granddaughter again

Last weekend, Trixie and I traveled to northwest Iowa to see my paternal grandmother.  Noah and Mattias stayed home with Fritz because when they visited my maternal grandmother under similar conditions 2 years ago, their behavior and needs were really counterproductive to visiting.

(Photo of Trixie and Grandma)

We were able to visit my grandmother for two days. The week before we left, I worried endlessly about all the things that could go wrong: a blizzard, sickness, terrible toddler behavior. Fortunately, all the stars aligned and we had a great trip and visit. Leaving aside my specific reasons for the trip – which are important and significant in their own right – there were several secondary things that bubbled up to top of my consciousness as a result of this trip:

1) Traveling with just one child seemed...so EASY.
2) Being with just one child felt like a huge, luxurious vacation.
3) I should do this again, much more often, as an opportunity to bond (with just one child at time).
4) Upon return: Oh my, we are CROWDED in our under-construction house.
5) Our new urbanist neighborhood feels downright claustrophobic and noisy.
6) Huh. Maybe I want to move to a farm.
6) Okay, TOTALLY ready for house construction to be over.