We Are Still Here

Yes, we're still here. It has been a crazy month—though July is even crazier—and we just haven't found time to do any blogging. We'll work on it. Promise.

peek-a-boo

Our friends Sue and Elise joined us for dinner a few nights ago. After dinner, we all retired to the living room where Jonie and Sue played the rowdiest game of peek-a-boo ever. Jonah was so pleased with her hiding and surprising skills. Hilarious.

It's Happening....

After many weeks of playing with the potty, letting stuffed animals sit on the potty, and practice runs at the potty, tonight we had our first real success! An honest-to-god poop in the potty! Okay, there was another poop on the floor near the potty but, after all, isn't it the intention that counts?

As with every good try on the potty, Jonie earned two star stickers (one on each hand), and many excited high fives for her efforts. Of course after I gave her the stars, she looked at them, looked at me and said, "Mo-mo sta!" (Translation: more stars.) Though she may never be satisfied, we are feeling very proud of her bathroom victory. A diaper-free life is waiting on the horizon. We can feel it.

Photos

A few photos for you.

Jonie has graduated to a booster chair! She is getting pretty good at feeding herself with a spoon, but sometimes the frustration is just too much to bear.


She can be motivated to use the spoon when it is covered in cookie dough, however.


Thanks for the great Easter box, Nana!

A couple of new desires in Jonie's world. She wants to carry around as many things as possible. It is really funny to watch her cram one stuffed animal into her armload (often using her head and shoulder to hold them all in) just to have another one fall out. This effort can go on for several minutes.



She's also become really interested in walking around in our shoes. Sometimes this is relatively easy--as with slippers and other light weight shoes--and other times it is really difficult for her. She managed to get her feet into my sneaks but then wanted to climb up on the couch with them on her feet. Each time she lifted a foot to try to climb on the couch, her foot came out of the shoe. After a few failed attempts, she basically had a meltdown. We had to take the shoes away. (You can see the frustration mounting in the bottom photo.)

Quicksand Babies!

The other day I was in the kitchen doing some dishes (or, more likely, sweeping Jonie's lunch up off the floor) while she played in her room. All was quiet and then I heard and urgent, "Daddy!" coming from her room. I hurried in only to see this scene. She had climbed in the toy box to be surrounded by her babies, and they had taken her down.

Bubbles!

Now that we have (mostly) moved past the bubble-eating phase, bubble baths have made a grand entry at our house. Anne put Jonie in a bubble bath a few nights ago and it was as if she was in heaven on earth. Pure joy.

Just to Say

We are busy and exhausted as usual. After vacation and a short week at work, we are back in the swing of things. Trying to find some balance. Reveling at Jonah's amazing development; it has seemed to hit warp speed. She is stringing words together like an old pro. "All done milk." "Big box." "Help, please." "More bubbles." "Bye-bye Mama." It is something to behold.

I have no big event to recount, nor do I have any pictures to post. I am the last one awake tonight, and even though I am tired I am enjoying the quiet of the house. I just finished writing a paper abstract for the upcoming AAA (American Anthropological Association) meeting this fall, and am resisting the urge to work on Chapter 3—which I've been writing for about four weeks now.

I know this is not really the forum, but I just felt like saying that I am sad. I am sad that my government is willing to go to the brink of a shut-down over the funding of abortions (a legal procedure, the last time I checked), but will gladly sell out to big pharmaceutical companies rather than using its power to bargain down the price of medications. I am sad that NPR is being defunded and unions are losing their rights to collective bargaining while the people who contributed to and benefited from the financial meltdown are doing better than ever. I am sad that there is no money for schools, but we are flying missions over new countries every day. (Why is that, again?) I am sad that the best response we can muster to a spate of gay teen violence and suicide is a web campaign promising that "it gets better." (When is that, again?) No, this is not new. And no, I am not discovering this for the first time. It just feels so stark and hopeless right now. Freedom is a good thing. I value the freedoms that living in the United States provides me. I really do. But radical freedom is dangerous. It releases each of us from the obligation to care for anyone but ourselves. In fact it compels us to step on each other as we fight to stay out of desperation and poverty, to maintain our membership in groups that are socially desirable for fear that ours is the next cost that the nation cannot bear. I am sad. I worry for myself, for my family, for my child. How can I teach her the value of right action—to care for others, to defend those who are powerless, to cooperate, to believe (I mean really believe) that differences between people are what help us to learn and grow not just as individuals but as a collective—when the collective of which we are a part invokes these principles not as foundations of action, but as so many advertising campaigns? *sigh* All of this is to say that if NPR goes off the air I'm going to go f*cking bonkers.

Papa Love

This afternoon I got an email from Wendy, a woman that we met on our cruise last week. Wendy was one of Jonie's many admirers. She took some great pictures of Jonie and Papa Doug, and promised to send them along when she got home. Lo and behold, here they are!

Two award-winning smiles.

One happy Grandpa.

(As a bonus, these photos also feature Dad's forehead half-moon sunburn acquired on a sailing trip that very day. Classic!)