Sequim babies

 

Holding Ivan

  I was eager to see the twin boys Charles and Ivan, who were born in mid-February to Joe and Lisa in Sequim.  So I loaded the car up with the mixed-tape CDs that my brothers-in-law have made me over the years, and took off for the four-hour drive.  It was a beautiful drive beside Hood Canal.  I sang along all the way.

Lisa with one baby

Joe with two babies

  Charles and Ivan are healthy, contented babies, who are held almost constantly.  Lisa keeps one  strapped to her while she works coordinating the farmers' market in Sequim.  Joe is adept at holding both boys at once. Grandmother Kris is there for hours most days. John and Rose take their turns at the 9 to 1 shift while Joe works nights at his nursing job.  Lisa's  brother Peter, who lives in the other half of the house, is on call all night. It takes a village, and those babies have one.
     Big sister Olive loves them from near and far, mostly from her many  perches. Olive likes to be high up. She has a climbing wall on one side of the living room, and a ladder  hanging from the ceiling. Even her playhouse has an upper story. Lisa's mother Charlie is on hand most days to play and do tap-dances with Olive. Many days, Olive plays at Kris' house with her cousin Greta.

Olive

     Meanwhile in the back yard, Chas and Joe are building a large annex, which will be a recreation room with Olive's trapeze-artist equipment

Construcion.  Joe, Peter ,Chas

now and bedrooms later.) John and Peter often lend a hand.
   John and Rose, Chas and Kris and I went to dinner at a restaurant overlooking  a golf course, with a fine view of the Olympic mountains. The  complex is run by the Jamestown S'Clallam tribe. As I walked out past the Northwest Coast art, down the slight slope to the parking lot, Kris and I walked arm-in-arm.  I smiled as realized that John and Chas and Kris and I have been friends for 50 years.  Kris and I were young women together, and here we are holding on to each other for balance.
   
   

Kris