Poem for Little Ava, Age 2 years 4 months

Nani Has Two Shoulders, Ava

You come in crying, saying, “I want Nani to hold me,

I want to sleep on Nani’s shoulder!”

Don’t fret, Sweetie Pie, don’t be jealous

Because your baby cousin Lilly is sleeping on Nani Linda’s shoulder.

Nani has room in her heart

And on her shoulders for Lilly and you . . .

And really for many more.

Don’t fret, pretty Ava.

        [Bob Coughlin December 27, 2018]

(Grand-) Child of Mine--Happy Birthday Robby!

Tomorrow is my grandson Robby Kleppel's 4th birthday. I can't tell you how much I love him! Robby is so smart, so much fun--an energetic intellectual and emotional and physical whirlwind. In some ways I think of him as my own son--maybe that's the way grandparents always feel. His mother (my daughter Julia) and his father (Ed Kleppel) have done such a marvelous job raising him. And I guess Robby should himself get some credit for raising his parents--and grandparents.

Robby is full of so many wonderful enthusiasms. He loves his family, he loves his uke and guitar, he loves his grandparents, he loves his trains and trucks, his diggers and excavators (and he is quick to point out--a "digger" is not necessarily an "excavator"). And Robby is amazingly smart. Not yet four, he is deft and precise with language. And his brain is like a sponge (just like his older brother Colin and his baby sister Ava).

It has been such a blessing to be a grandparent to Robby, Colin, Ava--and now, Baby Lillian. I am so full of gratitude and wonder.

Here is a song by the folksinger Bill Staines that expresses some of what I feel about Robby, the day before his fourth birthday:

Robby with his new "Gorny Pig," Mr. Smiles.

Ava Learns to Crawl!

Ava learns to crawl

A day after your 8-month birthday,

You, dear Ava, spread your wings!

With Mom and Dad and Colin and Robby rooting you on,

You crawl across the basement floor

With such awesome focus and intensity . . .

And joy of being this very baby.

And you crawl like you've done it a thousand times,

Toward, your goal, that TV remote on the floor,

Which you know is mysteriously important.

Hurray for you, O Ava, on your journey,

Where you will stumble often,

And succeed because of your great effort,

Focus, joy, and

You in this circle of Love and Hope.

Bob Coughlin / April 6, 2017

Poem for My New Granddaughter

First Poem for Baby Ava

When Colin, your big brother, let your name slip,

I thought, what a beautiful, simple name!

It reminds me of wings, of butterflies and birds,

Monarchs and robins, swallowtails and cardinals.

And “Ava” hints at “Eve,” earth mother,

Mother of us all.

Little Ava, born into this beautiful family,

We welcome you

                        Into this crazy and wonderful world.

 [Bob Coughlin (Your Grampa) / July 27 and August 4, 2016]