Maya's World

Several months ago, Tim's wife, Joni, asked us if we could have Maya and Owen for the night on Saturday night so they could go to a concert. We were happy to oblige. Yesterday they brought the kids. They thought Owen must have eaten something that didn't agree with him, because had been sick all night, but we all thought that he was probably getting better. And so it seemed…for awhile.

While Owen watched Star Wars on TV, I became the painting teacher to Maya, who needed no instruction. She chose her subject, some sunflowers which grew up underneath the bird feeders, and set about painting today's plain air blip with my watercolors and brushes. Like her father, she has an eye for detail, but I also liked her composition and her use of color and paint. Not bad for a nine year old.

Poor Owen did not fare so well. Although we all thought he was getting better, he suddenly took a turn for the worse, and by this morning he was miserably stoic and I had to call his parents to say that it would probably be best if they came sooner rather than later. At least they enjoyed their concert. Why is it that kids inevitably get sick on the very day of the long planned, carefully orchestrated event? Brings to mind the Christmas Eve visit to the doctor's locum in Edinburgh who came to the door in his robe and slippers and thrust a bottle of something at OilMan, totally ignoring the child with the alleged ear infection standing on his doorstep.

Did I mention that 8 month old Olive, the dog came too. She tried everything to try and get Ozzie to play with her, but he stuck to his 8 year old, grumpy old asocial man guns! After they left, we tool Ozzie to the "Water Bark" event at Spring Lake--the same one we missed yesterday. He's sleeping it off now…