I asked Selah Jean if she wanted to go to the beach with me while daddy had to work on July 5. We were both very excited for the adventure. She told me that it was for America’s party. Yesterday was Americas birthday, but it’s party was today!

The weather was beautiful, and there were tons of people at Casino Beach. It was really nice that Selah June was able to swim and play in the water without me worrying about her safety too much. I pulled my chair right to the water’s edge, and we enjoyed the waves wooshing up and rolling us around on the beach.

We capped off our beach time with a trip to McDonald’s for a happy meal, and Selah Jean was super excited that she got Jesse from Toy Story 4.

Daddy decked out Selah June with July 4 accessories. She had a huge flag hair bow headband. She had flag sunglasses in the shape of hearts. And she had a special necklace with a big blue star that lit up. Outfits don’t get much more Fourth of July than that!

But then Grammy have a special new church dress for Selah June that she found at Dillards. It was beautiful! She had to change into it immediately! And then Satie wore her dress that Grammy got her on the same shopping trip. They were pink and blue together!

We are in a phase where we like to show our tummy to anyone who will pay attention to us… Especially when we’re supposed to be serious and taking nice pictures. Here are the silly pictures that my little bug gave me…

Baby sis also had to have her picture made in front of her front door. She looks like a homeless baby left outside on the doorstep.

Jeremy went to Alabama to pick up fireworks. He brought him three bags full! He was very careful to make sure to get legal ones so that grandpa didn’t feel uncomfortable with him going off in his driveway.

All the kids had their own snap pop bags, and Jeremy got lots of special fireworks like tanks and chickens that farted balloons. He got my favorite fireworks which are the little UFOs that spin up in the air. And he got super long sparklers that were about 5 feet in length.

Selah June has always had very sensitive ears. When she was little, she really didn’t like fireworks because they were way too loud and hurt her ears. We just found out that a lot of the other half siblings also have sensitivity. So of course Selah June was the only one to have headphones for fireworks. Quite the fashion statement! Her daddy takes care of her…

I love these two images from the evening. The first is my lame attempt to capture a firework. It looks like some kind of apocalyptic nuclear holocaust. The second was captured by Jessica at the moment of a firework bomb.

Selah June, Grammy, and I traveled to South Florida with K Yoland and Robin Jones to accompany honor students on a creative, field-work expedition. It was truly an adventure, and I know I will look back on it and be so happy that I took Selah June with me on this experience even at such a young age. She was really good. She loves road trips! I don’t think I’ve ever met a child who is as content to be riding in the backseat of a car for miles and miles and miles.

It was hard to fit naptime into our schedule every day, but she was pretty good to catch a few hours of sleep whenever she was able. The days were long because K wanted to catch the best light which was normally at dawn or at dusk. The heat was truly awful, and it took everything out of the students, much less a four-year-old.

One of the most enlightening things was to truly see how blessed we are to have the most beautiful Florida beaches in our own backyard. No where else is the water as beautiful and the sand as powdery white. Key West was a real surprise because there were mounds and mounds of rotten seaweed along every shoreline we visited. The students were so disgusted by it that they often refused to get in the water.

I didn’t expect Selah June to be so mesmerized by Kay. I don’t know if it was her British accent or the amazing creative thing she was doing.

SJ finds a lot of uses for her yoga mat other than actually for yoga. I seem to pick up toys and animals and papers and trash every moment of every day. In this particular moment, she begged me not to put up the yoga mat because she needed it for her nap. It was going to serve as a sleeping bag for her and her snuggle toys.

And, yes, she did in fact take her nap right there.

Jeremy and I went to Sarasota for the weekend, and Grammy and Grandpa kept Selah June. I don’t know that she’ll be scaring away any bears with those little hands as long as she has that beautiful face.

I think they went shopping, and she ended up with a new necklace to wear with her veil headband.

May 2019

My relationship with Selah June is coming into its own, and it is not like many mother-daughter relationships of which I know. She is a jokester ALL the time. And I rarely miss out on an opportunity to share in a good laugh. We love to hang out together. It doesn’t really matter what we are doing. Things are generally easy going unless we’re tired or hangry.

She isn’t much in the mood for a bath most days, but she loves to get dolled up. Whether in a dress or shorts and a t-shirt, she always needs to wear her “heels” (gold flats with jewels) or her Jo Jo Seewaw high tops (that light up and have sparkles).

If you could bottle up her joy, it would sell as the fountain of youth. Four is pretty awesome. I’m trying to drink it up as much as I can.

The best time of the year for Floridians to enjoy the beach is April/May and September/October. School isn’t out for most kids, and the sun isn’t at full bake mode. The water is temperate, so the kids can swim and play, and the afternoon rain showers aren’t as frequent.

My Facebook feed knows that I like the beach in May. Often my memories pop up revealing that on the same day last year or five years ago I was doing the same beach therapy. The shell collection, the footprints in the sand, the artsy sun through beach umbrella shots, and the worn out post-beach/post-McDonalds sleepers on the drive home are all constants. A marvelous Groundhog’s Day I would love to live weekly as opposed to monthly or even yearly.

My baby is growing up. She needs me less and less at the beach. She can walk from the car to the water’s edge. She can go potty on her own, preferring privacy in her own stall. She can play at the water’s edge without holding my hand or tugging at my swimsuit. She wants to spray the sunscreen herself, only letting me rub it in for even application. She even helps carry things back and forth to the car.

She takes her own babies to the beach now – burying them in the sand and pretending to teach them to swim.

With a sun-kissed golden glow on her little face, I see the future. She will be a beautiful sun goddess, full of life and love for the beach. Hopefully she will still want me with her on the May pilgrimage to the ocean.

We are always fighting the battle over screen time. But one of the things I don’t mind as much is the coloring app. Selah June can color by number on my phone for hours. I’m excited to have a fellow color freak in the house. The app saves her creations when she finishes them.

Where was this when we were kids??

After Mommy survived graduation, we al took a trip to the Mall. I wanted to replace my jeans at H&M, and Daddy wanted to find Selah June some shorts that fit.

Of course I couldn’t find any jeans that were better than what I already had, but Selah June found a whole summer wardrobe in the mid section of the store. She even found a hat that had to come home with us.

Be still my heart. This is going to be an expensive life…

For the end of the year party, Selah June’s class had a luau-themed party! Everybody wore Hawaiian shirts, grass skirts, and leis. Of course Daddy decked SJ out in the best of the best.

She looked amazing! How many people can rock some pineapple sunglasses like that??!!

By the day’s end, she was sweaty from playing outside and annoyed at grass sticking to her legs; her beautiful purple lei had fallen apart; and the sunglasses were buried deep in her cubby. But all she could talk about was her party where “no parents were allowed – only kids, and you could take a nap or you could watch a movie! For days now we’ve been working on our Stitch voice and practicing our hula dancing moves.