I was fortunate enough to see my granddaughter again this past weekend, taking my wife up to spend a week with Lindsay as Sephie's father, Thomas, returns to work.

It's amazing how much she has changed. More alert, holding up her head more, responding to the voices of her parents. I know it's been a long time since I was around a newborn, but I am amazed at how quickly they change.

The old adage that grandchildren are so much fun, we should have had them first is very true. One of my former employers once told me after the birth of his first grandchild that when we are parents we are so focused on providing for their needs that we often don't make the time to enjoy our children.

The birth of Sephie has driven that point home for me, and I am pleased to see my children doing their best not to follow my example.

Being a typical male of my era, I was fairly oblivious to the childbirth process until the child was born. I've been told that it is different for men, because we can't experience the child until it is born. My son-in-law was very attuned to the process and is off to a much better start than I was with either or my children.

Since oblivion is where I spend much of my time, I had not considered what my role would be after Sephie was born. I hadn't even given any thought as to what I would be referred to after the birth.

Being a baby boomer, I believe I was imprinted with a gene that makes me want to be like my parents, just not too much like them. So the dreaded "G" word -- grandfather -- has made its appearance in my life.

I discussed this with my children and my wife, and did some research on the topic. There are a lot of different ways to say grandfather, and all sorts of names associated with grandfatherhood. Yes, they actually list these things on the Internet.

Some are associated with ethnicity like Kupuna kane (Hawaiian for grandfather), Deda or Djedo (Serbian for grandpa), Didi (Croatian for grandfather), Gammlefar (Norwegian for grandfather), Opa (German and Dutch for grandfather), Seanáthair (Irish for grandfather) and Zeidy (Yiddish for grandfather).

It seems that in the south, there is a proliferation of different names for grandfather: Bampy, Big Pop, Dub, Dumpa, Gamps, Papa, Papaw, PawPaw, PeePaw, Pop, Pops, Poppie -- you get the idea.

Many of the posts that I read on websites from parents described how they earned their titles. Step grandparents, children that can't pronounce the words grandfather and grandmother and a host of other stories as unique as the children they are told about lead me to believe that it won't matter what I am called.

What matters is that someone wants to call me anything.

As a parent, I simply told my children to call my parents grandpa and grandma. Now, when I hear Grandpa Stangl, I think of my late father and I don't think I should be called the same thing.

But that's my issue, not Sephie's. It will be a while before she understand who I am, let alone talk, so I can procrastinate on the topic for a while, but it seems that the initial moniker that I have is Pop-Pop.

When you think about it, the whole thing is quite silly. The fact of the matter is that no matter how you paint the picture, I am a grandfather.

Like fatherhood, grandfatherhood will take some adjustment. But I'm thinking that it won't take nearly as long. It isn't often that you get to be an influence in someone's life -- especially a child's -- so when you get the chance, take it.

Names are not that big of deal in the great scheme of things.

As always, I welcome your comments. You can reach me by email at tstangl@lemarscomm.net, telephone 712-546-7031, x40 or toll free 1-800-728-0066 x40.

Thanks for reading, I'll keep in touch. Feel free to do the same.