{"id":5159,"date":"2011-09-23T09:56:56","date_gmt":"2011-09-23T13:56:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/?p=5159"},"modified":"2011-09-23T09:56:56","modified_gmt":"2011-09-23T13:56:56","slug":"the-rider-chronicles-11-spending-the-night-at-grandma-and-grandpas-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/?p=5159","title":{"rendered":"The Rider Chronicles 11 – Spending the Night at Grandma and Grandpa’s House"},"content":{"rendered":"

I could hardly wait!\u00a0 My wife and I like to entertain.\u00a0 Hosting energizes us.\u00a0 Guests\u00a0are a common “enemy” we work together to “vanquish.”\u00a0 I’m overstating it but you get the point.\u00a0 Imagine how excited we were preparing for our recent houseguests, Rider and his parents.\u00a0\u00a0It was a thrill\u00a0to see the three of them walking to our door.\u00a0 Rider looked somehow different outside his usual context in a Brooklyn apartment and neighborhood.\u00a0 Since I’m the one of the three of us who sees him the least, they directly handed him to me.\u00a0 I always love holding and seeing the child, but\u00a0in this context I did both with greater pleasure then usual.\u00a0 Welcome, grandson, to grandma and grandpa’s house!<\/p>\n

It’s quite the logistical feat traveling with a baby.\u00a0 I had almost forgotten what it was like.\u00a0 It starts like this.\u00a0 A young man marries and it feels like the amount of stuff in his life increases exponentially, let’s say by a power of two.\u00a0 More clothes, more shoes, toiletries and make up and a whole raft of female bric-a-brac arrive with the bride.\u00a0 I’m not complaining.\u00a0 I love living with my wife and no amount of extra luggage will change that (I’ve come to learn\u00a0my dearest\u00a0travels a lot lighter than many of her female compatriots).\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Just when the guy gets used to the extra accoutrements he becomes a father.\u00a0\u00a0Possessions \u00a0increase exponentially again, this time by a power of three.\u00a0 I helped my son, Rider’s father, lug in the extensive Rider Support Gear:\u00a0 sleeping basket, diaper bag, bags of toys, bags of clothes, bags of diaper-related supplies, a stroller, and what seemed like half a dozen more backpacks, sacks, suitcases and containers, several with pastel flowers and other babyish decor.\u00a0 We gave the visiting young family our room, mostly because that’s where new parents stay with their baby, but also, as a Baby Thing Repository.<\/p>\n

That evening, my wife played the piano for us.\u00a0 We couldn’t help noticing how instantly and constantly\u00a0fascinated Rider was with it.\u00a0 He seemed entranced by the music and maybe\u00a0by the movement of hands\u00a0on a keyboard.\u00a0\u00a0Up until the music started he was getting a little fussy, probably\u00a0tired and getting ready for sleep.\u00a0 The music, however,\u00a0instantly focused him and held his interest\u00a0for a surprisingly long bit of time.\u00a0 Of course, grandparents and parents alike see a baby’s natural strong response to something, like with Rider at this moment,\u00a0and\u00a0we begin to ask, will he be a musician?\u00a0 Will he be a pianist?\u00a0 The next Horowitz?\u00a0 Van Cliburn?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Future concert pianiast?<\/p><\/div>\n

The next morning, I took Rider for a walk around our apartment complex.\u00a0 I like visiting Brooklyn and walking him on streets of interesting rows of houses made of brown stone, but I preferred the relative\u00a0peace and smoother sidewalks of where we live.\u00a0 Our apartment complex sits\u00a0near a small stream that widens into what looks like a large pond just before it passes under a quaint stone bridge and meets the Potomac River.\u00a0 One of the things we like about where we live\u00a0is that it feels riverfront-cozy.\u00a0 I was a proud and happy grandpa that morning, pushing my grandson in his stroller around our nice neighborhood.\u00a0 I was diappointed no one else was out walking just then.\u00a0 I had hoped to pass fellow residents who I imagined would certainly be thinking as they passed me, “What’s he doing with a baby?\u00a0 He seems maybe a little old to be the father, but certainly way too young to be\u00a0the grandfather.”\u00a0 But no one else was out.\u00a0 Really, I didn’t care.\u00a0 It was more than enough to spend time with Rider.<\/p>\n

At the end of our walk, back at the apartment,\u00a0we walked\u00a0by the Lorelei,\u00a0the one of my three\u00a0gardens\u00a0located\u00a0in our front yard.\u00a0 Juxtaposing my dear grandson with one of my lifelong loves, a garden, made for a lovely picture.\u00a0 I snapped a few of Rider by\u00a0okra plants towering above him.\u00a0\u00a0The scene\u00a0reminded me of a song from my childhood which I adjusted slightly to fit the moment: “I’m a lonely\u00a0little petunia in an okra patch…!”\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

I'm a lonely little petunia in an okra patch<\/p><\/div>\n

Rider’s\u00a0visit\u00a0took me\u00a0back to the many, many times I spent the night with one or the other of my grandmothers.\u00a0 I remember enjoying spending time with whichever one I was visiting at that moment.\u00a0\u00a0We\u00a0ate meals together, read, watched t.v., talked.\u00a0 My memories of those times with\u00a0my grandmothers are precious to me.\u00a0 Rider is\u00a0obviously too young to spend the night on his own with his grandparents.\u00a0 That won’t happen for a few years.\u00a0\u00a0This visit whetted my appettite for when the time comes.\u00a0 I’m looking forward to that day.\u00a0 Maybe then, Rider will be playing the piano and grandma can give him some lessons.\u00a0 Maybe then, Rider can pull weeds and pick tomatoes in the garden with grandpa.\u00a0 Then we’ll go in, wash up, get some lemonade and sit and read a book together.\u00a0 I really can’t wait.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I could hardly wait!\u00a0 My wife and I like to entertain.\u00a0 Hosting energizes us.\u00a0 Guests\u00a0are a common “enemy” we work together to “vanquish.”\u00a0 I’m overstating it but you get the point.\u00a0 Imagine how excited we were preparing for our recent … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[527],"tags":[807,636,810,811,809,808,637],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5159"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5159"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5159\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5184,"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5159\/revisions\/5184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}