Near the end of the Rotary meeting, I got a text that a certain little girl was requesting a pick-up to go hang at grandma's house. There was no way I would refuse. I dropped in for some cuddles with all the kids first, before I swiped my girl for an us-day. Dmitri gave me hugs, and I got to hold Avery for a little while. He started squirming in a way that I recognized. I asked him whether that was a little peristalsis wiggle. Sure enough, my hand holding his little bottom felt the rumble. There will be no taking this grandma by surprise. When Val and I left for our afternoon together, Dmitri was absolutely gutted to be left behind. The wails of "grandma!!" at the door ripped my heart out. I promise he gets a grandparent day very soon.
I had offered to go pretty much anywhere she wanted, and what she wanted was to go to my house. I told her I had a plan to make an apple pie, and would she like to help. She was all over that. She started to drag her tall chair over, and needed help to carry it, so we team lifted it. I showed her how to smash the butter into the flour to make a crumb topping. I had her scoop out brown sugar and sprinkle cinnamon in it. I cut the apples, and asked her to squeeze lemon over them, and again her job was sugar, cinnamon, salt, and flour for the filling. She played with Lincoln logs and watched a car cleaning video with me while the pie baked, and it just about drove her crazy waiting to try it. The rest of her family came over, and we polished it off (plus some pork chops and rice for dinner), and everyone was impressed with the excellent pie she helped make. It made me feel much better to see Dmitri running and rough-housing like he was over the heartache of being left behind a few hours earlier. I also got more cuddles (and I think I identified more peristalsis in action) with our new man. He is two weeks old now, and he has progressed to the little old man face phase. We have theorized that all babies are basically the actor Wallace Shawn.
If you read yesterday, you saw me getting a little nervous about fire season in northern Colorado. We are hot and dry and last year's wet weather gave us a lot of growth of grasses (fuel) that are now dried up. The Alexander fire from yesterday was over 3500 acres by evening tonight, and now there is a new one, the Stone Canyon fire just north of Lyons. It's 10-15 miles from where I am sitting right now. It was around 30 acres when I picked up Valerie (and noticed a second smoke plume as I drove across town). I have not checked for an update, but an old high school friend who lives in Lyons did say his family has been evacuated. I'm glad they are safe and will be sending out all the good vibes that his home stays safe. The same goes for the whole of the front range, my own home included.
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