Happy 4th of July

I've been trying to be a more positive person.

HOWEVER, pouring rain, a flat tire, and blisters on the 4th of July?!

COME ON!

Grrrrowl!

I just got done with Eliza's pre-nap storytime, and my throat is sore! This is due to the fact that Eliza's favorite part of every single book I read to her is finding any sort of animal that might growl, pointing it out and growling... and continuing to point it out and growl until I do the same. Apparently it's starting to wear on my vocal chords?

Eliza loves doing animal sounds, but even her sheep's "baa" and goat's "maa" is just a growl that starts with the B or M sound. And her elephant is not much different from a growl either.

Another storytime habit of Eliza's lately, especially when she's either really excited or really spent, is to point out a book for us to read to her, and then as soon as we start reading it, she flips through all of the pages until she finds her favorite. It can be kind of frustrating, but like in our Big Little book she will flip right to the page with the Mommy and Daddy on one page and point them out excitedly. Then we'll continue reading for a page or two and she flips right back to it.

I like that she's really noticing and figuring out what the pictures are portraying, but it makes it hard to get through any of the books all the way. Thank goodness for the library. I think Eliza, Steve, and I all have had Eliza's dozens of books memorized for quite some time now. So we're now open for donations...

I think that growling is a real fav for a lot of kids Eliza's age. Yesterday at the library, I was reading the Eric Carle Zoo book to Eliza, and she was growling away with the lions and bears and crocodiles, etc and a little boy whose about Eiza's age from our Mother Goose Story Time class was sitting a few feet away from us and he started growling right along with us. It was funny. A chorus of growls in the kid's section.

Fathers Follow-up

I just found another interesting article on NY Times Wellness Blog about the role of fathers in their children's health and care. They had some good points and tips. The following quote rang true to me:

“Many TV sitcoms and animated shows continue to portray dads as dolts or, at best, well-meaning but misguided large children whose wives have to mother them as well as their offspring. If an alien in another universe happens to tune in to ‘The Simpsons,’ ‘Everyone Loves Raymond,’ ‘Family Guy,’ etc., he (it?) will come away with a rather skewed idea of how men function in American families.”

The article discusses what are some universal principles of good fathering. #1 and #2 are Be There and Be There throughout childhood.

I'm SO glad when daddy comes home...

Today I wanna give a shout out to the other cutie in my life-- not Eliza, but STEVE!

This picture was taken the night that Steve proposed to me.

Now I know I'm a little tardy in the blogging world as far as Father's Day posts go, but June 15th was the day after my birthday and 2 days before vacation, so I've had little time to blog since then.

I started at my job when Eliza was almost 5 months old. I was TERRIFIED to be leaving her for my 8 hour shifts 2 days a week at first. And honestly my heart still aches sometimes when I say "bye bye" to 'Liza as I head to work. However, one of the big things that has made my working not only an enriching experience for me but also for Eliza, is that I always leave Eliza home with her daddy.

(This picture was taken just about a week after I started working. Eliza is 5 1/2 months old.)

Before we even got pregnant, Steve and I dreamed about splitting our work week in order for us to each get time in the adult world with careers that we had passions for- Steve's art and my social work- not because of the fortune we'd make from them (haha), but the love we had for our jobs.

It's been a dream come true that we have found a way to split the load of parenting and work for pay. This also became a priority in a different way as soon as we had Eliza. Steve came to the unsurprising realization that his heart ached as soon as he had to go back to work and started missing out on 8 hours of Eliza's life every day during the week. (The division of labor in the home is a big issue for each family. Check out a great article that Katy posted as Sharing is Caring on her blog.)

Many of you know that it can be hard for dad's to bond with breastfed newborns... and it can be hard for hovering mothers to "let go" long enough for dads to figure out what's what when it comes to caring for their own kid. There's just seems to be so much trial and error with raising kids-- especially your first!

I have been sooo grateful to see the beautiful, nurturing and often quirky relationship Eliza and Steve have developed with each other.

With me out of the way, they watch Mozart operas. Eliza already knows how to "conduct" music whenever people are singing loud around us or there's loud music on (although it unfortunately resembles a nazi salute a little bit).

Eliza also learned how to crawl and walk during Steve's weekend direction. What are the odds, right? I'm there 5 days a week, Steve 2 and he's still the lucky one!!

Eliza often wakes up calling, "Daddaw, daddaw" because she knows whose cheerful morning face will greet her bouncing self (besides the kitty).

Steve and Eliza have a peaceful and playful understanding. I love the calm, kind, soft-spoken Dad that Steve is with Eliza. Lovingly letting her tug on his nose and ears as she learns her body parts, and singing Baby Beluga off key as he rocks her to sleep. Reading her his precious picture books in hopes that someday, her attention span will actually allow them to make it through a whole Peter Sis, Paul Zelinsky, or Maurice Sendak in one sitting.

So all of the wonderful benefits of Steve and Eliza's Daddy/Daughter time outweigh the mismatched, wild haired, care-free states I often find my baby in upon my return home from work. Like this pictures I took on my dinner break on Father's Day:

(I put Eliza's hair up in elastics and bows in the mornings and for church, but often by the end of the day, especially after "wrestling" with daddy, the hair bows end up as casualties!)

And this picture that Steve took of Eliza today. She found my workout shorts in the laundry pile and managed to put her head through one of the legs and the waist band was around her waist...

(Our little Red Riding Hood...Shorts)

Direct quote from Steve: "I was worried she was going to get tangled in the shorts or something, but her head popped right through like she knew just what she was doing!" (I mentioned in my last post about how Eliza loves to try to put everything on her head to play dress up with).

When I leave for work, I know that my daughter will be fed and physically nourished, attentively watched, and most importantly loved by her caregiver. I love our little family and am grateful for a husband who shares the role of nurturer for our daughter.

And seriously, I don't know how single parents do it. I really don't know if my children would live to adulthood if it were up to just me to raise them....!!!

Backpackin'

Eliza loves gathering things into containers or bags.

Eliza also recently loves to try to "dress up" by taking one of my headbands and try to put it on her head. Or she loves to try on her gymboree sunglasses over and over again and then have us try them on too. Or she grabs her raincoat or other clothing item and tries to place it on top of her head.

So I pulled out this little backpack that Sis. Marsh gave me for Eliza's shower last year. And it's a hit! We put a couple of Eliza's light toys into it and helped her into the straps, and she took off! First she said, "bye bye!' and went to the door. Then with the lack of options presented by the closed screen door, she turned and decided to show it off to Aunt Katy.

Hilarious. I think it makes her look way grown up too.
Unfortunately, she somehow gets it caught like around her head occasionally and needs to be helped out of it. She does the same thing with my diaper bags and Steve's man bag. Silly goose!