With Rachel in the hospital, Opa (me) is looking after granddaughter Maia in the morning.

Maia wakes up around 5:30 a.m. and wants her mommy. But mommy isn’t here, and neither is Oma, since she spent the night in the hospital with mommy. So Opa tries to explain to Maia (who is 20 months old) that mommy has an "owie" and is in the hospital. But Maia does not understand that, so Opa gives her a little bowl with some cookies. That isn’t as much comfort as mommy, but it does provide sufficient comfort that she stops whimpering. But today Maia got to see where her mommy is. We took the children to the hospital where Rachel is recovering from her surgery. Maia was all smiles and laughing while she said "mommy" over and over again once she saw her mom. But that was not enough, so we had to help her up onto mommy’s bed. We have to be careful since Rachel is not allowed to lift anything (as if she could anyway after surgery), and we don’t want Maia getting close to the surgical wound. But lying on mommy’s tummy did the trick for the day. After a few minutes she wanted to walk around the room and see what there was to see.