tongue and groove

Amelie

sorry for my absence here last week. our granddaughter, Amelie (who'll be 2 on the 19th), came to visit us with her Grandma Theresa (her mom's mom) from Portland. they arrived early Tuesday morning and left Sunday afternoon. we had a lot of fun with her.  she's smart, funny, quick, sweet, determined and for a 2-year-old, sort of...well...centered. she seems rather like an old soul to me. i've been around plenty of toddlers, but she really didn't fuss much for a 2-year old. hardly at all, really. see that photo in the bottom row where she has her hands over her ears? that's her technique for when she's on overload. unlike a lot of toddlers this age, she doesn't pitch a fit or start throwing a tantrum. she just stops, stands perfectly still, puts her hands over her ears and gives you that look. i actually sort of admire that technique. it's like she's giving herself a time-out.  :) 

we discovered she likes mardis gras beads, coloring, bubbles, ducks, sliding doors, sprinklers, bubble baths, the 'corn bath' at the pumpkin patch, and William Wegman's brilliant children's video "Alphabet Soup."

her Papa (J) is totally smitten. he played beads with her, gave her a foot massage, came home from a museum gig and immediately sat down to draw and color with her without even taking off his suit. he also repaired a doggy flashlight we found at the thrift store and she had loads of fun shining it in the dark. we celebrated her birthday a few days early and i think her favorite birthday gift was the snazzy pink and black sneakers Papa picked out for her. they have hearts on the side that light up when she runs, and she quickly learned to step into the darkened hallway and stamp her feet to make them work without having to run.  ;)

we walked to the UC Davis arboretum and fed the ducks. we went to the farmers market and she got a heart painted on her arm. we shopped at the thrift store on 2 for 1 day and found a cute wooden cart, the doggy flashlight, several videos and that jack-o-lantern costume you see in the photos. we went to the pumpkin patch and spent a lot of time playing in the corn bath. we drew and colored many, many sheets of recycled paper. it made me laugh every time she patted the floor next to her...that was my cue to come take a seat, it was time to color.  ;)  she liked sitting at my desk and leaving me copious notes on the yellow legal pad there.

all in all, we had a swell time. when she was born, we decided she would call me Moo Moo (which is what my nieces and nephew have always called me). her other grandma is Mimi. in one tiny meltdown moment, she suddenly cried out "Mi-Moo!"...which made us laugh.

Amelie is a very special girl and we're so blessed that she's graced our lives with her presence. we loved having her here and look forward to many, many more special times together.

a road trip to end the year...

I'll let Flickr tell the story of our 5-day trip to Portland over the Christmas holiday. 

Long-form blogging fell by the wayside in 2008, as I grew to love micro-blogging at Twitter more and more.  But please know that I cherish my blogging community and the connections I've made through blogging.  Still trying to figure out where blogging will fit into my life in 2009, but to recap the year, probably best to take a look at my Flickr sets.  I tried to get most of them up before year's end.

It was a year focused more and more on family and things happening offline.  Since I'm currently unemployed, change is inevitable in 2009.  ;)

Wishing you all a joyous and peaceful New Year!

uber-creative political vids

Two years after signing Sen. Dick Durbin's petition encouraging his fellow Illinois Senator to run for President, I can hardly believe we're only 10 days away from Election Day.  Whoever you choose to vote for in this election, the important thing is that you VOTE.  Make your voice heard!  This country belongs to all of us, and I believe it's high time we took it back.

I wanted to share some of my favorite political videos from recent days.  First up is a fabulous animated one accompanied by the song, "Maverick John McCain"...

Remember the famous "Wassup?" commercials? Here they are, 8 years later...(I think this is brilliant)...

My Twitter pal, Lee Stranahan, has been doing a video a day for the last 30 days before the election. He calls the series, "30 days | 30 reasons" and you can watch them on his YouTube channel here. This, in my opinion, has been one of his most brilliant: #18: Larry Lessig (creator of Creative Commons and a Stanford professor). Lee did it in the style of a Lessig video and if you've ever seen one of Lessig's videos, you'll see that he nailed it...

And just for kicks, Amelie in an Obama avatar. Lest you think I'm pimping out the grandbaby for a candidate she might not support, the other grandparents are also huge Obama supporters. (And step-grandad is an election official.) ;)

Amelie

(Grandpa's favorite photo from this first batch...he likes how serene she looks.)  ;)

What can you say about a miracle?  I don't know how anyone can witness a brand-new life and think it's anything less than that.  Hannah's mom, Theresa, phoned us about 2:30 on Saturday afternoon and said that Hannah's water had broken and she was in the hospital in Vancouver (Washington...they live in Portland) and that they'd be in touch.  She couldn't have been kinder and sweeter and more gracious.  We hadn't met Theresa, but we had met Eric, Hannah's stepdad, when he brought Hannah down for a weekend in August. 

We phoned Theresa on Sunday morning to check in before Jeffrey had to leave for his gig...and heard the news that the baby had arrived about an hour before.  Amelie was born at 7:18 am on October 19th.  She was 19 inches long and weighed 7 pounds, 4 ounces.  We quickly made preparations to head to Portland on Monday morning.  We met Amalie when she was about 36 hours old.  I don't have any photos of Hannah from that first evening at the hospital because she was a little under the weather and I didn't have the heart to ask her to pose for pictures when she didn't feel well. 

When the parents are so young, you can't know how they will respond or handle a situation like this.  I can only say this about Halston.  He stayed at Hannah's and Amelie's side the entire time.  We left him at the hospital Monday night and didn't pick him up until yesterday morning so he could run a couple of errands before leaving town.  It was obvious from the moment we walked into the hospital room that Theresa clearly loves Halston, and she'd said on the phone how much she missed him and missed having him around.  It made me realize yet again that it's not just what we do in our lives...but also how we do it.  I couldn't be prouder of him. 

Jeffrey and I stayed away from the hospital during the day on Tuesday--wanting to let the kids have time to themselves.  (Theresa was there with them, of course.)  So we spent a beautiful Fall day enjoying our old downtown.  First stop was Powell's, where Jeffrey said, "I want to buy a journal for Hannah."  When he gave it to her, Theresa said to her, "That was the last thing you wanted that you didn't have!"  And he picked out a beautiful one.  My gift to Hannah was a heart-shaped ceramic box with a lid shaped like angel's wings.  The writing wrapped around the box says, "God delivers his gifts...on the wings of angels."  Turns out she loves angels.  ;)  Hannah and I clicked from the moment she walked into our house in August.  She was crying so hard yesterday afternoon when we were all saying our goodbyes.  I hugged her for a long time and told her I know it's hard and that she should call me anytime, day or night.  I know that she knows that Jeffrey and I love and support her and will be here for her in any way that we can.  And we adored Theresa.  This trip was truly about joining our families together. 

Jeffrey and I went to his parents' for dinner on Tuesday evening.  Great-Grandpa made ribs, Jeffrey's sister Maggie made her famous mac-n-cheese, and we also had sweet potatoes and cabbage.  YUM.  We had dinner with his folks, two of his sisters, one brother-in-law, one sister-in-law, one of his first cousins and seven of the nine grandchildren.  Amelie is the first great-grandchild.

After dinner, we went to the hospital with his folks, one sister and several cousins.  Theresa was really happy to meet Halston's grandparents (Jeffrey's parents) and I have a feeling Amelie will be a regular visitor to their house.  ;)  Amelie spent some time in the nursery because they were watching one of her levels.  The doctor explained to us when we were in the nursery Tuesday night that they didn't think it was anything to be too concerned about, but weren't sure yet.  So we were very relieved when the next batch of test results indicated that all was well and she was able to go home Wednesday afternoon.

I'm a total softie, but I managed to get through all of this without really crying...until right before we left the hospital.  As we were preparing to leave (the baby having been discharged), Jeffrey's dad, who's a pastor, asked if he could say a prayer.  And you know I'm not an organized religion gal.  But there we were, holding hands in a circle around Amelie in her carrier.  He said a beautiful prayer for her and as I thought about the circle of love that will surround this little girl, it made me weepy to think how much she will be loved. 

Lest you think Halston is anything less than smitten with his baby girl, I offer this photo...which is my favorite... 

The entire Flickr set is HERE.