The Next Chapter

The day has finally come! At just about 5 months, Kirk had his first taste of solid food yesterday when Rose made him some oatmeal. The day before she had given him a little lick of her own oatmeal at breakfast, when he seemed very interested but kept grabbing at her spoon. So she ground up some rolled oats into a powder and cooked it up and let him try to feed himself with a baby spoon that I just happened to have handy. I've been waiting for this day! He had a bit of trouble finding his mouth and choked a tiny bit once he managed to find it, but it is just the beginning. And he seemed very happy to start the down the path leading to the pleasures of the table. Welcome aboard, Baby Kirk!

That Was Then...But This Is Now!

Baby Kirk, at about 20 weeks in utero

Fast forward to 2020. There's a new grandbaby on the way. Rose and Stephen went for an ultrasound on November 24th and the images were astonishing. He is long, strong, and hanging on! 

Rose has been with us since October 4th, driven out of LA by the heat and fires. We chilled out at the beach in Stone Harbor and in the green turned to golds and reds and russets of the Pennsylvania autumn. It was a miraculous visit and she helped us knit our home and home life back together. 

Stephen arrived in time to stage her Red Bull interview conducted via Zoom in our living room and then they dashed off to the imaging department at the hospital. Welcome Kirk! We are so glad to meet you.

The Big Apple Visits

Lilah, Bernie, and Eliza are ready for a fashion show

I wasn't in Longmont too long before niece Celia, her husband Bryan, and two daughters, Bernie and Eliza, visited before heading up to Sturgis (before it was a dirty word) for niece Rachel's wedding. The three girls were a whole lot of fun, submitting to the total domination of Bernie the Boss.

Where does the time go?

Mom after hip surgery and me leaving Villa Crest

Spending quality time with Lilah from age 4 to 8 was the best investment of my entire life. We bonded, she growing older, and me younger, every day that we spent together. After the 4 month trial in Niwot that commenced right after the Trump election--the day my mom fell and broke her hip, I committed to a year's lease that started the following summer, as Lilah entered kindergarten. The hard part was leaving my 93-year-old mom in the care of my siblings, but mom encouraged me to go and I went.
She was right.

Five-year-old Lilah greets me on arrival

Let the hair games begin!

Rose sets the table for my 70th birthday dinner on 10-17-2020

According to the website LiveScience.com, "In physics, G-force is used to describe the acceleration of an object relative to Earth's gravity." Well, the Earth is especially grave these Covid pandemic days, and this G (G'Ma, that is, Lilah and Santana's grandmother) is eagerly looking forward to a rapidly approaching event--the birth of a new baby in mid-April 2021. Our daughter Rose, pictured above, is working on a movie about Jake Burton Carpenter, the man credited with inventing snowboarding and later helping to make it a legitimate winter Olympic sport. There was some vision. Jake knew all about G-force and enabled millions to experience its breathtaking pull. We are in for a wild ride!

G-Force. Grandparent Power.

One day, your grandbaby is toddling along, on wobbly legs and then the next time you see her, she is sturdy on the earth and at a gallop. Life goes fast; a speeding bullet. When my husband John and I visited our son and his wife in Colorado in 2012 when Lilah was about a year old we visited the town of Niwot, north of Boulder. Four years later I found myself there again for four months, just to spend time with her before she starts kindergarten next year. We walk to the Whistlestop playground often, enjoying the new Children's Park with state of the art play equipment across from the caboose. And we stand in awe when a train passes, as it did back then, reminding us to seize the day before it speeds away in a chugging rumble, whistle blowing. G-Force--Lilah, your G'Ma is here to try to slow down that train and climb aboard with you!