Grandpa Tom's Visit, Part 1

We have tried to keep my dad busy. He flew into Hartford last Thursday and my brother Jeff picked him up. Dad spent the weekend with Jeff, Shannon, and Socha at their place. Sunday evening, I drove over (about 2 hours west of us) to pick Dad up and bring him back here for the week.

On Monday, the kids had no school (Veteran's Day) so while Jeremy worked the rest of us took Grandpa to see some parts of the Freedom Trail that we hadn't seen before. We all rode the train in from our house. The kids have been on the subway a number of times but have been itching to ride the train all the way in. For this particular trip, it was perfect - walk over to the train station, enjoy the ride, and get dropped directly at North Station, which is about as close to our destination (the U.S.S. Constitution in Charlestown) as we could get.

Who doesn't like a train ride?

We had a gorgeous day - bright and sunny. It was a bit cold, but we kept moving. We left the house at 9:30 and returned at 8:30 that night! Can you see the 3 masts of the U.S.S. Constitution behind us?

This large anchor tells us we are getting close!

All of us aboard the ship.

The U.S.S. Constitution museum is actually a pretty nice children's museum - the kids played there for over an hour when I had to drag them away to the next place. Here, the girls help Grandpa learn to roll the sails. 

Grandpa, I am a monkey!

Next, we walked over to the Bunker Hill Memorial. It should have been about 5-10 minutes away, but our crew of 6 was not moving very quickly. Or perhaps more accurately, the our root-mean-square path was not so quick, though there were all kinds of individual, quickly moving particles in many directions.

As the Park Ranger explained, the battle of Bunker Hill is memorialized not because it was a great victory - the colonial militiamen ran out of ammunition and were routed. However, it is considered to be a significant turning point in the history of our emerging nation, because it gave the rest of the colonies the resolve to toss in their hats with the folks up here in Massachusetts.

We climbed the steps in the tower for the beautiful view over Boston as sunset (4:30 pm!) approached. There are 294 steps in all, so I brought back proof that we made it all the way. 

Actually, even Helen climbed most of the tower. I didn't have to start carrying her on the way up until step 225, and she also walked down for the first 100 steps or so. 

Look at me go!

Beautiful sunset back at the bottom as we looked at the statue.

Tuesday was slower - the kids all went to school, and I did chores at home then took Dad to see the Louisa May Alcott house in Concord. He loved it, and I enjoyed it, too. I had just taken the kids on that tour last week, with the same tour guide, but I learned lots of interesting new things this time so I was glad to go back.

Fun fall photos

I have been busy with lots of plain old life lately. Not too much time to think about writing, but I have tried to snap a few photos. The captions will have to serve as the bulk of the story this time. As always, you can click on any individual photo to see it larger.

John and Meg tried out lacrosse this fall. They had about 2 months of "skills and drills" through the local Parks and Rec department. They both loved it, and I loved that it was only a 4-minute drive from our house. 

Here, you see the reason why John's mouth looks odd in the prior photo - he wears a mouth guard. It was highly recommended by the volunteer/parent coaches. Seemed a bit overkill to me, since neither has had any orthodontics yet to mess up, but I complied. :)

Meg dribbles her ball!

Helen loved going to practices and running about with all the other siblings waiting/watching. She was always the youngest one there (excepting non-mobile infants), but she didn't seem to care.

Last week, I took Helen to her day care center on her non-day-care day and stayed with her for an hour during their "special activities" time. The kids had "Movement with Tom" and Helen's teachers thought she would enjoy doing it. They were right. She also enjoyed directing Mommy to put in pigtails, "just like this and here!"

Paying close attention to instructions, the kids scoot!

And they clap in rhythm - serious work!

The scarf dancing was clearly the biggest hit, though.

I am running for all I am worth.

And finally, our ode to Halloween. See the blue plastic bucket on the shelf? Not for long, you won't.

Helen's Parent/Teacher Conferences

I met with one of Helen's daycare teachers today for a "parent/teacher conference." It seemed a bit extreme to me for daycare, but I went with it. And, it was kind of nice to hear someone else tell me how wonderful my child is. Of course I already know it, but an outside opinion, with fresh eyes, is good for building up my prideful heart.

Anyone who knows Helen will not be much surprised by the feedback: independent, quietly assertive, very athletic (and strong), agreeable and friendly with every one, imaginative, self-confident. Unlike the elementary school teachers, her daycare teacher sent me with written documentation so I have posted it here to brag a bit. Since mostly only Helen's relatives read this blog, that seems within the bounds of acceptable.

Also, this seems like the right place to showcase some recent photos of Helen, aged 2 years and 9 months. (I have been taking an online photography class so I got lots of fun photos of the kids last weekend while doing my homework!)

You see her independent streak here? She chose her own outfit to play outside and would NOT be swayed. (Yes, that is a pull-up and mittens.)

Staying on my toes today

Remember back in elementary school when we had to write those "Fortunately, Unfortunately" books? They are a useful device for helping kids learn to sort out sequencing and development of a story line. But I have found that the idea sticks with me as an adult because, well, life really does go that way sometimes. Here is my latest adventure in the genre.

Fortunately, I had a chance to volunteer with M's 4th grade class for a Halloween craft.

Unfortunately, I had to miss my Thursday morning exercise class to do it.

Fortunately, I could make it up Friday morning. (What's a few more hours of missed work for the sake of the 9-year-old daughter who adores singled-out parent attention?)

Unfortunately, that left a 20-minute gap between dropping H off at daycare and exercising, which felt wasteful when I was already missing an extra morning of work time.

Fortunately, I had just found one of the things I need to read for work available for Kindle and downloaded that to take with me to read while I waited for class (which is right next to the daycare).

Unfortunately, I didn't think about carrying the Kindle home on my bike after taking it out of H's backpack and leaving the bag with her at daycare.

Fortunately, I found I could ride well enough one-handed to make it one mile home while holding the Kindle in my left hand.

Unfortunately, I ran into a blocked road (downed power line) which forced me to retrace my (steps? wheels?) path and take a detour to home. I wasn't sure how far out of the way that would be or if I wanted to do it all one-handed.

Fortunately, the detour took me right past daycare again, so I darted back in for the backpack.

Unfortunately, the road had just been blocked off and no detour signs were up yet. And I don't know any alternate routes through town and the GPS was of course in my car.

Fortunately, a nice town crew worker gave me understandable directions to wind my way back towards home.

Unfortunately, when I got home, the power was out. (Our house, and everything on that side of the downed line, were out of business.

Fortunately, I found that we still had water! Now quite thirsty from the hour of aerobics and longer bike ride, I got a nice long drink.

Unfortunately, I couldn't warm up my hot tea from breakfast in the microwave.

Fortunately, I could make a nice, hot, fresh pot of tea using the propane-powered stove top.

Unfortunately, I was dripping with sweat and recalled that the hot water heater was electric.

Fortunately, as I gritted my teeth for the fastest, coldest shower ever, I discovered that I was wrong and the delightful hot water was propane-heated.

Unfortunately, I realized that with well water, I shouldn't have any water, and thus might have just used up all the reserves in the pressure tank with my shower.

Fortunately, I could walk across the street to the grocery store and buy bottled water if needed.

Unfortunately, the store was out of power, too.

Fortunately, I was the only one at home for 5 more hours, so I could survive if the water ran out.

Unfortunately, I couldn't work in my home office because the internet was out and the laptop battery died within 45 minutes.

Fortunately, the town library is on the other side of the downed power line, and has outlets and internet.

So, back to work!