The Good, the Bad, and the Baby

 Some of you are already aware that my Dad was stuck in the hospital over Christmas after suffering a heart attack. He'd actually gone in for a severe sinus infection, something I also had at the same time, but they found the more serious problem there. Later he also tested positive for the flu, so we'll see how well Emily's and my flu shots hold up.

Today (Thursday) Dad had angioplasty, and they put two stints in. Blood had found a way to flow around a second blocked artery, so they left that alone. A third artery was also partially blocked, but there were complications with the procedure, and the doctors decided not to proceed due to his age and health problems. At 86, sometimes the best thing to do is not to do the thing.

By the time you read this hopefully he'll be home, where my sister Traci should get extra credit for taking care of him.

By good luck Uncle Ishmael was up visiting from Alabama, and stopped in to see him. That's Ishmael in the middle, and of course me on the right. The other guy would have to be Dad, or else we really confused some other patient.

Meanwhile, on Monday night, at another hospital in Fort Wayne, my youngest daughter Jill gave birth to her third child and first son, Zander Repine.

I think he looks kind of grouchy--he had a rough day.

He was a little jaundiced so they kept him an extra day, but he and Mom are home now. Including the step-kids, I now have eight grandchildren! I think. That's awfully high to count.

So this is how our December calendar goes: Zander's sister Willa has her birthday toward the beginning of the month. Then Emily's birthday is on the 21st, Zander's is on the 23rd, pretty much everyone knows what happens on the 25th, and Jill's is on the 27th. I believe I'm missing something.

Close enough to a Christmas baby!

 

Then comes the 31st, and we start the whole darned thing over again.

Personally, I think we should have spread things out a bit more, but a lot of this stuff tends to schedule itself.

Oddly enough I'm exhausted, despite having very little direct involvement in everything.

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Lilliana--granddaughter Birthday Pics

 Who's a proud grandpa? I'm a proud grandpa!

We were down with the flu all week, so I'm just now getting a chance to post some photos from Lilli's 5th birthday party. Also, I didn't take all that many photos--I was busy eating pizza. But it was great, because all four of my grand-kids were there in the same place, and I don't get to see that very often. Also, cupcakes and ice cream.

Birthday girl!

When you're five, people your own age start getting interesting.

Also attending, of course, Lilli's sister Willa, along with Willa's Dad James.

So far they get along!

Grandpa's mission: Get Willa to smile. Mission accomplished.

Lilli has been, thanks to her mom Jill, getting into The Wizard of Oz. So Emily's and my gift to her was a volume of L. Frank Baum's first six Oz books, including the original illustrations--I read the books to her Mom, now it's Mom's turn.

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A Hairy Situation Added Color to Our Lives

My youngest daughter wanted to color her hair. Brown. Remember brown, it becomes important later. My oldest daughter volunteered to do the coloring. She’s good at that kind of thing. (At least she was then--this all happened years ago.) I couldn’t identify where that feeling of impending doom came from, so I kept my mouth shut.

Big mistake.  

We picked up a box of coloring from a big honkin’ market, which I’ll call BHM (for Big Honkin’ Market). It had a beautiful woman on the front. (The coloring box, not the BHM.) Things were looking up.

That's Charis on the left and Jill on the right, at about the same time. No, I'm not pulling them apart--they really did get along, usually.

It didn’t start out badly. Nothing was thrown, no pinching, I didn’t have to guard the knife drawer. Charis did her job to perfection, her timing impeccable, and soon she freed her sister’s hair from the confines of plastic and foil –

And the room lit up, as if a natural gas explosion had engulfed the kitchen. Believe me, I know what those look like.

 

I know a little about propane explosions, too.

Remember, they were using brown coloring. The problem was, Jillian’s hair was now orange. Bright orange. Florescent orange. State highway worker vest orange. People from two blocks away called 911 to say my house was on fire. People two miles away reported UFO sightings. On the other side of the country, the psychic who inspired the TV show “Medium” woke up screaming.

Charis sucked in her breath so hard her face actually disappeared into the back of her head.

Jill headed for the bathroom to look in the mirror, then stumbled out again, temporarily blinded. She saw spots in front of her eyes for two days.

After several minutes of wailing and gnashing of teeth, we took stock of the situation and did the only logical thing: called their mother, who used to be a professional hairstylist. She lived twelve miles away, but already knew – she’d seen the reflection of my daughter’s hair in low hanging clouds. She informed us that we needed to bring a stripper home.

A stripper? All right! Things were really looking up.

But she meant a product that strips color out of hair, which made a heck of a lot more sense. We would strip the orange out, possibly with the use of a nuclear accelerator, then put a different color in.

So back we went to BHM, for more coloring. There Charis discovered a box of the same stuff we’d used had been opened on the shelf. She looked into the box, and discovered contents that were not the same as what we got before. In other words, the reason the brown coloring hadn’t worked is that we didn’t have brown coloring. Just the box the brown coloring was supposed to be in.

Someone had been opening boxes and trading the contents back and forth, no doubt thinking it was quite funny to imagine, say, someone dying their hair red and ending up with blonde. Ha. Ha.

We spoke to the people at the service desk. They were shocked – shocked, I say -- to discover someone had done such a thing, and promised quick retaliation in the form of automatic weapons and surface to air missiles, and a refund.

Having picked a new box with the seal firmly in place, Charis applied the stripper and the new, really brown this time, hair coloring. Soon, in geological terms, she finished her work, and presented me with her sister’s new look.

Jillian makes a fine redhead. Problem is, her hair was supposed to be – say it together – brown.

If you really want them to get along: Put 'em on a boat.

 

Apparently only so much can be done to repair hair that once glowed with the same intensity as a red giant star. Still, I thought things worked out okay, even if the one hour job stretched out over a weekend. In the end her hair looked okay, and eventually she turned up with a different color. Besides, no one died.

Several days later I went to my regular stylist for a haircut, and related this story to her. She explained that BHM had been fighting this problem for some time. So much for the people at the service desk being shocked, huh?

Somewhere, some poor soul who wanted orange hair was very upset. And brown.

 

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New Granddaughter Alert

 Introducing:  Willa Quinn Repine!

A little over two weeks old in the video and first photo and four months in the other pictures, Willa joins big sis Lilli as my second granddaughter. That means the ratio of grandsons to granddaughters is now even.

I tested her grip; she's got a strong one.

Grandpa is boring.

"So ... what does the little human DO? Other than put out strange smells?"

Everybody smile for Emily! Lilli dotes on her new little sis.

Everyone's doing well. I mean, I've had a few twinges here and there, but everybody else is.

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Family Christmas photos

 I don't get to see all three and a half of my grandchildren all together that often, because of schedules, and pandemics, and the like. But we were able to have a small gathering the morning of Christmas Eve (After that it was my weekend to work). Shockingly, we (mostly Emily and Charis) took pictures. I didn't get a picture of the third and a half grandkid, because she's still baking, and should come out of the oven in the spring.

These are the kids: Charis on the left, Jill on the right with her second daughter in hiding, and the big kid in the middle, otherwise known as Father Sithmas.

These are the grandkids, although the fact that I positioned us wrong for the picture is glaringly obvious. (Get it? Glaring?) Hunter on the left, his twin Brayden on the right (they are SO twins!) Between me and the Christmas tree is Lilli.

Getting Lilli and Beowulf together and unmoving long enough to take a photo is like capturing a fart in a skillet, although--who would want to do that? He was pretty much glued to her most of the morning, though.

I realize now we didn't get a picture of Vince--I'll have to shoot for that at our next family gathering. But Charis took this photo, so here's Emily with me and Beowulf--and Lilli photo bombing. Clearly Charis is the better photographer.

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Happy Birthday ... and happy expectancy!

Happy birthday to my youngest daughter, Jill! I tortured her a couple of years ago with some of these photos, so why not again?

She was kinda boring on day one, but she got better.

 

She's getting a late but welcome present, which won't arrive until next year: a new daughter, otherwise known as a sister for little Lilli! Very expensive present.

 

Her sister Charis tried to teach her basketball, but her jump shot was terrible.

 

Four years ago a similar present came a bit early for Christmas or her birthday, but what he heck.

 

Say it with me: Awwwww!!!

Well, I may be a grandfather times four soon, but I'll always be Dad. Many happy returns!

 

Two daughters! Yay!

 

Other photos were okay, but they seemed to lilac something.

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Happy birthday to my daughter Jill

Happy birthday, Jill Mapes!

That's my number two daughter on the right, me on the left, and in the middle is her early Christmas present from two years ago. They get their cuteness from ... I don't know ... upbringing?

Lilli doesn't look all that happy at the moment, but only because she had to take time out from all her new toys and books to get her picture taken.

Happy birthday to my favorite Christmastime daughter!

Happy birthday to my youngest daughter, Jill!

She was kinda boring on day one, but she got better.

She used to go by Jillian, but apparently she's all grown up now, or somethin'.

Her sister Charis tried to teach her basketball, but her jump shot was terrible.

Last year she got an early Christmas present that was pretty much the greatest, not to mention the most expensive.

Wait, that's the practice baby from high school! Good training.

Maybe that's why this year the most practical present would be a plus sized case of one-year diapers. But that's okay, because she gets that first present all over again whenever Lillianna smiles.

Say it with me:  Awwwww!!!!!

Which she doesn't do for me nearly awesome enough; we need to work on that.

"Dad, Mom, stop posing and let me eat cake!"

Well, I may be a grandfather times three now, but I'll always be dad. Many happy returns!

Two daughters! Yay!

Other photos were okay, but they seemed to lilac something.

Presenting Mr. and Mrs. Doug and Jill Mapes

Okay, so I'm a bad dad for not getting these photos up before. It's a long story, but never mind me: On August 18th my youngest daughter, Jill Hunter, became Jill Mapes. That's right, she entered the witness protection program.

No, no -- she got married!

That's Jill on the left, and Doug on the right. You probably already guessed that.

They have a lot in common. This cute little Lilly, for instance.

Big Sis was there too, naturally.

With big Sis came, of course, little nephews:

Hunter ...

And Brayden

It's been a particularly busy summer since then, but my only real excuse is that other people got better photos than I did. Many happy returns!

Happy 80th, Great-Grandpa Delbert

Delbert, otherwise known as my Dad! We had a surprise 80th birthday party for him earlier this month at one of my favorite places, the Noble County Public Library main facility in Albion. The gifts, at his request: Pepsi and Snickers candy bars. Hey, he's 80, he should get whatever he wants.

That's Dad on the left, Aunt Dorothy, and Uncle Rodney.

It's very important, during a birthday celebration, to have a birthday cake. Them's the rules.

Santa! I know him! Oh, wait ... that's my brother Jeff, in one of those very few occasions I could get a pic without him making a face. His wife Cathy is beside him, and across is Cousin Vickie.

And now for my favorite table! Daughter Charis on the left, then Cathy, Emily, Lillianna, and  daughter Jillian.

Just a small part of the group as they arrive from every state of the Union, or at least three of them.

Kids! SO many kids! This is all that would stand still at one time.