Thursday, July 21, 2016

Tonight Selah June got her first taste of presidential electioneering.  Here we are watching the last night of the 2016 Republican National Convention.

Without a mutual interest in public life, Jeremy and I would have never met.  He’s at the convention, and I’m watching it from afar.

I’ve been thinking a lot while he’s been away. I’m marveling every single day at Selah June’s beauty, her wit, her smile, her spoken words, her laughter, her singing, her tender heart, her fierce will, her loyalty, her joy, her sensitivity, her care for her family, and her adventurous spirit.  She’s not even two years old, and I know her inside and out.  She feels like an extension of me – one I couldn’t help create, one I don’t deserve to call my own, but one who will always have my whole heart.

I’m really concerned about the tough world in which we live.  It feels divided and terrorized.  And it feels like a terribly difficult environment for women.  The choices are seemingly abundant, but they are weighted down with real social determinism and personal consequences.  I want to be her mother first and foremost but also her teacher and her guide.  I find myself listening to Ivanka Trump at the Republican National Convention talk about equal pay for equal work and affordable childcare, and I can’t believe my ears.  This is the Republican nominee’s priority?  None of the speakers have said anything about this issue at all.  The platform is more socially conservative than it has been in many decades.

Its so surreal, and I’m currently so stretched. She is my miracle, and it’s going to take a miracle to be everything she needs me to be in this crazy world.

Sunday, July 17, 2016

After we dropped Daddy off at the airport to go spend time with the other uber elephants, we went on an “adventure.”  I thought it would be fun to go shop for plants for our garden, to buy some foods for us to enjoy, and to get a baby stroller for little doll baby Selah.  Boy was I wrong!

There is nothing beyond the first two minutes that a toddler finds enjoyable about Wally World.  I should know this.  I hated going to the grocery store growing up.  But somehow in my mind this is different.  This is “fun with Mommy time.”  By it’s not.

We did find plants.  We did find groceries.  We did get our new prized possession baby stroller….also good for carrying our French fries, our play-doh balls, and our magnetic letters.  And really good for thrill rides around the house when adults are willing and able to push us around (and around and around and around).

Though it was ultimately a successful hunt, it was NOT an enjoyable experience.  We screamed and writhed and threw things and hollered.  We cried big ole tears so that every stranger passing by would feel sorry for us.  But the more people stopped, the more frightened Miss Selah June acted.  It was a vicious cycle of warehouse terror….the terrorizing being terrorized.  I have never been so relieved to get out of Walmart, and that’s saying something.

We immediately sought the comfort of Aonic good drinks and French fries.  Of course they were too hot, and that was wildly upsetting.  We came home and things got immensely better when we could tear into our baby stroller.

I choose to remember that adventure through the pictures of this happy girl proudly displaying her stroller while saying cheese for the camera to show her Daddy.

Then we went for pot roast and mashed potatoes over to Aaron and Jessica’s house.  She was really excited to see Satie and ate at the table like a big girl right next to her.  And man she chowed down!! When kids are eating, she eats like a champ!  If only I could get her to concentrate that much at home!

July 15, 2016

Selah Juney decided to have a party from 1:00am to 4:45am in the wee hours of Friday morning.  Her Daddy loves her very much.  He watched hours and hours of Paw Patrol and Mickey Mouse Club while she flitted around the living room.  At some point, he couldn’t handle it anymore and brought her to bed.  She continued on her marathon, and he decided to go to work early so that he could come home early and take a well-deserved nap.  Mommy only got punched in the eye once and then woke up for real to this little angel from heaven above.

I’m going to have to spend some time editing these to send one off to be printed on canvas.  I just can’t stand the cuteness of it all.  Oh how I wish I could wake up every morning for the rest of my life looking at this sweet little angel.  But we all know that that requires a lot of shiners and that 13 is coming.

She had a great day with Satie and Bastian, and I had a usual day at work.  For dinner, Jeremy stopped by Publix and picked up a sandwich.  He never counted on this…

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

This summer I’ve been trying to carve out good quality morning time with Selah Juney before going in to work.  Yesterday we spent some time on our new porch.  I enjoyed a cup of tea, and SJ enjoyed treating the hexagon-shaped end table as her own personal jungle gym.  We listened to the birds.  We talked about Buddy.  We looked for “funder.” And we talked about Paw Patrol.  With the fan on and in the morning, the heat’s not too bad out there.

You can tell the pictures in which she was willing to say “CHEESE”!!!!!

Sunday, July 10, 2016

We made cookies this weekend to take to our immediate neighbors.  Selah Junebug looked as cute as a button with her basket of little bags of chocolate chip cookies and her coordinating turquoise sunglasses (which didn’t last much longer than the driveway).  I was proud of myself for remembering to take a bag of “cookies” for her as well so that she didn’t have a freak out every time we went to give a bag away.  Unfortunately we were greeted by women at every stop, and so she had a freak out regardless.  The only thing that made it better is that we did meet a kitty cat named Buddy.  They became instant friends (much to Jeremy’s chagrin).  It is true though that SJ yelled at her new cat friends when he wouldn’t get out of her way on the steps so that she could get down and move on to the next stop on the tour.

Week of July 5-10, 2016

Our first week in 56 Blithewood has come to an end.  It was a crazy one, full of emptying boxes and searching for diaper bags, full of makeshift dinners and bad hair days.  But we survived it.  Miss Selah June played in both the front and back yards of her new house.  She loves her front porch and the blueberry bush out back.  She loves splashing in her blue plastic pool and kicking her purple ball through the grass.  And she loves going “downstairs,” which actually means upstairs.  We’ve had fun as a family spending time in the big bed downstairs watching Paw Patrol and Mickey Mouse Club.  We’ve taken showers in Mommy and Daddy’s big new bathroom.  The shower has two rain forest shower heads, and Selah June loves to back her way under them. And we’ve sing lullabies together at bedtime.  She’s started singing to herself and with others over the last week or so.  It’s pretty stinkin’ cute. Or as SJ would say “stinkinin cute.”

Daddy bought her a Marshall puppy to go with her Everest and Skye puppies.  And he also bought her a coloring book of nothing but Paw Patrol.  It’s one of her favorite “books” now.  She especially likes to read it because every page is full of Paw Patrol puppies….and Chickaletta – whom she knows by name.

We spent this weekend setting up Selah June’s new toy room.  It is her favorite spot now.  She calls it “Selah’s ter room” – just like Sebastian at his house.  She wants both of us in there with her exploring all of the books on the shelf just at her height and the blocks and puzzles and cars in their bins.

But when she’s had enough she returns to old faithful – Daddy in the recliner with her blanket and some Paw Patrol.

This is how I found them when I hung up the phone yesterday from talking to Grammy.

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July 4, 2016

Jeremy had to work this morning, so Selah June and I spent some quality bonding time.  It started at about 3 in the morning when Jeremy let me know that the baby had kept him up until midnight and was crying again.  I stumbled down the stairs in a dazed stupor and somehow managed to get both of us to the couch.  We slept like a couple of logs and woke up together sometime around 7.

Jeremy snuck a pic sometime before he left for work.

Little did he know I had captured his evening with the little critter when they were unaware.

We think she had an unusual night for a couple of reasons.  It was our first night in the new house.  She seems to be coming down with a cold (or at least some pretty nasty allergies). And she might have had some bad dreams.  There’s always the possibility of new teeth.

This morning we really needed a bath – both of us. I asked her whether she wanted to take a bath or a shower.  She said “shower, yes!”  until she saw the awesome bathtub.  Of course she wanted me to join her in the tub rather than take a shower separately.  And there might have been a small part of me who also wanted to try out the new tub.

So I took the plunge.  It was awesome.  Such great back support.  Such warm water.  And then out of the corner of my eye I saw a big ole floater.  This log of poop-colored poop came floating on by.  And when I leaned forward a few more fanned out from behind me.

I asked the obvious question: “Did you go poo poo?”

And with her lispy little grin, she said “Yes.”

After a good nap, we went to Grammy’s for July 4th celebrations.  Dad asked all the kids why we were gathered together.  They yelled, “Mommy’s birthday!”  And, yes, we were also celebrating Ab’s birthday.  He pushed more.  “But what else?”  Winston piped up. “The birthday of our city!”  Close enough…

So we sang “Happy Birthday” to the United States of America and Abigail.

After a full day of playing and a rough night of sleeping, we were pooped.  Literally.

UJuly 1-3, 2016

It’s been far too long since I last posted, but I do have a pretty good excuse.  We moved on Friday from our old house (which is actually new) to our new house (which is actually old).  The last week has been an absolute nightmare because of working full time, momming full time, and packing full time.  To say “there aren’t enough hours in the day” is to make a molehill out of a mountain.  It has been INSANE.  We had two requests to show the house just days before the moving trucks arrived.  The second request was followed by a “just kidding” – only the cancellation came after I had raced home and worked with Ashley to make it perfect again, woken the baby up, and then got is both in the car and on the way down the road.  Thank goodness for Mom and Dad who made us dinner and calmed me down.

So the move happened on Friday.  It told seven hours to get our worldly possessions down the road about 20 minutes or so.  We spent the next 48 hours making sense of it all.

The absolute best birthday anybody could have given me this year was childcare for Selah June during the move.  Jess watched her for two nights and three days so that she wasn’t under foot.  We were able to focus on each thing until it was done and made substantial progress in a relatively short period of time.  I’ll post pictures soon, but right now I’m going to archive the fun that was had by three little monkeys on Selah Juney’s Big Adventure!

Friday, July 1…

Selah Juney had Mexican with Nana and Papa.  She slept hard that night.  After a 3-hour nap, she was out cold for 11 hours straight.

Saturday, July 2, 2016…

Selah Juney had fruit loops for breakfast and a “tiny” milk.  The message Jessica sent me was:

She slept 11 straight hours – woke up in a great mood. Asked for a tiny ba-ba this morning. “Tiny ba ba for Selah? Tiny?” With the hand motion…

Then apparently she ordered Satie to pray.

That was “Satie pray, Selah eat!”

We also discovered that communal bath time is a blast!!  She likes showers too!

One of the battles that she’s been waging with me is over her seatbelt.  This adventure provided the perfect opportunity for her to fight it out with the seatbelt nazi incarnate.  Jessica Jones is really good at laying the smack down on some children who think it’s fun to unbuckle themselves while riding down the street in the back of the car.

Apparently after a one-time come to Jesus, Selah Juney is obediently leaving her seat buckle alone. This is the text I received during the adventure:

When I put her back in the car and buckle her up, I tap lightly on the chest clip and tell her “this stays buckled.” She puts her hands over her eyes and
says “OK” quietly.

Selah June has met her match.

Sunday, June 19, 2016

Today was Father’s Day.  We spent lots of time enjoying each other.  There was a long nap and lots of silly giggles.

Throughout the day I reinforced that it was “Happy Daddy Day.”  She bounced up and down yelling either “happy daddy!” or “happy day!”  I don’t think we ever got the full “Happy Daddy Day” down, but we did a lot of trying.

After naps, we went to Grammy’s house and played on the steps of the pool.  I feel like I went through a major rite of passage.  I survived my first poop-in-the-pool episode.  There isn’t a manual for this experience, and I felt completely unprepared.  You figure out while you’re in the middle of it with poop juice trickling on the floor just what you’re supposed to do with the kid and the commode.  I hear it’s not the last time I’ll get to experience this fine aspect of parenthood.  Oh goody…

By the end of the evening, we were pretty sleepy.  We snagged every blanket we could find – even Mommy’s great big blanket.

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

We’ve been working on our praying. Or, more accurately, I should say that Selah June has been working on her parents over praying when we eat.  Once we’re all sitting down at the table, she announces, “pray?! pray?!”  Daddy says “fold your hands,” and she forcefully blinks her eyes shut for all of a second-and-a-half and then watches as the two of us demonstrate the art of prayer.  We thank God for our day and all of our family and our food and Miss Ashley.  We thank God for being able to play outside and read books.  And usually we thank God several times over so that we get to shout “amen!” at the end.

pray

We’re also using most rectangular shaped objects as phones these days. Mostly we pretend to call Ga-pah and Gammy, Satie and Bastian, and Mommy and Daddy.

phone

Thursday, June 16, 2016

We’re in week 3 of swimming.  It’s beginning to take its toll.  I’m wearing down, and Miss Selah June seems to be doing a little bit of regressing.  She has all the parts.  She has a beautiful float, which she demonstrated during her very first lessons of the season.  She has amazing breath control.  I attribute that to bath time when we pour water over her head to wash the shampoo out.  And she is starting to show off her kicks as she glides through the water to the steps where Carrie keeps all the toys.  But this week she’s started throwing tantrums in her float.  She doesn’t want to do it, and she refuses to let Carrie win.  The more she flails her arms and thrashes her feet in the water, the more she barrel rolls and Carrie insists on doing it again.  I just stand on the sidelines coming to accept the battles that lie ahead for me in this life with this sweet little child.

The final admonition is that Carrie wants us to practice our airplane arms and quiet toes at home.  No floating in the bathtub.  Only kicking.  But practice airplane arms and quiet toes on the floor.  Here are a few fun shots from dinner and a look of disinterest over our homework.

baby 1

baby 2

practice

Friday, June 17, 2016

Ab joined us for swimming lessons at Miss Carrie’s.  Selah June was all about some good snuggles if it meant she didn’t have to get into the pool.

Ab got an adorable picture of her as she was being dried after her lesson.

She stole my heart and will have it forever