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.

FULL HARVEST BLOOD MOON

I juat watched the eclipse with Sophie wishing you were here but it IS after your bedtime. It ws quite impressive to watch the light disappear and then reappear, Let's definitely plan to share it in 2033 or 2018 or both. I burned a little sage just as the eclipse reached it's peak.
Now I am preparing for camping tomorrow. I dont know how it will go but I think it will just be so lovely to be in the colors and hike along some of the trails farther north. I wish you could come, but your Mama and Dady have to work.

GREAT BLUE HERON

This is your second trip to the U of M landscape arboretum. I had n umbrella stroller with no protection from the sun so you had to wear a hat. You looked adorable and loved eating your mac and cheese kid meal outside in the garden. There were a lot of elderly people, all more or less  admiring your style. And your made endless efforts to converse with them. After your snack we strollered around the pond and you got out of the stroller to play on the benches. I loved watching you watch things and creatures.

We saw this wonderful creature on the path as we headed down to the pond's boardwalk. It was very shy but majestic. I take this to be a very auspicious sign that we are meant for each other. Perhaps that is my imagination. And if so I will just keep imagining it for myself. Seeing you today was also wonderful. Being at the "Once upon a child" store was so sweet. I love watching you explore the toys and books. You are so easy to engage and love to try everything. No crying or whining or crabbiness. What a relief after listening to so many people who are in discomfort and trying to help them feel better. People are not good at taking care of themselves at certain times in their lives when it would be important to be gentle and nurturing. We worry about money, but don't see that we have more thean enough stuff, at least here  in Minnesota to be totally satisfied, yet we want more, new and different. Look at my toe-nails for example: I had perfectly wonderful, sparkle green gel polish, but I got sick of it and had this driving desire to change to a different color, but I had a horrible time trying to make up my mind. I liked so many of the colors that I couldn't manage to pick my favorite....