Guest Blogger: Grandpa Dirk!

At nine months  Freja now crawls, points to things, talks with good intonation (but with a vocabulary we don’t yet fully understand –but we’ll learn; give us time), smiles in that charming way of hers that captivates everybody she sees, and continues to be the center of adoring attention everywhere we go. She now has a completely new wardrobe, having outgrown the old since we last saw her in July, and a ton of new, fun toys.
 
Grandma Jeanne and I (Grandpa Dirk) were invited to spend Thanksgiving week in Basalt with Freja, Kelly and Jan. On Thanksgiving Day we went to Rachel and Brian’s beautiful house along with ten other couples and a group of adorable little girls running around the house. Of course Freja wanted to join in and run with them, but she’s not quite up to running on two feet yet, so she watched and listened and registered the activity for later when she learns to walk and run. Then she went down for a little nap while the rest of us ate a delicious Thanksgiving meal complete with the requisite turkey, ham, several great wines, cranberries, and some very interesting, intellectual adult conversation with some fascinating, articulate people while the kids entertained themselves or slept.

On Friday night we went out to Hestia restaurant in Carbondale, and of course Freja was perfectly behaved in a public place and smiled and waved at complete strangers who then felt perfectly free to come over and talk to her and admire the gorgeous child. She graciously smiled, said a few words to them, and melted their hearts. She has a way of doing that; she does it with us all the time. She talks to us, making all her needs known, and then gives us that disarming smile that gets us every time.
 
Freja has opened up a new level of love in our hearts that we couldn’t have imagined before she came into our lives. At this season of the year, when we traditionally express out loud the things that we are thankful for, I have too many things to say, so I’ll limit it to saying that I’m thankful for having Kelly and Freja in my life. There is no greater love.