May 14, 2016

Satie Isabelly had her first ballet recital.  It was at Washington High School.  The parking lot was PACKED OUT!!! by a half hour before the recital start time.  I ended up going rogue and parking on the sidewalk.  Because I saw Satie get ready for her dress rehearsal, I knew that the spectacular costume had some aqua/turquoise tulle.  To make Satie and Selah June’s day, I dressed the little one in an aqua onesie and an aqua tutu.  She thought she was “pretty!!”

Once we got there and got settled, she was very squirmy.  She kept throwing her bottle on the floor, which then proceeded to roll down the sloped floor under the seating in front of us.  Once the program began, she quieted way down.  She loved all of the little numbers — the littlest kids, the big kids, the tap dancers, and the ballet dancers.  It was all wonderful to her.  Between each number, the stage crew would dim the lights for the next performers to get into place.  And like clockwork, SJ would say “What happened?  Lights off?”  It became so predictable it was comical.  There were only 40 or so performances, and after every single one… “What happened?  Lights off?”  And everybody around her would say, “Yes!  Lights off!”

Later that same day, we played outside.  She helped me water the plants and did some sun bathing with the puppy

May 13, 2016

I’ve decided to take days off work this summer at regular intervals to spend quality time with Selah June during the slow time of the year (if you can really call it that).

We coordinated an adventure with Satie and Sebastian to go to the beach.  It’s quite amazing how much crap you have to take out to the beach with an entourage, and that’s probably amplified by the need to have arms free to carry kiddos across hot pavement and through deep sand.

But it was totally worth it.  The older kids wanted to get right in the water.  She was more interested in checking everything out and playing with toys in the sand.  She also wanted to eat all of the ranch in the vegetable tray.  Can you blame her?

We then went home and took baths in time for Satie to make it to her ballet dress rehearsal.  She looked BEAUTIFUL!  (and silly)

May 12, 2016

A little later we had a big foot sighting.

May 12, 2016

I had CASSH Chairs Retreat all day today downtown at the Lee House.  It was a banner day, but it wore me out and took time away from my punkin.  She had a GREAT day with Ashley.  They went on an adventure to Barnes and Noble.  Apparently there are toys there for kids to enjoy while parents look at books. Of course there are also children’s books to peruse as well.

She really liked the train books.  She would point to Thomas and squeal “choo choo!”

When I got home we went to the store to get some food to keep us well fed until Daddy gets back.  Getting out of the car, she heard a baby crying.  She yelled “baby! baby!”  And I said “yes. That baby is crying.  Say ‘don’t cry, baby!'”  She held onto the idea of that baby all the way into the store, through all of our grocery shopping, and all the way home.  She would say “happy?  Sad…. Kiss?  Crying baby.”  There were so many parts to her processing through the emotions of that other child and her desired intervention with that child!  It’s was pretty unbelievable.

I continue to be amazed at her emotional intelligence and her outgoing spirit.  She brings joy to us, and she will be a strong force for emotional nurturing and healing.  I’m excited to watch her become the woman I already see glimpses of in her right now.

May 8, 2016

Selah June and I spent the morning together.  I had work to get done, but I also knew that the rest of the week looked crazy and wouldn’t offer much time for quality giggles.  She’s at a really funny age where she’s purposefully trying to make people laugh.  Everything is a joke.  If you tell her “be careful!” she immediately turns to faking you out.  If you ask for a kiss, she fakes you out.  If you ask her if she wants to see Satie, she says Ashley.  If you say Ashley, she says Satie.  The girl was born to be a clown.

Over the past few days, we’ve discovered we LOVE peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and cheerios.  And Daddy has been playing a game with us called “monkey hat.”  It’s pretty straightforward.  You put your monkey blanket on your head and laugh at your monkey hat.  Little Miss branched out on me this morning and started improvising.  Here we see ba-ba hat.

May 8, 2016

Selah June is running around in a tutu feeling “pretty.”  We laid outside in the grass while I tried to take pictures of her looking so cute.  It was pretty much impossible.  She kept tackling me and falling down on my face.  Eventually I just dropped the phone and surrendered to the magical moment of closeness with a giggling ball of baby joy surrounded in light and tulle.

Then we went inside to have a snack before moving on with our day.

We went to Kim and Tom’s for Mother’s Day lunch.  AMAZING POT ROAST, MASHED POTATOES, AND CARROT CAKE!!!!  The weather was absolutely beautiful, so we all enjoyed spending time outside while the kids played and swam.  Little Miss was totally captivated by the play kitchen.  She pretended to drink all the canned goods and moved things systematically from one spot to another.

playing kitchen

Someone(s) sent me beautiful flowers for Mother’s Day.  They are spectacular.  My whole house is smelling of lilies and smiling in vibrant bloom.

April 30, 2016

Selah June and I spent the morning of my birthday on an adventure to the beach.  Jeremy went to Crestview to participate in delegate selection for the RPOF.  We were free to go and do whatever we wanted, and what I wanted was to spend my birthday at the beach.  Selah June wasn’t of the same mind.  She fussed most of the way out there.  “OUT! OUT! OUT!”  A little voice from the backseat reminded me several times over of what she wanted.  We stopped in a drive-thru so that I could get a drink to take out to the water, and then we cruised through the toll booth paying our $1 to drive onto Pensacola Beach.  SJ was a big fan of the Casino Beach beach ball water tower.  She kept squealing “ball! ball!”

I stopped at Casino Beach because she was so ready to get out of the car.  But she didn’t really want to make the trek out to the water’s edge.  She actually wanted to walk along the little ledge surrounding the amphitheater.  She wanted to run up and down the wheelchair access ramp.  She wanted to wave at people coming to the beach and people leaving the beach.  And she apparently needed to kick my drink over.

So eventually we left Casino Beach and went to the little sound-side beach behind Grand Marlin.  She was much more willing to walk the short distance to the water.  There were lots of kids to watch, and we found a good spot to sit down and have some snacks.       

At several points, she decided it was time to make friends with our neighbors.  The people would change, but the fun of the challenge remained the same.  Step 1: Say “hi!”  Step 2: Invade their space.  Step 3: Try to take their stuff.  The best encounter was when she encroached upon the territory of some ladies and, before they could even get situated, stole their beach chair and rifled through their bags finding an unopened Gatorade.

All in all, it was a good adventure.  I can’t say that it was my dream birthday trip to the beach.  But I can say that it was with Selah June, and that’s all that mattered.