And She's Off . . . .

Crawling that is, as of last week Laura is officially a crawler. Some days she's a little more ambitious than other's, especially at night time when you place her bottle at the foot of the stairs-she's generally a girl on a mission, and by the time she gets to the bottle she's all sweated up and out of breath. Almost every time she gets about half way, breaks down w/ a big pouty lip and possible tears, but we cheer her on and she finds the stamina she needs to make it there. I'm sure soon enough we'll be trying to slow her down, so I'll enjoy this time while I can.

Weekends are time for relaxation, running errands, cleaning, and doing the things we can't find time for during the week. The size of our house jumped considerably when we moved into the farm, so I devised a plan that I would try to clean it by sections (for instance bathrooms one day, bedrooms another, stairs on another, and lastly the downstairs) then it wouldn't seem like such a feat the day before say, a birthday party. I also try to throw a few loads of laundry in at night after work, cause that in itself could take an entire day. Bottom line is that I don't want to spend my weekends cleaning my house, Saturday the kids and I spend the day together and then Sunday is Church and Alex's proclaimed "play outside w/ dad" day.

Yesterday while Alex was helping dad build the front deck, Laura and I took the opportunity to visit my grandma. Granny Ruth lives in an assisted living facility in Brandon, and while I don't get over there enough-I do try to get over there when I can. I like to take Laura specifically because it's amazing watching old eyes light up when you enter the room w/ a baby, it's as if they have a gravitational aura that instantly puts a smile on their face. Granny has been there for a few years now, as have some of the other residents so when you walk in-it's as if you're greeting a family: the other people who live there, and the staff who supports the residents. Donna is a quiet but friendly lady who suffers from Alzheimer's-it's a given when we go there that I will probably be asked "what's her name, or is that a boy or a girl?" a few times within a short timeframe. Dorothy is a quiet lady who sits in her wheelchair most of the time, doesn't say much but just smiles and says "look at the baby". And then there's Laura, a sharp woman who I believe used to be a teacher. When we walked into the dining area yesterday, she didn't make mention of baby, just directly asked how old she was-and upon me telling her 9 months, Laura promptly said "she must be sitting by herself, and possibly crawling?" When I confirmed she was a crawler, she said-"studies show that early crawlers are better readers". I just smiled, then the woman asked what her name was-you can imagine the excitement when I responded w/ "Laura". "That is an 'old' name" she said, to which I told her that Laura was named after her great-grandmother so indeed it was a name of older generations. And there are a few other ladies, but those are the 3 that stood out upon yesterday's visit. Lastly, after playing show and tell w/ my baby, I go over to my main reason for coming-there sits my grandmother at the dining room table. A woman who once prided herself on her self-sufficiency sits at the table waiting to be fed her dinner. Parkinson's and a temporal inflammation have left her quiet, shaking, and unable to see anything out of her right eye-and minimal out of her left eye. The past 2 years have transformed her into a person that we barely recognize, but we just continue to tell ourselves that the old Granny is still in there someplace. When we go to visit, we're lucky if we get a laugh or a goodbye out of Grandma. It's the small things that I look for-the way she looks for Laura's little face when she'd normally sit w/ her eyes closed while others converse around her; the way she grabs for those little hands and feels every little piece of Laura's body; the way Laura doesn't let her close her eyes because she's constantly poking or prodding at her face, hands, arms, legs and feet. While Granny doesn't say a thing, her natural instincts with a child still let me know that grandma's spirit is still very much alive inside her. Her biggest pride was her grandchildren (14) and great-grandchildren (33+), I am the youngest grandchild and my children fall on the latter part of that timeline. So it's in these short visits that I do my best to try and get my children to know my own grandmother, Alex is to the age where going scares him a bit-so I will take Laura as much as I can until she reaches that point. It's amazing how one little angel can lift so many spirits in such a small amount of time-in those that make it apparent, and in the one who doesn't say a word (and means the most).