I was devouring my last bite of porterhouse steak at Peter Luger’s Steakhouse in Brooklyn when I got the photo of my new baby granddaughter, Nora Grace. She is a 6 pound, 11 ounce, 19 3/4 inch bundle of cuteness. After the bacon appetizer, beers, fried potatoes, rolls, and cheesecake, I did what every retiree does to celebrate – took a nap. It can be exhausting being a grandfather thousands of miles away, so once I recovered from the delivery process, I immediately sat down to spread the news. Nora joins Gavyn and Maddux, the day after Mother’s Day, as my three little amigos. I felt guilty last night going to Gavyn’s favorite, SpongeBob SquarePants, at the Palace Theatre without him. After all, I wouldn’t even know the character if it weren’t for him. To help make up for my disloyalty, I bought him a t-shirt that says, “Best Day Ever,” knowing that today would be that day, with the planned birth of his new sister Nora. We also went to the M&M‘s store and splurged on gifts for all the kids that I’ll send along with a couple of new outfits for the baby.

I’m sure she’ll call me Grandpa J., just like the other two kids, because like any Modern Family they have several addressed by that grand title. I’m the only one that shares her last name of Johnston (J). Grace was my mother’s mother, and my son Adam’s favorite grandma, although I suppose she could have been named after Mark Grace, former Cubs’ great. I acknowledge this because Maddux is named after Cubs’ Hall of Fame pitcher Greg Maddux, since Cubs team loyalty runs in our family. Gavyn, on the other hand, probably wishes he would have been named after his hero SpongeBob SquarePants. He’s not a big baseball fan, although does have his name immortalized on a brick at Wrigley Field with his father and I – “Three Generations.” (See Post #511.)

I have to admit that I really enjoyed the SpongeBob SquarePants show, despite my concerns about its juvenile content. However, it seems to have fit my level of maturity perfectly, as many of these other recent Broadway productions have gone well over my head. The music was from Aerosmith, John Legend, David Bowie, Cyndi Lauper, and Lady Antebellum, to name a few. The Lady Antebellum song added further guilt since I had recently taken the kids to the Daytona 500 and we watched the pre-race concert by the group. It was Maddux’s first concert ever, so another memorable grandfather experience. I have also earned the title of “Disney Grandpa” (See Post #385), since the Orlando Airport is the most convenient way to visit them. As a result, we typically meet at Walt Disney World, where they are all annual pass holders. I’ll be looking forward to our first trip there with Nora Grace in several years. Hopefully, she’ll be braver than Gavyn and taller than Maddux in future visits. Maddux was always too short to ride the roller-coasters, and older brother Gavyn was afraid of the dark on their very first visits to the Magic Kingdom. Walt Disney is a much better baby sitter than I am, and as the kids have gotten older they seem to have never lost their love of the park. I know I certainly haven’t!

I’m on my own tonight, as my wife enjoys the Fox television “upfront,” where they launch new shows and discuss network programming strategy for the upcoming season. There’s a party in Central Park that I’m not invited to attend. I did catch her earlier trying to sneak a man into our room. As it turned out, they had gone to lunch at The Bacon Bar and had leftovers that needed refrigeration. Since I couldn’t join them for dinner, they felt that I might enjoy a later snack, so they stopped by unexpectedly. I was supposed to be still at lunch, so it was quite a surprise to all of us when I heard the door open. I appreciated their thoughtfulness, and will remember that logical excuse the next time I invite a woman to our room. I’m of course teasing, because I know both of them. The leftovers will have to go untouched until we get another room for my stomach. The 23 year-old son of a friend’s that I took to lunch could really pack it in, and old, Grandpa J. tried to stay step-for-step with him. I just might need my old family friend Speedy Alka-Seltzer…plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is! (See Post #201).