girl kicks butt of virus

two weeks later, Anna's back to her wily ways. here she is last week preparing for a (much despised) nebulizer treatment - good tunes and deep breathing make many impossible things seem possible. so glad to have the rascal back in action!

Practicing

P and I were saying tonight how there are fewer and fewer remnants of the baby in our great big girl these days. She pretends to be twelve million different people and animals and creatures a day. She sings to herself. She gets into the guitar case and wants us to say, "Oh, look, a new guitar!" And then "Oh wow, this guitar is really heavy. Hmm, how do I play this thing? Where are the strings?" And then, "Oh, it's wiggling, wait a minute, what is this? It's a person! In fact, it's a ballerina in a black tutu! Oh my, what a surprise." Again, and again, and again. Her favorite moments are the part when you haul her up out of the guitar case and the part when you realize (for the twelve millionth time) that she's alive. So much practicing going on. At the park this afternoon, first hopscotch game. She was very serious. Again, and again, and again. Each time a little bit steadier on her feet.

on my mind lately:

Until...

I catch my breath, here is a color and a smell I miss when I'm not in Minnesota. And a feeling under the boots. The half-frozen mud. The river you can't see from here, but you can hear it. Also, wind. Last year's sumac. This year's buds swelling up early. ...

We're off...

...to the Motherland and beyond. Back in BK on leap year day. Will the crocuses bloom while we're away?

Happy Heart Day

I can't help myself. Here is a journey backwards in time - four years' worth of heart hat love. Still going strong. Thanks, Grand Auntie Julie!

Time

The reason it takes 20 minutes to go one block is that there are the edges of gates to walk along, and a fire truck backing into a tiny garage, and the fat one-legged pigeon that sits on the bench by the bodega and waits for the oldest lady in the world to come out of her apartment and across the street in her sneakers with a bag of breadcrumbs, and then dogs keep going by and licking us, and there's some gross stuff on the sidewalk to examine, and tree roots to climb over, and crocuses starting to bloom. WHY are the crocuses starting to bloom?! It's February! There is also a place on the sidewalk where there are a whole bunch of little amethyst circles. And someone's playing saxophone out the open window. Which is why it takes forever to get anywhere these days.