August 29, 2015
Jeremy always gets to experience the joy of Selah June first thing in the morning. He’s out of town for a few days, and so I’ve been getting up with her. (She’s actually sleeping longer than she usually does… I’m thinking we’re on some kind of girls vacation.)
August 28, 2015
Selah June and I spent the late afternoon on an awesome adventure with Grammy. I saw a couple of houses that looked interesting and talked Mom into jumping in the car and going for a ride. SJ did her best to get into the conversation. Noises and laughs, gurgle sounds and tongue clicking, screeches and singing…. She tried every trick in the book. And I have to admit that they worked like a charm. We yelled and laughed up and down nearby streets.
It was like a trip down memory lane. I saw the house that Marty and Ruth Moore lived in. That little section of Fox Run has turned into a fancy little neighborhood of home renovations. We drove through River Gardens and saw houses that all my faculty friends live in. We drove through the other end of Mom’s street and spied on the neighbors.
Two episodes were priceless. First, we went into a neighborhood over by Azalea Trace. I didn’t realize that it was full of patio homes until I got there. So Mom looked at pictures on my phone of the one house that seemed interesting, and I drove by it slowly on the way outta there. But an old sweaty guy saw us lingering. Ugggghhhhhh….. He walked right up to the car, and I rolled down the window. (Stupid, stupid, stupid.) “Can I help y’all folks?” He told us some stuff about how great the neighborhood was and the house that was for sale. Whatever! He had his grimy dripping-with-sweat hands all on my car door. Sweat beads were rolling down my leather interior. Even now, it makes me vomit a little in my mouth. We quickly made our exit, and Mom cracked up because she new how much that had bothered me.
The next stop we made was in what I thought was supposed to be River Gardens. But no! It was some weird Riverina place. The houses looked like crazy psychedelic houses. We rolled the windows down to get a better look at the craziness, and I started running my mouth. “This looks like some architect started trippin’ on LSD and headed from River Gardens into the woods and ended up here with a hammer! Look at all those cars and boats and crap in that driveway! I can’t handle this place!” And then Mom noticed a man sitting in the boat in the driveway full of cars in front of the crazy house that looked like it belonged in the Middle East somewhere.
Needless to say, that’s two neighborhoods I won’t be visiting anytime soon.
Then we got a call from Dad asking us to dinner at Tijuana Flats. I can’t remember the last time I went there! They didn’t even recognize me… sad times. We sat outside. It was probably too hot to sit outside, but I don’t ever have the chance to eat food like a normal person or be outside, so it seemed like a good idea until it wasn’t. Little Miss did good until about 6:40, and then she just got tired. We made our exit, but I only had 9 miles of gas left in my tank. I rolled down the windows and played peek-a-boo with her while I stood at the pump. And then I realized that my back seat is a really good reflection of my life in 2015.
August 25, 2015
This morning, I spent some quality time with Selah Juney. We had breakfast together and packed my lunch. We talked to the puppy. We made lots of funny noises, silly faces, and crazy moves.
SJ and Grammy had a wonderful day today. It started with lots of little pink piano playing.
Then they spent the afternoon enjoying Satie’s excitement as she experienced her first ballet lesson!
How precious is that?
August 24, 2015
Daddy is really really good at making sure that the family eats well after we all get home from our busy days. Sophie keeps an eye on him as he goes in and out of the house to watch the grill. And SJ keeps an eye on both of them.
You can see that their relationship is evolving… a work constantly in progress.
August 23, 2015
The theme for this post is “catching up on all the photo shoots I’ve done in the last few weeks but not had enough time to edit and post.”
I keep trying to do photo shoots outdoors against the beautiful backdrop of lush summer grass… but Selah June HATES the feel of grass. She’s so incredibly distracted by it that she won’t even look at the camera.
So we moved to the rocking chair, and it was a little better.
As you can see, I got a few shots in before she decided enough was enough. The last pic is her “I’m about to really not be happy” face. This face is pretty cute, but the one that follows is not so much…
This second set is just closeups for me to commit to memory.
Her eyes every once in a while strike me as so blue that I get lost in them.
This is her ticklish spot. You get up on her neck right under her chin and she lets loose little baby giggles.
She has trouble pacing herself when it comes to particular foods she likes. Right now, I think her favorite is mandarin oranges. She’s also a big fan of watermelon — or “gagamelon” as Grammy calls it.
That face is a mixture of yummy and mischievous all rolled into one.
I love baby toes. Lately, I’ve just been holding onto her feet and rubbing them to try to commit to memory all the feeling and snuggles of her tiny little baby toes.
Lastly, here’s a set of pics from our time together at her highchair. This is some of the best quality time because she’s strapped in and concentrated on eating and visiting. She loves cheerios and chicken and bread and all kinds of fruit and green beans and broccoli and baby crackers and biscuits. We’re pretty much done with purees. She’s all about the real stuff. 
August 22, 2015
Over the weekend, we decided to take a family adventure to the annual home show down at the Civic Center. We’ve been talking through options for maximizing the space in our house. It would be great to have a play space for Missy Miss as well as an office for me and a guest room. We thought that the home show might give us some ideas.
I don’t know that it was helpful for that purpose, but it was nice getting out and about.
Selah June was okay riding around, and she enjoyed being carried by Grandpa. But she was NOT okay with Grandpa carrying on conversations that were not centered completely on her. She would crane her body around so that she could shoot him a big smile and lock eyes with him…. “Hey, Grandpa. Look at me! I’m over here, Grandpa!”
She’s a mess… and it’s only getting messier.
August 21, 2015
This little baby spent the afternoon at Grammy’s house. Apparently, there was a lot of napping that took place. For the little bit of time that they spent playing, Grammy introduced Selah June to Pandora. It started with Beethoven. Every piece of music that Pandora selected was piano… and SJ loved it!
Grammy soon realized that she had a perfectly pink little piano just the right size for Miss Selah June tucked away in her magical toy room.
I didn’t witness it firsthand, unfortunately. The pictures Grammy took, however, suggest someone was having a heck of a lot of fun.
Jeremy loves this picture. He thinks it is one of the best photos we’ve been able to capture of her to date. If I had to remember just one face, this wouldn’t be a bad one to capture.
I should also mention that there were some video moments at Grammy’s that involved the pink piano. As you can see, SJ is really pulling herself up on stuff and most likely very close to trying to walk. Stay tuned!!!
August 15, 2015
The weekends are so nice. I get so rundown over the course of the week, but then Saturday rolls around. We spent the day out and about. Selah June went to a birthday party for Lydia Ingram. Unfortunately, she didn’t get a good nap in before the party, and we weren’t able to stay very long. But while we were there, she loved crawling as fast as she could to keep pace with the bigger kids. They thought she looked like a little doll, and they were good sports as she took their toys and promptly put them in her mouth.
Of course, there was a poopy diaper. SJ says, “It’s your party, and I’ll poop if I want to!”
We realized after about the third poop of the day that she’s probably eating too many mandarin oranges for her own good. While they are incredibly delicious and the perfect baby fruit, too many servings can do a number on your number 2.
We ended the day at Cracker Barrel with Grammy and Grandpa. All the people and noise and big plates of food kept SJ entertained throughout dinner. She liked the biscuits, and she especially liked banging spoons on the table until they fell on the floor. We left a whole table’s worth of cutlery in our wake — along with bits of boiled egg, chicken parts, and bits of green bean.
What can I say? She does what she wants.
August 11, 2015
Selah June is really starting to mimic behavior. She’s clapping now. She’s raising her hands up in the air. She sticks her tongue out at you. She gives you kisses. It’s SO MUCH FUN!!!
I think I’m creating a monster. All I want to do all day long is play with her, show her off, and teach her new tricks. It’s made me incredibly sad to be at work this week. If only faculty and staff were all 10 months old… Wouldn’t college be a more interesting and exciting place? Definitely more crap to deal with…. literal crap, that is.
August 9, 2015
We went on a family adventure to Target to buy diapers and other stuff. Selah June likes to sit in the cart and drive by all the people, but she doesn’t like her legs to be forced into those leg holes. Instead, she prefers to turn herself around — either sideways or backwards. The latter is nice because then you can actually see where you’re going. I can’t say that I blame her.
While looking for water toys for her to use in her baby pool, I spotted this big blue ball with poky green things. It was AWESOME! I handed it to her, and she immediately started patting it like crazy. No longer was her focus on leg holes. She had a huge ball to figure out! Problem solved. It only cost $2.99…. this time.
