greetings... with love

My best friend Kelly sent me this touching message tonight, in honor of John's birthday, which was earlier this month.

You can see why we're friends.

Don't send a lame Birthday eCard. Try JibJab Sendables!

eLLe - 14 months

Dear Luciya,

Well.

Look at the big, beautiful fourteen-month-old!

I'm kind of holding my breath as I write this, because you napped today without a pacifier and I was so inspired by that that I just put you down for bed without one, too. And you're quie-- wait. Okay, there you go. You're wailing. Darn it! Okay, I'm debating. I'm - shoot. Be right back.

So, maybe the sudden cold-turkey thing isn't the way to go with this. (Is there another way to go cold-turkey besides sudden?) I just went in to your room to see you standing up, clinging to the side of your crib in red-faced desperation, crocodile tears streaming. Let's start this a little more slowly. One day at a time. Forgoing naptime pacis first. Hush.

What a wonderful time to be 14 months old! The weather has been stupid-gorgeous. Like 90+ degrees gorgeous. We've been swimming in the pool and sliding in the park (on the shady side, of course -- no stuck-burned-bottoms here).


You are embracing your toddlerhood - vibrant, vivacious, and very, very vocal (you can say mama, dada, dog, and bye-bye). You're the squawky screamer at Stroller Strides, and the adorable, precocious charmer who's not afraid of strangers. You love to dance and move. You're on the verge of running. You point at everything and hiss. Yes, you hiss. "Sss." I think you're saying "wasssat?" You point at the ceiling, the sky. You point both hands at once, in opposite directions, and look in a third direction. Your first top tooth is starting to make its painful, jaggedy appearance. You tumble. You toddle. You snack. You climb.


Just this morning, you climbed up onto the couch! Granted, it was the low futon, but sure as you're born you heaved and hefted, and the next thing I knew you were sitting there next to me, pleased as punch.

Oh boy. Here we go.

Your Auma Kelly was here last week and we basked in the glory of Summer. We took you boating and put you in a life jacket.

Yeah, you loved it? Um, no. No you didn't.


You're napping once a day, sometimes for 3 hours, sometimes for an hour and a half. Today was a short-nap day, and I ended up putting you to bed about 20 minutes early because you were facing a serious meltdown. You're sleeping a solid 12 hours at night, which is a dream (no pun intended.) You wake up happy and babbling, and your sweet, genuine smile is such a nice way for me to be greeted each day.

You have a new friend coming over every Thursday for four hours in the afternoon so mommy can get some work done and run errands. Her name is Renee and she speaks the language of babies very well. I've left you alone with her twice, and next Thursday I may even have her stay later that 6:00 so I can go to a Mom's Night Out. Fun! You seem to really enjoy her. The two of you have been going to the park and playing outside and reading your ever-expanding collection of books.


You still love books. You don't necessarily want to hear the actual story on the pages. You want to see a picture here and there, hear some funny words, and flip the pages yourself. Then you wriggle off the reader's lap and on to the next acitivity. You are nonstop.

Non. Stop.


You're a veritable locomotive of a child. I think that's why you haaaaaaate being in the stroller - God forbid anyone try to hinder you from exploring the world! The world that is all yours. The rest of us just live in it. I think I'm going to have to start disciplining soon, because as far as you're concerned, nothing is off limits. If you want to play with someone else's toy, too bad if they happen to already be playing with it. It's yours. If you want to eat that bug in the dirt, well, that's why he's there - to be eaten by you. You are brash to the point of ruthlessness, daring to the point of insolence... and lovely to the point of tear-jerking.


And you are still awed into quiet wonder by nature. I recently found this video of you from nearly a year ago, and I was stunned by the quiet bliss in your little body.


nature babe - 3 months old from shemmy on Vimeo.


You are still amazed with the green earth and calmed by her gentle breezes.

And energized by water.


gurgle from shemmy on Vimeo.

What a difference a year has made in you, my sweet. My butternut. My monkey face. My blessing. My joy.


I love you, Luciya!

Love,
Mama

class of 2008 -- go birds!

This past weekend the 8th graders at Haleakala Waldorf School on Maui had their graduation. When we moved from Maui last year, I had planned on returning for this day, because these children all hold a special place in my life; I began teaching them when they were in third grade. It was such a gift to watch these incredible young people grow over the span of five years, and I wish them all the best. They are in my heart forever.

Though we didn't get to make it back to Maui, someone else had a graduation ceremony from the Little Gym! Luciya has been in the "Birds" class with other 10-to-19-month-olds since January (before that, she was a "Bug."). The Winter/Spring session ended last week with a celebration of the kiddos' achievements, complete with a presentation of a medal on a ribbon.

Luciya LOVES the Little Gym. We started going when she was four months old, mostly for me to find a way to socialize and meet other moms, and find little friends for Luciya. It wasn't about getting her to have improved balance or to be an early walker, but I do think that the Little Gym has helped with these things, along with making her totally fearless. Child will jump on, push over, or climb up anything, and this makes me happy. (I seem to recall that I was a bit of a scaredy-cat babe.)

In class Luciya gets to somersault, climb, bounce, play with balls, and swing. She has even made a few little friends, even though they're all still at the stage where they pass each other like ships in the night and only seem to play together accidentally. 

Luciya really loves to somersault. 

There's a little chant we sing - "Hands high to the sky, hands down on the ground, smell your belly and roll!!" Say the first few words of this at home (or anywhere, really), and Luciya assumes the position.

At the graduation, parents and grandparents came equipped with cameras and video recorders, and of course we were no exception. 

Well. Good thing we captured every moment.

world's best mom from shemmy on Vimeo.

Our little monkey is such a funny free spirit. Every class starts with a circle on the big red mat, and while most babes sit obediently in their parents' laps, my child is off exploring the gym - bars, balance beams, mats, and bouncies.

And when we're instructed to walk or run in a circle with our babies, Luciya prefers to stand in the middle of everyone and twirl.

here we go 'round from shemmy on Vimeo.

Congratulations, big girl!

life view

"If you want to be a good hitchhiker, you've got to think outside of the thumb. Don't just stand there when you could be dancing."

- Creed (The Office)

here comes the son (in-law)

Happy Birthday, Jenner!!

Luciya's boyfriend, Jenner - the son of our dear Oregon friends Trisha and Colby - is a year old today!

He was born 3 1/2 weeks early, forty days after Luciya. He has grown into such a jolly, handsome, strong little boy. To think that when he was born, we weighed just over five pounds!

And here he is today, at a year old:


Seriously, one of the happiest babies I've ever met.

Jenner and Luciya have had the opportunity to meet each other quite a few times. First, when they were both inside their mommies' tummies. Then, when Luciya was outside and Jenner was still in:



And then when he came to visit us in Idaho when he was just eight weeks old:



And last Labor Day weekend, when they were three and four months old:



And at Halloween:


And earlier this month, when Luciya and I went to Portland for Uncle Colby's surprise birthday party!


Jenner, we love you so much and are so happy you and Luciya are going to grow up together.


May you enjoy a beautiful, celebrated day!

so there really is no such thing as a vurple filver.

Today's random fact: no word in the English language rhymes with orange, month, silver, or purple.

So there you have it.

eLLe - 13 months

Dear Luciya,

Today you are one year, one month, one week, and one day old.

Your second year of life seems to be suiting you - er, dressing you? - quite nicely.

You still only have those two little teeth, which didn't come in until your eleventh month, in the bottom of your mouth. We've begun brushing them at bath time, with the smallest amount of toothpaste. You dig it. You open wide when you see the tiny toothbrush coming, and afterwards you like to give the rest of your mouth a good once-over all by yourself (read: sucking the bristles for a while).

You are a sweet little summertime weed; all of you is growing. Even your hair. I finally had to bite the bullet a few days ago and cut your bangs. Pretty cute, though, huh? I saved the tiny lock (of course), and put it in your baby book.

Oh, Luciya.

You make me laugh. And lately, whenever someone else is laughing, you want to laugh, too, so then the other person wants to keep laughing so you'll keep laughing, and, well.... ha ha ha! You're a funny little Butter Face.

You're a little ham, too, and you looooove to dance. You'll hear anything with a beat, even an ad for a car dealership on the radio, and you bob your head and groove along in the car seat. If you happen to be standing, you bounce your knees up and down and shake your little bootie. It's like you can't resist it. Your grandad and I took you to the Saturday market a couple weekends ago and there was a small band (well, one guy on the keyboard and one guy on the drums) and you danced and danced in front of them until you drew a small crowd. Seriously, an older couple later sought us out just to meet you, ask about you, and even pick you up. You little charmer, you.

We've been getting used to some glorious weather lately, seventy degree days and all. So I went ahead and felt optimistic the other day as we got ready for our 9:00 a.m. Stroller Strides class, and I dressed you in a cute little top and capri jeans. Well. Naturally when we got to the park the blustery winds dideth blow, and the sky threatened us with heavy clouds. And, naturally, I had cleaned out the back of the car the day before, which had held no less than five of your jackets. So we borrowed a little blue vest from a fellow mom's two year old boy, and I managed to find a pink leopard-print long sleeved shirt, some too-small green fleece pajama pants, and a droopy striped beanie in the car. For the rest of the day, you were affectionately referred to (by me) as Hobo Jane:

The nice weather has thankfully returned, and you and I have been spending much of our days out-of-doors. We go on bike rides (loving the bike seat and helmet!), play in he parks (loving the slides!), and survey the land. A few days ago I brought a large comforter out onto the lawn, and before I had even finished fluffing it you toddled onto it, turned around, plopped on to your bottom and then to your back, where you lay staring at the leaves of the apple trees and pointing out the little green movements. Since that day I've brought the blanket out a few more times, and each time you take the opportunity to do the same thing: immediately flop onto your back and stare at the green leaves against the blue sky.

It's amazing how rapidly you're growing and developing. You've started talking! Well, kind of. When you wave bye-bye you puff out a whisper of "buh -buh." You said "duck" one day, and it excited us so much we try to find all the books that have a picture of a duck in them (and there are A LOT, let me tell you!), and we try to get you to say it again. Can we count it as your first word if you've only really said it once?


You're so curious. The world is your oyster, and your chubby hands are quite adept at prying open the shell. You've discovered a low kitchen cupboard that houses the plastic silverware and cups, and it drives your daddy crazy how quickly you can spread these things all over the floor to make a mess. (I personally think it's kinda cute, and the fact that you like stacking and re-stacking the cups is supposed to be good for your sensory-motor skills. Or something. Right?) You go crazy for a cell phone to open, shut, and speed dial grandma on, and your daddy and I always have one of ours on hand for your not-uncommon shriek fests. Yes, the screams continue, often piercing and always unwelcome, but I tell myself that it's got to be frustrating when you want to talk, you try to talk, everyone else is talking, but you just can't talk. Huh, baby girl. That's right. Hush now. No, really. Shhhhh.....

Since you've been in your big girl room you've been sleeping like a champ. You are napping once a day, and that's great, because it's a 2 1/2-to-3 hour nap (usually 11:00 - 1:30/2:00). And at night? Twelve, thirteen hours SOLID. Straight. I've had to wake you up on more than one occasion, and I've also had to leave you with your daddy in the morning when I've gone to teach Stroller Strides, because you were still snoozing at 8:15, when I had to leave the house. You go down right at 7:00, no fussing, ready and sleepy-eyed. The other night, however, you fussed for quite a while and when I eventually went in to check on you (for I always check on you, and probably always will, so there), this is exactly how I found you - upside down, with your tiny foot through the slats of the crib and your baby on your chest.

Sometimes as I watch you sleeping so softly in your crib I marvel at how big you have gotten. You are long and strong. Your legs have over the arm of the rocking chair at night as we snuggle before bedtime. (I am still putting you down with a bottle of milk, even though Dr. Angie really wants you to move to sippy cups exclusively. We're working on it, and you're doing well. But how will I put you down each evening without some warm milk in the rocking chair? I can't think of it.) Tonight I bent down to inhale you as we rocked. Your long, fine hair, still damp from your bath, smelled faintly of your Baby Bee shampoo. Your thick eyelashes fluttered over your smooth, chubby cheeks. You sighed, content. Oh, how I treasure these times.

I love you, Luciya!

Love,

Mama

-EY it is!

Thanks for voting on the pup's name, everyone. For a while there, it was a close race between Harley and Harlee. Then my friend Daina from Maui wrote in her vote of Harley, so the deal's been sealed.  With Daina's vote, and Ophelia's write-in of Harly, we got a total of 13 votes. My first reaction was, wow - lucky number! My second reaction was, thirteen people have read this blog? Hot damn, I'm almost as popular as my inspiration, Dooce! Maybe I could start raking in an esimated $40K in ad revenues each month! And then I thought, there's no way there are thirteen people out there reading this. Mom, did you vote three times?!

Anyway, Harley is... Harley. It fits. We like it. She's filling out every day, becoming a chunky puffy fluffer - all round and fuzzy. She is a literal shadow, and it's hard to take two steps sometimes without tripping over her super excited little body. She loves her pen in the basement and has been sleeping darn near through the night without a single potty incident! She and Mila have the cutest relationship ever - Mila has become very maternal. I'm going to try and capture some of their play on video so all thirteen of you can see it.

because things have been pretty dull around here

This Mother's Day, I got breakfast in bed, for the first time ever. It was as fabulous as I could have imagined, complete with a bouquet of flowers and crisp pepper bacon with the fat trimmed off (thanks, honey!).

I got special treatment because I'm a Mom (hooray!), and what (other) better way to celebrate being a mom than adopting another child?

Met Harley Davidson.


Harley is a six-week-old Border Collie-Australian Shepherd mix (or Border-Aussie) who was a complete spur-of-the-moment purchase by John off the back of a farmer's truck at the Sportsman's Warehouse parking lot to be the newest addition to our little family.

She is a perfect puppy: all fluffy-puffer and puffy-fluffer, with a white coat and gray patches, with blue spots in those patches (to match her pretty blue eyes). Her nose is a mottled pink and black. Her teeth are tiny and pointy and want to bite into everything.


We've been saying for quite a while that Mila needs a friend to roam the property with, and though we've gone to the pound a couple times and wishy-washed the idea at least a thousand times more, it seemed fate came knocking on Mother's Day and now Mila has a little sister to gently nuzzle and sniff, all the while thankful for the extra treats and attention she's been getting (preserving the alpha-dog thing, you know).

So yeah, we have a new puppy. A brand-spankin'-new, fresh-off-the-teat-and-a-little-confused puppy. She's nothing less than adorable, nothing less than a completely needy new little being.

We're crate training, which is hailed as the best method of raising a new pooch, and so far it seems to be successful. Okay, we've brought her in to bed with us the past two nights at about 5:00 a.m. because the mewling from the family room kennel completely disrupts our sleep, and I know that's a no-no, but just this evening I placed her in there after her outside dinner poop and she hasn't made a peep. And she's only pooped inside twice. And peed once.


Welcome to our home, Harley. I have no doubt you will be a wonderful addition. And the extra attention you require? No problem. We don't have anything on our plates besides raising a toddler, starting up two new businesses, planning a wedding, teaching Stroller Strides (me), working nights (John), paying bills, caring for an acre property (and its home), and - oh, yeah - watching over your big sister, Mila. But hopefully she'll teach you well and you'll turn in to a sweet, mellow, well-behaved lovey-dove of a dog-daughter, just like she is.

Hopefully.



By the way, I could use some help with the spelling of her name. We know her name is Har(ley), but is that too masculine? Should we write it out some other way? This is a HUGE decision, okay?! (See the poll at right.)

summer tease makes me feel fine

Ummmm.....


Who loves her new bike seat and helmet?

I know I thought Spring was just around the corner about 2 months ago, and it did a great job of fooling us on a few occasions (case in point:),



... but I think it's really here!

Check out this delicious tree in the front yard.



And I wish you could check out the lovely lingering twilights and the constant birdsong. Watch the birds make a nest in the little wooden house on the sycamore. See how lush and green the backyard grass is. Go without a onesie under your clothes for the first time ever.

This seasons thing is pretty cool, really. I won't say that I don't miss Maui, because I do. What I will say is that SEASONS ARE AMAZING! I mean, on Maui there is really little difference between, say, July and November. But here? You enter completely different worlds. Not to mention the flow of December into May. Was it really only five months ago that the heaters were cranking and we had to de-ice the front walk?

This was what the backyard thermometer read last Monday:


So we took a bike ride (Luciya's first!) all along the river into downtown, grabbed some lunch, and came back to the yard for some naked time in the sprinklers.


I know I've said I love the autumn and the winter, but Man, I am wiggly with summertime anticipation.

Dum-da-da-dooooo....... Hear ye, hear ye... Spring is here!!

big girl room

We did it! For the first time in a year, Luciya isn't sleeping right next to us.

Last night was her fourth night in her upstairs "big girl room."


The first two nights she slept fitfully and woke up twice each night around 2:30/3:00 a.m. Understandable. She didn't know what was going on, and it was probably hard to sleep without the constant rhythm of daddy's snoring ten feet away. The third night I made a couple changes. First, I left a nightlight on. Second, I dropped about four pacifiers in the crib so she could find one if she needed. (I've resigned my pacifier struggle. She uses them to fall asleep, and that's it. That's fine with me.) She slept 12 1/2 hours straight that night.


We are now huge fans of the big girl room. We can waltz right into our own bedroom at any time, turn on the lights, and flush the toilet if we want to. Luciya loves her new room, with all her toys and books within easy reach. Our favorite thing to do lately is read books, and I'll sit in the rocker and tell her to "get Mama a book," and she'll waddle over to the bookshelf, select one, and bring it to me so that I can pull her up onto my lap and read.


She has exactly two books that are her favorites, that she wants read over and over and over. The first is Rainbow Rob, which is a great story about a penguin who wants to be other colors besides black and white. There are lots of fuzzies and other textures to play with, and she knows which one is coming next. The second is Little Feet Like..., and it has squares of different materials, like soft blankets and cuddly towels, that Luciya likes to rub her bare little toes all over. Yes, I've read each of these books 43 times in the last three days. But it's just so darn cute to watch her wobble back and forth between me and the bookshelf, grunting as she hefts these heavy board books. (Even though my head is racing right now with Rob is black and Rob is white. No color at all, just dark and light....)


The new room still allows for other well-loved activities, too, like tearing all the clothes out of the drawers. Which, as we all know, is the most fun EVER.