DAY DREAMING

Today is the last day of piano teaching for the summer. I will resume lessons in the fall in a new studio. We are converting our garage and adding a small sunroom. The building I have taught in for the last 8 years was built in the 1800's . High ceilings, large plate glass windows affording lots of natural light and within walking distance from the schools made it an ideal place for a piano studio however within the last few years, my landlord has neglected to make necessary repairs and the roof is leaking, bathroom doesn't work and mold has formed making it impossible for me to stay. Piano movers are coming next week and 8 years worth of music, books and gifts from students sits waiting to be sorted and packed and yet....here I sit completely mesmerized by a 14 month old.
The last few weeks have flown by and I know the month of July will as well and then I will be forced to get back to the business at hand but for now we are learning where our nose, eyes and ears are. We are surrounded by toys and I watch to see which ones he actually plays with for any length of time and often.
He loves his Fischer Price fire engine. It is the perfect height for a 1 year old, his feet touch the floor so he is able to walk forward and backward using all of his little leg muscles. It also has a variety of buttons to push making a variety of noises and music.
He also spends time with a Vtech Explore and Learn helicopter. Although it has a variety of buttons to push as well, he really only likes the feature where the balls must be pushed through the top into the body of the toy.
Hands down his favorite toy is a large metal mixing bowl and a plastic spoon. Inverted, the bowl is a cool seat, upright it can hold a whole host of things. Toys, cheerios, and tools. But the best part is the sound! Loud banging when you drop it or when you beat on it with the spoon. As a piano teacher, I know all too well the power a child feels when they can use their own little hands to create sound and this is no different. New dents now in a bowl already dented by none other than his father....some things never change!

FOOD FIGHT!

My grandson has adopted the habit of pursing his lips and turning his head when offered anything other than what he has decided he wants to eat. His head bobs from side to side as I follow his mouth with a spoon. Smiling, offering, making yummy sounds...but still he refuses. He wants cherrios. I began sprinkling cheerios onto his tray and every time he cradled one between two tiny fingers and guided it to his open mouth, I would pop in a spoonful of whatever I determined he should be eating. Aproximately a half bowl into this process, he got wise. He began to open his mouth only as soon as the cheerio was at his lips and only wide enough to accomodate said cheerio.
Exasperating!
Of course he has always won the battle. My fear of a hungry baby superceded my will to force him to eat what I deem to be a nutritonally balanced meal...but not today!
Today, I heated the Gerber graduates meal his mother had packed for him, peeled back the plastic wrap, grabbed the Winnie the Pooh spoon and made my very best yummy sounds!...he refused. Lips pursed tight, head swiveling. "Okay, I say...then you must not be hungry...I'll guess we will just go nite nite." I offer again and again he refuses. I remove the bib from him and him from the high chair, pop in the binkie and lay him down in his playyard. I shut the door and listen as he protests. I figure that if it goes on for more than a couple of minutes, it may be that he is hungry. I sit in my chair and fret and try to remember the last time I was this overwrought about something. I try to remember the last time I had to think this hard to outwit anyone!
It's exhausting!
The crying stops after about 45 seconds and I take a deep breath. I think about his father and what I did when he was small but I am convinced that most of it was probably not right anyway and I so want to get it right this time. I cover the graduates meal and put it in the fridge. Round two will begin in about an hour....the blue eyed, rosy cheeked baby with the chubby finger pointing to the pantry that holds the yellow box or other grandma with her steady spoon and yummy sounds. Any bets?

First Day of Summer

I drove through the rain at 6:45 this morning as lightning flashed from the sky to the ground. I drove not to work or to shop or to a gym but rather to meet my one year old grandon's other grandma for the exchange. My son had called last Monday and asked if I could pick Rylan up from his daycare, they suspected that he had pink eye and I said "of course!" It is one of the largest daycares in Springfield. I entered the building easily...no doorbell, no buzzing in, no security. I was rudely greeted at the front desk and told to wait while she got the director. The director led me down a long hallway explaining that they thought he might have, suspected it could be, not certain but maybe pink eye. I entered his room and found him incarcerated in a crib, peering at me through wooden bars. Not one of the women in the room, his daycare providers, spoke to me. I retrieved him and his bag and took him to an urgent care directly across the street. The doctor there informed that they often have outbreaks of pink eye! After receiving prescriptions and instructions, I carried him through the parking lot and buckled him into his car seat. I thought about the amount of times he had been ill throughout the year and I said to him and to myself "you are not going back there!"

So here we are...he and I...him and me...just the two of us. Playing in the yard and going for walks down our country lane. Picking flowers and talking to butterflies. Splashing in puddles and digging for worms.

My back is a little tired and I am behind on my laundry, just like I was 24 years ago when I stayed home with his dad and his uncle. I am also behind on my work which I am attempting to do through phone calls and e-mails. I am to keep him through the summer. He will enter a new, smaller, high security day care in the fall, but I am not going to think about that right now. For now, I am going to sort blocks, change diapers, sing lullabys and watch a baby grow...the rest of the world can wait!