H.A.H.

This post is inspired by the Alumni Association at work, which sponsors events in a series titled, "Calvin Around Town." I like to think of these photos as "Helen Around Home." Well, it works for me. And it is my blog. And it is late at night. :)



Easter morning, Helen with her peeps.Yes, there are way too many baskets there. I tried to keep it small this year - two chocolate eggs, a $3 toy, sunglasses (which they needed anyway), and a packet of seeds for each of them to plant in our garden this spring. Then, Saturday night, the neighbors (an older couple) dropped by with baskets for each of them. "Well, we were making them for our grandkids, anyway..." That candy will last a bit longer. And the toys were overflowing. Happy, spoiled children. And that was before Grandma Di came over with baskets of her own for the kids. Ahh, decadence. :) 



All the kids get sent to bed at the same time, for simplicity. But James is not always quite ready to sleep. He has developed on his own a favorite ritual. He used to ask me to "tuck him in and tell him the plans." Now, instead, he asks me to "bring Helen in to say good-night." He likes this one-on-one time that he gets after John and Maggie are asleep.

Helen seems to enjoy this visit, as well. She gets to stretch out on her own and kick, yet have a servant at her beck and call to talk to her and rub her tummy. And I get 10 minutes to myself to clean up dinner dishes, or use the bathroom. Such decadence for me, too!

Chillin' with Dad. As usual, she pretends the parent holding her doesn't exist. But she will have a ready smile for a complete stranger who walks up and smiles at her. Go figure. I guess we will just have to tell ourselves that she is very  secure in our love.  By the way, this picture is just a bit blurry because repeated attempts to use the flash were all a disaster. Jeremy must have the best/fastest/strongest eye reflexes in the world. But the stoned look does not suit him.

Long Live the Queen!

The older kids have taken to calling the baby "Queen Helen." There certainly is something regal in her demeanor. She can throw a royal tantrum, but then stop crying on a dime if she gets what she wants. Often, this is not food, but entertainment. She will fuss, then scream bloody murder, if she gets bored. James or Maggie might then pick her up and carry her around the house, just to look at things. She sits contentedly on their arm, surveying her kingdom. She wears a perfect expression of benevolent ennui. But, the contentment only lasts until her palanquin bearer stops moving. Then she gets bored again, and the royal rage continues, but with a scolding tone.

On the whole, she really is quite mild-tempered. She just doesn't suffer fools. Or lack of entertainment.

Even a queen must recognize the potential for mortal peril. 

 

 

Is it the adoration of a loyal subject, or a crushing attack by Our enemies? Her majesty knows she must never show fear, though sometimes the eyes may give away just a hint of it.

Whew! Disaster averted. It is just another loyal subject, coming to kiss Our signet. You may rise, peasant.

Ahh, they love our royal person so. They just can't bear to part from Us.

Pinewood Derby

James decided to build his Derby car for the "style" prize rather than to win the race. Is he really the son of two engineers? He thought the starting block for building the car was an obvious platform to display his affection for legos.

Nice day for ducks...and 3-year-old boys.

Our neighbor's yard, to the north, is now missing the yard.

We have had some wet weather around here this week. The seasonal lake that is otherwise known as our backyard is the largest we have ever seen it - spreading all the way up to our deck. If you are familiar with our backyard, well, this isn't it. The photo above is actually our neighbor's yard, which has never been wet before. This year, they have only lake and no yard. Perhaps a bonus outcome of all the digging they did last summer to fix their wet basement.

Oddly, we haven't yet seen the ducks that like to swim in our yard for the lake season, but John managed to enjoy it enough for all of them. Thank goodness Jeremy had the foresight to buy the kids winter boots that are all rubber so they double for rain boots. (I recommend clicking on these photos for a full-screen view. John's expressions are key to the vicarious experience,.)

This one is our backyard. 

John enjoyed the backyard, but found the front sidewalk very enticing, for some reason. Perhaps it was because he saw his big sister splashing in the puddles there the day before, on her way into the house, and he, being the neglected and abused one, was prevented from joining her. You can see the look on his face in the first photo below - he can't quite believe his good fortune that he is going to be allowed to do this. (Note that being allowed or not wouldn't actually affect whether he did it, but he does prefer to not get in trouble if he has a choice.)

Really? Can I go in here and not get a time out?

Once into the puddle, he quickly gained confidence in his position. Then, admonishments to avoid splashing his mother, her camera, or his baby sister in the front pack carrier clearly fell on stone deaf ears.

While I was glad that John could enjoy the water, I really prefer to spend my rainy days inside. Helen was glad to help me take a nap. This was how Jeremy found me within 15 minutes of his arrival home from work. Nothing, not even a rainy day, is quite like breastfeeding for inducing a really good nap.

Grandma makes the very best

Grandma Di delivered a few articles of clothing to each of the kids this weekend. She shops the Goodwill in her town, finds true treasures, washes them, and delivers them to our house ready to go. I am delighted that the kids don't seem to mind second-hand since this is definitely a preferred way to keep them covered.But beyond "not minding," I wasn't sure how they felt about the clothes, really, until today.

Maggie walked out of her bedroom pulling on a shirt and wearing a huge, satisfied grin. "What are you so happy about today?" I asked her.

"This shirt still has the smell of clean laundry from Grandma Di's house! Ahh!"

So apparently, it isn't just Grandma's cooking that wins, hands down. Now, I have lost the laundry contest, too. These are contests I am happy to lose. I am glad the kids and their grandma appreciate each other so much.

Playing pass the baby

I wanted to show baby Helen with some of her "peeps." The Jewett clan visited on 2/25/11, when Helen was 3 weeks old.





Helen with Helen



Helen with Great-Uncle Jim. "Hey, wow, she's not crying!"



Helen with Great-Aunt Nancy





Helen with Great-Aunt Sue





Uncle Jeff

Okay, I am a bit behind in my blog posts. These pictures are from the beginning of March, when Helen was just 4 weeks old.We got word from Jeff that he would be blowing through the USA for job interviews. When he determined that he would get a few hours of leisure in South Bend, IN, we (Jeremy, Dad, kids and I) drove down to visit. The kids were very excited to see Uncle Jeff, as you can see from the "pile on" photos. The fact that we were in the Notre Dame bookstore didn't deter any of them at all.

Not sure, but maybe with the stress of a new baby I haven't been adequately supervising John's daily sock changing routines.

Here we all are, except Jeremy who was the photographer. Helen is 4 weeks old.

Helen did not seem highly engaged with this process. But she put up with a very long walk around U. N. D. in a snowstorm.