the other cute baby girl i know.
What cartoonist, in the biz 50 years, is retiring?
(Don't send me your answers. This is just a little way to expand your horizons. Honest.)
It seems like just yesterday Mary and Rod and the ever faithful Welsh corgi Yogi moved to Los Angeles, but it is already time for them to move back to Seattle. They've decided to take baby Grace with them, although she and Yogi are evidently quite happy to stay here in LA. Well, they'll let Mom and Dad have their way for a little while.
Darin and I had brunch with Grace and her attendants on Sunday at John O'Groats. Grace, as is her wont, was having a good time (note position of tongue):
Grace
Mary and Rod hadn't been to John O'Groats before, so it was a good thing that we took them there mere days before they left town. (Well, I'm sure they'll be back. Especially as everyone in town rushes to get a piece of Mary.) We had to wait a while--crowded Sunday mornings--so I had plenty of time to snap more pictures:
Grace and Mary, giggling
We had a present for Grace (which was not, despite her evident enthusiasm for it, the wrapping paper). We bought Grace a toy that's a car and a phone--a car phone, get it? (Gotta start them early.)
When I went shopping for a toy, I wanted to get Grace a car like the one she'd played with at Tamar's house, which was a tiny VW Bug (to celebrate the reintroduction of the Beetle), but upon going to the toy store, I discovered a few interesting things:
- Nearly all car toys were remote-controlled: that is, the kid plays with a tiny remote control while the car does its thing several feet away. This is fun? I know I am an old fogey, but does everything have to be electronic? Can't kids use their imaginations once in a while?
- The regular car toys were all models of actual cars--totally inappropriate for a baby (they were not advised for children under 3), and they had a ton of moving parts, like opening doors. I wouldn't even want a kid to play with this car--they look like they should be on a shelf somewhere.
So I got a boring old Fisher-Price car/phone. Grace didn't seem to mind. She liked watching it roll, and she enjoyed trying to stick it in her mouth.
Rod, Grace, and Mary
We also got a present for the parents that would eventually be a present for the baby: Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone. Turns out they'd already read that one, one chapter a time to an enthralled baby, so they were going to take it back and get the next installment, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which seemed like a good idea.
Eventually it was time to go: Mary and Rod had to make a token effort to box up their apartment and get ready for the move back. They were not insane, however: Mary would fly up with the baby and Rod would drive the moving truck back to Seattle with Yogi by his side. There was not a chance they were going to do the LA-Seattle drive with a baby. (I suggested that Grace could ride in the car, which will be attached behind the moving van. Rod said, "We've thought about it.")
Mary, Grace, Darin, and Rod
(Only eight months ago Grace was a tiny handful. Amazing how time flies.)
My sister called today. We talked for a while about Christmas and about her baby and about what was going on. "How's the writing coming?" she asked, cheerfully.
Sigh.
I still have plenty of time left, right? Not just plenty of time before Bug arrives--I mean, plenty of time in my life?
The answer to yesterday's question: Twenty-two years ago, the US and Panama signed the Panama Canal treaty, which transferred full sovereignty and responsibility for the canal to Panama. The treaty (treaties, actually) take effect on Dec. 31 at midnight, at which point everything goes kablooey and who owns the damn Panama Canal is going to be a moot point anyhow.
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Copyright 1999 Diane Patterson
Send comments and questions to diane@spies.com