It was a Jobe-Kalib kind of day

I had thought that I might go somewhere Sunday, but I felt extremely lazy and Kalib and Jobe had come to the house with their mom so I decided to stay put and hang out with them.

Here is Margie and Jobe at breakfast - breakfast being eggs, hashbrowns, spam and wheat pancakes.

I guess Jobe must have proven too irresistible to his grandma. Regular viewers will note that something is different, here, than in the past. In the past, in such a situation, Jobe would invariably have been focused upon the grandpa that he adores.

Now he is looking elsewhere. At what?

It was the movie, How to Train Your Dragon. I was in Barrow on February 12 when Jobe turned one, but the family took him to The Bear Tooth that day to see this very film on the big screen while dining on pizza. I am told that he sat transfixed all the way through it - this despite the fact that by then, Kalib had already viewed the movie 2,392 times on the TV and Jobe must have picked up on some of that.

Jobe remains transfixed by the movie, but, still, he does not altogether ignore the presence of his grandpa.

As for Kalib, he has now seen this movie 5,969 times - and he watches it again - intently, because one never knows what might happen, this time.

"Yay for the dragons!" Dragons are really good guys, you know - gentle at heart.

After the movie, Jobe turned his attention to the little vacuum cleaner.

Jobe and the vacuum cleaner.

I kept thinking that this was the day he was going to take his first step, and I kept my camera ready.

He didn't take it. Undoubtedly, he will already be walking the next time I see him and I will have missed that first step. I hope his parents get to see it.

What if it happens when he is at daycare?

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Branson, Metro Cafe's 38 pound hockey player, knows how to score and celebrate; cat and baby at the door

Not long before I headed off on one of my Arctic Slope trips last fall, I promised Carmen that I would take some pictures of Branson, her five-year old son, doing some hockey stuff. Well, you know what happens to time. His regular season ended and now he is attending a hocky camp at the Mernard Sports Center.

He had sessions schedule for Saturday and Sunday afternoons and then one more on Wednesday. I was pretty sure I would not be able to make the Sunday session, couldn't say about Wednesday and so I decided that I had better go Saturday. I arrived with a little more than one-half hour of the session left.

Here he is: Branson, the 38-pound, five-year old, hockey player.

Branson was, in fact, the smallest person on the ice. And he was competing against some older and bigger boys - six and seven year olds who have been playing for years.

But you can see - Branson was skating hard.

Branson and competitor go after puck.

Who will get it?

They are fighting hard, now.

Now they are in front of the goal, Branson on offense, his competitor on defense determined to stop him.

Branson belts the puck past the defender.

The defender knocks Branson to the ice, but it doesn't matter: the puck he slammed is shooting right between the feet of the goalie and into the net.

Branson skates away from his successful goal shot in celebration.

Pretty soon, he does it again... and then again after that. 

He raises his puck in victory, but now he is also searching the bleachers for a familiar face. Could it be Mom? Is she there? Will he find her? Did she notice?

She is there and he does find her and she did notice.

After the scrimmage ends an adult skates by. "Congratulations on your goal," he tells Branson.

Branson, the hockey player.

Branson with his friends, Colin and Caroline. They do not play hockey. They play soccer ("football" to all my relatives and friends in India and the rest of the world).

Carmen is pretty proud. 

After I returned home, I came here into my office and went to work. I had not been working long before I heard a knock on the door.

Puzzled, I got up and opened it. Who do you think I saw standing on the other side?

It was Jim, my good black cat. "C'mon on in, Jim!" I invited. He entered and soon walked across my keyboard as I was typing.

Then I heard another knock. Again I got up and opened the door.

This time it was Jobe, who had just driven his mother and older brother out from Anchorage.

Jobe came in. Jim decided it was time to leave, jumped off my keyboard and walked to the door.

And this from India:

Feral street dog at Ooty tea farm.

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Following The King's Speech, Jobe stands ready to walk

I did, indeed, break away from this desk, grab Margie, drive to town and go to the movie. We didn't even have to pay, because Melanie had given us a gift card to Century 21 in Anchorage for Christmas, so finally we used part of it. We saw, The Kings Speech, which I rather enjoyed.

Afterward, we headed to Jake and Lavina's. I knew that if Jobe had taken his first steps, we would have heard about. As we had heard no such thing, I hoped that he might take his first steps during our short visit.

Even though he cannot yet walk, he came out to greet us before we reached the door. Kalib observed from inside the front room.

Margie had grown almost desperate to see her grandsons again. Soon, she had Jobe on her lap, hugging and cuddling him.

Jobe noticed his grandpa.

Kalib ate jello with a spoon.

Then he stood on his dad's leg and did some cussing.

Actually, he didn't cuss. I just wanted to add a little drama to the scene.

I would have let you think so, but then I would have gotten in trouble with the female members of the family.

The males would all have been proud.

Kalib with his mom. She is cussing at him!

I JOKES! I JOKES!

I think I am in trouble now, anyway - even though I have clarified things.

Jobe spots Melanie coming and cusses at her.

Then Kalib and Melanie spot a neighbor carrying her baby to the car to go a nearby restaurant, where they will dine on raise\in and cucumber soup, with olives.

They do not cuss at her, because it is not polite to cuss at innocent neighbors.

Okay - time to get serious now. Learning to walk is serious stuff.

Next, I lay down on the floor between Jobe and the TV. I hoped Jobe might take his first steps, so that I could photograph the moment.

He stood, did not step, and then plopped down on his butt.

But he got right back up and stood again. Melanie came dashing over, excited to see where this action might lead.

Oh, boy! He is standing good! Will he walk?

He is contemplating it. I know he can do it. He's just got to decide he's going to and then he will.

"Go kid, go! Walk!" Muzzy give him some nose encouragement.

But he doesn't walk. He again plops down on his butt, crawls to his Aunt Melanie, stands up using her leg for support and turns to watch the TV, on which the movie "Up" is playing. Melanie covers his eyes. She thinks he watchs too much TV and does not approve.

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Four pose for couple's fifth anniversary; spatula in the snow; tissues on the floor; Jobe stands

It is well past midnight and I must get up very early in the morning and I tend not to sleep all that well, anyway and worse yet when I have to get up earlier than normal, so I am going to hustle along, so that I can least spend a little more time lying in bed, tossing and turning.

Jacob and Lavina brought Kalib out this evening so that he could join Jobe and overnight with us. This, because it was their fifth wedding anniversary and they wanted to celebrate alone.

Before Jacob and Lavina left, I thought it would be nice to do a fifth anniverary family portrait.

When it came time to pose, Kalib ran off with his spatula.

Jacob had to chase him down and carry him protesting back.

Jobe observed all the commotion peacefully as he cooperated fully.

Jacob and Lavina Hess on their fifth anniversary, with the two little ones their union has produced. I think this picture captures each of them rather nicely.

Kalib dropped his spatula.

Kalib retrieved its spatula and used it to turn snow.

Kalib set out to sweep the snow away from the wreckage of the Running Dog. Oh, the good times that plane and I used to have! It will never fly again, unless by rare chance I score a best seller, get rich and can afford to spend three times as much to put it back together as it would cost me to get another.

I am about to try to get another, but all I can spend is $50.

I will explain in subsequent post.

Some of you Alaskans will have already figured it out.

But please don't tell.

Lavina kissed both of her babies goodbye, in turn.

Although their personalities are very different, in some ways, Jobe is following in his big brother's footsteps.

As you can see, he is not completely over his eye infection. He has a few cold symptoms as well.

That didn't stop him from standing up, all on his own. He stood there for about 30 seconds, fell on his butt, got up, stood again, fell again, stood again...

I kind of was hoping he would take his first step and start walking, so that I could photograph it, but then I did not want his parents to miss that moment.

Maybe he will walk tomorrow. Unfortunately, if he does, I will be in Anchorage. I will then just have to photograph him walking later - but there is nothing like those first steps.

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One Kivgiq and three Jobes

I can just see it in the face of young Georgia Fischer, of Barrow's Nuvugmiut Dancers: "hey Bill, where are all those Kivgiq pictures?"

One more day... one more day... I will never be able to find the time to put up the massive, multi-faceted, 149-part spread that I had pictured in my head, but I will put up a broad sampling.

I think I will do it all in slideshows, with hardly any words, because I can get many more pictures up in the same time period if I limit it to slideshows.

BTW: congratulations to the Point Hope boys basketball team, who last night won the Alaska 2A state championship for the third year in a row when they defeated Klawock.

I wish that I could have been there, but I couldn't. 

The Barrow teams enter their playoffs today. I can't go to town today, either, but I will get there before the tournament ends.

Yesterday was also Charlie's birthday. I'm sorry that I missed that as well.

Yesterday at day care, Jobe came down with a bad eye infection and had to be sent home. So now he is here, as he cannot return to daycare until he is all better and he needs a place to stay and be cared for while his parents go to work.

He is not quite as chipper as normal, but his overall mood remains positive - especially when he sees his grandpa.

Margie, Jobe and some kid on TV.

From the arms of his grandma, Jobe observes the return of his Uncle Caleb.

And this must do it for now.

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