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