TODDLER TUESDAY AT MOA

This was fun: we went to Toddler Tuesday at the MOA! And rode the rides until we were so tired we barely made it to the exit, into the car and back to my house for nap time. I loved watching you work your way up and down the escalators. You are so good at it but I am still nervous about you doing it alone. So let's still hold hands even though I know you dont really want to do that. Christmas is sneaking up on us and your Mommy is sick right now. I hope everyone will be better in time to get together for celebration snacking and tv and reading books, playing games, snowshoeing if it is warm enough and being together. I loved taking you to Hard Rock Cafe for lunch on Toddler Tuesday. What a lot of crabby kids needing a nap! What a huge, elaborate American Girl store!

END OF NOVEMBER 2016

Darling JJ,
I had so much fun with you today! We found a big bin of old toys from your Daddy's childhood and you loved this chain you are wearing in the photo.  That is an old hat of Maggie's, bought in Emerald Lake when she went cross country skiing with your Daddy. He was just about you age when he first got on cross country skis and he loved it. H always liked doing sports-y things when he was growing up, and he still does but he doesn't have as much time to do it. I hope you have lots of time to do all the climbing and jumping and running that YOU love to do. I hate saying"be careful" to you so much of the time, but seriously: you are so creative and clever in figuring how to get what you want and not afraid to take serious risks to try new things. Maggie wants to buy all the children's books by her favorite movie maker, Spike Lee. And the illustrations are amazing, so I hope you love them. And I also put trains on the list of things to do because you have been very interested in them recently. The solstice is coming and bringing with it all kinds of ways to celebrate the movement into the light. Food, fires, trees, lights, pretty clothes. Toys and toys and toys.....But for now, lets concentrate on snuggling, cozy and warm, and reading, drawing, drinking tea. Love from Nana. (See you soon)

NANA'S TAKING YOU TO THE ZOO TOMORROW

Dearest JJ,

I love going to the zoo with you. It is great fun to watch you running around in the fountain, sitting on the spouts and waiting for them to soak you. It has been very hot recently and it is literally one of the coolest places around here. The other thing I love is walking up to visit the farm animals with you. I wish I had time to keep chickens at my house but visiting them at the zoo is almost as good. It is alot less work for me, too! last night I talked to your Dad about the pink radio flyer trike. I told him how interested in it you are and that you could keep it at my house or garage so your apartment would not be too crowded. And he said YES! So I am putting that trike on my "list of things to do with JJ". Maybe we can do it next week. I am going to let you ride it in the house just like your Dad and Auntie used to do with their roller skates. You really can have fun if you look for it. Life is not just about picking up your toys and taking naps., although those things are pretty great, too. I dont know if we can take it to the zoo, but wouldn't that be fun: riding your trike out to the farm animals. Good exercise for both of us. Remember last time? We went to the butterfly exhibit for the first time and you sat down on the edge of the bridge to look at the information identifying each type of creature. Then you fell backwards into the muddy little stream and got soaked. I picked you out and held you close to comfort you and let you know you were safe. The I was soaking wet, too! But I didn't have extra clothes in the stroller, like you did. That's when you know it's probably time to head home for a shower and clean dry clothes. By the time we stopped at the McDonalds by the Outlet stores you were fast asleep. Can't wait to take you back next week,

Love, Nana

TANGERINE CARROT

Dear Juji,
After you woke up from your nap I gave you a frozen bar of sweet, healthy treat. I think you liked it but it was just too hot to eat it without having it melt all over you and the floor. We went outside and it dripped on the sidewalk instead of my floor. It was much easier to wash off and you love being in charge of the hose and the water. You haven't figured out how to turn the water on but you are very good at filling up stuff and that's great! You have to start with the easy stuff and then move to the more difiicult tasks. The dali lama says that when we practice sending loving kindness, to start with the people we find the easiest to love (you, of course) then we add the more difficult ones, and so on, until we get to the truly impossible ones (Donald Trump, people who support FGM, big polluters, etc) and we don't push ourselves too far out of the easy people/creatures realm, for too much time. I think this is very wise. I practice on the bats that come in my house looking for a cool place to hang out, literally. And the spiders, although I do put the poison in the basement to train them to live outside. The mosquitos were really sucking your blood on Tuesday so on Weds I decided we would just stay inside with the air conditioning on full blast. It was ok. You practiced running laps around the island in my kitchen, and inpoired me to do the same. So today I calculated how many steps to circle the island and then the dining room table, the couch, upstairs to the massage table, the Pilates reformer back down around the couch, the dining table and then the island, like you. I love how you run on your tiptoes sometimes and i love running barefoot in the house. So now I have a running track, which I could expand to include the basement. It reminds me of the times I taught Kate at the Poor Clare's. Maybe you and I can go one day to visit her at her new place. And Gramma Joyce, too. Thank you so much for spending time with me. I love to see your faces: happy, bossy, sad, tired, silly, all of them!
Love, Nana

LUNCH AT CHEZ NANA'S

Dear JJ, Another fun day with you! 

Love, Nana

COOKIE AND KEYBOARD

Yesterday your Mama's laptop computer got messed up. Someone short, who didn't know any better, poured sweet tea in it. Sad and messy, and probably expensive. I brought you to my house while your Mama took her computer apart and tried to dry it out but by the time I got there with the computer-sized Philips screwdriver it was simply too late. In the meantime you had a chance to practice your songs on my piano, which is really your piano since you like to play it more than I do....
You do NOT like to play 4 hands literature or improvisation, even if it is one of your favorite tunes like the famous, fabulous ABC song. Also known as Baa, Baa Black Sheep and Twinkle, Twinkle. I was pretty sure you were tired and needed a nap before swimming so I put you in the stroller, leashed Sophie to your tray and took off. In less than four blocks you were sound asleep and stayed asleep even while we took your Mama's laptop to the Somali Mall for a repair estimate. Then time to wake up for swimming my little mermaid! You were fearless, as usual, but you do have definite ideas about what kinds of things you want to do in the pool. I also saw some of the boys smiling at you and talking with their eyes, making eye contact, etc. Is this a shadow of what is to be? 

SPRING BASKET

I love socks, I hate cold feet. And socks that don't fit right, or have holes in them drive me crazy. So I bought you a ton of socks and made them look like "Easter" eggs. I don't know if you liked them, I notice you like to be bare foot a lot, but I really liked seeing them on you and knowing that even if your feet were too hot, at least they weren't too cold! And that has to be a good thing. Maybe someday you will get a basket full of chocolate eggs and marshmallow bunnies but I hope there will always be colorful new socks in your life!

GREAT GRAND-DAD

Times passes and everything changes. For you that has meant growing, walking and talking. Yesterday we played outside most of the afternoon. We had lunch in the kitchen, but after that it was garden mud pull weeds hang out climb up on the chairs and a longish walk with Sophie while I hoped you would fall asleep.
During the whole walk you were sitting up and watching the world. We stopped to chat with a few people and checked out the free libraries, but you were not interested in sleeping until we got into the car and went to pick up your Mommy working at the Ridgedale YMCA.
You amaze me when you sing the ABC song and dance at the same time. I love hearing your voice, even when you are screaming. We went to Cub after we picked up your Mama to buy groceries. You really like shopping. At least you really like touching the stuff on the bottom shelves. You pick them up, carry them around, rearrange them, leaving the boxes in the aisles when something else catches your interest. It is quite charming to watch. Your fine motor skills are impressive and you are so strong. I think this will be a fun summer. Your Mommy's birthday is coming up and we will grill some things in the back yard. Maybe there will be a sweet treat for dessert. And a cozy fire in the fire pit. When I started this post I was going to write about you and your Great Grand-dad. but it still too sad for me. I am just happy that you two had a chance to meet.