Last night we were in the middle of doing the cross-crawl with Livia (a crawling exercise recommended by Brook) and singing songs like Frere Jacques and Happy Birthday when Renae burst out, “Oh yeah! TODAY IS LIVIA DAY!” And we all recognized with joy that indeed today was Livia Day and we promptly cheered and celebrated our smiley 13 month old with much enthusiasm.
One year ago, on June 26, a beautiful seven week old baby girl was placed into our arms. The moment was filled with expectation, great joy, a surprising amount of anxiety, and empathetic sadness for the birthfamily which had loved her (and still loves her) greatly. It was definitely one of the most beautiful, most profound days of our lives and we’re still overwhelmed sometimes by the fact that God has given us such an amazing child to be our daughter.
Livia Day this year was celebrated by kiss-blowing, belly button-pointing, a lot of wiggling and squiggling, and plenty of hugs and snuggles. I wonder what this child will be doing next year on her day?
Dear Livia,
I love your sense of humor. Sometimes I’m completely amazed how God has created this little baby wrapping with a startling sense of funny inside. Actually, your daddy and I often are in awe of you—that you’re a living, breathing little person with your own custom-made personality! You are completely, 100% Livia—no one else is just like you. And as your own little being, you have unique and quirky sense of humor, which I adore.
You think the America’s Best Eyeglasses commercial is funny. Personally, I think it’s a bit bizarre with its photographed human heads that bobble on animated bodies. But for whatever reason, it tickles your funny bone and never fails to elicit a smirky laugh.
You also like to look at yourself in mirrors, throw up your arms and legs and laugh intensely. You continue to giggle at Daddy, whether he’s being intentionally silly or not, and if I dance around the room with enough vim and vigor you’ll laugh at me, too. You like to make silly faces and you’ve nailed the Silly Bottom Wiggle dance with perfect rhythm. You clap, you shriek, you scream with baby glee.
Thanks for keeping us laughing, Livia. We’re having lots of fun at 13 months.
Much love,
Mama
I need some tips on air travel with baby in tow. We’re headed to the beach in a little over a week and I’m mostly concerned with two things: fixing our umbrella stroller and finding a backpack to carry Livia in.
Our umbrella stroller works really well (yay for this $4 garage sale find), but the handles are too low to make it work comfortably for this 5’9″ mama. If anyone has a decent solution to this problem, preferably one that doesn’t involve duct tape, please let me know. Also, I like to use our Baby Bjorn for short distances (A&K, it’s been a great gift this past year, by the way) but I think a backpack would work better for this vacation. Again, any recommendations?
Finally, moms/dads/grandparents/nannies out there, feel free to offer advice on how to make travelling with baby a bit easier. We’ve done the roadtripping thing, but this is Livia’s first time flying the friendly skies.
BABY… Congratulations to Jeannette and Chris on the birth of Ellis!!
BLOG… Charity has a new blog. Go check out the wedding day pics of this gorgeous bride and be one of the first to comment in her new blog space.
BEANS… The garden has finally been planted and, according to my father-in-law, it’s not too late either! So here’s hoping we’re eating green beans, snap peas, broccoli, radishes, carrots, green peppers and tomatoes in August.
Jeremy and I celebrated seven years of marriage on Monday.
Happy anniversary, sweetie. I sure do love you.
My love for my daughter is such that, after putting her down to bed and seeing an oddly-shaped shadow beside her, I picked up the darkened object without hesitation or second thought as to it possibly being a spider, piece of poop, or other item of an unseemingly nature.
Tonight, to my relief, it was a piece of cheese.
Hey blogging friends! I apologize for the pathetic, infrequent blogging. I’ve been terribly uninspired to post personal information. In fact, I’ve been teetering on the verge of deleting the blog (don’t worry, won’t happen!) or just never updating it again. After some encouragement from my favorite webmaster, I decided to keep plugging along, recording personal thoughts on the WWW for who knows what reason.
I feel like I’m just emerging from a haze of activity which has kept me busy and focused for weeks. After Charity’s wedding in mid-May, we celebrated Memorial Day weekend with picnics and barbeques. Then a good friend from St. Louis flew up last weekend (Hi, Lorin! It was so fun to have you here!). And finally, I held my first ever garage sale last weekend. I learned that garage sales require more energy than weddings, social engagements and visiting friends combined. Running the sale with my buddy Julie was definitely the way to go… I can hardly imagine how lame it would’ve been to sit by my lonesome for two days, selling off the mounds of junk I’ve been hoarding for way too long. There was a moment on Friday when I questioned our collective sanity: What were we thinking to have a garage sale while watching three children under two years of age??? And then there was the rain, too, but Saturday turned out to be a nicer day for many reasons (husbands were around to watch the wee ones and we had intermittent periods of sunshine), so the sale went well afterall. It won’t be an annual event, however. I need time to garner that much junk again.
In late spring our catalpa trees produce lovely blossoms that eventually litter our yard in the most beautiful fashion. Considering the timing of the flowering, and the way the blooms eventually drop onto our grass, I call the catalpas wedding trees. When the weather is hot, the flowers will last only a few days and you have to keep an eye out for them, otherwise you’ll miss this pretty stage. But this year it’s been unseasonably cool (says me in my non-weather forecaster opinion) and the trees have held their blossoms for longer than normal. Recent storms ended up strewing flowers about the yard, resembling the aftermath of some wedding celebration. I think the wedding trees are particularly fitting around here where we’re enjoying the unions of many dear friends.