A grandmother's love

My one-year-old grandson spent the night Thursday night. He is no longer looking like a baby but has the little boy face. All his teeth are in and his smile is so precious. He is talking up a storm and when he comes to words he doesn’t know, he makes them up including the appropriate facial language to go along with the gibberish. He is the baby that almost died. The pediatrician kept misdiagnosis him and by the time he was nearing two months old, he had lost below his birth weight and they kept saying it was his formula. He wasn’t having bowel movements, and I was giving him tiny little enemas, which the doctors at children’s hospital said saved his life. It was the only fluids he was getting. He had a duodenal stenosis that closed completely off and finally I called the doctor and said, “You will see this baby today.” She looked at him, did an x-ray and jet flew him to Little Rock to Children’s. It took those doctors three days of intense intravenous feedings to build him up enough for the surgery. For those three days, they kept the baby knocked out, provided one of us hold him and keep him moving from side to side and up and down so to prevent stasis pneumonia. I did that, I kept the baby on my chest for those three days and the only time I didn’t hold him was to go to the bath room. He sucked my finger and I gave him tiny drops of water to keep his mouth moist, he looked at me and didn’t understand why he couldn’t have a bottle, it was the hardest thing I ever had to deal with, watching my grandson starve. But, they did the surgery and he responded well and now he is a ball of energy, that one. Back to the original story, he spent the night with me and before I took him home, he and I went out for ribs. I thought chicken but when I asked him if he wanted chicken or ribs, he said ribs. I know, he didn’t know what he was saying, but he ate three ribs. When I got him home, his older brother was there and his mother tells me she has no food. I make her make a list and she makes a conservative list. I go to the store and spend close to 200 dollars on food for the boys until she gets her food card. She doesn’t work, she doesn’t go to school, and we, my son, my husband and I, foot the bill for her to live the life of luxury. I know, it’s wrong, but my alternative is to say tuff love and you can not live in my house, and I won’t pay the bills, and you don’t need food, which by the way, means my grandchildren are homeless, foodless, and all of that. So, this week, my husband and I will live frugally so that my grandchildren have good food. I told my sister that my daughter has me trapped and she said I should file for custody of my babies but then I would lose. I already checked with an attorney and as long as she is clean, which she is, and is keeping a safe and clean environment, which she does, for the children, I don’t have a leg to stand on. I am going to start an editing business so that I can do it on the weekends and hopefully make enough money to support her and the boys until she grows up. I wonder if she will, grow up that is, before she hits 30?