Friday

It's a beautiful day, here in Chicago! Well, not so much outside. Windy and cloudy to start with. But it will improve! We just have to be patient.

Inside, the little one wakes (oh so early!). I come up in time to spoon up some oatmeal and fruit for her. Since I'm not sure if she is done, we pause and she looks at a book -- the same one Snowdrop studied so assiduously during her mealtimes. Primrose, hair tussled with sleep and food (funny how those sticky hands make their way up up to her head!), is equally pleased with the pics of familiar and sometimes unfamiliar items.






Time to hit the day running! Dressed and wiped down, she sits down to play.

("this is the book I read with my mom! it's really good")






Time-release, little one? (I cannot tell you how much she enjoys this ritual. Even if here, she is choosing to climb over my back for the actual shot.)







(okay, that worked!)






("it's nap time, Primrose...""catch me if you can!")






She is asleep. I eat breakfast.






In the late morning, I deem it fine enough for us to venture out for a walk. I mean, the winds are very strong, but, the girl braved a Chicago winter to get each day to and from school. What's a short trip to the grocery store. Especially since the sun is out!

(what's blooming in Chicago?)






We are not the only ones out and about. Nor are we the only ones bundled up!






I have a short grocery shopping list. We pick up bananas, avocado, blueberries and milk. Am I missing something?






Tulips!






On the walk back, I note an ad for local real estate. Oh, the steps urban folk will take to imitate country living! Tire swing! Kitchen sink! And a picture of cheepers -- not quite as photogenic as ours.






The walk is invigorating. So much so that once inside, sweaters seem unnecessary.

("and look! this book folds out! and you can read it upside down!")






Lunch. If you put fruit down, she wont touch a thing until every last morsel is gone.






("can you wheel me and chicken around again??" "nap time!")






And so the afternoon passes. Eat play rest. Dry the tears after the rare tumble. Hug, cuddle, reassure. Read a book. There isn't much else that a young child needs. It's amazingly easy and difficult -- both at once! -- to be there for a little one.

And the evening? Well, it jumpstarts what is a birthday weekend for me. This is only the second time in my life when my birthday coincides with Easter (the other time was in 1957; I was four then and I'm fairly certain it was a low key day for us all).

 (Primrose with Peter Rabbit)





This means that things need to be shuffled a bit. For instance, because I am in Chicago now, I am happy as can be to celebrate a birthday today. With my daughter and Primrose (dad is out of town).

The three of us meet up for dinner at Etta, a neighborhood place that serves wonderful, modern Italian food.

(yes, mom, I had a fine day! grandma set the fire alarm off by burning toast, but I slept right through it!)






There were negronis to start us off. And a candle at the end of the meal. And three financier cookies. And it was beautiful. And she loved the financier cookies.






Happy day, happy holiday, happy spring indeed!

Thursday

Good morning! (From under the table.)






We're having that predicted weather bounce in Chicago: it's wet and some twenty degrees cooler today. Well, you can't be greedy. My granddaughter and I will spend the day in the warm colors of home.

(Primrose breakfast: oatmeal and blueberries and strawberries, just like her grandma!)






(time for a short play before morning nap)






(a cheery cherry smile...)






My breakfast. Yep, the usual!





Later, we get down to business. Reading is high on her agenda of things to do. I had decided to bring with me on each visit a bunch of books that the kids are or have been reading and loving over at the farmhouse. Call it the Farmhouse Library. I'll take them back when I return. Primrose falls in love with Maisy books

("Do you want to read this book, grandma? It's really good!")






("And it has a happy ending!")






Playtime these days also includes feeding the bear.






It also includes her getting into a play cart, with the clear indication that grandma must push her around and around and around.

Suddenly it's getting toasty warm in here. (I wonder why...) Sweaters come off.






And when Primrose has cycled through everything, taking each toy, each book, each article within reach out and tossing it to the side (with me catching it and putting it back), she starts from the beginning and we do it all again.

Nap time is welcome rest time. For the both of us.

She wakes up hungry. I "generously" give her a piece of bread. Dinner is comin' up. I don't want to mess with her appetite. 






Afternoon play is always more rambunctious. Primrose can't run at full speed, but she moves quickly and therefore so do I.






Perhaps the only time that I had an upset girl today was when she found my iPhone. I let her mess with it for a few minutes. (Amazing how she's got those motions down pat!)






But then I took it away.

She was not happy.

It was the perfect moment to say "pooh!" to the weather and head out. Notice how different our wraps are today...






As always, we are there in the evening to greet her mom as she steps off the commuter train. Primrose is so elated to see her!






("And then grandma took her phone right out of my hand and she wouldn't let me play with it anymore!")





Dinner. First hers then ours. I promise you, ours is a lot less messy!

Outside, the winds pick up. I see gale warning posted on Chicago weather sites. It's slated to be a gusty set of days. We wont mind. We're feeling plenty warm and happy despite the big chill. We are all from the Upper Midwest. We appreciate the somewhat protracted unfurling of this sublime season.

Wednesday

Thank you, Chicago weather gods, for changing your mind about this day! I really really appreciate the midday clearing skies. I'm thrilled that the storms were pushed off and away. I love the warm air, the feeling of full spring. All the more so since I am with Primrose today and going outside with her is always such a treat!

Of course, the morning begins with indoor routines. Parents are off to work...






Primrose needs her morning meals.







And there is a world inside for us to explore...






She is playful! Hiding to make me chortle, then laughing her head off at my guffaws.






And the timed release! We need to do that!






(I eat breakfast while she takes her morning nap.)






Afterwards, there's still time to test the John Deere tractor. She takes a serious approach to it. At first.






Then -- more peels of laughter.

Okay, little one: I think we can go out now!
But how to dress her? We're just at that borderline of cool and warm. Let's err on the side of keeping snug.






Oh, but Chicago is a week ahead with its spring presentation!






By the time we reach the playground, the sun is so warm that the jacket has to come off.

("Can I drive standing up?")





We are not the only ones enjoying a noon playtime outside. Nannies with babes and toddlers fill the place and Primrose is as interested in the antics of other kids as she is in testing the playground equipment.

Eventually, we head home for lunch, pausing just for this one photo...

(look what's blooming in Chicago! and no, she did not want to grin, pretty flowers notwithstanding!)






Lunch: by coincidence, everything in this photos is blue and yellow!






And so our play continues.

It's quite incredible to watch these three grandkids cycle through the stages of infancy, toddler-hood and little person-hood so closely together. You can't help but feel awed at the uniqueness of each child, even as we all search for those similarities to children we have ourselves raised. I suppose you could say that these young ones have foundational links to parents, to grandparents. Nature, nurture -- who can tell, but it's there. And yet it quickly morphs into something that is very distinctive. And beautiful.

("can we read this again?")






Parents come home...





Suppertime, bedtime. Routines practiced the world over. With heart, soul and gritty determination. Because, well, there's so much love for that little one! So much love...

Tuesday

For someone who is not very entrepreneurial (according to Ed, who is very entrepreneurial), I surely can be competitive. Unreasonably so and in strange situations. Who else feels she has to outperform everyone, beating the dickens out of a treadmill during a stress test?

I was due for such a test (at least, my docs and I think I was due; Ed thinks I would have better spent my time working in the garden) and I had one scheduled for early this morning. If you've had one, you know the whole bit -- don't eat much, don't drink coffee. Plug yourself in and go go go!

You want to keep at it?
Are you asking if I can? Of course I can! Raise that incline!
Okay, that's enough. We're going to stop now.
You don't have to!
How do you feel?
Great!

I have to sometimes wonder why I choose to push myself even when I don't have to. 

I mention all this not because the test revealed anything pernicious (so far as I know it did not), but to explain that it is nearly noon before we sit down to breakfast. And because it is that late, the air has warmed and we can eat on the porch.






The sun appears through a misty haze and it is really a lovely way to start, no excuse me -- to continue a day.

(Daffodil, unfurled.)






(Others will quickly follow.)





Afterwards, I need time to throw stuff into a suitcase. I'm going to Chicago this afternoon and I wont be back until Saturday. That's very many days away -- almost like a Europe trip. It requires careful thought in packing, especially since the weather is see-sawing violently this week between extremes.

In packing my backpack of essentials, I am terribly dismayed to find a small piece of chocolate and a sealed bag of nuts in my zippered pack. Leftovers from my March trip to Chicago. Unfortunately, a mouse found these way earlier. How did it get inside a closed up pack? It chewed a nice big hole in it, shredding the pack significantly and making a general unsanitary mess within. Ugh!

Ed, I have the perfect gift idea for you for my (upcoming) birthday!

Why am I going to Chicago so early in the week? Well, it appears that even a day care center closes for spring break. I get it. People need time off. Unfortunately, parental work doesn't halt. Primrose, my one year old granddaughter, will thus be playing with me during her spring recess. Lucky girl, eh?

But before catching the late afternoon bus to Chicago, I pick up a sleepy Snowdrop at school (which already had spring break, in March, when there was snow on the ground and spring seemed hopelessly far off).






She tries to fit in our usuals in the short amount of time we have together.






We read a whole book, she draws...

(Oh! Bring out the scissors! Bang trim needed!)





... and she is just settling into nice independent play when her father comes to pick her up.



I grab my stuff and make my way south. The usual way: car to bus, bus to L train, then finally a walk to my daughter's home.

I always said that seasons are less relevant for city life. I mean -- you button up in winter, you open up for summer (though air conditioning does put your right back into the land of sweaters and wraps). Your days are rarely set by the weather.

And maybe that's true to a point. But walking now along streets that in winter would have sent shivers down your spine, I have to say, I am very much feeling Chicago's spring. It's a lovely evening, even for doing nothing more than pushing a suitcase along a bumpy sidewalk.

I don't see Primrose today -- it's way past her bedtime when I arrive. This is my time with my daughter and her husband. Tomorrow they'll be second row stuff and my attention will shift to their daughter.