Rock Throwing and Writing

This one of Ali makes me think of E.T. on Halloween

Zuzu in her "eating" hairdo

Our little Pilgrim Turkey

The other part of my Best Laid Plans Triangulation Trip was to leave Norfolk and go to Hudson, Wisconsin via St. Louis. This was accomplished with only a one hour delay in St. Louis while we changed planes. At least we didn't have to sit on the tarmac for 4 hours. And since we had some confusion in St. Louis, Orbitz, who was sending alerts to my son, got it a little wrong causing him to be about a half hour late picking me up. But after those little kerfuffles, all went well and I had a splendid time with my two youngest granddaughters and their Mom and Dad.

My favorite memories of this trip are going to be the walks that Ali and I took down to the river. The weather was extraordinarily mild and so Ali and I went outside almost every day. I was getting a little tired of playing hide and seek and Freeze Tag (where I was always the one who got frozen--Ali's rules)and so I suggested we take a walk one day. The first day we walked up the sidewalk and I learned that my 4 year old granddaughter was well acquainted with all the neighbors and their dogs, introducing me to each one by name. We played pretend games on the walk and I got to see a little more of the neighborhood. The next time we went out I suggested we turn the other direction and go down the sidewalk towards the house that gets lit up with Christmas lights even before Thanksgiving. I guess it is a gift shop of some kind and I was curious how it looked close-up. Little did I know that down that way lay a much more interesting site--the river.

Ali remembered it from a walk with her Daddy and she made a beeline for it--it was hard for me to slow her down. She is in love with bodies of water into which she can throw rocks and this was her goal. There were few rocks along the side of the road and she was willing to pry up pieces of blacktop if it would mean she could throw them in the river, but I wouldn't let her. We found some small rocks even though I wouldn't let her go into people's yards to get more and we saw a school bus and trucks and cars and without exception the drivers and passengers waved at us. The Midwest is a friendly place. Ali threw her rocks and we headed back. The next day we repeated this walk, both Ali and Grandma enjoying the adventure of it--in fact, Ali called these walks "adventures"--and this time she started picking up rocks long before we could see the river. I asked her if she was getting prepared. She didn't know what getting prepared meant but when I explained that here were rocks that she could save for throwing later, she understood the concept and both of our pockets were full by the time we got to the throwing place. It occurs to me that if the weather had been more normal there would have been ice on the river and throwing the rocks onto ice wouldn't have been nearly as much fun for her.

There were other fun times, games, coloring, playing word-find, original "aminal" rescue stories, seeing Ali's pre-school, the zoo, seeing New Moon with Irene, but the walks were my favorite. The enthusiasm of a 4 year old on a mission is contagious.

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Incidentally, for some who have been waiting with me to see what GreenPrints had to say about the piece I sent them, I got my letter yesterday and here is what it said:

"Christine,

'Blue Hydrangea': Good! Tender. Well-expressed. And I really like the connection at the end between the plant's potential and the potential for your relationship with your brother.

But...I get a lot of great stories and I'm not sure this one would get in. It's on the fence, so to speak. If it's all right with you, I'll hold onto it. If it's going to get in, I'll let you know and pay you $100. Hope that's all right. Sorry to be so wishy washy!

Best and Thanks, Pat" (editor)

So there you have it--the note was hand written, which means a lot to me and it's not a "You suck" letter and there's still some hope. But more waiting.....

Thanks for waiting with me!