Learning to Walk

"Zoe," says Uncle Mark, "you have to walk before you can run".
Last week Zoe didn't like the Chiccomobile. She was afraid when Daddy put her on and tried to take her for a ride.
She didn't want to hold the bar, she didn't trust it to hold her up. But now, she can hold herself up- and she knows it.
All this time we've known there was a little Mario Andretti waiting to get her own legs underneath her. Now she's almost there, and we'll really be in trouble.
It's seems like this new freedom is coming at an exciting time of year. When everything starts to wake up, and grow exponentially. The temp was 82 degrees today as we rolled down the 880 to go to the plant store. Everyone celebrates great weather in their own way. My preference is almost always to be at the beach, but it isn't always convenient anymore, so I plant flowers instead. During the summer, Stern Grove is a favorite way to spend a beautiful Sunday, or a street fair, or El Rio. But it's too early in the year for those things yet. We were invited to go dancing the afternoon away at Jelly's. How carefree to be sipping mojitos on the patio, the bay breeze tickling my ankles. Live salsa horns serenading me from inside. I can almost hear palm trees rustling overhead.
Frivolous. Lighthearded summer days.
Summer days in March. Ted was sweating as I drove him to Bart, the first leg of his trip back to Ottawa where it is ONLY minus 14 or so. Celsius. "Yeah, 40 below is really awful because you have to bundle up in full gear just to plug the car in". 40 below is when he wears ski goggles for the walk to work downtown in the morning because the wind is just too much to bear on his only exposed flesh- his eyeballs. We agree that 14 below is almost lovely at that point. We also agree not to mention to Marcia that it's 82 degrees fahrenheit on Oakland today. Then I opened the sunroof.