Meeting William

Our fifth grandchild, (second grandson) was born on April 13, 2018 and named William Daniel. We wait anxiously by the phone the day of his birth. His C-section scheduled for 9:00 am went smoothly, but we did hear from Dan until close to 1:00pm when he had a chance to text and later phone. This is the first photo we got of William being held by his dad shortly after his birth.

And here is our first glimpse at 8 lb 9 oz William Daniel, all by himself, just hours old in the hospital.

Frank and I had originally planned a drive-down visit to SoCal on Father's Day weekend. I declared I could not wait that long, so this week we flew down for a brief visit on Tuesday, April 24 and back on Thursday, April 26th. Sandwiched in between, on Wednesday, April 25th was our son Dan's 35th birthday.

Tuesday: Our flight landed at 4:00pm and we drove directly to Dan and Carrie's home. I tried to pack lightly, with only one change of clothes, planning to wear the same items down and back on the travel days. I was quite proud of myself, especially when we spotted this vehicle on the road on our drive from the Santa Ana airport to Dan and Carrie's home in Lake Forest. This group does not travel light!

I did have one extra suitcase though full of gifts for  the family. I never arrive empty-handed much to the barely contained dismay of my son and daughter-in-law due to their extra space challenged home. We would open the grandkids' gifts later that evening.

After a brief meet and greet of a sleeping William at their home, where I got to hold him for the first time, we scooted off for dinner and socializing at the community event Taco Tuesday convened at one of the Baker Ranch cabana clubs. Carrie asked me if she should take back William while I ate. I was starving but refused to give him up to eat. How often does one get to hold an eleven day old infant? His shirt label quips "tiny but mighty". Everything is relative of course. I would venture to say that a baby who is 8 lb 9oz at birth is not tiny in the newborn scheme of things. He sure is might cute in my mind, though.

I held him and ate simultaneously, picking the occasional bit of stray shredded lettuce off his forehead. He did not stir at all. When he did eventually wake, I reluctantly handed him off to Carrie to nurse.

Two-year old Lillian wanted to go to the pool so Dan took her away to that area of the cabana club to swim with her. Four-year old Vivian wanted to run around in the grassy area with her friends. "Run around" is a mild understatement. She tore around full tilt with a group of boys each one taller than her by at least one head height. She is very social, not at all shy, and she is fast! Dan asked Frank and me to keep her within eyesight and it did indeed take both of use to do just that. This is a little girl who comes home from daycare and changes to one of the princess dresses in her closet, so she is characteristically not a tomboy; but her bursts of energy were sure a surprise to us. I do not know how Dan and Carrie are going to juggle things and keep up now that they are outnumbered: Kids–3, Parents–2.

After we came home from the Taco Tuesday event, we opened the grandkids' gifts. I'd brought William's baby quilt (also shown in my DianeLoves2Quilt blog post for 4/27/18).

I'd also made soft velvet velour stuffed kitties for Vivian and Lillian (also shown in my DianeLoves2Quilt blog post for 4/28/18). They have an awake and an asleep side – just like their little brother William.

After some teeth brushing the girls were off to bed. Carrie also retired with William. We and Dan stayed together a bit longer chatting. It was slightly before 10:00 pm before we checked into our hotel and subsequently we old folk were tired out. I suspect the young parents Dan and Carrie were also.

Wednesday: Dan rose early the next morning to take 4-year old Vivian to day care for her 9:00 am dance class while Frank and I ate breakfast at our hotel. Dan then came by our hotel room with almost 2-year old Lillian before we all left to take her to a park. The child bucket swing was made out of black rubber and so it was hot. We rinsed it off with water to cool it. To dry it we first inverted it and then swung it empty so the breeze would finish the job. Grandpa wore the inverted bucket while it drained of the excess water. Lillian looks like she is hiding her face and saying "I don't know him...."

She was very much on board though, when Grandpa starting pushing her in the swing.

Dan picked Vivian up from pre-school after lunch and before nap time to visit some model homes. I painted Vivian's fingernails and toenails when were were home for a brief time. I also painted Lillian's toenails but only one fingernail. We were afraid two year old fingers would not be able to stay still long enough for the polish to dry. Probably toes wouldn't either, but feet do not tend to get into as many things as hands do. 

Skipping nap time has consequences, however. Vivian conked out on the 25 minute drive to the model homes.

Once there though, the girls had a blast exploring. They liked this big stuffed giraffe in one of the bedrooms.

There is a rumor that bunk beds may be in their future so they were checking these out.  Hmm ... how is the view from the top bunk?

Vivian decides to stretch out and enjoy the bottom bunk, also.

Yes, it was his birthday, but Dan says he likes to grill and so he cooked a delicious tri-tip meal, with vegetables and crescent roll sides.

Frank and Dan rushed off after dinner to take Vivian to her evening swim lesson. When they returned we all sang Happy Birthday and Dan opened his gifts. Carrie had gotten him some Travis Mathew™ shirts he likes and his favorite jeans. We'd also brought him a few items to open: a non-fiction business type book, a more fun fiction read, and a barbecue grill cleaning tool.  

Later in the evening we had Claim Jumper pie for dessert. Dan loves chocolate silk pie so this was a great choice in lieu of cake and candles.

After the girls were tucked into bed and William and Carrie were retired for the night – well at least for the first part of the night until William got hungry again – I asked Dan if he wanted to play a game to round out his birthday celebrations. I suggested Monopoly since I know that is one of his and his dad's favorites. "But, Mom, you hate Monopoly..." he responded. He is right but I answered, "For your birthday, I will play." So starting at about 9:00 pm we three played Monopoly, played more Monopoly, and played even more Monopoly. I went bankrupt and got eliminated about three hours into the game. (Game longevity and usually losing contribute somewhat to my personal distaste for the game.) Alas, this turn of the game, my having to give my properties back to the bank, breathed new life into the seemingly perpetual battle. 

Dan and his dad see-sawed back and forth in a monetary power struggle that came precariously close to a definitive winner many, many times. First road repair assessments on the multiple houses and hotels would deplete someone's cash reserves. Then the high rent on one of the properties would almost but not quite wipe out the opponent's money piles. Luxury tax reared its ugly head on those who were cash rich at the time. Dan and Frank were each pleased the times they landed in jail and could avoid landing on the high rent districts. By 1:30 am or 2:00 am –  I cannot recall the  exact time because I was sprawled out on the couch listening to the cheers and groans – Frank finally emerged the victor. Dan was a good sport about it. He enjoyed the game even if he did lose. It was no longer his birthday by that time anyway. I for one loved seeing the fun (prolonged) interaction between father and son.

Thursday: We had stayed up way too late on Wednesday night so Thursday would have to be some scaled back ventures before we flew back home that evening. Dan told us he was up by 5:30 am and I suspect Carrie's sleep was interrupted several times. Carrie went to a doctor's appointment and took William with her. Frank and I watched the movie Jumanji while Dan took a short nap and joined us halfway through. Frank and I had missed it while it was in the movie theaters, having been warned that all the good parts had been revealed in the trailers. That turned out not to be true, and so we enjoyed it immensely.

I rode with Dan to pick the girls up from daycare and we stopped to bring home dinner from Luna Grill, a restaurant billed as "fresh Mediterranean" and "the ultimate kabobery".

 

I stayed in the car with Vivian and Lillian while Dan went into the kabobery. He was no further than about twenty feet from the car when Lillian realized he was gone and began crying "Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!" I would have taken her to join her dad but Vivian wanted to stay in the car and I was not going to leave her. I whipped out my cell phone and started the app Baby Bubbles. It is described as

"the first 100% free bubble popping game for babies and toddlers that also has NO ADS and NO INTERFACE". As bubbles rise on the screen, the viewer pokes them to pop them before they float off the top. A lullaby and a baby giggling are background sounds. Lillian loved it and it engaged her totally. She shared it by taking turns with her sister so it worked out great while Dad was unavailable.

Dan got an assortment of chicken and beef shish kabobs and they were excellent. I learned shish means skewer and kabob means a dish of pieces of meat, fish, or vegetables roasted or grilled.

After dinner we opened a box of presents my sister Maxine had sent. She'd knitted a sweater for William but made it in an 18 month size so he could wear it for a longer period of time. We tried it on Lillian for her to model it and she would not take it off.

We paused for a posed photo on the couch before we went out to get in our rental car and drive off to the airport. Note that the booties that coordinate with the sweater fit Lillian well, also. Frank, Lillian, Vivian, and I are all smiling at the same time!

Lillian is hugging her daddy's legs as we loaded up the car. Vivian, after retreating to the threshold of the garage murmured quietly, "That was a very short visit." Oh... a mini-stab to my heart...

It was indeed short, but we promised to return in June, stay a bit longer, and pace ourselves better to do more interactive play with Vivian and Lillian. Our flight out that evening was delayed a half hour but we were home before midnight. We did not turn into pumpkins... just exhausted, happy, zombies.

Boston Trip: Tuesday's Jaunt to New Hampshire

Tuesday morning John drove us all to Boston's Logan Airport so Frank and I could pick up our rental car and so Joe and Margaret could catch their flight back home. We were afraid if John drove all the way in to where the shuttle busses go at the satellite rental pickup facility he might not be able to get out again without puncturing his tires on those spikes that they have at the parking lot gates. He dropped us just short of the gate in a very awkward place with little room to turn the van around. We all got out and exchanged goodbye hugs. Since we were holding up traffic, all the cars and shuttle bus drivers were honking for us to hurry up and get out of the way. It was a very rushed and abrupt end to a fantastic visit but I guess you could say we left to fanfare.

We parted amidst a cacophony of blaring horns
courtesy of those beloved Boston drivers. 

We programmed our Magellan GPS, Maggie, to the Center Harbor Inn on the northern shore of Lake Winnepesaukee, NH, just across the way from Keepsake Quilting. We arrived about an hour before the 3:00 checkin time but our room was ready. We had been assigned a corner room on the water front.

This is the Center Harbor Inn as viewed when you enter their parking lot.
See those three tiny white rectangles on the far corner of the building way down near the lakefront?
They are balconies. The room we were assigned was on the second story and had the middle balcony.

This picture was taken from our balcony.  The hotel is not new by any means and not luxurious but it was neat, tidy, friendly, and the location could not have been better. The lake was right there and we were a two minute walk down the road from Keepsake Quilting.

This is the idyllic scene from our balcony at the Center Harbor Inn.

Our friends Dick and Linda pulled into the parking lot within an hour of us settling in. Dick was the student advisor from Frank's dorm during his college days at Saint Joseph's College, a small Jesuit run school in Philadelphia, PA with a great basketball team, the Hawks. When Dick and Linda emerged from their car I cringed as Frank, who'd been watching for them from our balcony, boomed out his standard historic greeting for his college buddy "Balls, Richard! Balls!" so it resounded across the parking lot. We exchanged quick hugs and agreed, since neither of us had eaten lunch, that we should nourish our bodies before depleting our pocketbooks. We ate at a cute spirited diner just down the road.

The food had home cooked appeal with a bit of a modern twist added.

Linda is an avid knitter and quilter. Dick is into model trains, the large scale LGB type. After lunch we went straight to the business at hand. Dick and Frank set out to find a nearby model train store while Linda and I went to the iconic Keepsake Quilting shop and had fun perusing the quilt store together. The guys caught up with us there, realizing we needed a head start so as not to exhaust their capacity to appear interested. I will not bore my WanderOrPonder readers with the details, but I have a shop review and display of the fabrics I bought shown in the August 21, 2013 post at my other blog, DianeLoves2Quilt. The shop also had completed quilts for sale by other quilters. There was quite a range of sizes, styles, colors... and prices!!! 

Linda and me under the logo sign of Keepsake Quilting. 

Linda's first love is knitting and we admired many of the yarns and buttons in the patternworks knit shop, located just next door. Linda scored a discount for sharing her current project. She is knitting a Froggerina. Yep, that is a ballerina frog.  Yep, it is green and pink. What fun! Her granddaughter is really into ballet and she also bought some ballerina fabric for her at Keepsake Quilting. After the knit shop we browsed in an adjacent book store. Reading tastes are another thing that Linda and I apparently have in common.

Linda's knitted Frogerina scored her a discount at the patternworks knit shop.

That evening we luckily happened upon this restaurant in a shopping center within walking distance to the one that housed the quilt, knitting, and bookstores. The food was excellent. Linda and I both chose the chef's specialty roast chicken. We both agreed we had never – yes, I did say NEVER – had chicken so moist and flavorful. If you are up that way I highly recommend Lavinia for the food, furnishings, and ambience in a very moderate price range.

Lavinia's menu not only had the food list but also the background of the historic building and the origin of the restaurant's name. The building had been part of the underground railroad to rescue slaves and assist them in their escape.  Lavinia was a woman who figured prominently in the venture's success. Dick asked me to read this story aloud to our foursome while we waited for our meals to arrive from the kitchen. It was a full page's worth but I read it aloud while they listened to the whole thing.

Lavinia's lighting gives it a real homey glow at night. I took this photo before the rain really poured down as we were leaving. It had just been drizzling before and the light reflecting off the paved surfaces was so pretty.

Apparently Dick, Frank, and Linda were not the only ones who had listened. After we had eaten and paid and were leaving, a couple at a table we passed stopped me, and the woman said how much they had enjoyed my reading. I was somewhat embarrassed. I did not realize my voice had carried that far but they were sincere and complimented my "smooth reading voice". I thanked them and shared that we were on vacation and just happened on this restaurant because it was near Keepsake Quilting. The woman was a quilter, too! In fact she is one of the unsung heroes of the quilting community.

Carol Doak is a name well known among quilters who use a technique called paper piecing and she has published many patterns and books of patterns. The woman I met at Lavinia's, was a tester for those patterns. She makes a pilot project trying out the pattern for accuracy and correctness and picks what selection of colors best set off the pattern. Her work is photographed and appears in those books. Her name is Beth Meek. Very few recognize her name but I can sure appreciate all her talent and input that goes unnoticed. I repeat. Beth is among the unsung heroes of the quilting realm. Her substantive contributions to those books goes largely unrecognized. So if you see a pattern or book by Carol Doak, take a closer look and see if you can find a credit to Beth Meek, one of the women behind the well known paper piecer. I know I plan to. This serendipitous conversation really tickled me on this part of my trip.

This is an example of paper piecing. Fabric pieces are sewn onto a piece of paper
in an order prescribed by the numbers. Later the paper is removed.

It was pouring rain that night when we left the restaurant. Our hotel was close by, but Dick and Linda still had to drive a ways back to theirs. Linda still wanted to see the fabrics I had bought at the Lowell Quilt Festival so they came back to our room for a bit.  I showed her my treasures. You too can see them at my DianeLoves2quilt blog in the post for August 19, 2013.

Next morning, after checking out of our hotel, Frank and I met Dick and Linda for breakfast at the Tilt'n Diner. It had a 50's diner theme, somewhat like that out of the Back to the Future movie. There was jukebox music piped out into the parking lot.  Frank and I did a demo of our Triple Step Swing and Hustle from our Arthur Murray dance lessons out there on the blacktop. We parted for Dick and Linda to return  home and for Frank and me to continue our trip down to Rockport where it would be just the two of us for the last days of our time in the Boston area.

Dick, Linda, and I are sharing a last group hug before Frank and I head off to continue our trip.
The pouring rain from the night before had dissipated. We had lovely blue skies with fluffy white clouds.