June: 11 Months, plus some Sadness

What a beautiful baby. And I mean baby loosely. Just in the past couple of weeks, she's become so much less of a baby. She's not walking or talking yet, but I can't help but feel like she's so grown up. She just has a spunky little personality, she's assertive, she laughs easily. I've been trying to discourage her shrieks by not responding, and she's figuring out that if she does something cute instead (like laughing and dancing), she'll get what she wants. 

Look at that big girl standing up!

She plays peek-a-boo (or inai inai ba) in a variety of ways: with her hands or with a blankie.

Where's Junie?

Where's Junie?

There's Junie!

She's such a sweet, happy girl. She's sleeping so much better than I could have imagined a couple of months ago, though the poor baby has four teeth coming in--including three molars. Isn't she too young to be getting molars? She just decided to skip the canines, I guess. 

I made this little outfit for her for the Fourth of July but didn't get pictures. It's made out of a clearance tank top from Walmart and some other repurposed stuff. I get a little extra satisfaction when I make stuff using little or no money.

Sweet baby.

On a somber note, those of you who are on Facebook may have seen my status update regarding the little boy in Sandy, Ethan, who died in a terrible accident. I visit taught the mother for about a year, and I served with the grandmother in the Relief Society presidency for over a year. It is the kind of tragedy that breaks your heart no matter what, but knowing and caring about all the family members has added greater depth to the sadness that I feel. The tragic events have been consuming my thoughts and made me more fervent in my prayers that the people I love be kept safe. Sadly, we have no guarantees in this life that we will be spared from heartache and tragedies.

Ethan and his mom:


And then we wake up this morning to the news of another tragedy, a mass shooting in a Colorado movie theater. It is an emotionally difficult week.

So let's be a little extra grateful for our families today. Hug your babies a little tighter. I don't usually get too serious on this blog, let alone speak of spiritual things, but this is a scripture in which I've often found comfort:

"Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with ^asurety ^bhopefor a better world" (Ether 12:4)

All Sorts

Okay, let's see, let's see...I feel like it's so hard to find a chunk of time to blog, but the problem with waiting a long time is things get all stacked up...I write posts in my head all the time, but I'm not going to be able to do all of them justice. Because they were brilliant. And hilarious. For sure.

Visitation
Evan, Holly, Kyle, and Aiden came to visit us at the end of May, and we stayed up WAY too late talking every night. I'm sure they were exhausted by the end of the trip, but we had a great time, especially because Chris and Teresa were in town at the same time. Also, I have zero pictures from their visit. None! Holly, you will have to send me some. Oh wait, I think there's some on facebook:

That's the best I could do, and it doesn't even have Holly or the boys. And I look like I'm sniffing Dane. I was actually trying to make a mustache for myself out of his hair.

Then, a couple of weeks later, George and Melanee came to visit, bringing Sam, Kevin, and baby Mack!

Dane and June at the OKC Bombing Memorial

We ate the best fried chicken in the world in Okarche, OK. It's been feature on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives, and it did not disappoint. We ate a lot, and George and Melanee got to try fried okra for the first time.

That, and tons of other delicious, Oklahoma-specific food. There's a reason we're the 2nd fattest state in the country. A delicious, deep-fried reason.

The kids had a blast, and they were sad to have to part and be separated by several states. We were sad, too. 

June, roughly 10 months
I can't figure out how to group pictures on this new blogger, so sorry to make you scroll. But June is getting all grown up, and I can't stand it. It also makes me laugh. She can't walk or talk, but she just doesn't seem like a little baby anymore. She screeches pretty frequently, she has quite an arm, and is a great little model for the random sewing projects I manage to try:

 

Independence Day

We went to the Edmond Kite Festival, where our kite was the highest in the sky.

Blackberry Festival

 Okay, so maybe you remember the Blackberry Festival from last year.  Dane sure did. He'd randomly talk about it all the time, wishing and hoping he could ride the little roller coaster. We were amazed at his memory of it. So I was looking forward to making all his dreams come true at the roller coaster again. Check out his utter glee:

His face never changed during the entire ride. He explained that he was a little scared to be on it all by himself, plus he'd wanted to ride in the back and the carny made him ride in the front. It was kind of hilarious how irritated he looked. So the complete lack of roller coaster excitement was disappointing. But the real reason we went was for the amazing blackberry soda and fresh berries. 

They were sold out of berries by the time we got there. And no one had ever heard of the homemade blackberry soda we bought last year. I was starting to get a little creeped out that the best part of the blackberry festival, the event which--let's face it--is probably the most exciting weekend in McLoud, OK, was absent from the collective memory of McLoud. How could something so delicious be forgotten, unacknowledged? I decided the blackberry festival was a total bust and resolved never to return. But then we found blackberry funnel cake:

I figured it would be your typical funnel cake with blackberry jam on it or something, but they actually put the berries in the batter. And then drizzle it with a blackberry glaze. 

It was so good. It might just be enough to take us back next year.

Moderate Makeover: Chair Edition

We bought chairs for our dining table back when we got married, and I liked them specifically because I could reupholster them. But I never did it. And over the course of the last eight years, they have become progressively more stained and yucky. After the fourth of July, we had a major raspberry juice disaster on the chair, and I decided it was finally time for a change.

Before: 

After:

Mika helped me pick out this fun, Asiany Poppy print, and I really like it. And it was on clearance! Seven bucks! She even provided me with the staple gun. So our dining room got a bright little upgrade. Heehee!

There's some more random stuff I need to post on here, but that's good for now.
Oh, and my random tidbit that I've been forgetting to do:

Sometimes, after we've watched a movie or something and I'm feeling really tired, I make Joel carry me to the bedroom so I don't actually have to walk. I thought this was a perfectly reasonable, normal thing to do, but when I mentioned it to my friends at church, they were incredulous and couldn't stop laughing at my laziness and being amazed that Joel would actually do it. I learned to be extra grateful for my husband who is willing to carry his lazy wife around occasionally. I'm not as lightweight as I used to be, and Joel's not as fit, and I sometimes get a pretty good bonked head in the doorway, but I don't think we're stopping anytime soon.

June: Nine Months!

Happy nine month birthday, Junie!
I can't believe she's nine months old. Next month she will be two-digit months old. That means she will soon be a year old. A year! How can that be?

I snapped this photo this morning as Dane was supposed to be watering the garden plants (that are not actually in the ground yet, as you can see through the door) but he ended up playing with June through the glass instead. I was okay with it.

Do you see June's beautiful, smiling face eerily floating on Dane's head? It reminds me of those creepy, floating head photos from the 80's. Except way more awesome because it's a real reflection.

Her stats as of this morning:

Height: 29.5 in., 95th percentile

Weight: 17 lbs. 11 oz., 20th percentile

Head: 44.2 cm, 50th percentile

I can't believe she's still so tall. Dane was always about 80th percentile until he was about 6 months old, when things started curving downward to his expected, slightly smaller than average size. But here June is, 9 months old, and still 95th percentile. Is she going to be one of those tall girls? Tall girls whose lives I can't even imagine? Will it give her advantages I never had, like...volleyball? That's the only thing I could think of. Oh, I know, jeans that you don't have to roll up. That's a good advantage. 

It's a strange situation. I have no problem with Dane being a little small, and I have no problem with June being tall. Except will Dane's little sister actually be taller than him? Since they're 4 years apart, I don't anticipate it being much of a problem, but...as adults? I just don't want either of them to have a issues. I used every tiny aberration from "normal" to throw me into hyper-self-consciousness while I was a teenager. Hopefully the will be more confident than their mom was.

Anyway. 

I think June is so beautiful. Sometimes I look at her, and I think she's the most beautiful baby in the world. It's kind of a strange feeling because I know rationally that she's not literally THE most beautiful baby in the world. But it feels that way. It makes me happy.

She appreciates good literature. She stands unassisted for seconds at a time. She crawls with proficiency. And when she think you're not paying attention, she gets into mischief:

I have a video of her mischief in action, but it won't upload. 

She's sleeping a little better these days. When she's in the mood, she'll give kisses, clap, and wave. She eats all sorts of vegetables, but the only fruit she'll eat is prunes. Prunes! She's started doing this coy little scrunched faced chuckle. And she will let you know when she's unhappy by bellowing. Bellow! She isn't super dextrous with her fingers but she is really good at working cheerios around in her hand to make them accessible. And every time she wakes up from a nap, she stands up in her crib and reaches one arm out to me. She's my sweet little baby. 

Dane has his moments of bonking her and getting frustrated with her (and biting her) but mostly he's so sweet. He's so excited to see her in the morning and loves to snuggle her and hug her. He's recently figured out how to pick her up and move her away from his toys, which he likes to do frequently. And nobody can make June laugh like Dane can. 

I love my two sweet babies. 

Happy Anniversay!

Today is our 8th anniversary. As cliche as it sounds, I think every anniversary has been happier than the last. I am grateful to have a happy marriage, beautiful children, and a kind, hilarious husband. We kind of have a problem staying up too late because we are just talking about random stuff. Maybe if we didn't like each other so much, we would get more sleep. But I can think of a lot worse problems to have.

On Saturday, Joel arranged for us to go sailing on Lake Hefner. It was beautiful, and a long-awaited event. See, back when we were engaged, we made various unrealistic plans for our wedding day and honeymoon. ("We'll have a couple hours between the sealing and the luncheon, and a couple more between the luncheon and the reception--let's go sailing!" Ha. As if you have any downtime during a DIY wedding.) So the sailing never actually happened on May 1, 2004, or any other day since.

Until now!

Here is our lovely jib sail.

My handsome husband

You can see our guide, our sailor, if you will in the background of this picture:

His name is Bill Rains, and his email is sailorbrains. I'm sure he means Sailor B Rains, but Joel and I called him Sailor Brains behind his back. Haha, we are jerks, but it made us laugh.

At first, it all felt a little underwhelming because there was hardly any breeze, and it felt awkward trying to make conversation with this random man steering the boat. But after a while, we all relaxed a little, the wind picked up, and Sailor Brains kept asking us why we didn't bring any beer or wine on with us. I think that made us friends.

So, I am pretty much awesome at sailing. I didn't want to steer at first, for fear of messing something up really badly, but after a while, Joel convinced me to man the rudder, and it was fun. Here are I am, on the lake side of the fake lighthouse. I've always been on the land side, so it was cool to finally be on the other side for a bit. 

After both of my pregnancies, I got the common "baby blues" for a bit. It's not terrible, and it goes away one its own after a couple of weeks, but it's not really my favorite time, you know? So, after June was born, I read this book, The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud. It's really not that great of a book, for multiple reasons, but there were a lot of descriptions of sailing, and it made me feel like I needed to experience it. In fact, the anticipation of someday sailing helped me feel happier. So it was fun and validating to finally make it happen, and to not even have to travel to New England to do it. (Though I will do that someday, too.)

Anyway, at one point, I had stopped paying attention to our direction for a minute, and the main sail swung out into the other direction. It was an accident, and I felt all embarrassed, but the Sailor Brains said I had actually accomplished something kind of tricky: the wing and wing position of the sails:

So yeah, I'm awesome. 

And have any of you been wondering if Joel attempted to recreate the famous "I'm sailing!" scene from What About Bob?:

Did you really have to ask?

Happy Anniversary, dear. Thanks for 8 happy years and 1 really great sailing voyage (what are they called, anyway...?)