, strolling in the vicinity, around a nearby college with lovely views, and eventually to the waterfront, finding an outdoor patio for lunch.
Even though the weather was atypically cool for southern California, Stacy’s meeting group chose a Mediterranean restaurant with an outdoor patio for dinner, to which Stacy was planning to bring baby Cooper. Jesse and I were invited too, but I was admittedly worried about the temperature for us (old folks) and our infant grandson. The restaurant actually provided fleece body suits for the adults. The food was tasty, and we all managed through the chilly evening, baby Cooper too.
“You could take Cooper to the zoo here,” Stacy suggested. Although I love to see animals, I did wonder what a six-month old might get out of it. But now that I had mastered everyday Coopercare, I figured we could use an excursion anyway for a change of scenery. So we went to the Santa Barbara Zoo and I took lots of photos to show Stacy all the animals that we introduced to baby Cooper.
By this time, Jesse and I were getting rather brave with our Coopercare, so we decided to locate, by Google maps (also getting brave with that), a nearby and fairly well-reviewed Mexican restaurant for lunch, and hoped it would work out with baby in tow. Fortunately, we enjoyed a delicious meal while Cooper slept throughout in his stroller. We got lucky!
All in all, it was a win-win situation. Stacy was able to attend her four-day meeting without leaving her baby faraway at home, and have worry-free meeting days. Nana and Papa got to learn about their grandson up close and personal, and have the evenings to recuperate from baby care. Jesse and I left California with happy feelings and memories about our week with Stacy and baby Cooper. As we departed Jason arrived in the US for the first time, where he would spend the following week with his family as Stacy introduced him to her friends and the coast of California.
That sure seems like a long time ago, especially because of all the COVID restrictions from the past year. In the beginning of the Covid pandemic, I kept saying that we were fortunate to have been in Fiji in early March, 2020, spending a week with our family before everything closed down. Now I can’t believe this pandemic has been ongoing for a year, and that’s how long it’s been since we have been together with our grandson. There's still no endpoint in sight, but hopefully some light at the end of the tunnel. Being in the 70+ age group, Jesse and I recently obtained our first Moderna vaccine in Colorado, and are anticipating the second dose in a few weeks.
But although Fiji is essentially and fortunately Covid-free, visiting is still prohibited and they have no vaccinations there. So no idea when we can go there or when they can come to the US. In that way, I am still a sad Nana. But assuredly, as soon as the situation opens up, I am booking flights to Fiji for me and Jesse asap.
Meanwhile, we have been showing Cooper lots of snow scenes in Telluride, and he is getting excited to come learn to ski ... some Covid-free day.
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