Powerful women

L. flew to Cape Town for a week on Saturday, and so Cleo and I have been holding down the fort here in Baltimore - but with a major assist from Grandma and Grandpa, who arrived shortly after L. departed, and have been all hands on deck ever since. Given the weather - which included the lowest March temperature ever recorded in Baltimore - their help has been invaluable; given Monday's ice and snow, after all, we weren't able to make it out of our little neighborhood. And so their energy, imaginations, and generosity are deeply appreciated - almost as much, Cleo might venture, as the Cinderella jewelry game that Grandma brought with her.

But four days together has also given us the chance for some informal, unstructured conversation, and the other day, in discussing Bruce Springsteen's recent cover of a Lorde song in that singer's native New Zealand, I happened to mention that pop music seems to be blessed at the moment with a crop of strong-voiced female singers. Katy Perry, Adele, Lorde: these girls can belt, and it's a welcome turn, I think, from the over-produced and auto-tuned vocals of the last few years.

Moreover, the strength of their voices does trickle down. Cleo, you might remember, spent some of last year singing 'Girl on Fire,' an anthem by Alicia Keys, another gifted siren. And then, too, there's Idina Menzel, who sang the Oscar-winning 'Let it Go' - which has torn through the small community of princess aficionados at Cleo's nursery school. Sure, Cleo gets a couple of the words wrong, but in rather fascinating ways (when she sings it, Elsa's 'kingdom of isolation' is transformed into a realm of vacillation). And, mistakes or no, she's happy to belt it out.

Elsa may or may not prove to be an enduring feminist icon. And Cinderella? Well, let's just say that she certainly is sweet. But in fact, despite her current fascination with princesses - or even, at times, because of it - Cleo is being exposed to some strong women. Yeah, sure, I'm referring in part to Mulan, the Disney heroine whom we watched defeat an entire army of Huns a few days ago. But I also mean Meiying, Cleo's current ballet instructor and a former dancer for New York City Ballet. I mean Miss Kelly, one of the Bolton Hill Nursery instructors who manages to raise her two children while also keeping the school on an even keel. And then, too, there's her own mother, currently hard at work halfway around the world. If Cleo's paying any attention at all, she's learning that women can do, well, pretty much anything.

She seems to be learning the lesson. Yesterday she casually told us that she has magic powers that can do anything in the world. And today, she and Grandpa sat down and produced an image of spring, part of which you see above. When I first saw it, it struck me as a wishful image: with snow still on the ground in all directions, can we really hope to see flowers at any point soon? But then I recalled, happily, that Cleo has magic powers. And I remembered, too, that Grandma and Grandpa are heading south in the morning - just as temperatures are forecast to rise into the 40s.

So maybe there is something to all of this. Maybe the girl is on fire. Maybe we will see spring. In any event, the days before it arrives will now be full of the pumpkin pie and warm memories that are the delightful residue of a visit from Grandma and Grandpa.