She DID NOT WANT To Have Her Picture Taken

The BabyGirl and now Bright Eyes as well have both been so blessed by many wonderful gifts from friends and family members. I think the BabyGirl was a year old before i had to buy her any clothes. Gammer and Granny in particular have kept our girls very well dressed, and we are so thankful. It was especially helpful last fall, when money was so tight. The BabyGirl would not have had any clothes had we not received so many generous and loving gifts.

Early in the BabyGirl's life, i made a special effort to take pictures of her in the outfits that Gammer and Granny sent. They live far away and do not have opportunity to see how cute she is in their clothes. Well then i really dropped the ball while i was pregnant, and have been trying to get in the habit again. Except, now the BabyGirl has a mind of her own. She does not always want her picture taken:

It was really very tragic, because she liked that dress so much and really enjoyed wearing it. My photo efforts simply caught her at a bad time. We had gone to McDonald's with the Three Brothers after church. An hour of running around in the play place was a little more excitement than she could handle. She was none too thrilled when it was time to leave, and she was none too thrilled that it was naptime as soon as we got home. So we tried again:

Nope, still doesn't like it. Therefore i am instituting a new method. I'll take a picture of the clothes themselves so that we can all remember who sent them. And if i get a picture of the clothes actually being worn, the it's a huge bonus! But if not, oh well, c'est la vie. Here's our first batch:

 

Cute clothes from Granny! The gray shirt on the right, the one that says "Star," is her current favorite. She wears it every day. Fortunately, i got a picture! This is a bonus feature because she's wearing a shirt from Granny while opening a present from Aunt Kay:

 

 

Tune in next time for First Christmas Bib, and if we're lucky we'll also have some Christmas Minions!

 

Bright Eyes Speaks Her Mind

Bright Eyes is now four months old! Thankfully, she seems to be understanding life a lot better now. She has become more mellow and predictable during the day. However, she's still wild and crazy at night.

She had her four month checkup this week, and the verdict was: healthy with a touch of reflux. They said she was a very fine specimen of a baby girl. Her favorite activities currently are sucking on her hands, wiggling and watching her big sister. She devotes 100% of her wakeful moments to the pursuit of sucking her thumb. She's not quite there yet, and she will do nothing else until she masters it. This means that she's a big drooly mess all day long. She used to go through multiple outfits a day due to spitting up; now she goes through clothes because of the drool. Nonetheless, she's adorable and we're glad that she is ours!



Sucking on her hands, of course

 

Smiling, but with a finger in her mouth

 

Big smile

She's definitely been making herself heard recently. Being a person naturally given to extremes, she likes to be as loud and shrill as she can. It gives her great satisfaction to make a lot of high-pitched noise:

Making a Difference: The Professor

By now you have all seen this on facebook, but i want to preserve it for posterity so i'm posting it here too:

The Professor was featured in our local newspaper! A colleague jokingly commented to him, "When i saw your name and picture in the paper, i got really worried! It's usually a bad sign to have your picture in the news!"

Thankfully, The Professor has not become a mass murderer. Instead he is inspiring his students to change the world. Every semester he has his Ethics classes complete an assignment in which they perform an ethical deed. The results range from tear-jerking to pathetic. While one student spent a day helping a man with Multiple Sclerosis, another decided to smile at each person they saw while out walking.

When this article was published, The Professor was the big man on campus for a day. Tons of faculty and staff that he didn't even know gave him their congratulations. It generated a lot of dialogue about ethical actions. The janitor who cleans his office told him that she and her husband had a long discussion about the article and enjoyed coming up with ideas for good deeds they would do if they were in his class.

It really has been neat to see how this class project has changed the perspectives of many of his students. Now through the article, even more people have been challenged to meet the needs around them.


College ethics class asks students to test impact of acting ethically
Updated: 24 November 2012 | 4:23 pm

For three semesters, K***** College instructor "The Professor" has charged his ethics students to do something they would consider ethically right.

The Professor, a philosophy instructor on the Cornstalk campus, said he felt what he had been assigning in the past was too much memorization and “too much on the objective knowledge instead of really trying to see the impact, not just theoretically, but in their lives.”

The ethics project, which is 10 percent of the students’ grades, could be something large or small, but it had to be something they wouldn’t have done otherwise, without the assignment.

About 30 students in The Professor’s ethics classes last fall and last spring and about 25 students this fall semester took those parameters and returned with projects that inspired their teacher, with stories of helping elderly neighbors, picking up trash in the park and donating time to charities.

“I think much of what I see from the students is very encouraging, very inspiring,” he said. “It definitely confirms to me that there’s value in this kind of project.”

One student volunteered to help arrange 500 vases of flowers to be delivered to cancer patients. Another student reported she could see and hear how grateful an elderly couple was after she anonymously paid for their dinner at the Olive Garden. A Cornstalk City student last fall, Boussina, taught her friend, a Sudanese immigrant like herself, how to drive so she could find a job.

Heather wanted to do something long-lasting for her ethics project. Heather, 24, is a first-year K****** student studying horticulture.

She signed up for the bone marrow donor registry for her project this fall. And because getting on the donor list took a little longer than she expected, she also donated blood, which she wrote about for the class.

“I wanted to do something a little above and beyond,” Heather said. “Everyone is getting so apathetic. I think the ethics project is a great way to get people off their couches and off their stupid cellphones and into the community. I was pretty excited about it.”

Heather also had a cousin who had leukemia and needed a bone-marrow transplant, so she thought joining the donor list “was like paying it forward.”

For her project last spring semester, Stephanie found an elderly man seeking assistance with home chores on the website Craigslist, after his son was hospitalized and could no longer help him. She enlisted some of her friends and they helped the man with his yard, house cleaning and walking his dog. The man offered to pay them, which they declined. At the end of her paper, Stephanie wrote that the man was so happy and grateful.

“He said he was glad to see there were actually genuine, caring people left in the world, as he had almost given up hope,” she wrote.

The assignment, The Professor said, was inspired in part by Aristotle.

“I hope that this assignment helps students to live well and also, by extension, to benefit the surrounding community,” he said.
 

Posthumous Blogging: Who Wears the Crown?

Here is a story from sometime in July:

The BabyGirl's night-night song is "Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus." We have sung that song for her bedtime since she was about 4 months old. She knows it by heart. My dad even commented that she knows verses that he and my mom don't even know.

Back in April, the BabyGirl and i made a trip to visit my parents. She has a very difficult time sleeping in new environments. One night while we were there, i put her down for bed and then my mom and i needed to run out to the grocery. My dad was on BabyGirl duty. I told him that if she woke up, he should hold her with her head on his shoulder and sing Tis So Sweet.

Well sure enough, she woke up. He followed instructions and held her while singing her song. He tried to put her back in bed; it was a no-go. Like trying to put a cat in the bathtub, she resisted gravity. He sang it again; she still wouldn't go down. At this point he was bored of that song and decided to sing something else. She jerked her head up from his shoulder and glared at him with a look that said, "You are breaking protocol and i won't stand for it." He quickly resumed singing Tis So Sweet, and she rested her head back on his shoulder.

By the time she was two years and a few months old, however, she also got bored of Tis So Sweet. One day during naptime i decided to sing "What Wondrous Love Is This." She loved it! She's got quite a knack for picking up new songs. After two naptimes' worth of singing it, she knew most of the words to the first verse. (Even though she has no idea what a "soul" is.) Then she turned her attention to one of the other verses:

When I was sinking down, sinking down, sinking down
When I was sinking down, sinking down
When I ws sinking down, beneath God's righteous frown,
Christ laid aside His crown for my soul, for my soul.
Christ laid aside His crown for my soul.

When i got to the part about the crown, she lifted her head from my shoulder and said enthusiastically, "A crown like a princess wears!" She was so pleased to have picked up on a word she knew.

I said, "You're right; a princess does wear a crown! And Jesus has a crown also."

Whoa, whoa, wait a second there Mama. She looked at me with pity for my ignorance. You see, she knows A LOT about Jesus. She has her Jesus Storybook Bible practically memorized. There was a stretch of time when she refused to get out of bed in the morning until she'd read her Bible (pretty convicting for me, actually). She flips through the pages and names each character: that's Daniel! that's Zaccheus! that's Saul!

But her favorite picture by far is Jesus with the children. She frequently requests it. "Want to see Jesus and boy and girl!" After multiple experiences of flipping through the entire Bible to find that page (well okay, flipping through the gospels. It's obviously not in the Old Testament), we finally committed it to memory. Page 225.

Incidentally, she also knows a good deal about princesses, thanks to my sister's gift of the book The Princess Primer. It is filled with all sorts of useful information, from styles of ballgowns to how to tell a good prince from a bad prince to the proper way to curtsy.

As she looked at me, i could see her mentally filing through all the pictures of Jesus in her Bible and comparing them to the pictures in the princess book:

With her analysis complete, she felt qualified to inform me: "No Mama, Jesus has no crown."

There was no arguing with her. She had evidence.

One day we will spend a little more time reading Revelation, where Jesus kicks butt and takes names. But for now, she sees Jesus as a familiar friend who invites you to sit on His lap and play.

I think that's exactly how it should be.
 

Silly Songs With Mama

I love hearing the songs that other mamas invent for their babies. Making up baby songs is so much fun! My sister Kay and my friend Laura are real professionals when it comes to baby songs. Kay has a whole anthology of songs on YouTube. My favorites include "Bath Day" and "Miss Eliz She Is the Shiz".

I remember one year on a church women's retreat, a couple of people were sitting around chatting with Clare Adella about her singer\songwriter career. I chimed in, "Laura is a songwriter too!" Everyone gave a surprised facial expression, thinking, "Really? I know Laura pretty well, how did i not hear about this?"

Laura said enthusiastically, "Oh yes, i write songs all the time!"

I exclaimed, "Sing the one about 'He likes to burp and eat potatoes!'"

She then entertained us with a rousing rendition of "He Likes To Burp and Eat Potatoes".

Our family's songs may not be as exciting as Kay and Laura's, but i would like to record them for posterity, so here you have a few of our favorites:

Who's My Baby Muffin Pie
to the tune of Camptown Races

Who's my baby muffin pie?
BabyGirl, BabyGirl!
Who's my baby muffin pie?
BabyGirl Alaina!
She's my muffin pie,
She's so very sweet.
Who's my baby muffin pie?
BabyGirl Alaina!


Very Hungry Girl
to the tune of La Cucaracha

Oh my Bright Eyes, she is so pretty
She's a very hungry girl
Oh my Bright Eyes, she is so pretty
She's a very hungry girl
We need to feed her; we need to smooch her
She's a very hungry girl
We need to feed her; we need to smooch her
She's a very hungry girl!

Carseat Song
Written by The Professor and BabyGirl
To the tune of Rockabye Baby

Rockabye Bright Eyes in your carseat
We will go driving til you're asleep
Then you will wake up and you'll be fed
And then we will lay you down in your bed


Bright Eyes' Sleeping Song
to the tune of the chorus of Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus

Bright Eyes, Bright Eyes
Why do you wake up
Eightteen million times a night?
Bright Eyes, Bright Eyes
O! My Bright Eyes -
When will you start sleeping right?


When it comes to real songs, here is one of the best for little girls:

Posthumous Blogging: Election Day

When Emily Dickinson died, her sister found hundreds of poems in her room. When JRR Tolkein died, his son published the Unfinished Tales. When i die, there will be drafts of half-written blog posts queued up in my post list.

It's hard to write a story to completion these days. Someone mentioned National Novel Writing Month and i thought, "Man, a whole novel! I can't even write a whole blog post!" So under the inspiration of NaNoWriMo, I'm attempting to publish several of my half-written stories. This means that the first 75% will be well-written, but the last 25% will be mediocre. The conclusion of a story is the most important part, but most of the time i can't remember where i was going with some of these posts. We'll start with one a little more recent: Tuesday, November 6. Also known as Election Day.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
On Monday morning I was laying on the couch surrounded by crumped tissues, cough drops, and peppermint tea when the doorbell rang. I was reluctant to answer the door due to my extremely haggard and dishevelled appearance. However, Bright Eyes had just fallen asleep and i was not interested in hearing the doorbell ring a second time.

A very nice looking woman in a cute green scarf introduced herself. She was a representative of my policital party who had come to remind me to vote. Vote, oh my gosh! I had totally forgotten!

She looked at me like an alien from another galaxy. We live in a swing state. It is not possible to forget the election, even if you wanted to. This election is so ever-present that is makes even young children cry.

It wasn't that i had forgotten that there is an election. I had not forgotten that Tuesday was voting day. I just didn't realize that Tuesday was taking place TOMORROW. My life was a blur of countless days of fevers, coughing, sneezing and runny noses. During the nights i collapsed into bed for a few minutes of tossing, turning, coughing and sinus pressure before having to get back up to intervene with either a sick\crying girl or a hungry\crying baby.

If the green scarf lady had not come, it is very likely i would not have voted. And for once my vote might actually count! In the Big City, my vote never mattered. I diligently voted anyway, but nobody i voted for ever won.

When Tuesday, which was tomorrow, arrived i stubbornly got all of our cranky, snot-nosed selves ready go vote. I told the BabyGirl how wonderful voting is and that many people in the world are not able to vote and we're so excited to go vote.

She of course had no idea what voting is, but i made it sound like a lot of fun so she was willing to give it a shot.

It was cold. It was raining. We drove to the polling place and started the Unloading Sequence: remove Bright Eyes from carseat, insert Bright Eyes into baby wearing apparatus, release BabyGirl from carseat, wait TEN YEARS for her to climb out of the car, shut the door, "hold my hand," "No! Want to walk MYSELF!" "We are in a parking lot and you must hold my hand," "Fine," look left then right then left again, okay safe to cross.

We marched up to the nice old lady at the table and proudly presented my license. She looked through the book. She looked through the book again. She couldn't find me.

I am a registered voter. I have voted at that location before. It is the location printed on my voter registration card. She said they were the location for such-and-such street through 22nd street. I live on 22nd street.

She looked again, i was not in there.

Meanwhile the other white-haired ladies working the election were talking amongst themselves about the BabyGirl's beautiful auburn hair.

She asked, "Do you live on the east side of 22nd?"

Yes i do.

"Ooooohhhh. Well in that case you don't vote here."

I looked at her with the defeat. Does she know how difficult it is to do to the Unloading Sequence in the cold rain? Is she really cold-hearted enough to make me put these younglings back in the car and go somewhere else to do it all over again? She looked at me with apathy. The other ladies, however, mumbled "What a shame! You have little ones!" One of them even offered to babysit while i ran over to the other place real quick. I almost took her up on it, except there must be a clause somewhere in the Election Official job description about not chasing 2-year-olds around the voting area while working.

We turned around to leave, and on the way out the door the BabyGirl spotted a voter holding a cute baby boy. "Baby!!! There's a baby, mama!"

There was an elderly man with a walker waiting at the door for his ride to pick him up. He struck up a one-sided conversation with the BabyGirl. How old are you? You sure are cute. Oh look, you are a big sister! I bet you are a big help to your mama, aren't you?

She just looked at him with big eyes until we were halfway across the parking lot. Then she stopped in her tracks to turn around and yell back, "Hi man! I'm two and a half! We're voting! See you later!"

By this time the lady with the baby had finished voting and was putting him in the car. The BabyGirl yelled to him too, "Bye bye, Baby!!! Bye! BYYYYEEEE!"

Then, while standing in the cold rain, i put The Girl Who Hates Her Carseat into the car and listened to her crying while i strapped in The Girl Who Moves Slower Than Molasses.

We went to voting location #2 and did the Unloading Sequence all over again. The white-haired ladies at this poll loved us too. They gave the BabyGirl an "I voted" sticker. Then they gave one to me, which i handed to her. She told the ladies, "Wait! My Daddy needs a sticker! I need another sticker for my Daddy!"

When i completed my ballot, i got up to take it across the room to the ballot-eating machine. All of a sudden, the BabyGirl wasn't with me anymore. She had wedged herself into the six inch space between two voting booths in order to invade the personal space of a little boy who was there with his grandmother. She is so exuberant about other kids right now, but unforunately it is a little overwhelming for the poor soul that she latches onto. She was trying to strike up a conversation and the little boy was doing his best to avoid eye contact.

I hauled her out the door and we triumphantly headed home. We voted! Going to the polls is half of the fun. The other half is camping out in front of the tv to watch the results come in. Ordinarily we would not be afforded this pleasure; we would have to keep checking the internet to find out how it was going. But thanks to Audrey's digital converter box and The Judge's outdoor antenna, we are people who watch tv! So exciting. We are not even politically inclined, but we had a good time. Except it was kind of anti-climatic that at the point when i had to leave to do Bright Eyes' dreamfeed, there were several states that were "too close to call." And when i got done with the dreamfeed, Obama had won. I thought it was going to drag on through half the night, but then all of a sudden it was over.

It's crazy to think that at the next Presidential election, I won't have to bring the BabyGirl with me to vote because she'll be in first grade!

Halloween Narrative

We had a blast trick-or-treating with the BabyGirl this year! She provided the most hilarious commentary on the other kids' costumes.

During the morning, i explained to her the basic protocol: "After dinner you will put on your costume and we'll go outside. We'll walk around to all the houses and ring the doorbell. Then people will open the door and you'll say, 'Trick or treat!' and . . ."

As i was speaking, she looked at me with an expression of extreme skepticism. Her face said, "What kind of crazy ideas has this woman come up with this time?"

I continued: ". . . they'll give you candy!"

Whoa, wait a minute. "CANDY?!?!?" That sure wiped the skepticism off her face.

"Oh yes, my friend. Candy."

She ran to her room and got her shoes. "Let's go now!"

Since she hadn't been paying attention for all the words that preceeded "candy," she hadn't heard that these events were to take place after dinner. This was a big hardship; she wanted to get the candy right now.

We did, however, go ahead and put on her daytime costume. She was a beautiful fairy princess. Mimi got her the pinkest, ruffliest, shimmeriest dress you could imagine and a pair of pink wings to go with it. She twirled and sashayed and pranced around the house displaying her elegance. She absolutely loved that dress! Unfortunately, she refused to allow me to take her picture, so you are going to have to take my word for it that she was very pretty.

Finally Daddy came home from work and we ate dinner and the long-awaited moment had come. She put on her nighttime costume of a tiger. It was cold out, and the princess dress was not warm enough. She would have had to wear her coat over the dress, in which case no one would see it. So she was a big fluffy tiger:

Bright Eyes got schlepped along for the ride. The only reason she is even halfway giving a smile is because at this point she had no idea what was going on:

We stepped outside right as a big clump of kids walked by. The BabyGirl was really excited now. "Girls!!!"

The trick-or-treating on our street is very profitable. Everyone else besides us is retired seniors who love having cute little kids come to their doors. The BabyGirl was a big hit! For the first few houses she was unsure of what was happening, but then she got the hang of it.

There was a boy with his dad who happened to be going at the same pace as us. We were about 30 seconds ahead of them, such that as we turned around to leave a house, they were walking up. This happened for many consecutive houses. The trouble, though, was that the boy's costume made the BabyGirl VERY nervous. I don't know if i can describe it very well. He was wearing all black, and his shirt had a green LED light-up outline of a body. His face was covered also and had the outline of big creepy eyes. Kind of like the standard alien face but not exactly.

The 4 of us were walking on the sidewalk when the boy and his dad passed us. They were understandably walking faster than us. I was in front with The Professor behind holding the BabyGirl's hand. She said, "Get here by me, Mama." She wanted Daddy on one side and Mama on the other to protect her from the alien boy. She kept a very close eye on the boy so she could monitor his movements. He was already at the door of the next house when we walked up. She made it very clear that we would wait for him to move along before we got any closer.

While we were standing a safe distance waiting for him to leave, she began to (very loudly) narrate what he was doing. "That guy is at the door."

"That guy is pressing the button."

"That guy is standing."

"That guy is getting candy."

The boy's dad was standing right next to us and had a good laugh over the BabyGirl's play-by-play. Eventually she said, "What's that guy called?"

Honestly i didn't know what to call his costume. I didn't know if it was a bona-fide character that i wasn't familiar with, or if it was just something he had made up. The boy's dad said, "Glow man." (Note: it was not the same as this. The concept was similar, but the shape was different.)

She resumed her narration. "Glow man is [with concern] walking THIS WAY!" Eek!

We asked her if she wanted to wait a minute to let Glow man get farther ahead. She wholeheartedly said yes. Later we were in proximity again and she said, "I will turn my head. I will not look at him." We affirmed her in her wise choice.

She got very excited when she saw costumes that she recognized. Cat in the hat! Coke can! We had gotten a late start, so we were out after the other small children had gone home and it was mostly older kids.

Then tragically, after we hit the last house and turned to go home, the BabyGirl tripped and fell. She dropped her bucket and candy scattered everywhere. It was so sad! She scraped her hands pretty good. Fortunately we successfully gathered up all the bounty. The Professor carried her home and we all celebrated the fun time we had together.
 

Baby Train

Fact #1: The BabyGirl loves library books.
Fact #2: The BabyGirl loves her little chairs.
Fact #3: The BabyGirl loves her sister.

And when she can combine those three loves, the results are extremely cute.

The BabyGirl was given this table\chairs set for her 2nd birthday. She spent a great deal of time arranging the chairs. Lining them up, putting them in a circle, putting them back-to-back, etc. She played with those chairs quite a bit.

 

 

When i saw a book at the library about a cat who makes something clever out of his chairs, i knew she would enjoy it.

 



 

Spoiler alert: they make a train! Of course the BabyGirl wanted to make a train also. She made a train over and over again. She made a train for The Professor and i to sit on. She made a train for her stuffed animals. And one evening while Bright Eyes was hanging out in the kitchen while i prepared dinner, she made a train for Bright Eyes! It was so thoughtful. The chairs are in the living room, you see. But Bright Eyes was in the kitchen. Since Bright Eyes can't go to the chairs (she can't walk), she brought the chairs to Bright Eyes. She built the train so that Bright Eyes was right smack in the middle.

 

 

In the book they say, "Ding, ding! Choo, choo!"

 

(You probably want to read this book yourself now, so here it is: http://www.amazon.com/Meeow-Little-Chairs-Sebastien-Braun/dp/190625088X)

 





Moments to Remember: What Can I Do For You?

This story is for the benefit of my 80-year-old self:

Last night i was sitting at the kitchen table. The Professor was sitting next to me and the BabyGirl was in his lap. I was talking with him about something i had worked hard on that didn't work out. I was very discouraged and frustrated. The BabyGirl, although not a part of our conversation, was listening intently. While she listened, she had a look of concern on her face.

At a pause in the conversation, she said worriedly, "You are hurting, Mama?"

I said, "No dear, i'm not hurting, i'm just sad."

Her look of concern intensified. She said, "I'll give you a smoochie." Then she leaned over and smooched my cheek. She smiled and said, "You're all better?"

I said, "Oh yes, i'm all better now."

Apparently i wasn't convincing enough. She hooked her arm around mine, laid her head on my shoulder and said, "What [can] I do for you, Mama?"

It was a very special moment that i want to remember always.
 

Attempts to Take Two-Month Pictures Were Largely Unsuccessful

Bright Eyes is two months old! I did my darnedest to take her two month pictures while the BabyGirl was napping. You are about to see why. Taking pictures of Bright Eyes is quite a challenge when the BabyGirl is around. Unfortunately, Bright Eyes was uncooperative with my photo shoot during the BabyGirl's nap. Therefore her two month pictures include the BabyGirl. Usually you have to take 100 shots of a baby in order to get one decent picture. In this case, 100 shots resulted in 0 decent pictures. Here are the outtakes:

 

 Wait, my eye itches

 Bright Eyes not looking

 BabyGirl not looking

 Seriously, Mama? Lay off with the pictures

 

 Getting silly

 

 Finally, a cute one! BabyGirl is washing Bright Eyes' feet

 

The BabyGirl with her two babies

 

Proof That the BabyGirl Is a Girl (As If There Was Any Doubt)

The Professor and the BabyGirl were in the car running errands together.

Professor: We're going to Walmar to buy _________.

BabyGirl: Wanna go to Garget (Target).

Professor: I'm sorry, but we can't go to Target. We're going to Walmart.

BabyGirl: Wanna go to Garget.

Professor: We're going to Walmart, sweetie.

BabyGirl: WAAAAA!! DON'T WANNA GO TO WALMART; WANNA GO TO GARGET!!!!!


And honestly, can you blame her? Who wouldn't rather go to Garget?
 

Happy ThirtyTWO!

Two weekends ago we celebrated The Professor's birthday. He is now thirty-two. The BabyGirl believes that he is just two, but we've been trying to convince her that he is actually thirty-two. She mostly doesn't buy it, but occasionally she'll say "firty-TWOOOO!!!" She herself turned two back in April, and at the time we worked so exuberantly to teach her that when people ask, "How old are you?" the answer is "TWOOO!!!" The trouble is, now she thinks that two is the answer when asking about everyone, not just herself.

Having a brand-new baby limited us somewhat in our celebrations; we weren't able to do anything super exciting. On The Professor's birthday eve we drove across town to the Dead Marshes Mall (it only has about 2 stores left and everything else is vacant—very creepy) to eat dinner at Chick-fil-A. You'd think that after so many years of living without Chick-fil-A that we would take advantage of this one and go there more often, but we don't. So it was a special treat.

Happy birthday, Professor!

There's a VIDEO in the kids' meal?!?

 

 

We both love Chick-fil-A lemonade!

Except it's incredibly sweet and potent and i forgot to ask them to dilute it. 

For a toddler, it's basically like crack. 

It was Bright Eyes' very first time at Chick-fil-A in her whole baby life!

You can see that it was quite an experience for her.

 

Another noteworthy thing about this birthday for The Professor was that it marked the half-life of his car. He has now had it for half of his life! He loves that car and it has treated him very well the past 16 years. They had a long-distance relationship for a long time while we lived in the Big City, but now are happily reunited.

The BabyGirl, Bright Eyes, and i are all extremely thankful for The Professor and so honored to have him in our lives. We love you, Professor!
 

Bringing Cosmic Back

Were you starting to get bored with how peaceful and happy this blog had become? The last several months were all "we're so thankful for this" and "we're praying for that." There was a significant lack of drama or emotional crisis, and it was starting to creep me out. I was afraid that i'd have to rename the blog "Life Is Going Fine," because it had become a misnomer to say that Life Is Cosmic.

Well, never fear! A new development in our lives is definitely bringing cosmic back.

Allow me to introduce Bright Eyes:

Bright Eyes is VERY cosmic. Whatever particular thing she is experiencing at a given moment, she experiences it 150%. Most human beings go through a progression of "I'm a little bit hungry" to "Yes i'm definitely hungry" to "Okay I'm very hungry now." Bright Eyes, on the other hand, is completely non-hungry one minute and the very next she's screaming, "GOOD LORD I'M HUNGRY! WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?!? DON'T YOU KNOW A HUNGRY BABY WHEN YOU SEE ONE?!?"

The BabyGirl was a very peaceful and serene baby. I remember when she got some shots at her 2 month checkup, it was the first time i heard her really cry. It broke my heart. Bright Eyes, however, cries at that level on a daily basis. In her defense, she's been having some tummy trouble. We recently started her on reflux medication and she's much happier as a result.

It's not just Bright Eyes herself that is making life cosmic. The general combination of sleep deprivation, post partum hormones, and weeks of physical pain from a difficult delivery adds to the chaos. We all love Bright Eyes dearly, but we will love her much more when we don't have to see her at 2:00 am.

The newborn period is sooooo hard. It's a wonder anyone survives. Mostly i just want to fast-forward a few months. But then i feel guilty because she's my precious daughter yet i want to skip part of her life.

I was watching something on youtube the other day, and before the video played i saw one of the P & G Olympic mom ads. I've googled this ad a million times to try to find it again and it's nowhere to be found. It would be so much better if you could just watch it rather than me describing it to you. It was about one of the gymnasts. It showed a clip of her in the Olympics and her mom up in the stands cheering. The narrator said, "Jordyn Wieber knows that her biggest fan . . . is also her first fan." Then it showed a picture of Jordyn's mom holding teeny baby Jordyn.

Of course my poor hormonal, overtired self cried my eyes out. Because right now i'm holding teeny baby Bright Eyes, but one day she may be an Olympian. Or an astronaut. Or a Nobel Prize winner. Or President of the United States. And even if she's the checkout lady at the Evil Dominion of Hy-Vee, i'm her first fan. I'll always be cheering. Right now i cheer when she lifts her head off the floor during tummy time. I'll cheer when she rolls over, and when she walks. I'll cheer at her ballet recitals or softball games or track meets. I'll cheer when she graduates from high school and college.

Yes, Bright Eyes is cosmic. She spits up all over the place and she's more likely to smile at the ceiling fan than at me. But i love her and i'm her first fan.
  

Hug Ambush!

When i first started hanging out with The Professor's extended family, i was taken off guard by how huggy they are. My family is not very physically affectionate, so i wasn't used to so much hugging. Especially when the whole clan converges in Zion, the last human city. There's exponentially more hugging then.

Even just on a day-to-day basis, this is the hugging pattern of a trip to The Professor's dad's house:

• Hug each person present as soon as you arrive.
• When someone leaves, they hug each person present. Let's say that they are just running out to Pizza Hut to pick up dinner and will be back in 10 minutes. Hugging is still required.
• Hug each person present when you are going to bed.
• Hug each person present when you wake up in the morning.

A weekend stay with The Professor's family usually provides a net quota of hugs that exceeds the amount of hugging most people get in several months. Now that i've gotten used to this way of life, i love it and think it's great! Bring on the hugs!

The BabyGirl, true to her heritage, is quite a hugger. She hugs early and often. And during this turbulent time in her life of having a new baby, her hugging needs have increased.

Today was The Professor's first official full day back at work since BG2 was born. He's had a few unofficial half-days, but today was the real deal. I was terrified, truth be told. BG2 is a very difficult baby and the BabyGirl has been a nutcase recently, so they are each quite a handful on their own. Fortunately, a friend called in the morning to say that she was going to come over and bring us lunch!

This friend was accompanied by B, her 3-year-old daughter, so the BabyGirl and i were both thrilled to have a playmate. Neither one of us have had much social interaction the past few weeks and we were kind of people-starved.

When our friends arrived, the BabyGirl and B ran off to the living room to play while Sarah and i sat in the kitchen. We were chatting away when the BabyGirl and B came back into the kitchen. B was preoccupied with a toy she was holding as the BabyGirl was attempting to give her a hug. It's fairly awkward to hug someone who doesn't know that they are being hugged. The BabyGirl would get right up in B's personal space, and at the moment that she reached her arms out, B would back away. The BabyGirl, undeterred by B's resistance, started over. This process repeated several times until both girls were somewhat frustrated, the BabyGirl because her hug was being thwarted and B because she didn't want to hug.

As soon as I noticed that the BabyGirl was unsuccessfully trying to force a hug on B, i instructed the BabyGirl to first request B's permission to hug. She eagerly asked, "Wanna hug???" and B ever so slightly shook her head no. It was almost imperceptible. The BabyGirl asked again and B did the same thing. Her refusal was not emphatic enough to have much of an impact on the BabyGirl, so she continued her attempts. I had to tell her to leave the poor girl alone, she does not want to be hugged right now.

They went back into the living room, where the BabyGirl hung back a little and waited for B to resume playing. Then she came at B from behind and gave her a Surprise Hug Attack! Haha, gotcha! During the course of their playing, the BabyGirl sneaked in a few more of these ambush hugs.

It was funny in that each girl received an admonition from their mother. Sarah told B, "Just let her hug you!" and i told the BabyGirl, "Stop hugging her against her will!" I think they both listened to the opposite mother.

After a while Sarah and B took their leave. As soon as they were out the door i heard B say to Sarah, "That was fun!" Sarah, surprised, asked, "Did you like it when the BabyGirl hugged you?" B smiled and nodded.

The BabyGirl is slowly winning people over to the ways of hugging, just like i was won over by The Professor's family!
 

BabyGirl Meets Baby Sister

Big Belly Entertainments

The poor BabyGirl has been living a pretty lack-luster life these past few weeks. We don't play outside because she runs away faster than i can chase her. We don't go to the park because of the heat and the previously mentioned running away. We don't go to the library because of the running. Do they have track and field for 2 year olds? Because that might be one thing we could actually do.

Mostly we sit on the couch and read books. I feel bad for the poor girl. It's no way for a toddler to spend the summer. Nonetheless, we have had some good times. With a little creativity, we have managed to provide her with at least a small amount of cheer. Here are some things we've done:

We painted our toenails! Oh how i have longed for this day. Being a VERY girly-girl, i knew she would love it. I was biding my time until the right moment. It wasn't my best paint job, due to one set of nails being very squirmy and the other set being extremely difficult to reach.

We made a cardboard BabyGirl. The colors are not very bright, but i hope you can see it a little bit. She thought it was great. For some reason, she kept calling it "Space Monkey." We could never figure out why. But for a day or two, Space Monkey was her dynamic duo and they did everything together. For example: she was walking towards her room and said, "Wait! Need to bring Space Monkey!" Unfortunately the novelty was short-lived, possibly due to the difficulty of portability of the Space Monkey. So now for poor Space Monkey is shoved in the corner.

We FINALLY unpacked all of her books! She had way more books than space to put them, so many of them remained boxed up until we bought a bookcase. It was like Christmas, both for us and her. Even The Professor and i had forgotten that we had certain books. The bookcase is in BG2's room, so the BabyGirl carried her folding chair in there and spent about 3 days reading loads of new books. Then she wised up to the fact that just because the bookshelf is in that room, doesn't mean that the books have to stay there! So now she simply carts the books here and there and everywhere to read them wherever is convenient for her.

We started watching YouTube videos. This was a big strategical error on our part. The BabyGirl was sick with a bad cold, and we needed a low-energy source of entertainment. Now she's addicted to youtube and wants to watch it all the time. This particular video was her favorite for a while. It has about 94 million views, and i'm pretty sure that at least 4 million of those are the BabyGirl. It's fairly cute, so it doesn't get annoying immediately like most kid videos. You can watch it for at least two dozen times before you're totally over it. The Professor's favorite part is "Waddle, waddle," and he enjoys singing it to me as i walk around. The other day when the BabyGirl and i were at the grocery, she gave me a mischievous smirk and asked, "Got any grapes?"

The only time that the BabyGirl gets any real excitement is when the Three Brothers are involved. Her best buds are three boys ages 4, 2, and 10 months. She LOVES hanging out with these guys. About a month ago we all went down to the Children's Museum together. Recently they took her with them to a local park that has a kid's farm. Yesterday she stayed at their house while The Professor and i toured one of the hospitals in town, and they gave her a rose! She's two years old and already boys are giving her flowers. I was at least 21 before a boy gave me roses.

I appreciate the BabyGirl's patience in bearing with us through this low-key summer. Not that she has any choice in the matter =]. Hopefully next year we can make it up to her!

 

Good Things

Despite the woes of the final weeks of pregnancy, the oppressive heat, and the limitations of my SI joint, there are several good things happening over here. Martha Stewart may think she owns the copyright to the term "good things", but i'm not talking about recipes and kitchen organization. I'm talking about every good and perfect gift that comes from the Lord. Here are a few of the blessings we've been enjoying recently:

1. Mother's Helper - A sweet and considerate girl from church offered to come over and play with the BabyGirl one morning so i could get some stuff done. She was a saint. She played so patiently with the BabyGirl! At ten years old, she definitely has a gentle and quiet spirit, something i long to cultivate myself but doubt i'll ever achieve.

2. The Grabber - Oh people, i love this thing! It used to be the case that whatever items landed on the floor during the course of the day simply remained there until The Professor got home. Unless i could sweet-talk the BabyGirl into picking something up for me, it wasn't going to get picked up. And since the BabyGirl was the reason that 97% of those things came to be on the floor in the first place, she wasn't often in the mood to retrieve them up. Until i received The Grabber. A nice older man at church gave it to me. I later found out the back story. His wife had broken her arm a few years ago, so for Christmas he bought her The Grabber. He thought it was clever and amusing; she was appalled. She told him, "Get that thing out of my sight!" It was never spoken of again until they were getting ready to go to church and he said, "Wait one minute; i have to get that Grabber." She was irritated to learn that it had still been dwelling under their roof because she thought he had disposed of it. But when he told her that he was passing it on to me, she was pleased to know that it was going to a home where it would be loved and appreciated. And boy is it appreciated! We've been grabbing like crazy over here. I think from now on I'm going to buy one for anyone who gets pregnant.

3. Baby Name Books - My friend Carrie-Who-Is-Not-Scary heard about our baby name dilemma. She checked out a stack of baby name books from the library and delivered them to my house! It was so thoughtful of her during the time when i couldn't get out of the house much because i couldn't walk well. One of the books she checked out was an Irish name book. While entertaining, it was not very useful. Irish names are just plain weird. Somehow we latched onto the name Sinead and joked about it for several days. (SPOILER ALERT: the baby will not be named Sinead.)

4. Baby Gifts! - We have been so greatful for all the wonderful gifts we have received for BG2! Our UPS man probably has our address memorized. If and when BG2's room ever gets presentable, i will be so excited to show you the before and after pictures. Every morning i go look to see if magic gnomes showed up in the night to put everything in order for me, and every morning it's still a big mess.

It has been so wonderful to receive such help and generosity from family and friends these past few weeks. Thank you to everyone for taking care of us!

 

My Budding Modeling Career

Such as it is =].

Only the most elite models and movie stars are chosen to pose while pregnant, so i think this puts me in a special category.

This is for a promo flier to be used at a big baby expo, hence they needed a pregnant woman. I think i was the only person available who fit the profile.

Tenderhearted

My debilitating, unbearable Sacroiliac Joint pain is back. With a vengeance. I've been in horrible pain for a week. Sometimes i can barely walk. It also hurts when i sit down. Lying in bed is painful too.

The Professor and the BabyGirl have been so wonderful to me in my suffering. After i'd already endured several days and it wasn't getting better, my coping skills disappeared. On one particular day when the pain was really bad, i started crying. The BabyGirl and i were sitting at the kitchen table eating lunch, and i just burst into tears without warning. At first she looked at me with a "what in the world is happening here" expression. But within seconds it changed into concern. She said to me softly and with compassion, "Mama crying. Why tears, Mama?"

I told her that i was going to rest on the couch and finish my crying; she nodded understandingly. I remembered to grab a box of tissues en route and the BabyGirl trotted after me. As soon as i got settled down on the couch (which is no small feat), i wanted a glass of water so badly. Well, as luck would have it, one of her favorite things in this world is carrying my water cup. Most of the time she is prohibited from doing so because it results in lots of spilled water.

When i nicely asked her to please fetch my water cup from the kitchen table, she thought it was her lucky day. It was as if she was born for this. She was SO HAPPY to run back into the kitchen and get my water cup from the table. The task should only have taken a second. Instead, i heard chairs being pushed around and some grunting. Then she mumbled to herself something about, "Reach!" Finally she returned triumphantly with a cup in hand. Unfortunately, it was not my current water cup that was left on the edge of the table within easy reach. It was Daddy's water cup from dinner last night, which had not been cleared away. It had been moved to the very center of the table where you could not easily get to it if you happened to be 36 inches tall. But she had gone after that day-old water cup with everything she had. She climbed and grunted and reached until she claimed her prize. Mama had requested water, and the BabyGirl was not going to return empty-handed.

She was so pleased with herself as she presented me with the day-old cup she had procured. I thanked her profusely and made a big deal about what a great helper she was and such a big girl to get the cup all by herself. Nonetheless, i couldn't bring myself to drink the small amount of water that was in that cup. Day-old Daddy backwash was swimming on the surface and taunting me. It really grossed me out.

But i was so touched by her desire to help that it took my mind off the pain a little. Then she sat down next to me and snuggled up close. She gently rubbed my leg and said, "All better, Mama. All better."

I'm so greatful for that moment. She doesn't have the first idea about sacroiliac joints, but she dropped everything to be present with me when i was in need. She has repeatedly demonstrated her compassion during her short life, and i am so impressed by her caring nature.

A few weeks ago it was my turn to serve in the nursery. The kids were sitting in chairs quietly eating their crackers at snack time. A mom came in carrying her three-year-old girl who was in the middle of a tantrum. It wasn't a kicking, thrashing tantrum; it was a fairly well composed crying tantrum. The girl just wanted to cry and nothing else. She didn't want to be comforted by her mom, she didn't want to talk about it, she didn't want to be distracted with toys, she just wanted to cry. So her mom put her in a chair in the corner and left.

Most of the kids in the nursery took little notice of this. They continued enjoying their snack. The BabyGirl, however, was full of concern. She had such a worried look on her face when she said to me, "Girl is crying!" I asked the BabyGirl if she wanted to go give her a hug, which is exactly what she wanted to do. Unfortunately, the crying girl wasn't so much in the mood for a hug. She had her head buried in her lap, and none of her body parts were very accessible. The BabyGirl did the best she could and hugged as much of the girl as she could get to.

(We later found out that the crying girl had lice at the time (her mom didn't discover the critters until that afternoon), so i was VERY RELIEVED that the hug wasn't a close embrace!)

Once again, the situation proved that the BabyGirl is a very tenderhearted soul who is attentive to others.

I didn't fully grasp the significance of all these things until a friend asked me if the BabyGirl was treating me okay while i'm so physically limited. I told her that the BabyGirl's favorite pasttime is snuggling, and that she is perfectly happy to curl up with me and read books. My friend was shocked. She has three little boys, so she didn't even know that such a thing as snuggling existed in the world. Her boys want to spend all day playing Hide & Seek, Superheroes Jump Off the Couch, and Pillow Attack.

It was the words "pillow attack" that really got to me. I'm pretty sure that pillow attack would be the end of me. The only foreseeable outcomes are either several weeks in traction, or a Clinitron bed with a Sip 'n Puff.

I was extremely greatful for my BabyGirl prior to that conversation, and now i'm exponentially more greatful! Praise the Lord for snuggles instead of pillow attack.

I am excited to see the plans that God has for the BabyGirl, and the ways in which she will be able to apply her gift of compassion. I pray that He gives me the wisdom and insight to point her towards the woman He created her to be.

 

Praying for Friends With Enemies

I've never been a good pray-er.

My praying regimen has always been more reactive than proactive. When things comes up, i pray for them. Otherwise i don't have a regular, routine prayer life.

The past few weeks i had been feeling drawn to prayer in a new way. I want to grow and mature in this area. Incidentally, the leaders of my church feel the same way. Our church is focusing intently on prayer this summer, with several resources to help people learn more about praying.

Our pastor is preaching through the Psalms, and we are using the lessons found there to shape our prayers. We have a daily reading guide to use for personal study.

Let me quickly explain why the heck i'm telling you all this. It's because i am a huge failure when it comes to journaling. I kind of hate to journal. But occasionally, there are journal-worthy events that i want to record. This blog is composed of 30% BabyGirl stories, 25% cosmic freak-outs, 40% preserving our life events to remember when we are old and gray, and 5% miscellaneous. This entry on prayer falls into "miscellaneous." You are welcome to leave now. I'm not writing this because i necessarily want you to know about it. It's more so that i personally want to remember it. Having evaluated all my options of effective places to document things i want to remember, this came out as the best choice.

Okay, so moving on. Last night The Professor and i studied Psalm 5 together. As we were discussing it, we decided that we couldn't fully identify with it because we do not have any full-fledged, oppressive enemies. We started brainstorming people we are close to who are currently being attacked by enemies. The answer was very clear. There are two men in the Big City that are having a terrible time right now as a result of a particular person. To accomplish our task of praying through the psalms, we are praying Psalm 5: 11-12 for our friends who are dealing with an enemy:

"But let all who take refuge in you be glad;
let them ever sing for joy.
Spread your protection over them,
that those who love your name may rejoice in you. 
For surely, O Lord, you bless the righteous;
you surround them with your favor as with a shield."
 

Friendly Neighbor Gift

A very nice older lady who lives two doors down gave the BabyGirl a bag full of beanie babies. Apparently this lady was quite the beanie baby collector at one point, because she she said that she had already gotten rid of "most of them" before she remembered the BabyGirl, and was sad that she was only able to give us "the few that were left." We recently had instituted a strict NO MORE STUFFED ANIMALS policy, but who can say no to a nice old lady? Additionally, the BabyGirl loves them, so i think we'll be keeping up with them for a while. Thanks, friendly neighbor!

Big Girl Bed

Someone slept in her new bed last night!

And this is what her room looked like when we got her up in the morning:

Baby Mine

In the mom’s online discussion group that I’m a part of, my friend Emily shared a link to a post about “Your Children Want YOU!” It’s about being present instead of being pinterest. To be a mom who listens and loves. In the post, the author mentions her ritual of singing the song “Baby Mine” to her daughter every night. I thought, “Oh that’s so sweet! I love that song; I’ll sing it too.” I had to google the lyrics because I hadn’t heard it since I was 6 years old watching Dumbo. I couldn’t even read through the lyrics without bawling my eyes out. Oh dear, I thought, I’ll never be able to sing this song out loud if I can’t even read the lyrics silently!

At my next snuggle session with the BabyGirl, I decided to try it out. But I could only remember a line or two:

Rest your head close to my heart,

Never depart, baby of mine.

She said, “More,” so I sang it again. And again. And again. For several days, she would request, “Sing more Baby Mine,” and I would sing those two lines.

Those beautiful, timeless moments of snuggles and singing are what gives life to parenthood. At other times, however, things aren’t so well under our control. Being out of control leads to incapacitating Mom Worry.

At the BabyGirl’s 4 day check-up, the pediatrician found some concerning heart issues and sent us to the ER at Children’s for further testing. Well, the further testing was concerning too, so the ER visit turned into an ICU admission for a million-dollar cardiac workup. That night, after spending the entire day bouncing from doctor’s office to ER to ICU, we had to leave her there in the hospital. She was staying there alone, hooked up to wires and monitors. We were going home alone, without our bundle of joy.

We cried and prayed together and asked God to watch over her for us while we were away. I was terrified, that having endured the most grueling and traumatic birth of 90% of women I know, that I would lose her four days later.

Prior to having kids, I wasn’t too bothered by the cosmic questions of Why Do Things Happen. Issues like the problem of suffering, and to what extent does God control each event, were things that The Professor enjoyed wrestling with but didn’t hold my attention. Until I myself experienced suffering. Then I was plagued with all sorts of questions. Why did I have a difficult birth? Why was I in constant pain for months on end? Why did the BabyGirl have to spend a week in the ICU? What is God doing here? What is the point of this?

The thing of it is, my story isn’t the one that breeds questions. I have a friend whose twins were born 12 weeks early. Everyday she made a 3 hr round trip to the NICU to hold their fragile bodies in her arms and beg God that they would live. I worked with a nurse whose son had active hemophilia. One day she got a panicked call from the nanny and had to rush home to give him a blood transfusion. Another friend’s baby was born with a birth defect that required 4 surgeries before she was a year old. Another friend’s two sons had such severe learning disabilities and behavioral problems that she was constantly worried they’d be kicked out of another school.

Talk about Mom Worry! But it doesn’t even take extreme circumstances to ignite a bout of Mom Worry; the little things can do it too. Your infant chokes on something in the church nursery. Your toddler runs out into the street. Your child stands a little too close to the edge of a bridge. And then, oh my heavens, they turn into teenagers.

Mom Worry is everywhere. Some people face it earlier than others. For some it strikes in early pregnancy. Others don’t encounter it until after the baby is born. And others may not fully experience it until years later. But I think we all suffer from it.

In all my time of grappling with the big questions of Why, I keep coming back to this verse:

The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;

May the name of the Lord be praised.

This baby of mine? She isn’t really mine. She is a gift from the Lord. He gave her to me, and I am honored to be her steward. But if I believe that this world isn’t my home, then it’s not her home either. If I am temporary here, then she is temporary here.

Our pastor has been preaching through Genesis, and we just studied the account of Leah and Rachel. Poor Leah was unloved and unwanted, but the Lord blessed her with children. With each son that she bore, she thought she would find the fulfillment that she sought. It took her until the fourth son, Judah, to be able to say, “This time I will praise the Lord.”

That’s how I am; too knuckleheaded to learn a lesson the first three times. When I imagine her story, I think about all the things outside her control. She was forced to marry a man who didn’t want her. She had to then share that man with her sister. She thought having a son would make him love her. She thought having two and three sons would make him love her. But finally, she saw the truth: I can control nothing in this life. All I can do is praise the Lord.

for Sarah K

Gardening By the Seat of Your Pants

When we moved into a house with a yard, i had such lofty notions of the beautiful and well-cultivated lawn i would keep.

And now, 10 months later, i'm STILL dreaming about the perfect garden.

My very first goal for my yard was to plant some tulips. Tulips are beautiful and one of my favorite flowers. They love this climate, so it seemed like the perfect idea. Well, the prime time to plant tulip bulbs is in the fall. It coincided perfectly with the onset of our money troubles. Tulip bulbs were definitely a frivolous expense that i had to surrender. It wasn't just the cost of the tulip bulbs themselves; it was that i had no gardening equipment. I was going to have to buy a shovel, some dirt, and other things. So unfortunately i didn't plant any tulips in the fall.

But then in late March, the craziest thing happened! I picked up our recycling bin to take it out to the curb for trash day, and underneath the bin were tender little green shoots! I felt so sorry for them having to push their way upwards with the recycling on top of them. I was so curious to see what would happen. After a week or two, they turned into this:

I got my tulips after all! Sadly, it only put out these three flowers. There were a few other buds that i was waiting to bloom so that i could cut the flowers and bring them inside. Those poor buds never bloomed. Maybe next year!

Since then, we've had so much fun watching all the surprise flowers pop up! We have a rose bush:

and this other thing:

I honestly don't even know what this is, but it's beautiful! The roses and mystery flowers are now dazzling our house with their elegance:

My flower-arranging skills are definitely not as advanced as Laura's, but i did my best. Now if my yard would spontaneously grow some tomatoes and cilantro, then i'd be in business!