I want to just bottle everything Selah June says right now to keep it forever. Take the word “forever,” for example. Right now, she says “forebber.” Paw Patrol is “Haw T’ Troll” or “Haw B’ Troll.” I need to listen to her say it a little more closely. I told Jeremy that I thought she might have a cavity, and she overheard me. She said, “Do I have a cabitty???” And she said it like she was freaked out!

Yes! You eat too much junk food! You little monkey!

Her “th” sounds are also a little garbled at the moment. Sometimes “bath” is “baff.” I love it. I don’t dare correct her because I want to savor in her highly verbal three-year-old cuteness as long as it lasts.

Somewhere she heard “tally-ho,” and now that’s one of her pet expressions.

The other day, I was using the toilet, and I yelled out to Jeremy that I was really hungry. And she yelled back with attitude “You better eat girrrrl!” Made us both crack up.

Today, Jeremy told her that if she was good in the grocery store and listened on the way home, she could watch a video. In response, she said: “Hey Daddy, I already am good!”

Tuesday, January 16, 2018

Getting in the car is darn near impossible these days. She gets distracted by EVERY LITTLE THING. Here she found one of the PJ Masks from her birthday party. I get so impatient with her waiting to leave the house until she buckles herself in. But then I look back and see this little face.

UGGGGGGGGG

Here’s another heartbreaker.

It’s so hard to catch her standing still that I seized the opportunity when she was totally lost in some show.

She’s growing up too fast.

January 13-15, 2018 (MLK Day Weekend)

It was sooooo cold this weekend! The temperature dropped down into the 30s. Selah June really wanted to play on her playground, but it was so ridiculously cold. It’s impossible to get her to stand still. So most of our pictures end up looking a bit like this. We’ll call them “action shots.” She really liked running from me as I would peek at her with my camera.

Grammy and Grandpa came over a couple of times for dinner. Mom finally felt better after being really really sick. And Selah June told them she didn’t have a hat. So Grandpa of course asked Grammy and Mommy to pick up a hat and some mittens while we were out.

This is what happened.

January 14, 2018

Today was a real doozy of a day. Jeremy went to church because we had nursery duty. He told Mary that it would be our last Sunday, that we were going to be visiting other churches. And while he took care of the scary 3 year olds (including the youth pastor’s devil child), Mary ratted him out to the pastor. By the time the service was over, Wade and Mason were waiting to intercept Jeremy in the front entrance of the nursery. They went on and on about how important we are to the church and that they had missed us lately. Jeremy shrugged it off, said we had been busy, and then suggested that he needed to get home to his family. He said it was awkward, and I imagine that it was. I’m really proud of him for being the messenger. And I hate that they trapped him the way they did. Mom suggested that it was a positive sign that they actually took the time to reach out to him. I just think it was too little too late.

I know that we won’t be missed at all. I know that they won’t use our departure as an opportunity to think about the way they’ve been treating people. But I also know that we weren’t going to be able to move forward there. You have to be able to trust your pastor, and that ship sailed a while ago for me.

Selah June and I, back at the ranch, played outside on her park – even though it was freezing outside. We made a mango and avocado salad that was pretty yummy. And we cleaned the toy room. Daddy asked me to find out if Miss Rachael could come visit so that we could go see a movie, and SJ was super excited about that. We went to see “The Post,” and it was really really good. I snuck in my own snacks, and I’ve been downing the remainder of my sodas. Tomorrow we start Whole 30. I’m excited Mom and Sara are doing it with me as well. The only thing I think I’ll really miss is soda. The rest of it isn’t too far afield from how I already eat.

Tonight I made one of the worst mistakes of my whole career. I responded to an email from the dean and accidentally copied someone on it. And in the email I spoke disparagingly about the person. What an idiot I am. How could I possibly be so stupid you ask? I couldn’t spell her name right, so I used the address bar to see if gmail would recognize it by the first few letters and give me her complete name in response. And then I forgot to delete her email from the message. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. The dean’s not mad, but I am more than mad enough for the both of us.

The last few months have not been my favorite at work. I’m really thinking that I need to just hang it up for a while. The dean is still treating me very weird after all this Graduate School nightmarish mess. I’ve lost my confidence over the whole thing. I miss Jay terribly. The dean’s never around, so I get to hear all the office gaggle singlehandedly. And I’m just always distracted, stretched, and a little too absent. Maybe it will get better when she’s in actual school. I don’t know. If I’m given the flexibility of getting her to school and picking her up when it suits me, I’m always going to take her in a little later than I should and pick her up a little earlier too. And the only way I can stay sane is to exercise, so that cuts into the workday. And Jeremy feels like I spend too much time working at home as it is. So……???? What’s going to give? I feel like something has to give at some point.

I’m realizing this post is not really about Selah June.

Wednesday, January 3, 2018

The Southern Political Science Association meeting in New Orleans came early this year. I had to get us all out the door Wednesday morning so that I could get on the road and be to NOLA in time for lunch. But how do you wake a sleeping angel? Every morning now I wake up next to this little one. We have our milk and tea together while watching an episode of Paw Patrol or some Boss Baby. And then I shower and get ready while she finds new treasures in my drawers and jewelry boxes. She also likes to “help” me brush my teeth. (And the fact that it is electric doesn’t help matters any.)

She asked me where I was going. The luggage gave it away. It’s hard to explain to a 3 year-old that you work at her school where you also teach kids, but that you also have to leave home for work. It kind of helped with the processing that Paul came to visit from Oklahoma because we had a chance to talk about people living in different cities. She learned that we live in Pensacola. And she had to make sure that each of her family members (the non-Oklahoma members) lived in Pensacola too. So now, not only are we aware of everyone’s first and last names, we also are aware that they live in Pensacola.

I guess phone numbers will come next…

Friday, December 29, 2017

Paul came to visit us after Christmas, and Selah June was really excited to meet him and really spend time with him. While she did make the trip to Oklahoma, she was only 7 months old at the time. So this was an awesome opportunity for her to forge a relationship. We settled on “Grandaddy.” Poor Paul had no input.

He drove all the way to Florida to see us, and it took him all day on Thursday to make the trip. Friday, Jeremy got off work a little early and took us to Fish House. Mom and Dad met us there, and we had delicious food. Selah June chowed down on some bread and mashed potatoes.

Afterward, we drove out to the beach just in time for sunset. The water was so stinkin’ cold, but that didn’t stop SJ from running to and from the edge of the water. By the time we left, she was soaked up to her knees with sand-crusted leggings and no change of clothes. Somebody got to ride home in nothing but underwear (and it wasn’t Jeremy).