On May 8, Aunt Kate and Uncle Nik's second wedding anniversary, Anthony, Stuart and I prepared Owen for his first real babysitting. Another family in the building with a boy Owen's age gave him supper and then put him to bed.

Then the three of us adults got on the B Train to the Upper West side where Chelsea met us at the very fine restaurant where chef Daniel Boulud presides. All of us dressed up for the occasion, and the food we enjoyed was exquisite. Every detail of the dining experience was sumptuous.We celebrated, very belatedly, Chelsea's birthday and our ten months with Owen. A night to remember!

We have been saying good-bye to many friends we've made as regular customers. Here I am with massage therapists Melanie and Lucy who found all the acu-pressure points we inflame by spending too much time at computers.

Here's the fruit vendor who always has a smile on my walk to see Owen and who gave Owen a free banana last week:

During this last week we are so busy saying good-bye and packing in all the love we can that we will post several times. Hearts are bursting.

Last week's video clip was about Owen's refusal to demonstrate walking. This week we are celebrating good health and lots of steps toward making walking the default transportation system. Crawling still seems to be the safest and best way to cover distance and to see all the fascinating things to eat (!) scattered on the ground.

But increasingly we find Owen taking steps without coaxing, just because he wants to. Here he is on Monday morning, fresh from the hunt. He has found Cheerios in his snack box located in the stroller carrier under the handle. He seems to think he needs something in his other hand, but despite looking like a Cewpie Doll, he keeps his balance until he decides to sit:

One way to feel very safe while standing and moving is to use the furniture as walkers:

Here he is engaged in moving his Croks around. The secret to learning to walk seems to have a "third thing" to focus upon. Notice that Grandma's desire to applaud is totally disregarded.

There's a writing lesson in there somewhere:

 

 

 

 

This week involved as much nursing as babysitting. Owen came back from St. Martens with some kind of intestinal bug. It took him most of the week to regain his strength,especially since he is also cutting two molars, but he kept up his incredible pace of learning. Oh yes, and it rained most of the week. We stayed indoors a lot.

We read stories.

Owen spent more time than usual on our laps.

We suggested new ideas. Owen was sometimes skeptical.

But he loved playing with Grandma's Kindle:

Despite not feeling well, Owen often took as many as six or seven steps. But he wouldn't cooperate with the camera:

When we weren't taking care of Owen, we explored the city: breakfast with friends at Clinton Street Baking Company, heard Adam Shenk and his band at a restaurant/theatre near Times Square, saw Jonathan Price, Alan Cox, and Alex Hassell in Pinter's The Caretakers, and enjoyed many walks in Brooklyn and Manhattan.

Oh, and Grandma finished Chapter Nine of her memoir. She's sticking to her schedule!

 

Sometimes our weeks are so full that I don't know where to start. This week was like that. But, as usual, I will start with Owen. He and his mama and papa spent the week in the Virgin Islands with friends who have a small daughter. Here's Anthony and Owen looking like they are having fun.

Stuart spent the week traveling in Ohio, visiting friends of Eastern Mennonite University. That left me with a week to write and do research. The goal was to interview more family members, learn more about DNA family history research, visit the Hans Herr House and Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society, have fun with family members, videotape Mother, do some planning, and finish Chapter Nine before the end of the month -- Monday!!

I stayed with my sister Doris, who lives in the house Mother built on the hill overlooking the town of Lititz. There are two places in the world I love to visit most -- the linear park that used to be our meadow and fields, and the Goshen College Music Center. Here's Doris, one of my three sweet sisters. She joined me on my morning walk through the park.

Sister Sue, Mother and I visited the Hans Herr House, built in 1719 and preserved for historical purposes in Southern Lancaster County. After lunch at Willow Valley Restaurant, we enjoyed a beautiful day, including some freshly smoked sausage from the smokehouse, good conversations with the tour guide and director, and learning more about our own heritage together. Here are Mother and Sue beside a Conestoga Wagon, America's first moving van, that was designed and built in Lancaster County.

After two relaxing Amtrak rides to and from the city, I am back home at my writing perch. Chapter nine, you won't defeat me!

 

 

Owen has developed the ability to demonstrate affection. He hugs his
sleep sack after he wakes up. He hugs us and is starting to make
kissing noises.

He also reaches out to the world as he sits like a little pope or Miss
America in his stroller, clapping and talking and waving. He literally
stops people on the streets. Every day we go for at least one walk. He
spreads love and joy everywhere. He trusts everyone -- people, dogs,
cars, trucks.

Because of Owen, I've had dozens of short conversations with people of
many different backgrounds who ask about him and tell me about their
own children or grand children. We share our hopes for their futures
and bless each other.

I rejoice that love seems to come naturally to this small boy. I know
unconditional trust can't last. I want to help wrap him in a blanket
of titanium velvet that he can carry out into the world. A blessing to
carry him home.

Owen went on several egg hunts last week. One of them was at Manhattan Mennonite Fellowship which worships in a nineteenth-century Quaker meetinghouse.

The weather was warm, the leaves were bursting forth in various shades of green, the robins and pigeons were bathing in puddles, dogs and squirrels ran all through the park. The voice of the turtledove was heard in the land.

I visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art, saw the Stein Collection with a friend from Kalamazoo, walked in Central Park and Bryant Park and, of course, Ft. Greene Park. Here is a collection of 23 pictures:https://plus.google.com/117720879252864367816/posts?hl=en

Granddad and I are started to grieve our leaving in advance. We have only 40 more days and 40 more nights in New York in daily contact with our precious Owen. That means after six more posts Grannynannydiaries will come to an end. Let's make these last weeks the best weeks!

I wish you could hear Owen say "Yeah, yeah, yeah." Maybe I can get his new sounds on video next week!

On Palm Sunday Stuart and I were attending the concluding session of the Mennonite/s Writing VI conference in Harrisonburg. We heard Rudy Wiebe speak about the seven echoes of silence, sang songs from three hymn books, and then slipped away to return to New York City.

"The Valley" of the Shenandoah was flaunting its spring beauty. After eight months of being away, it seemed good to rest my eyes on the mountains and see old friends.

But little Mr. Owen had turned one year old while we were gone. Here he is in the last of the stickers- on-onesies pictures his daddy took every month since last April.His birthday party was moved to April 7 to accommodate our conference.

Owen had a great week. On Sunday he went to a party with about a dozen adults and three children under three years. What fun we had enjoying the children enjoying us and each other.

The next day we strolled around Brooklyn. On Tuesday we went to Coney Island with our six good friends -- our Goshen, IN, era "small group" which met for over 30 years. Owen loved it all -- subway ride, strolling on the boardwalk, lunch at a Russian restaurant on Brighton Beach, and return.

 

On Wednesday Owen went to day care so that we could enjoy a day of just sight-seeing with friends. We started at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and then ate in Little Italy. A Circle Line boat ride to the Statue of Liberty and a visit to Julian Kauffmann's workplace ended the day.

I saw the painting above, The Persistence of Memory, by Salvador Dali in a whole new way during this visit to MoMA. The fluid time pieces and the dreamscape remind me of the connections in this blog, and in my memoir writing, between generations. I just finished writing about one of the thrilling moments of my childhood -- the time when I fixed my daddy's broken watch and wore it on my wrist for a year.

The two bridges we have travelled and visiting most often -- Manhattan on the left and Brooklyn on the right. They are surprisingly close to each other.

Each morning, we help Owen greet Lady Liberty on the right and the Empire State Building on the left from his windows. In the picture above, Stuart also symbolizes the place where both of us stand right now. His hoodie says "Park View" (in Harrisonburg, VA, where our house is located). Behind him, Lady Liberty stands tall, reminding us that we can take New York back home with us and that all the world's peoples and their love for liberty is embedded in our hearts.

We ended our day witha visit to the studio where animation for the children's program The Wonder Pets and the new Disney Jr. channel's Small Potatoes takes place. It is located on the Fulton Mall close to Pier 17 where we took the boat ride.And where the fish mongers used to hawk their wares. The Sea Farer's Museum is just down the street. 

Thursday was a quieter day. Today Stuart and friends will help Owen get ready for his party tomorrow.

I may be able to slip into St. Thomas Cathedral this afternoon, Good Friday. And when we sing Hosannahs on Sunday, there will be such gratitude in my heart for all the goodness God has given us, especially the gift of eternal life we celebrate at Easter.

Happy First Easter, Owen!

As Owen gets ready for his first birthday, he keeps reaching up. He
started to stand all by himself this week. He stands on tiptoe to try
to reach the speakers on top of the bookcase. He uses my leg for a
climbing station and holds his hands up to be held.

Here he is in DSW, hoping he can bring down the boxes like he brings
down block towers. I caught him just in time to prevent a towering
crash.

But I can't stop him from reaching. I want him to "jump at the sun"
like Mama said in Their Eyes Were Watching God.

Owen will celebrate his first birthday a week from tomorrow. The party will be held a week later in deference to our schedule, which takes us out of town to a conference on his special day (can you believe it?!). Fortunately, he cares not. Every day is party day to Owen.

Two days ago, Owen took a big first step toward walking. He crossed the room to a tower I had made of alphabet blocks. Stood up beside it without any assistance, knocked it over, and continued to stand on his own, grinning. In Music Together class, he stood at the threshold for almost 30 seconds and clapped his hands at the same time. Oh boy!

The one year birthday is also a reminder that we won't be here much longer -- only nine more weeks. This blog will become a way to remember. So will the scrapbook I made to take back to Virginia so that every time Owen comes we will look at it and remember the joy, the awe, the adventures of one little boy's first year.

Many people know this beautiful song "On Children" by Sweet Honey in the Rock: 

The song is a version of Gibran's famous essay on parenting in The Prophet:

 

On Children
 Kahlil Gibran

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts, 
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, 
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, 
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, 
and He bends you with His might 
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies, 
so He loves also the bow that is stable.

I've read two books by John O'Donohue as I take care of Owen in the last weeks: Anam Cara and On Beauty.The latter contains a section called "Neglected Beauty: The Wonder of Creating New Life." 

"Mothers and fathers inhabit the secret of God's heart. . . .

Being a loving parent is work that guarantees the transformation of the ego. . . .

When you bring a child into the world, you become vulnerable in a new way. . . .

[Words of unconditional love and affirmation] help build that inner sanctuary where poise and belonging come to dwell."

Even the most caring parents will leave inevitable trails of damage. . . .

Owen's soul already dwell's in the house of tomorrow. No one knows it more profoundly than his grandparents, who will not know the same tomorrow. But one thing they know -- that though their children will send their children forth as "living arrows," they will also want to call their children home.

God bless you, young parents, as you grow into old parents. We are so grateful that we have had nearly a year to be close to you, but we will always want to call you home. Emmy Lou Harris sings our feelings: