The moose that scared me - Caleb practices his swing as he waits for spring - Kalib stacks cans

I passed through the marsh toward's the end of today's walk and I was not looking at anything, other than the images in my mind. Suddenly, I heard movement to my side. I looked, and saw this moose, looking at me. I am not afraid of moose. I see moose all the time. I give them their space and try not to get between a mom and her calf; I respect them, but I am not afraid of them.

But suddenly I felt fear. I don't know why. I just did. I felt like I needed to move away promptly. I quickly raised my pocket camera, shot this frame and moved on. I knew this shot would be blurry. Normally, I would have stayed, shot a few more images, but today I didn't. I put my camera back in my pocket and just moved on.

I left the marsh and approached the house through the back yard. As I drew near, I saw the silhouette of Caleb through the back door window. He was practicing his golf swing, as he does everyday. He is waiting for the snow to melt, so he can smack a golf ball for real.

He and Tiger Woods.

I found little Kalib stacking cans. He built the stack to three high and it fell over. Yesterday, Lavina took him to the doctor. The doctor asked her if he could stack blocks three high.

"I don't think so," she answered.

Kalib does not usually stack blocks.

He stacks cans.

Soon, he builds the stack back up. Carefully, he places the third can...

...he gets a sense of satisfaction from this...

..."careful... I think I've got it..."

He's got it!

After all that work, Kalib needs a drink. He swigs one - a big one.

Then he knocks the stack down.

Hey! I just went back into the house to eat. As I sat on the couch, eating my mac and cheese and green beans, Chicago napping on my lap, Royce against my shoulder, my camera out of reach - Kalib stacked the cans five high!

That is the kind of toddler that he is!

This post is for you, Lavina, beloved daughter-in-law, wonderful mother of my grandson

Lavina, I hope that you are enjoying Vancouver and learning much that will help you in your work. I especially hope that your presentation goes well. I know you miss Kalib terribly, so this blog entry is for you. Here is Kalib, this morning, at the back door, when I returned from my walk.

This is from yesterday's walk. Your husband just hurled the sled as hard as he could, to see how far Kalib would slide.

I had to jump out of the way.

Then we all went back into the marsh.

Jacob and Kalib headed home from there. I had not walked far enough, so I continued on. "Bye, bye!" I waved to Kalib.

He raised his hand and waved back.

Then I walked through the snow. For just a little while, it really snowed. Then the sun came out.

So here they are, your dog, your son and your mother-in-law, who you call, "Mom," just like you call me "Dad." This gives us a warm and good feeling, Daughter.

Lisa brought Juniper out. Kalib and Juniper had a good time. Grahamn Kracker has posted more pictures from that visit on his No Cats Allowed blog. If you go there, you will not only see more pictures of Kalib, but the moment when Juniper discovered herself in the mirror.

A wider shot, from my return this morning, of Kalib, in Caleb's arms. Very similar to another I did awhile back, except that I made a point of including my reflection in this one.

I suppose that I ruined it, by including myself in it.

I know that you have heard about the latest eruptions of Mt. Redoubt. Today, the flights going north toward Fairbanks and Barrow were canceled, but the flights going and coming from the south mostly flew.

We sure do hope that the planes all fly on the day of your scheduled return.

Kalib, held by Caleb: A brief moment of respite

Notwithstanding the fact that this blog and a huge part of my mind and pysche has been stuck at the Inauguration of President Barack Obama for two weeks, life has continued to move on and all the while I have been taking snapshots of what I see around me.

So I am way behind. I still have more from DC that I want to include in this blog, and there are images that I have photographed since my return that I also desire to post, along with the stories behind them - such as Melanie's birthday and Frankie's goodbye, Muzzy's encounter with a moose - various things that I have seen as I have moved about and sprawled across the couch.

I will probably manage to post some of it here, but much of it will likely just slip away into the back regions of my hard drive space, perhaps never again to be seen by anybody.

And I am tired. Exhausted. Oh, God, am I exhausted! I have spent my entire career exhausting myself, pushing myself through insane 24, 36, 48 and even 50 hour plus workdays, sometimes back to back; almost never getting a good night's sleep, for I am that kind of person. I have not done anything like that, this time, but our life since we departed for Washington, D.C. on January 17 to the present has been such that it has left me exhausted, beyond recovery. it feels like.

But I don't believe it. I will recover, and I will yet do great things with this blog, the kind of things that I had in mind when I created it, but which a lack of time has so far precluded.

If some kind person out there would just send me $1 million dollars so that I could put aside all other concerns, save for this blog, Grahamn Kracker's cat blog and the canon of books that I am working on, then I would get right to it, and I would start sleeping well at night, too.

Hell. I'd settle for $100,000. 

What are you waiting for, generous people? Hop into your online bank account and transfer the money to me, right now. I will put it to good use, I promise. I will not squander more than 50 percent of it!

As to the picture above, I took it yesterday, right after Muzzy's encounter with the moose. Jacob, Muzzy and I had been out walking and we had returned home through the marsh, which is where we met two moose. There used to be three - a mom and two calves. Now there is only a mom and one calf.

Absent minded me! I had not emptied the card for my pocket camera and I was not carrying a spare, and so I filled up the SD card and missed the best part of the Muzzy-moose encounter - the part where the moose was chasing Muzzy and Muzzy was running straight towards me. I furiously pushed the shutter, but nothing happened - no image.

That was when I discovered that I had filled the SD card.

Afterward, we approached the house through the backyard, and I spotted Kalib in Caleb's arms, up against the wonderful reflection of the trees that stood behind me. 

Damnit! No space on the card! Hurriedly, I found an image to delete. But it did not free up enough space! I found another, deleted it. Still, the camera read "Memory card full."  I found a third image, deleted it, and now the camera gave me one frame to shoot.

Not knowing how long Kalib would keep his hands raised, I lifted the camera and shot that frame instantly. Kalib then lowered his hands and did not raise them again.

Jacob and I entered the house. Margie was sitting on the end of the couch, her injured leg propped up on the ottoman and her crutches nearby.

I tracked snow onto the floor and she scolded me for it - but it was a gentle scolding, as are all her scoldings, and I deserved it.

Kalib's first birthday, part 2: The one year-old throws an insane party

On December 26 at 3:19 AM, Alaska Standard Time, Kalib Lokaa' Dine Hess, my first grandson, turned one. About 12 hours later, he was presented with his first birthday cake. Kalib did not know that he was supposed to blow out the candle, which looked to him to be something fascinating, something that he should reach out and touch.

So his mother prepared to blow it out for him.

Of course, the party did not begin with the cake.

It began with the arrival of guests, most of whom were adults - uncles and aunts, and friends of his parents. Two other little people did come, both of whom were slightly older than Kalib.

This is party-girl Bryne, Kalib's senior by three months. Sadly, she and her parents had to go to another dinner elsewhere, so she was unable to stay to the end, but Bryne was a delight while she was here.

And this is party boy Lafe, Kalib's senior by one month. Lafe just might be the strongest baby that I have ever seen and he is a real tough guy. 

He and Kalib have been buddies practically since the day Kalib was born. I think Lafe will be a good person to have as a buddy in future years.

I hope that the two don't raise too much hell together, but that they do raise just enough. For what is the life of boys if they don't raise some hell?

Hell. That's what such a life is.

Hell.

A group picture of the three tots is needed, so Dad Jacob sets about to pose them on the front-room couch. He will face greater challenges in life, I am certain.

The three tots: Kalib, Bryne and Lafe.

Can you remember when you were very small and an adult, especially a pretty woman, smiled at you and spoke in a certain kind of voice and said something that made you feel like you were very unique and special?

That is how Sarah, Bryne's mom, is causing Kalib to feel, right here.

Cake time! Lavina blows on Kalib's behalf, lays the flame down and out it goes.

Sadly, Bryne was gone by now, leaving the cake all to the boys. Left to their natural male tendencies, they made hogs of themselves.

"That's enough sugar for you," Lafe's Mom Markie says just before yanking him prematurely from the cake. "Remember what happened the last time you ate too much sugar?"

With Lafe removed, Kalib has the cake to himself. He will be hyper not only for the remainder of the day, but on and off through the night, as well.

One only gets one first birthday party. Might as well go full hog.

The adults eat their cake (cut from a second slab that no one had wallowed in). Kalib demands more.

Something has upset Lafe. Maybe a ride in Kalib's new sled will make him feel better.

When Kalib saw Lafe riding across the floor in the sled that he had received for Christmas, he came crawling across the floor about three times faster than I had ever saw him crawl before. Until this moment, I did not realize that Kalib had such a strong sense of ownership over that sled.

Kalib opens his presents.

A present lights up; Kalib reaches for the light.

Among Kalib's new presents was a frog puppet. At first he wasn't interested, but Lafe was. Then, when Kalib saw how much Lafe liked the puppet, he became interested.

Eventually, everyone had to say goodbye. Of course, this goodbye is from much earlier, when Bryne and her parents left, but I only wanted to have one goodbye here, so I saved it for now.

My dear Melanie! When she arrived at the house, the driveway was filled with vehicles, so she decided to park at the side of the road. She did not realize that the snow plow operator had drug his blade partially over the culvert, cutting flat the snow that topped it so that the culvert looked like it was the shoulder of road.

Thus, when Melanie pulled over to park, her right wheels sank through the deception and into the culvert.

Jake had to pull her out. Kalib helped hook up the car as Muzzy supervised.

See how pretty the snow is, bunched up on the spruce branches?

A big wind would arise overnight and blow it all away.

Life, right here in Wasilla, Alaska, is like that.

Click on any photo to see a larger copy.

Kalib's first birthday, part 1: flashback one year to his actual birth day

In just 45 minutes, guests should begin to arrive to help us celebrate Kalib's first birthday. I had not yet begun this blog when he was born at 3:19 AM, December 26, 2008, so I am going to flashback one year to that day. This way, when I post the pictures from the party, readers will be able to put them in context.

Shortly after the birth, the scene was calm, peaceful, joyous and serene as Kalib bathed in the love of his mom and dad. Of course, it did not start out that way.

It began in pain, along with a disruption of our Christmas plans. Jacob was working on a roast, which he was marinating and doing various things to enhance the flavor. As usual, we were cooking turkeys out here and pies and all of that kind of thing. The baby was not due for another week.

Then in the afternoon, we got a call that Lavina's water had broke and they were headed to the hospital. Jake had to put his roast aside. 

The emergence was not imminent, so the rest of us ate our dinner and exchanged our gifts. The word was we could confidently wait until after we got a good night's sleep to come in, because the baby was not coming fast.

Still, we could not wait. We climbed into the car and drove to Providence Hospital in Anchorage. We entered the delivery room a bit after midnight and this is what we found.

The stuffed St. Bernard is the original Muzzy, the one Jake gave Lavina years before, when they were in no position to have one of the eating, breathing, slobbering, bounding, loving, pooping kind.

Jake holds Lavina's hand. In this way, he helps her bear the pain that we who sire the babies can never know. Once, Jake caused his mother that same kind of pain. When it reached its worse, she told me that she had changed her mind.

"Take me home," she said. "I changed my mind. I don't want to do this anymore. Take me home right now." She was not joking. She meant it. 

I did not take her home. She got very angry with me. Margie doesn't often get angry, but she did then.

Lavina bore her pain quietly, hugging stuffed Muzzy, holding Jacob's hand as her good friend Natalee massaged her back, moaning and crying out lightly now and then, but never did she scream. Margie and Melanie watched the baby's heart beat on the monitor, as it sped up, slowed down, then sped up again.

Obviously, the baby was having a remarkable experience.

 Natalie Massages Lavina as Jake comforts her from the other side. Shortly after this, a nurse came in and told us that the baby was almost a good ten to hours away from being born and that we should go get some sleep and then come back refreshed for the big moment.

I was leery about leaving, as I did not want to be gone when baby appeared, but I was extremely tired and so was Margie.

At that time, Jacob and Lavina lived in an apartment less than two miles from the hospital. So we drove over there, to bunk with the flesh and blood Muzzy and the calico cat, Martigny.

We had barely exchanged greetings with the cat and dog and settled down to sleep on two different couches when Margie's cell phone rang. The process had speeded up. The baby was about to be born. 

We rushed over and headed for the delivery room. The door was closed. And suddenly a sound penetrated the door - the sound of a baby's first cry. I wept. 

Natalee came out as the nurses cleaned baby and Mom up. She smiles as she listens to the cry of the newborn.

Soon we were in the room with Mom, Dad, and newborn son. Mom and Dad had waited until the moment of birth to learn his sex. For a boy, they had already picked the name, Kalib. In full: Kalib Lokaa'Dine Hess, in honor of his Navajo clan. In both Apache Navajo cultures, the children belong to the clan of their mother, so this worked out just fine.

Have you ever heard a sound more beautiful than the cry of a healthy, newborn baby?

I haven't.

A baby's cry is the most beautiful sound in the world.

Not even Mozart ever created a sound more beautiful than this.

Mom, Dad, Kalib and gramma.

Having missed Christmas dinner, Lavina now eats a corn chip.

Dad kisses Kalib.

Mom kisses Kalib.

Dad and Kalib.

Kalib and Uncle Caleb. Caleb soon proved himself to the very definition of doting uncle.

Newborn Kalib.

Newborn Kalib with new mittens.

Kalib Lokaa' Dine Hess - our first grandson.

Well, Kalib's first birthday party has now been over for about two hours. Yes, I was unable to finish this entry before it began - with no small thanks to the glitches and vagaries of Squarespace - but now I have.

Soon, I will blog Kalib birthday party #1.

Click on any image to see a larger version.