The afternoon sun shines through the west-facing windows of my living room.  I washed the windows the day before my grandchildren visited, and now I wonder how long it will be before I can bear to wash them again. 

Down low, there are smears and smudges from wobbly baby Adam smacking his little grubby hands on the glass. 

Up higher are absolutely perfect handprints from six-year-old Annika.  The sun illuminates those gifts from my grandchildren, and I suspect I’ll keep them a while.  (Honestly, aren’t grandmothers just the silliest people?)

I wrote about my anticipation prior to the arrival of daughter-in-law Debbie and granddaughter Annika, who stayed for two nights. 

It was fun to look forward to their visit.  To make a good time even better, daughter Lisa and her husband Eric brought 11-month-old Adam out for a visit and dinner. 

The anticipation wasn’t as much fun as the visits from my family, that’s for sure.

Annika and I made a trip down to my storage locker and wrestled the old family high chair off its high hook to bring it upstairs for Adam to use. 

We spread a round plastic tablecloth under the sponged-off high chair and plopped Adam in it to join the family for dinner. 

He eats anything.  He does not appear to chew; he just keeps stuffing food in his mouth; bits of enchilada, fruit salad, stir-fried peppers and mushrooms--and his first taste of cake. That baby loves food.

Lisa told me a funny (easily believable) story about her baby.  One day an employee stopped by the “baby room” of the on-site daycare to visit Adam, as Lisa’s work friends sometimes do.

I would guess the man called out, “Adam! My Man!”—his usual greeting to the little boy.  Adam, looked up, saw his tall male visitor--and leaned forward and covered his food.  Apparently, he felt a need to protect his lunch from his large friend.  Nobody takes a scrap of food from that baby! 

Annika, of course, loves Adam—and he’s much more fun for her now that he’s getting around a bit. I so enjoyed observing them. The night of our family dinner, Adam and his parents went home before his bedtime, and then I had Annika and her mom to myself. 

We did all the usual activities—except for going to the beach or the park, weather NOT permitting.

One day we checked out dinosaur books at the library—Annika adores dinosaurs-- then drove to the mall to use her Christmas gift certificate from Build-A-Bear. 

What an experience! She was absolutely thrilled.  Actually, so was I.  (“Actually” is one of her favorite words now, by the way, and she uses it often.)

So, ACTUALLY, I hated it when, the next day, her mom loaded up the car, wrestled the child from my grasp and took her home to Idaho. 

What an awful part of every visit!