TheBanyanTree: Chilly

[Margaret R. Kramer]

We’re getting a little slap in the face from winter.  Dark and bumpy clouds
gathered yesterday and spat rain at us in the afternoon.  The wind rattled
the windows.  I lit the fireplace after dinner and sunk down into the big
green couch and let the fire’s warmth lull me to sleep.

It’s a step back, but a small one.  It is, after all April, and Minnesota
Aprils are winter months, too.  But the warm weather and the timely rain
have created a green place and nothing, not even a little slap from winter,
can take it away.

The sun has pushed away the clouds and the wind is just a breath of cool air
this morning.  Our spring will return soon.

It’s my now six year old grandson’s birthday celebration this evening.
After much debate about where to go for his birthday and how can we fit into
our busy schedules, we’re going to go to dinner at a Korean restaurant in
St. Paul.  This is the boy who eats salad and sushi and is a whiz using
chopsticks.  We bought him some summer clothes, a book, and a Power Rangers
toy.

This six year old is tall and lean and eats like a cat – just little bits of
things all day long.  He eats sweets, but in small amounts.  He’s settled
down a lot since he turned five.  He doesn't’t forge fearlessly ahead, but
will now wait for the slower folks, and hold hands with us as we cross
dangerous streets.  He will still bounce off the walls when he’s bored, but
now that he’s older, he’s much better at finding things to do to amuse
himself.

His best friends are a set of triplets and a set of twins from his
kindergarten class.  His mother only wanted to take a couple of kids to Camp
Snoopy (at the Mall of America, a shrine to materialism) next week.  How do
you handle party invitations when you have multiples of the same friend?

He’s in the “talented and gifted” program at school and during the day takes
advanced reading and math classes.  His idea of fun is to bring his math
workbook with him to my house and do addition and subtraction problems.  He
loves card games and of course, video games are endlessly fascinating to
him.  One night his parents let him stay up to see when he would stop
playing, and he was still going at midnight before they finally shooed him
to bed.  He’s not a morning person.  He’s grumpy and irritable when he gets
up.

He likes to draw colorful and animated people. And he writes and he writes
and he writes.  Now he puts all his words into sentences and composes little
stories.

He has three loose teeth, and the last time I checked, they still hadn’t
come out yet.

Boogie has an overwhelming personality.  It’s like he sucks the air out of
the room and directs it at himself.

So, we’ll gather at the restaurant and celebrate his six years of life.  It
will be interesting to watch him continue to grow up.

Margaret R. Kramer
margaretkramer at comcast.net

http://www.polarispublications.com
Be a star!

http://www.bpwmn.org
Business and Professional Women of Minnesota

I see great things in baseball.  It's our game - the American game.  It will
take our people out-of-doors, fill them with oxygen, give them a larger
physical stoicism.  Tend to relieve us from being a nervous, dyspeptic set.
Repair these losses, and be a blessing to us.
~Walt Whitman