Baby Steps

Alyssia has been pulling up to a standing position like a champ for a couple of weeks. In the last two days, she has started letting go of her prop and balancing. She has the most wonderful look of simultaneous satisfaction and surprise on her face while she's balancing. When she falls back and lands on her bottom with a thud, she propels herself forward to a crawling position and then promptly pulls herself back up to try again. It's wonderful to watch! I have to figure out how to post videos like my brilliant little sister has done so everyone who loves Alyssia can see these initial triumphs. Today, for the first time, she took 5 or 6 steps towards me as I held her hands over her head. She wasn't too sure if she liked it at first, but after we tried it again, she seemed to enjoy it a little more.

Nana is here visiting and today she started teaching Alyssia how to crawl up the stairs. So many new things are happening. In fact, she has also started talking more. She now says the following words: mama, dada, yay, oh yeah (I'm not kidding), down, up, bobo, and no. She also points to herself or pats herself on the head when I ask her where my baby is. I love that.

Something else about Alyssia I love--this may sound silly, but I love her little feet. Oh those little toes! Those perfect little toes. She likes to play the "little piggy" game with her toes. I remember my grandmother playing that game with me. She also loves it when Ben plays the stinky toes game with her. He puts her toes up to his nose, makes a horrible face and squeals, "PEEE-UUUU" She shrieks when he gets to the PEEEE-UUUU part. It's fantastic.

Where's My Baby?

The first birthday is fast approaching. I'm so excited and at the same time a little sad. Every time I look at Alyssia now I wonder, where is my little baby? She's growing up so fast. I try to cherish and savor every moment I have with her, knowing how the moments are speeding by, never to return. I often wonder why we forget that. Why do we get wrapped up in things that don't matter and forget to focus on the things that do matter? Why are we so easily distracted by foolishness? I'm so guilty of thinking I don't have time to get on the floor and just play with Alyssia. I have to do the dishes. I have to water the flowers. I have to put away the laundry. I have to slog through mountains of mail. Yes, yes, yes. We have to do all that stuff, but it can wait. She will only be the age she is today! And she's changing so fast. I don't want to miss anything. It may be that I am particularly sensitive to all this because our little Chloe left us so early. And maybe that is one of the gifts she left us. The gift of understanding that what we have is right now. Make it count.

Here we are on a recent trip to the Washington Zoo. Making memories to enjoy. It was a very hot day. The misting machines throughout the zoo saved us from heat exhaustion. Alyssia loved it. She roared at the lions.

Raspberries!

On July 4th, Ben and I had a few friends over for lunch. Two of our guests helped me pick raspberries from the back yard. We picked 5 lbs of berries! They are beautiful. Saturday I picked more berries and made a raspberry-peach pie for a party I attended. It was a big hit. We've discovered that Alyssia loves raspberries. In fact, since she's been sleeping better, her appetite has improved. She now loves macaroni and cheese, most fruits, bread and butter, and sometimes baked beans. She is also venturing out and trying eggs and pancakes. Right now, my goal is to get her to eat a few more veggies.

Alyssia enjoyed her first 4th of July. She was fascinated by the fireworks and did very well with all the noise for about the first 10 minutes. After that, she was on information overload and just wanted to snuggle up to me and look away from the fireworks. I finally have the pictures!

Committed

Happy Anniversary to my beautiful parents who today are celebrating 42 years of marriage. I couldn't find a picture of the two of them together to put up, but at least these pictures show everyone what great people they are. I want to tell you mom and dad--I am so proud of you for being married for so long in a day when so many people throw in the towel after just a few years. You have lived out your vows (you know, those old-fashioned ones like sickness and health, richer or poor) for years and you are an example for us to follow. Thank you for being committed to each other and to your family for all these years, even though life hasn't been perfect. I love you so much.

Independence Day

Poor Alyssia is off of her schedule and she just can't settle down to sleep tonight. I guess I made a mistake during the morning nap. She went down like usual around 9:15. She fussed for 10 seconds and then just started talking in her crib--for almost 2 hours. I probably should have gotten her out of bed at 11:15, even though she had just fallen asleep, but I didn't. Instead, I let her sleep until 12:50. Then, of course, there was no afternoon nap, just a little catnap around 6. We started the bedtime routine at 7:30. It's now 9:00 and dad is taking the second shift trying to get her down. YIPES. We're well in to week 2 and we've regressed. Here's hoping she'll sleep all night once she finally goes down. I want her to sleep like she is in this picture!

Happy 4th of July to everyone. I've been thinking about the terror attacks in England and the recent headlines about the U.S. government expecting a significant terror attack on our own soil this summer and I have to say, it scares me. I think we better get serious about security in America or we could end up with what happened to the people of London two years ago, or, God forbid, another 9/11. I'm not sure why we don't seem to get that Islamic jihadists want to kill us or see us converted. It's not politically correct to say "Islamic," but come on!! They are!! I know not all Muslims want to kill us or convert us, but the people committing these acts of terror do all have something in common . . . . they're all Muslims. Helloooooo. There aren't a bunch of angry Budhists or Christians or Jews running around blowing up cars and buildings. Consequently, it would seem to make sense for us to focus our security efforts on the population of people perpetrating the acts of terror. Not rocket science.

I saw a youtube video of Iranian mothers talking about their lofty place in society as mothers of sons who had killed themselves while killing scores of Israeli civilians, including children. One paragon of goodness, virtue, and motherly affection proclaimed that she wished she could lose two sons instead of one in the war against the Jews and the West because then she would have even more honor. As a mother who has lost a precious child, I can't get my head around that kind of statement, except to say there must be a sect of the religion known as Islam, that is full of mentally ill or just pure evil people. Since you don't usually find whole populations of people who are mentally ill, I'm going to have to go with pure evil. The same video included footage of little Iranian children spewing out hatred for the Jews and America and footage of cartoons shown in Iran that include young Iranian boys being kissed by their doting mothers as they strap on their suicide bombs and head to Israel to blow up more Jews. WHAT?! You heard me. Who shows that kind of stuff to their children?! I don't know what it's going to take to defeat that kind of enemy, but I would venture to say we better figure out something soon because these people are not going to just go away and leave us alone to lead our free western lives. They are already in this country and they want us to be like them, or else. It's depressing to think about that reality.

Anyway, enough about that. Happy 4th of July. I'm thankful we live in a nation that values freedom. I hope we're willing to do what it takes to keep it that way. I can't handle having to go to the store in a burka.

Love Letter

I've been thinking for a while that I wanted to write a letter to my family to let you all know how much I love you and to ask a favor of all of you. But first I have to tell you a story. About a month ago, a young man from our church named Paul Trader died peacefully in his sleep. He was only 23 years old. He had a heart condition that had worsened, although apparently no one knew how serious the condition was. His death was a terrible shock to his family, of course, and to our whole church. He left a wife and a little 1-year-old daughter.



I don't understand God's ways. I don't know why Paul died so young. I don't know why my sweet Chloe died at 2 months old. But I do believe that despite these terrible blows in life, God is good and just and right and He has good reasons for everything He allows. And I guess I'm telling you all this story because I want you to think about the facts. I'm not trying to be morbid. I'm just telling you to think about the facts and then act on them accordingly.




Paul was 23 years old. Chloe was 2 months old. None of us have a promise of tomorrow. God has blessed us with today. So today, we must determine that we will not have anything in our hearts against each other. We don't have time for anger. We don't have time for bitterness or unforgiveness. We've been given today and we have to love each other today. Don't waste any time holding on to grudges. It's so not worth it. It's so much better to forgive and let go of the past. You may think it's not possible, but with God, all things are possible. Really it's just a choice to forgive everyone who has hurt you and choose instead to love, live with joy, and expect the best from people you love even if they've disappointed you in the past. I promise you, you will never regret forgiving and loving, but you will regret holding on to grudges. I just wanted to say that. And I wanted everyone to know, since none of us know when our last breath will be, that I love you all. I love my family so much and I love my friends so much and I just want to make sure you all know that. That's all. I've just been feeling for some time that I wanted to say these things to those I love. Thanks for reading. God bless you.