This American Wife

Thursday, June 5, 2014

23/52

South Haven, MI. Running across the lawn, with a brief stop to wave.

A portrait of my child, once a week, [not quite] every week, in 2014.

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Clementine at 16 Months

Likes: peekaboo, hide and seek, being tickled, being in the bath or pool. We are going to begin swimming lessons at AquaTots this summer. She would have stayed in this splash pad all day.

Dislikes: Being buckled into the car seat which she resists with Exorcist-style back arching.

Favorite foods: Little girl can put away some pizza, as in a piece and a half; cottage cheese, as in by the cup; bananas and most fruit; rice and beans; ice cream. She's a very good eater despite having just 2 front upper and lower teeth.

after cherry and chocolate amaretto ice cream at Sherman's

New tricks: Squealing and screaming and babbling - in the last two weeks she's become very vocal; making a game of hiding in the corner between the wall and the hutch and peeking out; throwing a ball; becoming more and more playful and interactive.

She's always: Pointing.

Vacation Megapost I

[breathlessly]

Our vacation to St Louis and Michigan was timed with Luke's tour to catch up with him in those locations, though we didn't see him very much (as expected, cue Journey's lovin' a music man's ain't always what it's supposed to be) You're welcome for the earworm.

First off, my sister Robin surprised me with a visit to St Louis! My family spent time around the house in Washington, MO, and my sister Elise arrived with her husband on Friday. C - who says dada frequently and mama only very occasionally - picked up the Heidi the fox terrier's name immediately and spent the days shouting HI-YEE! HI-YEE! when she spotted her or heard the collar tags jingle. We had a great time together as a family, the first time since our Wyoming trip.

Grandpa, Robin, and C at Lion's Lake Park, Washington, MO

Saturday was a busy day - we said goodbye to great-grandma and grandpa, had lunch with John in St Louis (no photo - for shame!), met Great Ruth for the first time, went to Brooke and Jen's BBQ baby shower, and then the Gramophone for Lucas Jack's performance/ to meet up with even more STL friends and my in-laws. C was a trooper!

[aside: amazed by Brooke and Jen's tower garden spilling over with beautiful herbs and vegetables. Must investigate year round viability in SATX. Dirtless gardening that you just plug in? Sign me up).

Visiting her great-grandfather and namesake Thomas Francis

Meeting Great Ruth

The fam at the Gramophone - where Luke and I got married almost three years ago.

Brooke, due in just a few weeks!

Clementine, silently weeping with exhaustion on Grandma's shoulder

Mah girls. I cannot tell you how good it was to see so many dear friends. Good for the soul.

AND THEN....

Sunday morning C and I drove to Kalamazoo with my in-laws Pat and John for the second leg of our vacation.

Monday was the Portage Memorial Day parade: ragtag boy scouts, karate groups, local politicians, the perfect small town parade.

First time in the pool! She also played in the garden and felt real, lush green grass on her feet.

Lucas Jack and co arrived on Monday - we spent time at his brother's nearby lake cottage and had a big family dinner.

Mike contemplates the michiganicity of it all.

LJ at the Union, Kalamazoo

Wednesday was a down day for the band and the Head and the Heart and Lucius were in town at the State Theatre-- what a great concert! I thought Lucius was especially cool.

Just something cute that happened.

Watching C play with her cousins was a highlight of my trip. They doted on her and took such good care of her -- and it was fascinating to see her interact for the first time with older kids; her daycare group is a very narrow age range.

Slide x 200 times is all she wanted to do.

With daddy, her favorite person. These are framers!!!!!!!

{Oh but there's more - part II to follow}

In Others' Words

Sometimes our life reminds me
of a forest in which there is a graceful clearing
and in that opening a house,
an orchard and garden,
comfortable shades, and flowers
red and yellow in the sun, a pattern
made in the light for the light to return to.
The forest is mostly dark, its ways
to be made anew day after day, the dark
richer than the light and more blessed,
provided we stay brave
enough to keep on going in.

from 'The Country of Marriage' by Wendell Berry

June 25, 2011 at the Gramophone, St Louis, Missouri

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Naming the Baby

Last night this poem popped up in my Feedly feed from today's Writer's Almanac; 'so perfect!' I said and read it aloud to Luke as we lie awake, catching up from almost two weeks (mostly) apart due to his tour and my vacation (St Louis and Michigan) and talking about the name for the baby girl we will welcome next month. We stayed up too late. Tired but happy today, happy to be home.

Listen to the poem here

Naming the Baby

by Faith Shearin

When you are dreaming of the name
you are also dreaming of who they
might be. They are invented in darkness —
under cloak of skin — and, for the better
part of a year, are a swelling
or a set of symptoms. The name
books are like a box of chocolates
and when you open them you see
how many kinds there really are.
There are names of people you
have known and disliked and names
that make the wrong sounds and names
that suggest your child will be
like everyone else's. There are names
that turn your child into a character
in a novel and names that recall
the time when your great grandmother
was young. Naming the baby is a way
of dreaming about a creature who is
almost but not quite. It is a way of
imagining the soul of a person you
are making but have not made.
The name is the first way you see
the baby: their title, the syllables
that conjure a shape from the lantern.