Saturday, June 16, 2018

SJ is really into dresses right now. Perusing Amazon, I found some knit A-line dresses with cute patterns — horses, dinosaurs, rainbows, etc. SJ freaked out and said she love ALL of them. So we bought some, and I told her they would arrive in a few days. The first one she wore was her dinosaur dress. Miss Praya love it! She wanted to know where SJ found it. Selah June told her that her mommy bought it on her phone. Later Miss Praya asked Jeremy where we found it. He said “on Amazon” and everybody gave a collective “ahhhh!!!!” Apparently, this had created a bit of a mystery for all the teachers.

So SJ loves her dresses, but she wants to wear all of them to Sunday school. She LOVES Sunday school. This is a bit problematic because we’re not going to East Brent anymore. So I asked SJ if she would be okay trying a few different Sunday schools. I explained that we were thinking about checking out some different churches, but that would mean that she would be in classes with kids and teachers that she didn’t know. She said, “I’m not scared of Sunday schools. I’m only scared of thunderstorms and the kids at school because they try to squeeze my face.”

Good to know….

What she’s talking about it the game that all of the kids play when SJ shows up to school first thing in the morning. When we get to her classroom, she hides behind me, and all of the other kids run toward her for hugs. It’s totally a game because she acts like she’s scared, and all the teachers yell out, “She’s not ready yet. Give her some space. Too soon… It’s too soon.”

She has them all wrapped so tightly around her little finger…

Monday, June 11, 2018

I’m taking Beginning Voice this summer with Abigail and Brandy. My first song assignment was “Goodnight, My Someone,” from The Music Man. I didn’t know it before learning it for the class. And I was exceptionally nervous. For weeks, I practiced and practiced and practiced. Selah June got really tired of it. So I finally explained that I had to practice my song because I had to sing it in my class in front of a bunch of people I didn’t know. She said, “I’ll come to your class, Mommy.”

One night just before my “performance” in class, Jeremy was putting her to bed and I found myself enjoying a rare moment of privacy upstairs. So I decided to practice while I was resting in bed. Jeremy told me the next morning that the noise led to an awesome conversation with SJ.

“Daddy, do you think Mommy is trying to sing me to sleep?” — SJ

“I don’t think she knows we can hear her, baby.” — J

“Daddy, she’s really nervous about her song…” — SJ

Sunday, April 29, 2018

I had the best day I’ve had in a really long time today.

Selah June woke me up asking me to take her outside to play on her park. I drank my new coffee with frothed almond milk. It was delicious. We colored our Elsa figurine and then we ate delicious fruit for breakfast.

We checked out our garden and decided we needed to clean it out. Selah June helped me clean all the leaves and weeds out. Then we went to Lowe’s and bought vegetables and herbs to plant our 2018 spring garden.

She rested well, and I also had a great break. And then we planted our cucumbers, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, and cilantro. It’s the perfect size, and she’s super excited to look after it.

For dinner Jeremy made me filet, and we ate it outside.

It might be the crazy end of the semester, but it is still April in Florida. That’s something to soak in.

We also watched American Idol this evening. It was Disney night. Selah June was into it. At some point I realized she was standing on a bucket propping her chin on her baton, singing “Jesus, Name above all Names…”

How adorable.

April 20, 2018

May 6, 2018

Just lately, I’ve started realizing that Selah June and I are developing a relationship. While I’ve been her parent for nearly 4 years, it’s been a dynamic of caretaking and nurturing. My focus is steering her and meeting her needs. But now it’s turning into something more. We enjoy being outside together. We like tackling projects. We feel better listening to music. We listen to each other and spend time in conversation. We find reassurance in each other. And we plan adventures together. I am fully aware that she gets many of these things from her Mimi, which is why we also have a strong relationship. But there are mannerisms and preferences that she is picking up from me. And I didn’t expect that part. It’s both frightening and awesome. She loves me, and I love her.

Right now, she’s coloring on everything. I’ve waited for this stage. It’s my opportunity to direct her into crafting and creative hobbies. I’m sure Jeremy thinks that I should discourage her from coloring on things like furniture and walls, but they’re sweet little signs of her growing imagination. She loves breaking into my clear bins full of stencils and stamps and markers and stickers. At first, I had trouble keeping her from using all the stickers and all the notecards. Then I realized that I hadn’t opened the box in at least 10 years. Did it really matter if she colored on blank notecards? After all, she needs to “make cards for Helen and Evelyn at school.”

Some of her most precious phrases right now include the following…

“It’s okay,” as an aside while she shrugs her shoulders, only to be followed immediately with “Is it okay, Mommy?”

“Can we bring my Ferris wheel?” – when she really means her pinwheel so that she can watch it blow in the wind with the window rolled down in the car.

Her outfits… She wanted to go on a walk and talk her baby (Marshall from Paw Patrol) in the stroller. So she went into her playroom and found her Blues Brothers black hat and her unicorn boots.

I found out on Thursday afternoon when I went to pick her up that she has a boyfriend now. It’s Justin Blalock. He was the boy who loved her rainbow dress so much that he made up a song about it. They apparently decided this and spent the day together hanging out and sitting outside on the playground. Last night, at Grammy’s house, I told Jules that Selah June had a boyfriend now. And he looked at me so seriously and asked “Does he love candy?” I asked SJ. “Does Justin love candy?” “Yes,” she replied. Jules seemed fine with it. Priorities.