Blogger visit

I've got a houseful of teenagers. So in the middle of the night, my home is filled with music and laughter and all kinds of activity, but on a Saturday morning, the house is quiet and empty. The teenagers do emerge eventually, but during daylight hours, they tend to be slothlike, often moving slowly about the kitchen to get food. That's why it was especially wonderful that when my favorite North Country blogger, Rob Helpy-Chalk, came to visit, he brought his family – his warm, beautiful wife and two small children who are exceptionally cute.

I had forgotten how much fun it is to be around small children. When the Little Boy with the Gorgeous Green Eyes warmed up and actually sat in my lap, I just wanted to keep him. He was wearing one of those one-piece outfits that fits over a diaper – how is it that just the other day I was putting outfits like that on Boy in Black? When was the last time I had a son who wore something other than black band t-shirts? Glitter Girl had the cutest way of talking – she was telling us about her trip to the zoo, and the careful way she pronounced the names of animals she had seen, with long pauses and wide eyes before she would say something like, Wing-tailed Lemur -- well, it was adorable.

Rob was just what I expected from his blog – smart and funny and ready to switch to serious topics when asked about his work – except his voice was different. I associate him with the North Country because that is where he lives and works right now, but his voice is not North Country at all. Turns out he is from Virginia originally. That’s one of the most interesting things about a blogger meet-up: changing the image inside your head to match the person sitting in the room.

His wife was warm and friendly and very easy to talk to, even though we had never met before. And she was beautiful. It’s easy to see where the kids get their looks from. (Sorry, Rob, but it’s true.) I tried to impress her by blowing up balloons she had brought for the kids, but was so distracted by conversation that the balloon burst in my face. Little Green-eyed Boy was not at all disturbed by the loud bang of me destroying his toy, but then burst into tears when I attempted to save his life by sweeping a round white cap out of his mouth before he could choke to death. As he glared at me from his mother’s arms, his face flushed and his blond hair sticking up over his gorgeous eyes, he was just so ridiculously cute that it was impossible not to smile.

Glitter Girl had these little tubes of body glitter, and she very carefully rubbed the glitter all over her own arms, and then all over her mother, and then on my arms and face. She even left me some so that I could use it with my belly dancing outfit. When I explained to her that I needed a photo for my blog that did not include her face, she posed cooperatively, careful to hold out the clover flower she was clutching proudly in her hand.