I had originally typed “Momday Memories”, which is probably the most accurate title I could give this post.
Here’s my darling girl at about age 2. We were out on the bay with the whole family for a day of sailing. LD wasn’t yet a glimmer in my eye, but Mojo was absolutely the apple…of…my…eye…Yikes! Talk about stretching that one out, eh?
So, here she is, my beautiful baby. I love this photo!
Time for a quick look at Little Dude back in the day.
One of the best daycare providers on earth was our dear Shannon, or Shanny, as the kids called her. She knew all the fun things happening around town and always made sure her daycare kids got to partake in whatever was going on. Case in point: pony rides and photos at McDonald’s (of all places!).
Anyone with a good recipe for cockatiel?
Bird brain is about to have his life ended abruptly if he keeps attacking my dad and me.
So many wonderful memories come flooding back as I look through the photos of when the kids were little, but none are quite as special as those of Mojo in the early days. What a funny kid she was! She still is, too.
I think this was her second “official” shoot in her uncle’s studio. She got so comfortable in there as a wee one that she’d wander in alone and carefully touch lights or stands and say, “baby, baby!” which is what her uncle would always say to get her attention during a shoot. Today, getting a nice photo of her is near impossible. It’s all mugging and goofing off. Kids!
I will, too.
I will tear it down.
Down, I say!
Unless you bring me cute, cuddly animals.
Sadly, my dad didn’t, and his apple tree is GONE!
LD and I spent the day taking down the tree yesterday. Two huge trash bins were filled up with branches and the trunk and there’s still a stump to take care of.
All day out in the sun. No sunburn. Not even any tan lines. I am a freak of nature, apparently.
I guess I’ve become so pale that I simply reflect the light.
Gah.
Just some odd musings, spurred on mostly through conversations about kids with Pam.
Loving is what’s gut-wrenching. Motherhood/fatherhood/parenthood are just words. It’s the love that makes life exciting. What’s that quote from Parenthood? Gil and the grandmother are talking… (thank God for IMDB!!)
Grandma: You know, when I was nineteen, Grandpa took me on a roller coaster.
Gil: Oh?
Grandma: Up, down, up, down. Oh, what a ride!
Gil: What a great story.
Grandma: I always wanted to go again. You know, it was just so interesting to me that a ride could make me so frightened, so scared, so sick, so excited, and so thrilled all together! Some didn’t like it. They went on the merry-go-round. That just goes around. Nothing. I like the roller coaster. You get more out of it.
Once you give your heart away, you worry a little bit about whether or not it’ll come back. It does. But not in the way you think. It comes back to you in the form of love from others. It’s a great big game of give and take. You give a little, you gain a little.
Still, you worry about the pieces of your heart you’ve given away. With our children, they become walking, talking whirlwinds that careen about, bumping and bruising the heart with each fall, every tear. You can’t help but hurt along with them.
Sometimes you almost wish you could take your heart back…only for a little bit. Just to catch your breath. Just to have a moment where you don’t feel it beating out of your chest. But then, after a while, you learn your heart only gets stronger because of the journey it’s taken with those who’ve held your love so very close them.
When you realize that, you kind of learn to love the adventure.
My beautiful girl and I hung out yesterday and went through photos. I’ve scanned a few (just cuz I can) and figured I’d share them here.
First one: taken May 30, 1994. I’d just moved back to San Diego after living in Colorado for 4 years. I returned home to my family with the best bonus ever: Mojo!
I’m so grateful for the time we have together. She is truly the most precious young woman in the world. She’s smart, beautiful, funny, and oh-so-weird. All too soon she’ll be heading off for basic training and I will miss her terribly. I’m proud as hell, but I will miss her.
Ah yes, those crazy little wing-ed (cuz it has to be said that way) bits of silliness and their teeny weeny voices.
That’s what my dad uses to dry his t-shirts.
I say this because he doesn’t care for the way I dry his shirts when I do laundry. They get too dry. So he opts for the gentle breaths of miniscule creatures as they toss and tumble his clothing in the air setting (which I didn’t even realize we had on the dryer until I got set straight). Things end up slightly less than sopping wet. From there, we stretch and hang his shirts.
Were that the fairies actually did the drying instead of wasting the electricity to run the dryer to NOT dry things.
Sigh.
Grown men.
My first real Christmas where I paid attention!
Yeah. Still going through old photos on my dad’s computer. Hoping to get a few of mine scanned soon.
Dig my style! Those awesome sunglasses! Am I a vision or what?
From the early 70s: my mom, little sister, me, and my big sister.
Found this photo of baby me with my mom, my dad, and my big sister. My dad’s beard (ain’t it somethin’??) was grown special for the big sesquicentennial celebration in town.
Yeah, 1966. Oh so long ago.
I’m a horrible blogger. Really, truly horrible.
It’s not because I don’t care. Honest. I DO care.
I just haven’t had any luck setting up my wifi. And the neighbors moved. The ones with the best wifi signal in the neighborhood. Plus, the dog ate my homework.
Well, okay, maybe the dog didn’t eat my homework, but I swear there was a dog involved! We dogsat yesterday. And the sweet guy is NOT what you’d call a confident houseguest. He was up most of the night. And I was up with him.
You see, my dad’s friends are going out of town for a couple days at the end of the month and the dog will stay with us while they’re gone. We had the dog over for a test sleepover. He’s a sweetheart. A big, loveable sweetheart. But he’s lacking the confidence in new surroundings that most dogs seem to have. That’s okay, though, because he gets extra pampering from my dad because of it. And from me. Dog wouldn’t eat? I let him lick the last traces of yogurt out of the yogurt container. Next thing you know, he’s eating. (I’ve never been above bribing children or animals to eat.) He won’t sleep alone? Fine. I’ll go sleep out on the couch so he’s not alone (and he didn’t like sleeping on the floor next to the bed in my room. Whatever it takes, I will make him more comfortable when he’s here.
So, there you have it. This is what I’ve been doing lately. What about you?
Ours is cookies. Christmas cookies. And this post has been sitting in draft mode for weeks as I couldn’t get a solid connection to the Internet all this time.
Finally getting a chance to post a few shots.
I miss Christmas cookies!!!
Hand painted. With love. And lots of humor.
Oh, and why, yes, I did paint a star to look like a hibiscus, thank you.
Since I was flat broke this year, I had to make my gifts. The following are what I gave to family.
You may recognize these images from photos I’ve posted here. Yep, that’s where the inspiration came from!
Going from photography to painting (with watercolor pencils, tentatively at first, and then using a wet brush to finish the job) was a big jump for me. I was nervous as hell, but I’m happy with what I accomplished. I’m also feeling braver and will tackle more of these projects in the future. It’s kind of exciting! It’s like I gave a gift to myself in the process of creating presents for others. Woo hoo!
