Pluses and minuses of no internet access:

Things I miss:

1. Rachel's blog
2. Haley's blog
3. my OWN blog
4. iTunes
5. library hold requests

Things I DON'T miss:

1. email
2. email
3. email
4. email
5. email

I'm just sayin'.

Um, California? It's November.

So knock it off with the un-winter-ish weather.

Chiara and I flew into California yesterday to pack up all the furniture etc we've been storing at my parents' house. My plan was to come back, pack up the moving truck, and drive home to Idaho (groan ... still can't believe I live there). Yesterday all I did was go through old stuff, throw things away, and repack boxes. All day. I can't BELIEVE the things I'm finding in boxes labeled with my name ... it's astounding.

For example, I found an Eric Carle painting kit from my I-want-to-learn-to-watercolor phase. Yeah, it's in a Hungry Caterpillar box. Classy. I found a stack of Splash Mountain pictures from every school trip I'd ever taken to Disneyland. They weren't pretty, by the way. I found letters I'd attempted to write in Italian from the first few months of my mission which were full of American idioms. I found pictures and gifts from ex-boyfriends, clothes that I'd never don again even if I could fit into them, and more cards and letters and papers than I can even put into words. It was ridiculous. I even found a poem I'd written about my first love. Well, I thought he was my first love. I was 14 years old. :)

Chiara has been loving this whole packing project because she plays with all the boxes. Hide and seek is her favorite game of life. It would worry me except that she's not a good hider. As soon as Eldon or I announce that we're done counting she bursts out of her hiding place and yells, "Boo!" And then she laughs hysterically. So do we. I'll miss that game when she grows out of it ... I hope it's not for a long, long time.

So it's been a productive trip. For Christmas my mom took me to IKEA this morning ... ambiguous sentence. We found so much great stuff to organize and otherwise manage my life. I love the people who come up with the products IKEA sells. We bought magnetic spice racks, "floating" shelves, deep picture frames, and so much more. I'm still glowing from it all. Eldon is probably reading this and cringing, but it will really be a fantastic help to our little apartment. You'll see, Honey. I threw away all my dumb stuff (except I might have kept the caterpillar painting set) and made room for useful stuff! :)

Oh, what made me think of our IKEA trip was realizing how easy it would be for a mother to lose a child who was good at hide-and-seek. My goodness, she was climbing into every cabinet, bin, and bed she could. It was so funny. She did a full-out nose dive into this little toy box and was just thrilled with herself over it. I have no idea what the people around us were thinking. Probably, "Why does that woman let her daughter do that?" Because it's funny. That's why. And it makes her happy. And she is really, REALLY cute when she's happy.

I am so so so happy and excited to get all moved into our new place and make us a home. Yay to the tenth power!!

Halloween is definitely not my fave

But I'll post pictures for my darling child's grandparents to see. :)

Chiara: The Sunglassed

 She's the Queen of Facial Expressions. Enough said. :)

A small moment:

Outside my window ... It's sunny and cold - my favorite autumnal combination.

I am thinking ... About a friend I love and how much can change in just a few years.

I am thankful for ... A husband who understands me and trusts what he understands.

From the learning room ... reading old journals doesn't get less embarrassing as time passes.

I am reading ... Making Sense of the New Testament, The New Testament, and The Broken Heart ... I think my personality can be seen clearly by the fact that I'm always reading like five books at a time.

I am wondering ... How I fell so in love with God ... How it happened. Why it happened. What it has meant to me along the course of my life.

I am hearing ... John Meyer's Continuum. (Gravity ... has taken better men than me ... )

Today if I could change one thing ... I would take the misdemeanor off Eldon's record (STORY: Eldon was pulled over on his way to take a bunch of trash to the dump. After keeping Eldon for almost two hours on the side of the road, the cop decided the mattress in the trailer needed to have a rope over it. So he gave Eldon a misdemeanor. I know. It's the dumbest thing ever. We're fighting it, but it's a long expensive process.)


I am quoting ... Neal A. Maxwell: "Sometimes the best people have the worst experiences because they are the most prepared to learn." 

I am going ... to be myself today, and love it.

I am missing ... fiction. (only 11 more months to go)

I am hoping ... Chiara is feeling happy and loved.

One of my guilty pleasures ... reading in bed after a hot shower while Chiara naps.

Pet Peeves ... inside-out underwear in the laundry.

One of my favorite things ... happy friends.

An enjoyable movie I have watched lately ... the HBO documentary on John Adams.

I am curious about ... what happens in minds that aren't mine.


A few plans for the rest of the week ... register our car and truck in ID, get an ID license, and probably cry on the way home from the DMV.

A picture and thought I am sharing with you ... 

If God loves us even more than I love her, I don't know why we worry so much.

When Mommy gets a new camera:

 Drew showing Chiara a plastic spider. :)

 Just saying good morning.

 Wanting to play with Mommy's new toy. Sorry, Baby, cameras aren't for babies.

Showing me the bouncy ball she put in her mouth. I don't know if she'll ever stop putting everything in her mouth. Isn't that stage supposed to end when they're younger than this? :)

thoughts and more thoughts

We rented My Name Is Khan from redbox the other night and I've been thinking about it. It was a great movie, I enjoyed it enough to watch it again - even though Eldon thought it was WAAAAAY to long. :)

The story goes, young Indian boy with Asbergers grows up into an Indian man with Asbergers. He is afraid of sharp noises and the color yellow, among other things. A beautiful, young, divorced Hindu woman falls in love with him and they get married. Then 9/11 happens and suddenly it seems all of America is turning to Muslims with hatred in their eyes. Their son (his step son) is the victim of a hate crime and his wife basically blames him and his last name for what happened. Khan goes on a journey to meet the President of the United States (who is a handsome black man) to tell him personally he is not a terrorist, despite his name and heritage.

The acting and cinematography are great. I laughed and cried multiple times, which is the best sign - to me - that a movie was worth my time. But here are my thoughts.

I am sorry our country - in general - turned hateful toward any and all Muslims after 9/11. That is tragic. I know some of them were held in customs and missed their flights while they were being screened. I know some lost business and suffered the indignity of harassment from strangers and friends alike. I know many of them fled here out of fear of their own culture and their own country. I wish this country could have proved more of a respite for them.

However.

What would you have us do? I'm not excusing hate crimes, so please don't misunderstand me. But if you're taking a flight and you look like the same guys who blew our twin towers into smithereens, does it truly come as a shock to you that we want to make sure you're safe before we let you board our aircraft? I'm sorry you're running late, that the gate is closing ... we need to check you out first.

There was a scene where a young boy and his father were waiting for a train. There was a bearded Muslim man with a turban sitting on the bench where the little boy wanted to sit. His father looked at his son, looked at the Muslim man, and placed himself between the two on the bench. I think it was meant to evoke sympathy. And it worked, my heart went out to the man. But that doesn't mean I wouldn't have done the exact same thing if I were in that father's position.

Here's my dilemma: how do you behave in a way that is both generous and cautious? How do you recover from an attack like 9/11 without fear of the culture or religion your attackers claim as their motive? How do you wipe your tears with one hand and reach out in understanding with the other without making yourself vulnerable? It can't be done. You must choose between defense and understanding.

I'm not trying to make a judgment call for which is the correct choice. Some hearts would break into more pieces with either option. But what I think I am saying, is that young father had a right to choose to defend. It doesn't make him a terrible, intolerant, bigot. His first duty, I would say, would be to his child - not to the stranger on the bench. And to presume to paint the Muslim man as some kind of victim is a little ridiculous. You're a grown man, Sir, I'm sure you'll be just fine.

There was another scene where a Muslim husband gently told his wife to stop wearing her headdress because it made her a target. That was heart-breaking. He said, "Allah will understand, even if these people don't." I felt such pity for them, and every other couple like them, who had to make those kinds of sacrifices in order to feel safe. Let's just remember that the father who didn't want his young son sitting next to that Muslim man was also acting out of gentle fear. He wasn't being confrontational or accusatory. But life had changed in such a way that behavior had to be modified.

The world where Muslim women couldn't wear their headdresses was the same world where children could no longer sit beside Muslim strangers at the train station. There were victims on both sides of the same crime. We don't have to choose which was more wronged ... let's just move forward.

I'm not even going to comment on the larger-than-life black President who condescended to meet his Muslim citizen at a huge public gathering. For the love.

My point is that after four days of mulling this over in my mind I think we have to allow people to act and react differently than we ourselves believe we would if we were in their positions. Of course violence and harassment are inexcusable, but caution is not. It's okay to choose to defend before choosing to understand.

I'd love to hear what someone else thinks about all this ...or what they thought of the movie.

Cousins are (sometimes) great friends

Seriously, this could be on the front of a Hallmark card. So cute. Melissa, my sister-in-law, takes great pictures. Maybe I'll buy a memory card and borrow her camera once in a while ... A good camera makes such a difference, huh? :) 

She's a very good hug-giver, even if her recipient is less than enthused. Owen would rather play with, I don't know, anything, than get all huggy. Also, she already needs braces, which is unfortunate. She loves to be pacified by the pacifier ... We'll be more careful with the next child, if there ever is one.

Here they are on a bike ride. Teething, much? Not to sound like a mean mother, but I do think her scowl is darling and I love when she does it. If you must scowl, please make it cute. I think I'll cross-stitch that on a wall somewhere.

I think I'm gon' lose my teef.

I can now smell the difference - from the car - between cows and horses. I'm really hoping that's not just a farmer talent ... I can feel my city girl-ness slipping through my fingers. Who knows what's next? Belching and strange saddle-reminiscent gaits. Heaven help me.

In other news, Eldon and I think Chiara's first official word is "more." I think it's rather on the unfortunate side of things, but what can you do? She's hit or miss with Mama and Dada. She calls everyone Mama, and she never uses Dada to get Eldon's attention or anything. But she pounds her fists together (her sign language for "more" that she's used for like five or six months) and says, "Mo! Mo!" when she wants more food. It's too consistent to ignore ... the word that coaxed our daughter into the speaking world means gimme gimme. I'm a little heartbroken.

Before her hap this morning Chiara and I snuggled in a chair and watched videos of her when she was 11 months old. My goodness she's changed so fast. Every time video Me would prompt video Chiara to do something or say something, real-time Chiara would do it. It was so hilarious.

"Say bye bye, Chiara! Can you say it?" Video Chiara would just stare. Real-time Chiara would wave.

 "Buh. Buh. Can you say it?" Video Chiara would smile and squeal. Real-time Chiara would say, "Buh buh!"

I should seriously film her watching herself ... I'm going to be laughing about it all day.

Have you noticed I'm not posting new pictures? It's because Eldon now uses our camera for work, and has it with him all day long. And then he downloads his pictures in the evenings and recharges the battery. So, until I come up with some kind of system there's a tragic drought of new photos of my child. Sorry, Grandmas and Grandpas!

Announcement:

No, I'm not pregnant. Calm down.

Since everyone always asks us what our plan is I thought it would be nice to tell you all, since we actually have one now. :) We're staying in Idaho for the next year. Woah. I know ... I'm living among the loose dirt and the horse stench. But I actually really love it here, and so does Eldon.

He's going to work for his brother Lance's company while we wait to hear about DO school (a more holistic approach to medical school, but essentially the same thing - same residencies, same pay, same everything). Eldon applied this past week, and if we're not past the deadline we have a chance to be in school in the fall of 2011. That would be fantastic. If we're past the deadline we'll apply again to DO school and MD school and hope to be accepted for fall of 2012. Until then we'll be here with the farmland. :)

What about the army? We're still going into the army ... Eldon wants to be a doctor for the army, and this is probably the best route to get him there. We're not planning on having them pay for medical school, do our time and get out, either ... we really want it to be a career that we love. I'm actually borderline devastated that we're not going into the army right now, but that's Eldon's decision and I support him in it.* I love the idea of belonging to a community that isn't LDS, where we get to move around and meet new people all the time. I love fresh starts and learning new things .. the army will be a great fit for us in a lot of ways. Some things will be hard, but I'm confident we'll still be able to make a strong, happy life for ourselves as a military family.

*NOTE: I know that might sound chauvinistic to some people, but I really believe it's his choice. It's his career, it's his stewardship, and he's perfectly capable of making good decisions. By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families. If I hated it here it would probably be different, but since I can be happy either way it's really his call. I trust him to make good decisions for our family, the way he trusts me to do the same. Our responsibilities are different, but equal, and we respect each other as we fulfill them. This time around it's my turn to put on a smile and support him when it's not ideal for me. He's done it for me in the past, too. I think it's a good thing, and I'd be curious to hear what other people think as well.

So we're looking for place to call home for the next year. One nice thing is that we can get a 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath house for the same price as a 2 bedroom 1 bath apartment in Monterrey (where we were going to live while Eldon went through a year of military training). Yay for that! Chiara will have lots of space to be a growing toddler, which we're excited about. It will be nice for her to live somewhere she can touch anything she can reach. :) But we still hope to be moving again to go to DO school next fall ...

That's our plan. I love having a plan. I'm not one of those people who can live life by the seat of their pants. I mean, I CAN, but I much prefer to plan it all out beforehand. Now I can go on Craigslist and it's not a complete waste of my time and effort. Yay for that. It's so fun to house shop. For renters. Renting shop. House rent. ing. Whatever. You know what I mean. :) Yay yay yay!!

Here, kitty kitty ...

At Kevin's reception Chiara was way not into all the people and the noise, so we played with a stay kitten out back. Didn't realize it was a stray until MUCH later. I checked her for ringworm for days and days. :)

She's a narcissist.

It's official. Chiara is in love with herself. This is like a National Geographic video for mating dances. I was dying laughing. Luckily I thought to pull out my camera after she'd been showing herself all manner of tricks for like five minutes straight. "Look what I can do! Watch this! Did you see that? Aren't I so funny??" She'll be playing in our room and just go over to the mirror, look at herself for a minute, put her hand on the glass, then go on with whatever she was doing. It's hilarious.

I hate nature.

Is that bad (do da do doo ...)? I mean, it's just so ... dirty. And there is a LOT of it in Star, Idaho. Melissa, my sister-in-law, calls me Mother Nature. :) I'm serious, she really does. It started because I didn't like Chiara to go out and play in the sand box with her cousins ... and continued because of conversations like this:

"Hey, Shell, I'm going to go pick up some ice cream at the store. Want to come?"
"Umm ... Well, I would except I just showered."
"So, you don't want to?"
"No, I want to, it's just that I don't want to get anything on me."
(little pause ... blink blink)
"HA HA hahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!" etc etc.
I meant it too. I honestly didn't want any of the yucky corn field, horse-breathed air to get on my freshly cleansed outer vessel. So I went. Obviously, because it was immediately apparent that I have HUGE issues.

Another conversation:

"Oh, look at the sky, Honey. It's so pretty." I said to Eldon as we were driving.
"Yeah, it is."
"You know, I think the sky is my favorite part of nature."
"Oh yeah?"
"Uh huh."
(little pause)
"Probably because it's so far away." I added, thinking aloud. "I mean, you know, I've never had the sky get on me then have to wash it off."
And then we both laughed at my ridiculousness.

But, I was driving with Chiara yesterday (to spend birthday money) and there were these beautiful sunflowers on the side of the road that reminded me of my new sister Rachel.

They were so cheerful looking I actually pulled over, got OUT of the car, and squatted in the dust to take a picture of my child with them. That's a big step for me, I'll have you know. Then I thought for hours about how dirty my feet must be in my sandals. :)

Let me show you what I'm doing right now:

(well, technically this happened three minutes ago, but I had to share)

I'm sitting on the couch ... baby is sleeping, husband is showering ... I have a plate of snap peas and peach slices*  in one hand, my book Eat Pray Love** in the other ... Sara Evans is blaring from Melissa's stereo singing something that sounds playfully happy ... endorphins from my workout*** are coursing through my freshly showered body ... and it hits me what a glorious, glorious moment this is. That's all.

Oh, and my child is darling.

And my husband is the sweetest man on the planet (probably not true, but all that matters is that I think it's possible).

I have such a great life.

*(the best peach of my entire life ... room temperature and softly ripe)
** (yes, I've been reading it pretty much non-stop for the last month or so ... I just keep starting over because I love it so much)
*** (I lost three pounds this week. Ooh ooooooh!)

Picture just for fun, Chiara holding her cousin Brantley. She's patting his shoulder in this picture, and watching television. It's bedtime and they're both exhausted. Chiara is in LOVE with him. She'll be such a good big sister when we have another child ... in the millennium. :)

A typical evening with Chiara

This was taken between bath time and bed time. I've watched it like 80 times because it totally captures her little personality. She loves to dance, she loves Daddy's exercises (and rewards him with all her treasures), and she loves to play play play. Eldon and I are completely in love with her.

In her little yellow dress

I've become seriously lacking in my blogging efforts. Sheesh. Not that I think YOU care, but I care (extra capitalization of the I). There are so many things to say I almost feel a little overwhelmed even starting. However.

We are in Star, Idaho right now. If you've never been there just imagine a large corn field. Are you doing that? Now add a few horses (not too many cows in these parts, praise heaven), some wild road-side sunflowers, and a little stench and you're here with us. Yay! It's so fun. We're staying with Lance and Melissa, my brother-in-law and his wife, and their three boys. Oh, and John and Carrie, another brother-in-law and his wife, and their little boy. It makes for some crazy days, but it's so much fun. Especially at night after all the kids are in bed. :)

Chiara doesn't know what to think being surrounded by all these little boys. She hasn't picked up too many of their habits yet - no wrestling or jumping off furniture - but her wheels are turning. She practically makes a whirring sound. :) I think her brain has been on stimulation overload. So sometimes I take her upstairs to our room and we play together just the two of us. She loves to take her plastic necklaces* and bracelets and make piles, first on her right side then on her left. And then she takes those piles and moves them. That's our game, and we play it for long, long periods of time. :) She's such a girl.

* There is a neighbor child I want to whack with a small hammer who decided that her yellow necklace, with all its plastic beaded glory, needed to be his (yes, he's a BOY) for the duration of time. He made one of Melissa's boys cry because they were trying to protect Chiara's honor and get her necklace back and this kid told him he was "going to keep it forever!" What a brat. Seriously. I have no tolerance for yucky kids who just try to make trouble for the fun of it. Not that Chiara cared (if she did this would be a VERY different story) but the fact that her cousins cared was kind of cute. Melissa got the necklace back, but it was all very dramatic. :) I couldn't help but laugh.

Chiara is changing so fast. She's becoming a toddler before my eyes. I swear she looks different every morning when she wakes up. I hate it. :) The other night we went to Melissa's mom's house for dinner and the kids went out back to play in the yard. Chiara did her best to keep up, and I took pictures.

She loves cats. She loves all living creatures, but especially cats. Ha ha. Sometimes they like her too. She got all chummy with a stray kitten the other day - long story - and I've been checking her for ring worm ever since. :)

Woah, kinda freaked her out when the cat started flinging itself around.

"Wait for me, Keaton!" Chiara says.

"Wait for me, Chiara! Daddy says. :)

There she goes ... little Miss Independent. Didn't know that was genetic. :) 

Aahh! What is that thing??

Eldon and I were watching Get Smart with my mom and Shauna last night when something small and dark scurried up to our sliding glass door and started trying to get in. I know, right? PANIC!!! Shauna squealed that it was a rat and we all, of course, clustered around the door to look (from behind the safety of our screen) clutching each other for dear life. It had little tiny wings and it was fluttering around, seemingly confused that there was a barrier to the warm, lighted room where it wanted to be. Oh, we thought, it's a baby chicken! Our neighbors down the street keep chickens (they also occasionally have peacocks that get up on their roof which we see on our morning walks) so we assumed it was theirs. Nope. We took it over there and no such luck. It was a little AWOL bird.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Turns out, it was a strange baby bird of some other sort. We don't know. Maybe a wild turkey? We have those in our area ... ugly beasts, if you ask me. Anyway, once we discovered the non-rat-ness of our intruder I immediately ran to get Eldon (who had just taken Chiara up for her bath) so Chiara could see the little baby bird. She loves that kind of stuff. (We'll explore in a moment where her nature-loving genes come from.) So we rushed to dry her off, get her dressed, and take her down to see the bird thing. In hindsight, this may have been a dangerously foolish thing to do. Baby + mystery animal = all kind of terrible possibilities.

Chiara loved it. I didn't. Eldon was quick to get gloves on, make a friendship, and feed the little thing. I watched from behind the screen. It vuluntarily hopped / flapped up on his hand, and proceeded to make its way all the way up to his head. I'm serious. (I made him take a long, anticeptic shower after this if he had any intention of sleeping in our bed that night.) It was the weirdest thing.

The main weird thing I'd like to address here is that HE LET THE BIRD DO THAT. Sick. That's all I have to say about it.

No it's not. We have no idea where that bird came from! It was either domestic and magically got into our yard after escaping its loving and happy home (hear that? it's cyber sarcasm) or it was deranged. Those are the only options, if you ask me. Normal wild birds don't just snuggle with humans. And neither of those options should immediately encourage a rational thinker to get all chummy with an odd and frankly, ugly, little creature. My heck.

Whew. Moving on.

We ended up taking it to the animal rescue place like 20 minutes from our house. By "we" I mean Mom and Shauna. Eldon and I put Chiara to bed and finished the movie. :) What a crazy adventure. Don't worry, I took pictures. :)

Yes, that's a saltine cracker and a tupperware container of water. What do we know?

Here's where it begins its ascent to Eldon's head. Talk about gross. This also marks the part where Shelli is freaked out and hides behind the screen door - lest the thing decide to fling itself her direction.

Oops.

This is so not okay. Eldon was all calm and "rational" the whole time (compared to me, I guess, who screeched and jumped around and stayed the freak away from it) but feeling the little talons on his neck did freak him out a little. :)

Do you see that facial expression? He's taunting me in this picture. I'm just saying.

Chiara had no qualms about the bird. She wasn't afraid in the least. When it hopped toward her she reached for it and only ONE of her parents (I'll let you guess which one) thought that might be a negative thing. This I can tell you, she doesn't get her nature-loving-ness from me. No siree. I hate nature. That's not true. I hate being in or around nature. I love photographs and from-the-cleanliness-of-a-paved-path kind of nature, but if any of it gets on me all enjoyment is lost. I don't like pokies in my shoes, I don't like dust on my face, I don't like plant residue on my hands ... I don't like any of that crap. I'm not the world's most eager camper. Girls' camp was like a nightmare for me. The shower immediately following my return from girls' camp was probably sixteen days' worth of water.

But I digress.

What was I talking about? Oh yeah, that dirty little bird.

I've been babbling while the video I took of the experience loads, but it just told me there's an error. Bummer. Maybe I'll try to post it again later. Mostly it's me screeching Eldon's name (from my hideout in the house) as he doesn't show enough propensity to protect our child from the big, imposing threat of a tiny baby bird. :)

I love this man.

We blew up Chiara's kiddie pool this afternoon - um, with air - and she loved it. So did Eldon. Seriously, it's so hilarious to me how different our approaches to "playing with her" are. I'm getting the pool ready, putting on sun screen, and positioning myself in a lawn chair to supervise. With a book. He, on the other hand, is opening the new water toys and figuring them out.

Imagine me, sitting in shade because my sunburn from the (real) pool yesterday hurts too much to be in the sun. I have my feet resting on the edge of the kiddie pool, occasionally dipping into the freezing cold hose water which sends a massive chill through my whole body and makes my burn feel like hot ice. I'm holding a book, which I only actually read three pages of during this activity.

The reason I'm inattentive is that I can't take my eyes off my darling, darling husband. He's winding up the toys one at a time and chasing Chiara around the pool with them. She squeals when the killer whale comes bobbing toward her and bats it away like a cat. (ha ha) The frog and the tugboat aren't so scary, but the killer whale cannot be trusted.

Then, suddenly, something is wrong with the tugboat. Eldon wound it up too tight. It's broken.

"Oh, no," Eldon mutters. "This was my second favorite."

"Your second favorite?" I ask, trying to keep the smile out of my voice, since he's too focused to look at me.

"Yeah. I really liked this one." Then, because he's Mr. Fixit the tugboat is raised from the dead and started sputtering again. Just like it's supposed to.

"Good job, Honey." I congratulate him, plotting how I can get him to talk more about his favorites.

"I know. Look how much she loves it. Actually, I think maybe this one is my first favorite. And the frog is cool too. It's the most lifelike, realistic you know? Yeah, the frog is my first favorite."

I'm laughing by this time. My 24-year-old neuroscience major, reader of nonfiction, lover of Dodge Chargers and Audis husband is actually sitting by the kiddie pool and ranking his daughter's toys in order of his own personal preference. Seriously. He's the cutest thing.

And the best part is that he came downstairs after giving Chiara a bath and found me writing this blog.

"My second favorite? You can't say that in public!" he laughs.

"I'll let you read it first!" I protest, laughing too - 1) because it's funny and 2) because I'm still in the middle of reliving the actual experience.

Oh, the joys of being his wife are endless. There are practical reasons I adore him, but this is one of the silly reasons. He's just so ... cute. And he's my baby's perfect playmate. :)

P.S. I should mention that I'm not a negligent mother. I don't routinely supervise my child from the comfortable indifference of a reading chair. But she's become a Mommy's Girl recently (maybe because Eldon was gone for a week and a half) and this was Daddy Daughter bonding time. I was intentionally on the sidelines ... for the moment.

P.P.S. I have the utmost love and respect for my husband. I don't think he's a child, and this story is not indicative of his entire personality. But he's not afraid to bring out his childish side when he's playing with his one-year-old, which I find a valuable and delightfully endearing characteristic. He caters to her, and I love to watch. Gosh I just love my little family!

three things that delighted me

1. Chiara is really, and I mean REALLY, growing into her own little personality. She gets a little (or a lot) frustrated with her life sometimes, so we're teaching her a few signs to allow her to communicate without words. She knows Mama and Dada, but it's still beyond her at this point to say, "Hey, Mama, I'm a little on the hungry side so could you get me a snack please?" That being said she was using her "more" sign to tell me she wanted the pillow on the couch that she could almost but not reach. I was trying to coax her to say "please" before I got it for her, which she did. But her version of please is a do-as-I'm-doing kind of gesture, like "rolling" the cake in patty cake (which, is weird if you think about it ... who rolls cakes?). So I rubbed my stomach, showing her the correct sign and hoping she would catch on. I kid you not, she came over to be, rubbed MY stomach, then pointed at the pillow again like, "(sigh) Okay, whatever you want, but PLEASE can I have that pillow???" I almost died laughing.
2. Chiara has a little lamb (who wears a little bow...) that she LOVES. It got caught in the automatic door of my parents' van and when I finally managed to jiggle it out it was covered in black smudges. Sick. So I put it in the next load of whites I was doing, and let Chiara come over to watch me take that load out of the washer and put it into the dryer. I shoved everything in, turned the dial to "very dry" (who wants their laundry just "kind of" dry?), slammed the dryer door and walked back into the house. Chiara had already gone back in, and I found her standing in the middle of the floor, holding her soaking wet lambie, and looking at me like, "Is it okay that I miss my lamb too much to wait for it to be dry? Because I'm really okay with the wet factor." Oh, and P.S., the smudges didn't come out all the way. 
3. Chiara has taken to clapping for anything she considers an accomplishment. If she puts the diapers back in the drawer like I ask her to she smiles and applauds herself. If she delivers a kiss on command (personally my favorite of her tricks) she claps. So the other morning she gave me the "more" sign to tell me she was hungry. (When she does it without pointing to anything else it means food, if she points at something and says it she means she wants that particular thing.) I got up from the floor where we were playing, went to the kitchen counter and picked up a bag of baby goldfish. When I turned back to her with the bag in my hand she looked at me and gave me the biggest grin of her life and clapped for my competency. Yes, I'm quite a smart little mommy, thank you, Baby.
4.  Okay, four things. I went to get her from her nap the other day to find her shirtless. Yes, we've entered the stage of "Oooh, I love being naked and I can take my clothes off by myself." This will be exciting. Heaven help me. Like that nap hair? I do. It's actually, truth be told, more tame than usual in this picture. Gosh, there is nothing about this child I don't find endlessly darling!

SPOILER ALERT:

(Pregnant) Mary, avert your eyes.

Chiara LOVES the blanket I made for my friend Mary's baby boy. He's due next month and the product of bazillions of prayers. I'm in love with him already. But if Chiara has anything to do with it, he may not ever get his blanket. :)

She seriously walks around the house with it. And I guess maybe I shouldn't let her do that, but I find it very, very endearing. Sorry, Mare! :)

Girls can wear boy jammies

Chiara is in DESPERATE need of pajamas that fit her. So I was browsing at Costco and could only find TWO pairs that were her size. And they were boy ones. Oh well. She's still clearly a girl. I admit I was really hoping there would be one in her size of the blue ones with helicopters and cars that said, "Thank heaven for little boys." but alas ... it wasn't meant to be. :) I guess we'll worry about boys later.

 Look at all those teeth!

 We LOVE grandpa!

 When she gets tired she lays her head on soft things. It's so hilarious.

"Can you bring Mommy the blanket? Thank you! Woah. Too close to the camera, Baby." :)

What did we ever do before she came into our lives? I can't remember.