July 12, 2015

One of the nicest things about SJ’s new crawling skills is that she can get herself where she wants to go.  One of the worst things about her new skills is that she can get to anything anywhere.  Today, we found her super interested in a hanger.  Not dangerous at all….  Ugghhh

But her eyes are beautiful in this one, aren’t they?  Or they were until she poked them out.

Our latest discovery is that we don’t like to sit in our music chair anymore, but we love to stand up at it and dance to the music!

Dancing Time!

July 11, 2015

Selah June and I are going to Asheville for the week with Grammy to work on CIAG revisions for the 6th edition.  Mom hasn’t spent much time at all in Asheville, so I’m looking forward to showing her some of my favorite little shops and eateries.  She’s going to think the Lindrum’s house is so cool.  It’s been a long time since we had good girl time.

Jeremy and I decided to really spend a weekend focused on our little bear.  We sat outside and listened to the birds and watched the puppy play in the yard.  We had good snuggles and watched our favorite Elmo music videos.  We went shopping and rode in the big-kid cart.  Miss SJ LOVES shopping – as long as you keep moving.  For that reason, she doesn’t really like shoe shopping…

She’s turned into a little wiggle worm.  I can’t seem to keep her still for anything.  Changing her diaper is almost impossible unless there’s a toy in her hands and she’s in a particularly cooperative mood.  At one point, we were snuggling on the bed, and I grabbed my camera and took a quick selfie.  Cute little mess.

July 9, 2015

Selah June is now on week 7 of ISR swim lessons with Miss Carrie.  Mama is pooped.

Yesterday, Lori at work asked how much ISR costs.  I told her about our experience, that Carrie expects kids to be there about 4 weeks and stops charging for any additional weeks after that.  SJ has taken longer in part because she’s a little shrimp.  She doesn’t have all the chubby baby fat that her baby friends carry with them into the pool.  It’s hard to float when you’re so svelte!

Lori expressed to me that she really wanted her grandson to take lessons.  He’s 2 and very active.  Part of the reason why Lori is so set on it is that she was close friends with the Daigles, a homeschooling family that we all knew growing up.  At a birthday party at the Daigles house, their baby crawled out of the house, across the concrete patio, and fell into the pool.  No one was watching, and the baby drowned.  By the time EMTs arrived, it was too late.  They kept the baby on life support for several months, but eventually he died.  That event traumatized all of the kids who were about my brother’s age.  Miss Carrie’s husband is Sean Glass, who was also friends with Aaron, Abigail, Brock, and Cameron Daigle.  That one event shaped so many families and now the offspring of a whole generation of Pensacola teens.

So today Carrie asked that I bring heavy clothes to her lesson.  I knew that it would be difficult to watch Selah June in a pool, crying, wearing heavy clothes, and searching for someone to save her.  But I wasn’t prepared to experience this lesson against the backdrop of a fresh telling of the drowning of the Daigle baby.

At one point in the lesson, Carrie took off her pink velour jacket and tossed it aside.  It floated for a second, but as the water swallowed it up it began to sink – a tiny, billowy memory sinking to the bottom.  It made me sick.  I felt goosebumps flash up and down my arms.  Though it was really hot outside, I felt a chill.  And I heard Selah June crying because she was afraid, choking on water, gasping for air.

This is why we are doing this.  I am in… as long as it takes to make sure she knows what to do if nobody is watching.

Floating

July 8, 2015

I now understand why the whale tub is a staple of any baby’s room.  While it didn’t get much use when she was solely on breast milk, as soon as we moved to solid foods the story changed.  She had more frequent and stinkier, messier poops.  She had pureed food in her hands, on her face, and ultimately in her hair.  She had dirt on her knees, sweat all over, and just general stickiness.  It’s like she turned into a dirty baby overnight…  every night.

Wait!  What’s back there?

No!  Seriously!  What’s back there??

Whoops!  Yikes!  Whale tub is slippery!

Well, now we have bubbles on our chin.  There are worse things in life.

Here’s a little video of the bath time action.  Personally, I think it’s further evidence that she’s going to be a percussionist.  She can’t help but compare the feel and sounds of drumming against different surfaces… even in the bath tub.

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July 7, 2015

I went in this morning to awaken Miss Sleeping Beauty for her 8:00 appointment with the allergist.  She had already had a bottle and play time with Daddy.  This was just her first morning nap.  But she was knocked out!!! And somehow she had wiggled herself into the corner and slipped a leg out of the side of her crib.

I think it must have been easier to get through that crack than it was to get back out.  I imagine this is the first of many many jams to comes.  I guess I need to prepare myself for the inevitable questions to come over my baby’s random red marks and mysterious bruises.  Between the crawling which will turn to walking and the constant curiosity, we’re bound to have lots of accidents and mishaps.

You can’t cage the tiger!

July 6, 2015

While at work, I received this crazy little piece of joy.  Apparently, Dad came home early.  (He can almost taste retirement.)  Selah June was playing in the toy room, and Grandpa decided to join her.  I’ve noted that she likes to play her drum.  The truth is probably more that she just loves to drum.  Every surface makes for a possible drumming experience.  Last night, she was trying out the water, her whale tub, and the whirlpool tub as drumming surfaces.  Today, she was experimenting with Grammy’s glass-top coffee table.  It makes a really interesting noise — to a 9 month old, at least.

So I watched this little video about 10 times, every time wondering why I was still at work and not playing hooky for the afternoon.  Sometimes, she makes it really hard to earn my keep.

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July 4, 2015

We had a truly wonderful day spending time with family at Grammy and Grandpa’s house.  SJ spent lots of quality time with her daddy in the pool without the pressure of demonstrating her float, the fear of submersion, or the stress of being left to somebody else’s whim.  We love Mrs. Carrie and all, but swim lessons are rough on little munchkins!

Daddy eased her into the water, waiting for her to get comfortable before showing her how to splash.

I love this picture because they are both making the same face, and you can really see what people are talking about when they see resemblances between the two of them.

She was a big fan of the blue ball.  It floats with no airplane arms!

Miss Satie thought it was the best thing ever that Selah Juney was in the pool when she got to Grammy’s house.  I’ve never seen a kid change into a swimsuit so fast!  And there was no fear and trepidation from that child.  She just jumped right in!

I asked her to demonstrate her float for me.

Sebastian was not quite as excited about swimming, but he was pretty happy to see everybody in the pool together.  He changed too and joined Grammy on the steps.  The steps are safe.

But before we knew it, that little one was putting his whole face in the water and telling us what he saw.  That’s huge for Mr. Sebastian.  He DOES NOT LIKE to get his face wet.  Apparently, he turned a corner sometime over the last few weeks and decided to like the water and swimming.

We somehow convinced him that he was tall enough to touch the bottom in the shallow end of Grammy’s pool.  Here he is being a little adventurous.

I realized on the 4th that I need to spend more time wading in outdoor pools, visiting with family and friends, forgetting what time it is, and soaking in a lot of Vitamin D.

Happy July 4th!  Let Freedom Ring!

July 3, 2015

I guess she loves to hold and chew on my phone because she sees us on them?  I don’t know.  It doesn’t make noise (if I can help it).  It doesn’t flash colors.  It isn’t fuzzy.  But she WANTS it.

On Friday, while Dad was playing golf, we were playing in her room.  I decided to take some pictures and flipped the camera in my phone so that she could see herself.  She responded like it was a mirror and started talking to herself.  We always take her into the bathroom and wave at our reflections, saying “Hi, baby!!”

It was really cute, and we made a little video.

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July 1, 2015

I blinked, and Selah June somehow went from rocking back and forth on all fours, military crawling, and struggling to synchronize her arm and leg movements to full on crawling.  And she wants to touch everything she finds and ultimately put it in her mouth.  Flip flops might be her favorite find.  As she moves to put the flip flop in her mouth, I say “Ewww, yucky! Gross!” and take it away, but that just makes her laugh and go for it again.

Mostly we try to play on the floor in her room where there is carpet.  She doesn’t particularly like to crawl on the hard wood or the tile.  Who can blame her?  But that means that her room stays a wreck.  She has to have all the books pulled out, all the boxes tumped over, and puzzle pieces strewn everywhere.  (I see my future, and it’s very messy.)

June 26, 2015 (let’s pretend that this one was on time)

Selah June is a whopping 9 MONTHS OLD already!  I can hardly believe it.  Though she still fits in most all of her 6 mo. clothes, her little personality is developing at a staggering pace.  Every single day she’s doing new things that reveal her sense of humor, her fascinations, her opinions, and her intolerances.

She likes books.  She loves Elmo.  She dances when her drum or music chair plays songs.  She LOVES her puppy (though the feeling isn’t really mutual).  She likes to wave at herself in the mirror.  She is enthralled with other kids.  She likes the water (as long as she’s not in a swimming lesson).  She cherishes her softest blankets and melts into a snuggly, thumb-sucking blob when covered with one.  She won’t be still for diaper changes ever!  She turns into a roly poly, and it’s all I can do to get her little bottom covered.

I couldn’t decide which photo I liked the best, so I figured I’d archive here all the ones I liked.

She’s really into holding puzzle pieces and chewing on them.  Maybe that’s going to help her with spatial relations in the future….?

The reality of the situation….