Berrys Family Blog » Christopher

The Rock has Holes, but it Stays Together

Tim Berry — Sun, 31 May 2009 04:54:29 +0000

I guess that all families that stay together, that stick, that have vacations together, also have their bad moments. Like a banana turned brown, sitting uncomfortably in the middle of a large display of fresh fruit. Some people remember the good, and some remember the bad. I choose to remember the good. But the banana stands out.

Sleeping in the shadow of an early alarm, the alarm always present, threatening sleep, keeping me awake. Not sleeping. Breathe deeply. Not sleeping. Then the light, well before dawn. Laura calls, on her way. Packing, parking, checking luggage. The Parsons in order, organized. Christopher and Laura flapping loose.

Nana is a magnet. They grab her hand, wait for her glance, show her their things. Nana takes care of them.
Three boys in the airport. Running. Shouting. Five, almost five, and two. Leo basking in the five-year-old glow. Christopher runs ahead in the Denver airport, wearing a bright green shirt. Laura follows, Timmy runs too, I lose sight of them. They reassemble. We organize our carry-on food for the next plane.
Paul is waiting in the lobby of the new place. Kidani, starts with Kid. Eva hugging. She says "granddad" very well. She hugs me very well. She hugs her Nana.
Monday morning, I hear Paul and his two kids from under the blankets and pillows in the bed in the hallway, trying to keep them quiet, not to wake me. Instead, we walk together, four of us, for coffee in the morning quiet before the heat. Eva says "granddad" beautifully, like she particularly enjoys the r sound. She holds my hand. Paul walks with Boyan beaming on his shoulder. Disney is waking up.
Christopher is sick on Monday morning. Laura and Christopher stay behind.
"Scary" is an issue. Eva, squirming in Paul’s arms, trying to escape the "scary" as we wait for the Small World. The ramp for the line goes slanting downwards with switchbacks. Paul takes Eva out of the line, to her great relief, to freedom from "scary."
"Granddad comes too," Timmy says as he grabs my hand. Noah and Timmy and I go for the pirates while Vange and Sabrina and Leo and Paul and Eva hanging out in the kids areas, avoiding scary. He wants me to come with. I feel like a prize. We go to the pirates, walking fast, Noah and Timmy and I, cutting our way through the heat, like through the jungle with machetes. Timmy holds my hand tightly. Timmy soaks the pirates in, glowing in the dark, pointing to everything. Through the heat again, fast, and we do the haunted house too. Timmy holds tight, likes being scared.
"We saw the real Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, mommy. No masks, no wigs," Timmy said, afterwards. That night we went back on the air conditioned bus through the heat at dusk to the VIP seats in the parade. We sat in the roped-off benches, front row. People asked how we got there. "Our son knows people." Timmy basked in his birthday. Characters stopped by to wish him well. The floats glided by glistening, flashing, brilliantly lit, Disney in all its mechanical magical carefully managed glory.
Christopher was asleep long before we got back to Kidani. We decided we made the right choice.
Tuesday morning, Animal Kingdom. Once again we split up, and Timmy grabs me like a prize, holding my hand, "granddad comes too." Noah and Timmy and I go through the river rapids ride. Timmy gets soaking wet and, despite the thick heat, it bothers him.
Waiting at the fence for the train that goes back and forth from petting zoo, Leo looks up at me: "Granddad, uppy uppy, it’s coming, I have to see." Leo loves trains.
Laura and Christopher woke up early Tuesday and went to the Magic Kingdom the two of them, mother and son, happily. They saw the parade. Laura found perfect seats. Christopher did Buzz Lightyear six times.
Boyan in the swimming pool that afternoon, his worried look disappears over and over again into a beaming smile. Happy baby. Paul with Boyan. Happy daddy. Which reminds me, Paul and Eva, Paul and Boyan, different times, different places, "Daddy" and "Tatti" over and over.
Sabrina and Noah and Timmy and Leo having fun. Sabrina asks me to watch Timmy, off on his own, squirting people with a big squirter cannon. Timmy’s grin has become engraved on his face, permanent.
Leo over and over is swept up with the other two boys, riding their games like a surfer riding a wave. Eva watches, joins, but carefully.
Wednesday morning, divided again, Sabrina and I take Leo on the train. We point out the mechanical memories, carefully assembled. Leo stares out intently, not talking.
Christopher soaks in the small world, pointing everything out, one by one, look at this, look at that. He sings along.
At Captain Hiram’s, the boys hang onto the side railing by the table, hanging out over the water, throwing crayons. They look like dogs at the windows of moving cars. There is a pleasant steady breeze.
Christopher loves the ocean. With Laura holding and helping, he dives under waves and jumps over waves. He can stay in the ocean forever. He holds my hand, jumping the waves.
Friday morning, Eva and I walk to the swimming pool alone, the two of us. She holds my hand. We swim together in the pool. We talk about the slide.
Vange takes walks on the beach, manages lunch, watches the kids for sunblock blanks, being Nana.
In the pool with the slide, I catch Eva, like we rehearsed in the morning. And then I catch Leo, with his brilliant smiling eyes.
Vange finds an ocean rock on the beach, a leatherish brown color, smoothed, with lots of holes, about the size of her hand. "Look," she says, "it’s like a family. It has holes, but it stays together. It is still a rock."
Eva carefully lays out her four small princesses, the prize from Nana, counts them and cares for them one by one. Boyan runs in and grabs one, over and over, shrieking, throwing it when she protests.
On the last day, midday Sun, we walked on the beach. All the way up and back.

Beautiful Fall Day

Tim Berry — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 20:52:11 +0000

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Originally uploaded by tim_berry

Dad and Liz took a river trip out of Portland, then came down to Eugene with me to spend the weekend. This was carving pumpkins on the patio.

Walking to the Bird Center

Tim Berry — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 05:44:01 +0000

Christopher’s Fourth Birthday

Tim Berry — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 03:24:17 +0000

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Originally uploaded by noah.p
This was one of several parties for Christopher, with Leo watching on the right, enthralled. This one took place at Bounce. The pictures were taken by Noah, who uploaded the album at Flickr. These pictures are also on parsons.amiglia.com.

Leo’s First Birthday

Tim Berry — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 16:17:00 +0000

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Originally uploaded by noah.p

Who wants to put a caption to this picture. What is Leo’s expression? Resignation?

Kids’ Weekend in Portland

Tim Berry — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 16:14:00 +0000

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Originally uploaded by noah.p

The Parsons, Laura, and Christopher went to Portland together for the weekend, with a bit of business, and a bit of a nice weekend for the kids. This was taken on the tramway up to the hospital.

Me with four grandchildren

Tim Berry — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 02:11:00 +0000

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Originally uploaded by noah.p

One of my favorite pictures, taken on July 7 2007 in Shevlin Park, in Bend. Paul and Milena were there for the week of July 4. The rest of the family drove over from Eugene.

10 Days in Bend

Tim Berry — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 03:57:00 +0000

	Thanks mainly to Paul and Milena, we were in Bend from June 29 through July 8, 2007, staying mostly at Noah and Sabrina’s house. The Parsons came for both weekends, Vange and Megan came from Tuesday through Sunday, and I was there with them the whole time. It was a really good vacation for me, and I got to know Eva like I hadn’t had a chance to before. We saw some houses for sale, hiked along the Deschutes River.
Click here for the Amiglia album Bend June-July 2007
Click here for the Picasa album Bend June-July 2007

Christopher’s First Soccer

Tim Berry — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 06:16:00 +0000

I went over to Laura’s house today to pick them up and take Christopher to his soccer “practice,” a combination of babysitting and tutoring and friendly happy activity, with Christopher and three three-year-old girls and a very nice “coach” named Amy. He kicked the ball sometimes, and paid attention sometimes, and generally acted like a three-year-old kid.

It was fun. We went to Jerry’s for a hot dog afterwards.

Mom’s Garden

Tim Berry — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 02:51:00 +0000

June 23, 2007

Note to Vange:

I’m very sorry I haven’t been more supportive and appreciative through the years. There’s no denying to anybody that our garden is your achievement, yours alone, and wow, what a beautiful garden it is. I know I don’t do any part of it, but I do really enjoy it, I am so glad it is our house, and I’m grateful to you and proud of you for how beautiful it has become.

I do remember how far it’s come too. When we arrived here in 1992, there was a scruff patch of lawn in the front, the stone wall divider was there, the hedges — hooray — were there and the apple trees that were beautiful for years but eventually caused you so much trouble. Other than that, weeds.

Chad Greenberg’s year with us was a good start. The fence in the back was vital. The extra walkway, the new paving in the back, around the side, the lights in the garden. So many years ago, but that was a big step up.

Little by little, you did it. The gardener who cared about weed much more than weeds, the parade of gardeners who didn’t cut it, getting the dirt, getting the plants. There were all those days trolling the nurseries. The days with Kyle King, and Jane whatever-her-name was, and Marcelino and Juan.

There was also the occasional fight with the neighbor below us. And the moles. Remember the summers that Megan and I spent half a day here and there trying to persuade the moles to leave? The struggles to water in the summer and the disappointments when sprinklers failed in 2003, we came back from vacation and trees had tied. The struggle with the city to protect the back hedge.

Remember also when Megan was in third grade and one of her friends’ parents came to the door, and, presumably just to be nice, and asked Megan how her family kept the lawn so nice. “A man comes who does it,” Megan answered.

Two nights ago I got home around dusk, and it was just plain amazing. What a spectacle. I got my camera and took some of the pictures here. But they were a reminder that, beautiful as the garden is, it is best with the people.

How about those beautiful garden moments, like Sabrina’s wedding and the brunch the next day, or the three Lauras’ birthday in 2000. The summer afternoons we’d spend with the deck and the barbecue. The first summer when the garden was full of yellow jackets. Megan’s birthday party on the deck. Megan and Beba in the garden on a hot summer day. Remember when Paul used to play with the slider with Megan. Remember the “mensa” story? The days Sabrina and Noah and their friends played badminton, and, more recently, Megan’s friends from Stanford when they came? How about when we filled up the wading pool on a particularly hot summer day, filling it first with water and then with baby grandsons.

Nowadays I remember the garden every day, I never take the walk down from the back where I park down the walkway to the house without breathing in the garden. I love it in when it’s warm and rich and full of color, the bright greens and Spring or summer flowers against the dark blue sky, but I also love it when it’s cold and rainy and gray, still a richness and a reminder of home as home.

And there was also the beginning, when the back yard was nothing much more than dirt divided into two levels. The stone wall was there when we got here, and the back hedge and some apple trees that are gone now, but not much else.