The WGG and Me

I feel like a leaf that's been lifted up by a breeze. Kind of floaty and light, happy and bright...OK, OK, corny...but it's true.
The light of my life, the reason I deserted San Francisco for the frozen north, my WGG (World's Greatest Granddaughter), had a sleepover on Tuesday.
We had a blast. I'm still getting used to the fact that you can't sit your grandchild in the passenger seat and look at all the interesting stuff going by together.
Nope, she's strapped in the back, in the dark and I can't tell what she can and can't see. Nor can she see my hand pointing out a star or the moon or beautiful lights or a bird or whatever.
I liked it better before when the boys were beside me.
This is safer. And the law. I know. And it didn't keep us from laughing and singing and yakking all the way to the mountains where I live.
A year ago when we did the trip with her folks, she giggled the whole way. She was a year and a half.
Now she's two and a half.
OMG, it has been quite a year. I remember leaving her one day and the next time I saw her she was speaking in complete sentences. Overnight, practically. She grows a foot (OK, another exaggeration, but not much!)every time I see her, is always in new clothes and cleans up very nicely, thank you.
She has gorgeous curly chestnut hair, a ton of it, has had it at birth like her daddy.
And is determined like her daddy. She must have things The Way They Should Be. As in putting on her boots. They must be firmly on her feet, with pant legs pulled down neatly over the tops, before she will leave. Her daddy tells me it's easier to give her the time to Get It Right than to hurry her...and I believe him, having been his mother.
Every visit I am reminded that she is still firmly in the What's New stage. That when I do or say something she hears or sees for the first time, I am setting a precedent. I know because I hear her parroting my words or actions back--and it's scary! I could have done that better, I tell myself, but I find I can't watch myself all the time. Oh dear.
She loves the park, the kitties, the books, throwing rocks into the river and exploring GrammaT's (that's me!) place and town. I love watching her.
We were up way late reading, ending with Don't Wake Up the Bear, The Paper Bag Princess and 10 Tiny Tickles.
It was swell.
We slept in the same bed.
It was swell.
I woke her up with 10 tiny tickles. She laughed.
It was Swell.
I'm still flying on the high.