Monday in Chicago

It can't be time to get up yet, can it? Oh, but the predawn sky is so pretty!






One more cat nap in a luxuriously large bed, then I'm up and running. Not to clip spent lilies, but to make my way to Primrose's home.

It's good to change settings every now and then. I know these streets well, but after a few months of country living, the switch to city landscapes feels dramatic. I may as well have gone off to another country: everything has a feel of the new and different.






Primrose is two and a half months older than Sparrow and just at this age, this seems like a lot. He will stare at a black and white picture for a long while. She's ready to take in an explanation. It's fun to watch, because she is where he will be just around the next corner.

I haven't seen Primrose for several weeks, but she is good at communicating her pleasures and preferences and so I slide easily into a morning of play.

There are many hugs and good byes and flying airplanes way up high in the sky...





... and now the parents are gone and Primrose and I face each other in our day together. The little one has solid routines and the best that I can do for her is to continue them and to make this transition to grandma time (or anyone else's time for that matter) a smooth one.

Her morning nap is essential to her happiness and it is essential for my breakfast!






I linger over it, waiting for her to let me know she's done sleeping.

Nap done, dishes put away. Now what?





Well, she is a baby! The day's cycles repeat themselves: eat, play, nap. Every three hours.

Feeding time comes next. There are many ways you can approach this and I try them all. Her general demeanor is -- "I prefer mommy to anything that you do with me, but I suppose if I can't have her, this will do."






Tummy time for all young babes is de rigeur!





And now is a good time for us to go out exploring.

It's a beautiful day in Chicago and the Bucktown - Wicker Park neighborhood is both pretty and interesting to walk in. Before most of the buildings here were torn down in order to build newfangled condos, this set of bloxks was full of immigrants -- most of them from Poland. Traces of that demographic still remain...





I enter a small park and consider pausing here on a shaded bench. Primrose is lightly dozing. But I am pleased to see that the benches are occupied -- by mommies and nannies, exchanging tales of woe while their kids snuggle, sleep or play. This is how it should be, of course. I find myself wishing that such places of congregating caregivers and their charges were more common in Madison.






I stop at a cafe -- La Colombe, right by the El. The rumble of the train overhead doesn't disturb Primrose's rest, but entering a coffee shop with cool air and the fragrance of caffeine wakes her up instantly. I try for a selfie of the two of us. A client takes pity and offers to take a pic of Primrose and me. Why not!






We're home again. As I wait for her next feeding cycle, she and I play "raddichio." You don't know this game? Neither did I, until today. Kids teach you about what is funny in life.






And now we're coming close to evening. I know the commuter train my daughter will be taking from work. Primrose, want to go out ans surprise your mom?






She is surprised. In the best of ways!






Both parents are home now, Primrose is flying high in the sky, like an airplane!





Time for me to head back to my Robey home. I take a long route, so that I can toss around thoughts of grandchildren and children just a little bit longer. Good thoughts. Happy thoughts.