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Summer Lovin'!


The kids are all out of school in our area, so morning life has some new elements of entertainment for us! The morning traffic is lighter, which makes Al happy, and also Alex and I see lots of children out and about when we go for our walks. We see them heading out to their neighborhood swimming pools in their bright new swimsuits with towels flung carelessly around their necks and sandals flippity flopping. Well the sandals started flippity flopping today because they were largely missing yesterday, and instead of flip-flop flip-flop, we heard ow-ow-ow-ow-ow as the kids walked on the hot and rocky streets. And we see kids out in their front yards setting up baseball fields and "truckyards" and stuff. I love summer for that FEELING of freedom and fun. It's been many years since I was in school, but still these summer days evoke a sense of joy and hope and excitement that takes me right back into that life of rollerskates and blanket tents and mudpies and BigWheels and learning to jump off the high dive. Such pleasant memories... and now I get to relive all of that stuff with my beautiful daughter and the two older kids (at least for part of the summer, anyway!) Such fun! Makes me want to whip up a big pitcher of red KoolAid.

Anyway, Alex settled just seconds ago for her morning nappy. She's wearing a little sunsuit with a smock over it in this lovely cornflower blue color and she looks for all the world like a little violet. And her pre-nap demeanor made me feel so full of love and mushy gooshiness for her... She clung to me with her arms and sucked on my cheek (her version of a kiss?), then delicately explored my face with her little hands and coo'ed at me. We read "Curious George Rides," together and she's gotten so that she seems to really be interested in the pictures and words and she "a la la de di das" along with me as I read. I love her so much. Her smile, and the way it spreads this gorgeous upturn to every part of her from her shoulders up (even her hair!), literally takes my breath away. How how how did God know that Alex and I were so made for one another? He must really love me a lot and know me (and her) so well to have put us together!

Alex may be going through the sleep interruption phase the pediatrician warned us about at this age. She's awakened fully two nights in a row at 4:30 am, fussing and crying. The first night Al got up and dealt with her (he gave her a bottle and changed her diaper). Last night, the second night, I got up and tried resettling her into her sleep position and patting her and telling her "It's still night night time." She was quiet for a bit but the fussing started up again just as I was falling back to sleep. So I tried resettling again, but she resumed fussing and then escalated into crying, so I got her up and gave her a bottle. After that she settled quickly and I never heard from her again. On each of the two nights, she had refused to drink more than half of her pre-bed bottle, so perhaps she has been waking up hungry. I am hesitant to allow a pattern of eating at 4:30 am, because I know how hard it can be to break that habit once it's happened three nights in a row, so I'm going to have to readjust her schedule today so that she will be more hungry and will finish off her nighttime bottle and hopefully not wake up again tomorrow morning.

Mealtimes have gotten a bit better. I decided to forego the mid-day solids meal with her, as I thought maybe she was getting too much solid food and thus wasn't hungry enough to eat heartily, or perhaps she's just bored with the eating process when we spend such a LARGE percentage of her time at it! This week she's getting breakfast of fruit and oatmeal sweetened with some formula and kicked up a bit with some cinnamon. She seems to enjoy this meal quite a bit... lots of mmmmm-ing! Dinner has been at 5, but I think I'll move it to 4:30, and consists of a meat and a veggie. She loves meat! The spoon-grabbing has diminished quite a bit, too. I've been using positive language that reinforces what I DO want her to do, versus saying NO NO NO NO NO, because as I understand it, saying NO a lot now may cause her to become "immune" to it later, since at this age, you can't assign any consequences to ignoring NO. They don't have cause-effect relationships down enough for that to be effective. So, when she goes for my spoon, I say, "That's Mommy's spoon. I will do the feeding so you can concentrate on the eating." and then I gently slide the spoon out of her hand. A week ago she was grabbing at the spoon 75% of the times I approached her mouth with it, now I'd say we've managed that down to about 15-20% of the time. Not bad! Also, I have taken Jemma's advice and given her some small portions of finger foods, like a little chunk of watermelon or some mango. She likes to play with it, and she tastes it, but so far she is not really getting any of it into her mouth or manipulating it with lips, tongue or gums. But she does seem to know these bits are FOOD, so I expect she'll keep practicing and eventually actually accomplish consumption.

My bean has been sitting in a big-girl high chair at restaurants lately! We take her little cushiony liner thing (Floppy Seat or something) with us and put it into the highchair to make it soft and cozy, and she sits up in the seat and can play and interact with us beautifully. She also loves to eat lemon wedges from our water glasses and pickles, too. Again, no real EATING, just gumming and sucking... but they keep her busy and happy, and we no longer need to have her on our laps to get through a meal without her getting bored and fussy. So nice! She also has been using the Floppy Seat in carts (trolleys, Jemma and Alice) at the grocery store. She looks so cute and perky riding along in her little wheeled chariot. There are so many little simple things about raising a kid that make it totally funny and joyous!

I have been reading a book (I've read it several times before actually) called "Seeing Yourself As God Sees You", which is about the Biblical basis for healthy self-esteem. Much of the book covers how we, as children and adults, build our own "self-portrait," or the way we view ourselves. How we were parented, and the love and reassurance and acceptance we got (or didn't get, as the case may be) from our parents, plays such a critical critical role in our perception of ourselves later in life. I feel it is SO important to understand how I can help Alex grow up knowing how deeply loved and valued she is by her Creator, and by her parents... so I'm reading the book again with a Mother's heart, so I am sure to enforce the truth about who she is! So many of life's problems seem to stem directly from believing that one is no good, or unloveable, or worthless or untalented. I can't let Alex down in this area! God loves her so much... sooooo much... just like he loves all of us, but her *individually,* and now is the time to start teaching her that, before she is too old and "smart" to question it.

Okay, I'm off to put my American flag up for Memorial Day and dig up some lunch for myself before Alex gets up and is ready for more fun!












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(Lyrics to Summer's Here by James Taylor.)


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