This lucky grandmother has a brand new grandson! The morning of his birth I received a text that my daughter was at the hospital and that they expected the baby soon.  Then shortly thereafter I received a photo on my cell phone with the message, “we have a baby.” Of course, because of the prevalence of ultrasound technology, I already knew it was my new little grandson and not a new little granddaughter.

Being the proud grandmother, I forwarded the photo to about twenty family members, and received congratulatory texts all day.  My mother, however, never figured out how to “open the photo in the phone.”  The next day, the photos of the baby and his big sister were up on my daughter’s blog. These were followed shortly by photos of my brother holding my grandson.  Within a day or two of mother and baby leaving the hospital, I received a link to the baby’s hospital newborn photos for announcements on the hospital’s website.

My daughter thought the photos didn’t do justice to her son, so when the baby was a week old she took both her children to the photo studio.  Twenty-four hours later I had an emailed invitation and link to adorable photos of my grandchildren.  Yesterday, my daughter said she took the kids in the day before for another photo session.  I expect a link to that session by morning.  Also in the morning, my grandson will be two weeks old!

Compared with this, my experiences communicating the births of my children to my family seemed very primitive, but at the time it was very modern.  By the time my younger children were born one hour photo processing and priority mail were the best ways to send the proud grandparents their first photos for their “brag books.”  With all this technology, I realized that my grandson’s birth was documented totally electronically.  There are no photographs, no letter, absolutely nothing on paper for my descendants to cherish in the distant future.  So, yes of course, I will spend the weekend printing photos and assembling my “brag book.” What else would a proud grandmother do?