Maxine in Milwaukie

To the stars

Twinkletoes

In the tent

     Lovely dancing Maxine bounded into the airport waiting room in her blinking sneakers, hugged me hard, and then skipped off to climb in the play area.  Courtney finished feeding the baby and David kissed us all.  Then we headed home.  We needed two cars for all of us and all the equipment, so our friend Donna drove Judy and Courtney and half the stuff to our house in her station wagon.  David joked with chagrin about trading in his vintage BMW for a minivan.

Story time

     Thanks to Judy and to Rose, who had visited before we took off for Seattle, the  house was ready for children.  Rose the geometry teacher had figured out how to put the crib together.  She created a toy and craft corner for Maxine.  We put a tent in the yard and got bubbles ready to blow and put sheets and a princess pillowcase on the air mattress.  A special shelf held  the 37 picture books I was eager to read aloud.  Maxine liked Cinder Edna enough to ask for it twice, and Princess Smartypants three times.  Her favorite by far was The Seven Chinese Sisters, in which each of six sisters uses her unique talent to rescue baby Seventh Sister from the skinny, hungry dragon.

Simone and fire

     These Texas people were cold during our Oregon mornings.   Simone lay on her quilt in front of the first fire she had seen.  By this time she had begun to turn over, to reach for things, and to make raspberries with her mouth instead of sticking out her tongue.  Such changes in less than a week!

Betsy and Simone

     Betsy and Les  came to meet Maxine and Simone.  Betsy held the baby while Les  talked Olympic drugging with David and science with Courtney.
   On Saturday afternoon David and Courtney's friends came up from Corvallis and Salem.  We sat on the deck for hours drinking wine and eating cheese and salami  and stuffed shells  and peach cobbler.

Busy always

Playground

   Throughout the weekend, Maxine played and drew and decorated and pretended. She rode her scooter around the neighborhood, and ate an apple picked right off the tree. She was entranced with the bluegrass music at the Milwaukie Farmer's market, while her father  bought bratwurst and berries and beets and wine and dahlias.  She then played for a long time with a little boy named Leo on the climbing structures at the Waldorf School.  Courtney remarked that Maxine, following Will Rogers,  never met a kid she didn't like.

David and Simone

     What a joy it was to be all together in our house, with Simone gurgling and Maxine directing us all in her games and David  and  Courtney talking and laughing with us around the table.  Judy noticed that Simone seems especially contented with David.
   Monday, the day they left, came all to soon.  That morning Maxine and I were quiet and sad together for a while.  She told me she will think of me when she plays with Lightie, the little yellow toy I gave her.  I handed  her a little Hello Kitty notebook that snaps shut, and told her it was partly a calendar.  "Does it have games on it?"  she asked politely.  What a horse-and- buggy grandma I am!

Maxine ready to go

John Jacob ready to go

     Judy gave Maxine a furry backpack with a special doll carrier attached to the back. Maxine carefully strapped her bear John Jacob into the backpack, shrugged it onto her shoulders, and left for the airport.
    I will see Maxine and Simone again in October.  If I didn't have that trip to Texas to look forward to, I would be bereft.