Friday, July 04, 2014

Independence Day 2014


Our son Jeff's neighborhood has the BEST 4th of July block party breakfast and bike parade each year. Tables and chairs are set up in the small cul-de-sac one house down from his house. 
The neighbors line up starting at 8 am and they keep coming until around ten.
Wearing Red, White and Blue to the party is an unspoken rule.  
*Some* folks are not 100% with the program due to alligence to a certain train named Thomas. 
A British train no less.
Ahem.
We will discuss this with him much later.
I doubt he will give an inch on the subject though.

In the past years good hearted neighbor men manned grills and flipped flap jacks for the crowd.  This year the party went upscale.  A mobile food company named Saturday Waffles was hired to cook the grub.
Calling a menu like this "grub" is a bit of a stretch..
Check out the half lemon/raspberry half Banana Fosters waffle in the front and the S'mores waffle in the back!  We went with the Eggs Benedict waffle that was to die for. 
The young attendees were dressed so cute.
All out patriotic face!
After breakfast there was a bike parade.
Decorated bikes and scooters lined the streets.
Loved that sweet summer dress..,
Loved the bike decorations.
Bubble machines filled the air with bubbles and buckets filled with bubble soap were at the ready for child powered bubble making efforts. Two year old Luke "got" that the bubble wand needed to be pressed against the lips to work. The blowing part was not quite grasped as of yet. 
Kids lined up to throw balls and dump siblings and friends into a dunk tank. There was a line up to be a ball tosser and another line to be a dunkee!
A face painting and temporary tattoo station was set up right next to a bounce house.
Mr. Red White Blue & Orange bounce away.
Calvin, The Newest Patriot On The Block snoozed through all the fun. Being just nine days old napping was enough celebration for him.

God willing, next year Luke will be riding in the bike parade and Calvin will be toddling about in a flag colored outfit. 
14th Generation Americans they both be.
And me...I will probably be wearing a hat and taking pictures as I enjoy the blessing of the day.  

Tuesday, July 01, 2014

Calvin is here!

A scheduled delivery by induction, we had been counting the days until "Calvin" for a month.
Finally the long awaited day arrived.
June 25, 2014.
It was an early summer warm Wednesday day.
I believe June 25 will be a special  summer day in our family from here on out.

 Our little second grandson arrived tipping the scale at just an ounce under seven pounds.
He also arrived with a full head of dark dark hair!
Calvin Bruce...the middle name is the first name of his maternal grandfather who also sports a head of dark hair.

 We had dropped by the hospital around 4 pm to pick up Luke's gear as he was to spend the night with us after we picked him up from day care..
Jeff and Rachel had already been at the hospital all day.
Rachel was at about an 8 when we arrived. Calvin was sunny side up and there were various positioning  being tried to encourage him to flip over before it was time for his delivery.
As we drove off to pick up Luke, Bernie and I made casual bets as to when Calvin would arrive.
I thought it would be around 10 pm- ish.
Bernie thought 11 pm- ish.
We picked up Luke about 5 pm and headed home for dinner.
Bernie and Luke were downstairs watching the movie Frozen when my phone had an instant message pop up with the news that Calvin had arrived.
It included a sweet picture of our newest family member.
I raced downstairs to tell Bernie.
He kept saying "Oh my gosh...oh my gosh!"
It was just about 6:30 pm.
We had missed being there for the birth by about  90 minutes.  

 The next instant message to arrive was a request:
Could we bring Mexican food to the hospital?
Rachel and Jeff had been hanging out there since 8 in the morning and were ready for some really good food.
Alas...one of us would have to stay home with Luke as it was now his bed time.
 This time we could not be meeting our new grand baby together like we had with Luke.
I told Bernie to make the run and to be sure to get a picture of his first meeting with Cal.
Pictured two photos above: Bernie with his about two hour old grandson Calvin.

 The next day  we all trooped back to hospital. 
Luke and I got our chance to meet wee Calvin.  
Cal was still less than one day old so I was happy to be able meet him in his first day of life.

 He. felt. so. tiny.
Maybe it was because I had just spent the morning wrangling Calvin's big brother?
Or maybe because Cal was almost a pound and half smaller than his brother was at birth.

 I held him as gently as possible even thought I wanted to kiss and hug him like crazy.

 Love his little face that is so uniquely his.
A priceless gift from God.

 Then it was time for Calvin to meet Luke.
Or Luke to meet Calvin.
Let's just say their first meeting was sweet.

 It helps when meeting new people of any size to have a puppy to hug if one is feeling a little shy.

 As much as I would have wanted to get a photo of Luke holding Cal, that traditional photo op was not advisable in this instance.
That morning it had been discovered that Calvin had broken his collar bone during his birth.
As much as I felt a silent scream rise up inside of me at the news, every one seemed to take this news in stride.
Other than being extra gently with the babe, little else is needed to be done.
The bone will heal all on its own in about two weeks.

 Aside from a slight sound in his breathing there would be no other tip off that anything was a-miss.
He looked absolutely perfect.

 Facial expression change with shifts as tiny as a quarter inch of lip turn up.

 Looking for those slight changes held my attention, and I never tire of watching a new baby even while they sleep.
 Calvin brought Luke a gift....the train "Gordon" who came with his own coal car.

 Examining various train photos held Luke's attention far better than the sight of his slumbering sibling.

 "This having a gift bearing new baby brother racket ain't bad at all!"

 The Family Circle of Four.

 Meeting and reactions were recorded by many cameras.

 All is good with these two!

 My son...the father of two sons.
What an amazing thought.

 Gentle hands, gently touches....

And all this as World Cup soccer was being played in the background.
I have a feeling that it won't be the last special family moment that will be played out with the sounds of some kind of sporting event in the background!