My Grandma

My grandmother, Betty Evans, is a wonderful, talented woman, and I love her very very much.

Look how beautiful she is. She turned 90 last month.

She's always been amazing. One of my earliest memories is walking with her on the beach, and I have countless others of walks we took in our woods on our mountain. I rember her telling me the names of the flowers, and how to tell what poison oak looked like. I remember skinnydipping in swimming holes, and using the old outhouse, and sleeping outside on a mattress under the stars. I remember listening to the range cows in the morning, and eating millet and carob and so many peaches my stomach hurt. I remember driving up to Oregon to see Shakespeare with her and Papa after I graduated from high school, and driving her and Papa through the lashing rain on the Great Ocean Highway in Australia, on the wrong side of the road with a cliff just feet away.

She's got her foibles - she couldn't find a decent cup of coffee in the whole country of Australia- but don't those make us all more interesting, anyway?

She has an extensive collection of old books, some really old, some just the old cloth-covered kind you remember from your school library when you were a kid. She's the one who understands why I always liked Little Men much more than Little Women, and why my favorite Louisa May Alcott book is Eight Cousins. She's the one who owns Eight Cousins so that I could read it. When I told her I really like Albert Terhune (old-time pre-Lassie collie stories) she found me a copy of one of them. She reads poetry and fiction and histories and just about everything you can think of. She ate health food and grew organic vegetables and composted and practiced yoga way before any of that was cool. Now she mostly does Tai Chi. She's good at it, too.

My grandma. Old-school California girl, from way way back. I love her. My daughters love her. And every time I get sad that my girls never got to meet my papa, I thank the stars that they are getting to know my grandma. Because she is incredible.

Gwennieism of the Day

Standing in front of me, facing outwards, while I'm putting on her tights:

Mama, I can't do this while you're breathing down my neck.

No, I don't know where she picked that one up.

Julie, Julie, Julie

You woke up all bright and shiny today - even the people at nursery school remarked on it. You flirted with people at the store. You grinned at Gwennie and sang little baby songs all day long.

Right now, you're charming your daddy, who is your biggest fan. You are head over heels about him, too.

There are more pictures of you, but the camera is out in the car, and it's raining. I'll post them tomorrow. Right now, it's late, and both my girls are awake, and I need to fix that.

Happy 3rd Month Day, little person of mine. We love you.

Julia Laughing

Just chillin'....

when something caught my fancy...

....huh. Guess you had to be there.

March Goes Flying By...

Technically, this was in February, but there you go. We went to see Disney on Ice in my brother's schmancy box seats at the Shark Tank. Adessa and Keidi came with us, and we all hung out watching Mickey and the gang.

The girls definitely looked liked princesses, and were very excited. Adessa said that Minnie would be very happy to see her. Gwennie kept jumping up and down, saying, "Look, Mommy! It's Ariel! It's Ariel!"

Quick side note: Gwen still vastly prefers the name Ariel to her own, and Jim has now morphed from "Handsome Prince" to "Eric" (or really: Hansum Piiince to Aaay-ic.)

Julie mostly watched the Moby Wrap or the inside of her eyelids. She wasn't impressed by the seats at all. But the girls thought it was great. They could see everything, and there was room to run around during the intermission. Added bonus: I scared the concierge with my awesome breastfeeding skillz after the show. First time I've done that with this kid.

We had a great time. Gwen decided Tinker Bell was even cooler than Ariel, but since she really hasn't seen Tink since then, Ariels returned to princess supremacy. I have been hearing good things about the Tinker Bell videos, though, so those may be in our future. (Although, y'know, in Peter Pan, Tink? Is not so nice. Kinda weird to have this whole re-do of her. )

Then we sat around and watched the baby in her funny clothes for a while. She's grown out of her little peapod bunting now.

My girls are still great friends. Gwen started story time with her baby sister.

She also "braved" her little sister when Julie got her shots. I'd like to point out that when Gwen got her first shots, I had Jim there for support, and I still cried. This time I had Gwen and Julie to deal with, and I couldn't cry because I've been trying to convince Gwen that shots aren't that big a deal. She announces every time we see the doctor: "I don't have to get shots today!" Her last few appointments have been for ear infections, so he was able to comply. We were at the doctor's a lot last month. Julie had blocked tear ducts, Gwen had a double ear infection (and allergies, it turns out. Dang.) and then Gwen had a weird unexplained fever that I had checked out because of the ear infections. Plus, Jules is still seeing the OT for nursing issues. We're doing much better in that department, but there's still room for improvement. I've been to the eye doctor (my eyes have matured, it seems. I need pregressive lenses now, yippee for me) and I also had some poison oak on my face and ahem, close to the milk supply checked out. And no, I don't know how I caught it there. But it sucks, I can tell you that.

I just like this shot of Gwen.

Then, something big happened. Something very exciting in the Land of Gwen. A big, big deal.

She started ballet.

It's just a small class, taught by Keidi's 14 yo neighbor. There are only 4 of them in the class - Adessa, Gwen, another 2 1/2 yo from Mt. Hermon, and Keidi's foster-niece. They dance in the downstairs foyer, and we sit on the steps and watch. But oh, these are happy little girls!

Gwen's a little disturbed by the fact that her ballet slippers are white rather than pink, but other than that, ballet class is the best thing all week. She'd go every day if she could. I think I'm going to be watching a lot of these classes throughout the years....

I am so lucky.

Happy 2nd Month Day

You are growing so fast. Friday you gave your daddy such a big smile, he got tears in his eyes. (He'll tell he didn't, but I saw them. Of course, you're still waking him up a lot at night.) Today you laughed for the first time, and smiled big at me. You've figured out the nursing thing, and you're doing great.

Gwennie croons, "Oh baaby giiill!" at you all day long, gives you your pacifier, and puts blankets on you in the swing. She even shares Rutherford with you. You look up at her with love in your bright little eyes. And me? My heart just fills up and overflows.

Bonus Shot

Shades of things to come....