Chicago week

I feel like by the third day I've shaken off my farmette habits completely and taken on the Chicago routines as if they were mine all along. I leave my pied a terre, joining the crush of morning commuters, being ever so careful because there are kids everywhere, trying to beat the clock (I'm staying just across the road from Chicago's Lincoln Park High School). I pull into the flow of cars, crawling west, listening to the radio person tell me the highways are  standing still with congestion today. It's cloudy, with rain, Good morning Chicago!

At my daughter's house, Primrose is there at the top of the stairs, waiting to greet me...

And now there is a series of photos where Primrose leans. The girl definitely has creative ideas on how to set an image.

Once everyone has left and the youngest babe is fed and napped, I take on the project o giving her a bath. Easy peasy with a girl who loves water. And the fluffy towel wrap after. 

And speaking of leaning! Juniper!

There, that's better. I think.

Smiley picture for today, because really, it's not fair to not include at least one little grin when she offers so many!

All routine by now. Play, sleep, feed. And repeat. Many times.

Despite the really cool air today, I bundle her up and we go for a walk. I don't dare go far. There is a persistent threat of rain. Still, the routine to take that walk is as solid as a morning walk to the barn back home. So we walk. For the lilacs! And for all that's growing and good outside. 

In the evening, I once again stay for dinner at my daughter's home. For Primrose, but really for me as well.

So much for giving them space to settle into their own now back-to-work routines! Ah well, they don't have to twist my arm hard for me to stay. The food is always great, the company -- exquisite.

(a toast!)

And as before, I return to my pied a terre very late. I flick on the TV which actually has no TV channels at all, even as it does seem to have Netflix and possibly a bunch of other streaming services. I mention this to my daughter and she surprises me by saying -- oh, we don't have any TV on our set either. How could you possibly schedule your evening around TV shows! You stream them if and when you can find the time. 

In fact, Ed and I aren't TV hounds either, but still, it's there and we've been known to pick up a PBS documentary in its regularly scheduled time slot. I knew this was rather quaint -- my older daughter also never watches any "television" -- but I did not know that this generation just doesn't bother to even hook up TV channels. I remember being surprised when they gave up on phone landlines. It took me several years to give up on mine (and Ed even longer, but that's because he doesn't have cell service). Adopting new technologies is way easier than giving up on old ones. 

So tonight I half watch another one of those British architectural shows as I finish up my Ocean work and I think -- it took me a while to reconnect with Chicago in any meaningful way. But these repeated immersions into the neighborhoods where my daughter hangs out is much the same as my immersions in my older girl's neighborhood back in Wisconsin. Their neighborhoods have become mine as well. And that's a good thing if you believe, as I do, that stepping out of your own bubble and slipping into someone else's is good for you. 

With love, for all that's good here and in all peaceful neighborhoods the world over...