With seven in the apartment, we positively hum with stories. Precious-quick-funny-surprising stories all going by in a noisy swirly blur. Like the Mediterranean wind in the park picks up feathers, dust, seeds, and spent firecracker wicks and spirals them around in a whirl, life moves fast here. And Grandma wants to remember everything but SHE JUST CAN’T!

So should Grandma try to write down how BlueCat is honest but kind as he creams her in the electronic stick figure game where Grandma can’t even tell which is her character much less control her spinning circular saw weapon? Or how Stargirl slides a note under grandma’s bedroom door with a big arrow pointing to the hallway, to say, please come out and play? Or how Little Curly eats bowl after bowl of big blueberries Grandma gives him and how he says, “hot, hot” at her tea mug?

Or how BlueCat graciously recounts how well Grandma played in the first game of checkers and then gleefully (but kindly!) how he destroyed her in the second because she was still waking up (jet lag.) Or how Stargirl lays on the kitchen floor to keep Grandma company while Grandma washes up after dinner, and they both watch a little nature documentary, about baby turtles getting unfrozen in the Spring, and BlueCat joins them, kneeling beside? Or how in the finca, the little interior apartment park, Little Curly works mightily to sit in and pedal the big go cart abandoned there and then BlueCat pushes him?

Or how BlueCat becomes a baby whisperer as neighbors Alec and Laura and Paola and even big boy Nacho play around him in the finca, the little interior park, and he is so gentle and kind? Or how Stargirl reads the little book Grandma made her, over and over, and quicker and more fluently, until she can read it aloud to Little Curly? Or how Little Curly gets in the game with the cups and ping pong balls and steals and tosses all the balls in a fit of pique, and we can’t help but laugh at his determined grumpy face?

Or how BlueCat loves walking through the big park to the café, having Grandma guess animals that might be in his computer game Zooba, and then telling Grandma, when she guesses correctly, each character’s name, powers both passive and active and their range? And then when BlueCat realizes Stargirl is jealous of Grandma’s attention for so long, helps Stargirl create a new character- a hamster they name Cheeky, (and Grandma forgets Cheeky’s powers because it never makes sense to her anyway to have cute cartoon animals with weapons of destruction.) And how Little Curly keeps up on the little old purple scooter; scooting, scooting, then leaning to the right with little left foot swung out as he glides on a bit farther, through the park.

And how can Grandma try to never forget the feeling when BlueCat will still drape his long self over her lap, or rush her at the knees and say, “I love you so much.” And how Stargirl curls up beside Grandma on the sofa and stills her busy body and mind and falls asleep in Grandma’s lap. And how Little Curly, looking back at Grandma from his momma’s arms, says “Nite, nite, wuv wou” as his sticky little hand waves down the hall.

Or how Grandma reads Knuffle Bunny Free to Stargirl at bedtime and finds that she herself is crying because somehow the little child in the story growing up is the hardest part.