Striking a pose

Little fashionista:


Pretty ridiculously gorgeous, right? Baby knows how to work it! She can also rock a chalk stripe like nobody's business:

Looks like she's totally tripping on acid and saying to herself "my fingers...I can actually SEE my fingers breathing! Woah, dude. Dude! Can you see that? Are there stars attached to my hands?"

For more reading-baby's-mind fun, see sidebar.

Work it, baby.

Hoodwinked?

I just realized something. Lucy's been massively, overwhelmingly, ridiculously (untrustworthy-ly?) sweet and happy these days.

And...

Someone's been shitting in the front hall.

We've been attributing it to the cat, but do you think maybe Lucy's been managing to bamboozle us, dazzle us with her good humor until we can't think straight? Do you think she's been pretending she can't walk yet, just so that she can crawl out of her crib at night when we're all asleep, take a dump by the front door, pull clumps of hair out of the dogs and scatter them strategically around the house in big disgusting hairballs, hide all her sippy cups, and scatter kitty litter around, only to crawl back into her crib with an evil internal chortle and an external angel face?

I think so! And you know what...that just makes me love her more.

(I have no idea what's gotten into me. I feel goofy and also have just made a semi-vow to curse more on this blog. I might be high. But I'm not.)

I want...

I think I want a Kindle. I know it's just the first iteration and I really should wait till the next model comes out (but I don't know when that will be and I've NEVER been known for my patience), but it's likely that I'm going to have to fly to S. Africa (!) next month, a 20 hour flight, and it would be really nice to carry one thingy instead of the suitcase full of books that I usually travel with.

Anyone with experience want to chime in, even if only to talk me out of it?

I also want a visit with our favorite friend Frances. She's had family in town and it's been FOREVER (like 47 years, I think) since we've seen her and we miss her (and her parents, of course). I think we get to see her tonight for dinner and a bath (Frances loves to take baths at our house). Yippee!

Frances Feeding Lucy (or alternatively: Lucy Biting Frances)

Funny

Have you seen or heard of this? Very funny, by Joss Whedon. An internet mini-mini-series, which will only be available free through today (sorry, just discovered it today). Available through iTunes, too, for their usual fee, but free through today.

Agape

We had such a nice day today, which I will describe with accompanying photos in short order, but first: I love this kid so much it hurts my heart sometimes, and this photo really says it all. She trusts us beyond all reason, is willing to let us manipulate her body, choose her food (of course, if it's ice cream it's not a difficult decision), direct every aspect of her sweet little life. That amount of trust is overwhelming, awesome, scary, and so beautiful. Oh, Lulu, I love you.

OK, so enough mush, on to the day.

First, some rolling around on the bed, doing her patented wiggle-butt move and loving Gus:

Then, later in the afternoon we went to our new favorite summer place, Portland's Jamison Park, where there is this amazing water feature thingy -- blocks of granite from which water flows, pooling at the base to a depth of maybe 8 inches, only to ebb away and start over every 10 minutes or so. Lucy loves playing in the water; this week we went on Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday. Matthew says she even took a few independent steps today.
Anyway, look how friggin' adorable:

Sometimes, though, playing is hard work. A baby works up a thirst something terrible, you know? Parched; parched, she gets! Tongue all dry and scratchy, just aching for refreshment...

But you know the best part about playing in a fountain? When you get thirsty, there's water RIGHT THERE, DUDE! How handy is that?! (Yes, I know...disgusting. Couldn't stop her.)

And then we went to an ice cream shop, where Lucy and I shared what I think is probably her first ice cream. She just sat there the whole time with her mouth wide open like a baby bird, waiting for more. Oh, baby.

Pillows

Just a practical question today for all of you. Lucy's almost 2 now, and I think she'd enjoy sleeping on a pillow instead of flat on her mattress. It's safe at this age, I'm almost certain...right?

Assuming so, any recommendations? So far I've just been rolling up a blanket to make something she can lay her head on, but she tosses and turns and sometimes her bed is like a hurricane hit in the mornings. She's in her crib and she's going to stay there as long as we possibly can keep her there; we're not eager or ready to think about beds, toddler or otherwise, and I like the extra safety the crib gives us. I don't think a full-size pillow is the way to go...I'm thinking of a longish, flatish, narrowish something. Any brand or store recommendations?

Checkmate (she won)

Our opening gambit: "ramp up" daycare plan; a few days/week gearing up to full-time...not in the place she'll ultimately go in the fall, but somewhere easy, casual, to get her used to being cared for outside the house. Seems reasonable, no? (FYI: no.)

Her counter: heart-rending crying.

Our next move: let's try three half-days per week instead of two.

Her brilliant plan: crying till she pukes.

And thus: checkmate. Our king falls. Crying puker reigns victorious.

We decided to call it quits for the summer and try again in the fall, at the full-time center my work offers. It just wasn't getting significantly better...she'd have OK-ish periods for portions of days here and there, but for the most part she simply hated it, for 4 weeks in a row. And what's the best-case scenario at this point...she'd come to love that daycare and it's staff, only to be taken from it in two months to go to the permanent -- and way better -- place in September?

One thing that made it harder for me is, of course, the adoption angle. If we'd raised her since she was a newborn, I might have been more inclined to stick it out. But there's so much we just don't know about her little psyche...was she just being a typical almost-2 year old with separation anxiety? Or was this abandonment issues rising from a much deeper place? We don't know, and decided it's not time to find out. So a few more months with our fabulous new nanny, and then we'll try again. In the fall, I'm hopeful that it'll be better -- at the least, it should be a faster adjustment period, since she'll be going 5 days instead of partial weeks, right? And it's a much more structured place; an activity planned almost every moment (art, singing, walks, snack, etc. etc.). And the nanny will be allowed to accompany her to the first week or so, which should help.

I know the fall will suck too. But I hope, less than June did.

Fu*%#ing grocery store fireworks. Plus: Starbucks wedding!

I can't even do justice, in words, to how much I HATE grocery-store fireworks. Seriously, they're nothing but noise, bad loud disruptive noise. What's the attraction? They piss me off to no end. So far Lucy's sleeping through, but I'm sure it won't last...it's not even dark yet.

I'm in a foul mood about it. Happy friggin' 4th.

On the other hand, I had the day off today and the babysitter wanted to work, so I had a day to myself. Ah, joy. I spent 5 hours in one of those overstuffed velvet chairs in Starbucks, reading. It was heavenly. Then I went to the bookstore for the new David Sedaris, which I'm looking forward to very much. But while I was in SBucks, there was a wedding there! A real wedding, with puffy white dress and a minister of some type, 20ish guests, 20ish minutes. They didn't close the place, so there were a bunch of customers, like me, and the espresso machine whirring, etc. It was very odd. But sweet.

And lastly, I must refer you all to my friend Hank's blog again. Hank's my school friend who packed it up and left the US a year ago to live in Vietnam; he's now teaching business and law and business law at a university there and enjoying his adventure greatly. Although said enjoyment excludes, it seems, the run-in with a bat he had recently in his apartment. Very funny.