Dear Sofia, very Belated Happy 3rd Birthday

Dear Sofia,

Mommy is a hot mess lately, isn't she? Your birthday was nearly two three months ago (January 4), and I haven't gotten around to my annual letter. But I fear that once your baby brother arrives, keeping up this tradition at all will really be impossible, so I'm aiming to at least get one last letter documented. Maybe after that, you'll be able to understand birthday cards I write you well enough that it won't be so necessary to have letters for future reference.

You've endured so much change in the past year. While you'd already moved from California to Maine, this year, you were aware of a move for the first time. It was hard not to buy this house we're in now, given that after plenty of house tours, as soon as we drove in this driveway you declared, "This is my favorite house!" And while you've always stood by your opinion without fail, you also really loved the house you spent most of your first two and a half years in and are only just now, after being here over six months, starting to really move on. But in this new house, we've been able to start our truly own garden together, play on a play set we inherited from the previous owners, and you've determined two favorite "owl trees" in our woods, which you love to "climb." And by climb, I mean perch in their diverting branches, quite squished up, but happily telling me stories about your life as an owl and all the events that surround your existence. In the summer, we picked wild blackberries, raspberries, and strawberries - which are the tinniest little red and sour things that you still take great delight in - in our own backyard. You have also become fond of our new neighborhood. From our previous house, we could walk to a wooded path, playing fields, a field house, a play ground, the college campus, and you even ran between our house and downtown more than once, insisting you wanted to walk home instead of drive. We're much more removed now, but down the street from us, neighbors have what might have been the base of a flag mast? It is a small rectangular prism a few inches high. An object of such seemingly little consequence. But you have named it "Little Stone" and I think you love that thing with more care and concern than most of the toys you own. When weather used to permit, which included plenty of very rainy days, you would want to walk to visit Little Stone multiple times per day to look after it, feed it, hug it, and I had to pull you away from kissing it constantly. It is hard to keep your child from exuding such genuine affection, no matter how strange the object.

In addition to a new house, you're also getting a new little brother. You've had to put up with a very tired Mommy. You often get upset with me for being constrained to the couch when you want me to be a more invigorating actor in your play, but your empathy continues to shine, as you care for me with compassion and service. While a year ago, you were just barely starting to be willing to use people's names, now you are quite generous with names for all people and things. You've named your little sibling "R2-D2 Googol Gonnit Reyes." I hope you're not too upset when we change his name. You seem pretty amenable to all the ideas we run by you, so I'm hopeful, but I won't be surprised if we all keep calling him Gonnit for some time. You were hoping for a little sister, without a doubt, but you've kindly jumped right on board with having a baby brother. And I know you two are going to have so much fun together. I can not wait to witness it. You have been demonstrating to me your sweet big sister skills with our friend's baby brothers, especially your buddy Charlie's little brother, Henry. We see him multiple times per week for our homeschool preschool co-op. We're always having to pull you off of him because you have even more kisses for Henry than you did for Little Stone, and Henry's not quite so willing of a recipient, as it often means his space is being invaded and he's often being squished under your love. Last week, you stared into his little eyes and told him, "Henry! You just fill me with so much love!" And I about teared up. I know Gonnit will burden you and demand more sacrifice from you than Henry, but I trust you will also find ways to love him even more deeply. It tends to work that way with difficult things.

This past December, you had to come to grips with death for the first time. After a long drawn out struggle with strokes, pneumonia finally took my Grandpa from us all together. The morning I heard the news, I hid out in the office, crying and writing, trying to process what has been one of the most significant events of my own life. You knew him too. You'd played with him several times, and even though he was far apart, and largely without language by the time you came around, you two shared a sweet connection. But mostly, I think you knew in your heart all he meant to me. When I resurfaced for breakfast that morning, you were very concerned by how sad I looked and the tears that wouldn't stop streaming down my face. Not wanting you to be scared, I did my best to explain to you what had happened. Somehow, despite the fact that you weren't quite three at the time, you seemed to possess a wise and deep understanding of the significance of that morning. With calm, quite, sincere eyes, you looked deep down into me with compassion. You jumped right out of your chair, ran to me, and hugged me and told me how sorry you were that he had died and I was so sad. When I continued to cry later that morning, you jumped into action. You ran over to Daddy, grabbed his hand, and placed it into mine, saying, "Here Mommy, I brought Daddy to comfort you!" You knew just what I needed. I worried so much about bringing you to Texas when I traveled there for the funeral, but you were so flexible and cooperative and did so much good to lift everyone's spirits with your beautiful, hilarious, loving self, that I feel rather confident things would have been much worse off without you.

Following your first encounter with death, a few weeks ago, you made a decision for yourself to choose life. In the middle of an ordinary day, during a very ordinary lunch, while Daddy had already finished and left to start washing dishes, you struck up a conversation with me about whether God dwelled in your heart. And on that day, you chose to run toward Jesus so that He would gracious remove all your sins with His forgiveness and allow you to dwell in the house of the Lord forever. It was simple, quiet, undramatic, and one of the most treasured conversations you and I may ever share. Your decision has come out of many things, including your fascinating curiosity to understand whatever Mommy and Daddy are talking about, and your obsession with the Jonah story. He chose to run from God at first, but unlike him, you are choosing to run to God instead.

Probably of all Bible stories we could read to you, you request to hear that one most often, and are most full of questions about it. As I think of it now, I relate that story to my own decision to come to Jesus too, as it was after a Vacation Bible School week themed on Jonah that I asked my own mother many of the questions you asked me. Funny. But your questions are such good ones. Through your repetition and teasing apart the details and comparisons between Jonah and other stories we read, I've learned so much through you. You've helped me see the link between Jonah on a boat, asleep in the middle of a storm, to Jesus, also asleep on a boat in the middle of a storm. But while Jonah had his companions throw him overboard, Jesus calmed the storm with His authority and power. Your strong will, frequent refusal to sleep, persistent attempts to put foreign objects in your mouth, and general toddler-hood often make our life feel like a storm, but your perceptiveness and light and compassion and joy also help us remember that even in the midst of storms, Jesus is Lord. And I am so grateful that you've made Him the Lord of your life.

We are learning much together through preschool too. We have a homeschool preschool co-op with your buddies Charlie, Lili, and Phoebe. Our three families get together twice each week for crafts and calendars and stories and play and snacks. We are having the time of our lives growing closer to these friends and watching all your many skills blossom. Right now, we are doing a space unit that has you and I making "out space crafts" even in most of our spare time apart from actual preschool sessions. Your favorite thing is talking about the phases of the moon, especially when we go out at night as a family to see what phase it is in that night and what constellations we can see. You are full of stories of the adventures of Orion the Hunter and what he gets up to when he's not up in the sky.

In addition to preschool, for the sake of all our sanity, we've instituted a daily morning routine. 1: Wake up 2: Breakfast 3: Family Time for God 4: Numbers with Daddy 5: Letters with Mommy. Whittling away in all these things, we've seen you grow by leaps and bounds in your capacities. You are dressing yourself, helping set and clear the breakfast table, growing in knowledge of scripture and Bible stories and ability to listen and hear from God. You can reliably count to 29 on your own, by 5's or 10's to 100. Your favorite number is googol. You're learning to write your letters and are getting better every day. You've already started to spell words [must be your daddy's genes], and are reading beginner books when you feel properly motivated. It seems like the greatest lesson we're working on in letters is more about perseverance than anything else. But even if you face challenges, you manage to blow people away with your vocabulary, depth of understanding, and hilarious wit. You wow us, Sofia.

Despite the business of life and my own overwhelm with pregnancy, our days are filled with awe over how wonderful and delightful you are, what a blessing you are in our lives. I could never comprehensively recount all the truth and weight of this in detail. Thank you for being in our lives, for being our precious daughter.

I love you, Baby Girl!
~Your Mommy

Dear Sofia, Happy 2nd Birthday

Dear Sofia,

A year ago, I reflected on our life together regularly and wrote about it on this blog. But in the past several months, our lives have been so full together, it has been hard to find space to stop and consider who you are becoming and who we are becoming together. But today, on your second birthday, I want to hit pause for a moment and let myself revel in the wonderful "little lady" you have come to be.

I can't seem to stop from staring at a collection of photos from your first year lately. I barely recognize that baby, you've changed so much. You have hair now, you're several inches taller, and you're a little girl, not even a toddler, certainly not a baby at all.

Sofia this time last year = cute santa baby

Our little lady now

A year ago, I told you, you were a woman who knew what she wanted. Now you are a woman who can tell us, very clearly, exactly what she wants, how she wants it, and how she feels when she doesn't get it. Watching your language explode this year has been the most shocking, marvelous delight. 

For a few months there, you put up a strike on saying names. Instead, you would refer to people as, "the green girl who is happy." If I quizzed you about a person to see if you actually knew what names referred to which people, you could indeed tell me that Kelly drives a "white van," and Theresa drives a "red car." You knew their names (and all sorts of other details about them!), you just refused to speak them. 

Just about a week ago, you finally gave up the strike and have so much to tell us about all of your friends. "Charlie says 'yes! yes!'" and "You do sing songs with Lili at the library," and "You did grab from Hazel." Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, while you are amazingly verbal, you speak all sentences as if from my perspective. The pronouns can get very confusing. "I do want some coffee" you exclaim with vigor, as I respond with serious concern, before I realize, you know just how much Mama needs her caffeine in the morning. 

You are richly empathetic. When I cough, you gaze at me with compassion and suggest I get some tea. When you see that someone you love adores you, you scamper over to give them a kiss. When you see that someone is sad, you rush to give them a hug. In fact, you take such joy in cheering people up, that you regularly request that Daddy and I draw you a crying child, just so that you can grab that paper to your chest to hug the boy or girl, "Now he is happy," you resolve as you go about your own doodling. Indeed.

Entering into the world of toddler arts and crafts has been one of the most fun experiences of my motherhood. You are getting so good at coloring in (and around) shapes, you can draw up, down, left, right, and a slanted line from top left to bottom right, though the inverted slant seems to throw you for a loop. You'll figure it out in time. For some reason, seeing you achieve the ability to draw circles round and round gives me particular happiness. You are becoming quite adept at using a glue stick. You glued all of our Jesse Tree ornaments together for me with amazing focus and determination, nearly all in one sitting. We also love to finger paint. You love for me to cover your whole hand with a color so that you can make prints all over your page. You had great fun making hand print salt dough ornaments as gifts for Christmas. Though Mommy learned a little lesson about doing two "dough" activities back to back this Christmas season. When we made ornaments only one day after having used the same cookie cutters to make cookies, it became nearly impossible to explain to you that ornaments were not to be eaten. 

A year ago, I told you that your favorite color was "blue circle" because of a particular block you were obsessed with. Now, I see such passion for beauty that I don't know that you could pick a favorite color (though I've seen some consistent leanings towards green, which may of course be my own bias for that color), much less a favorite creature, or flower, or even food. 

A year ago, I told your pediatrician that getting you to eat solid foods was one of the banes of my existence. We could barely keep you in your high chair long enough to keep your weight from dropping below the 5th percentile. Yesterday, we said goodbye to that high chair all together and promoted you to a booster seat. You are eager to try colorful curries and exotic noodles and steaming soups, as long as you are informed of what you are eating, and prefer your foods dissected and separated. I don't doubt this is a temporary blissful little phase where you are willing to try new things, but I'm enjoying it while I can. And of course, just because you'll try it, doesn't mean you will eat it in great quantity, or in efficient time. I recently let you eat some granola and clocked you at a 3-5 minute per oat rate of consumption. I about lost my mind with impatience. Now I'm the one who is eager to get you out of your seat, instead of the other way around. 

You still love your Christmas snoopy, and this year you even figured out how to turn him on yourself. You love to dance any chance you get, be it with Auntie Nina in the kitchen, with Mommy in the playroom, with Daddy at each break of the hockey game, or with your stuffed animals along to the music of your birthday card. Your still primarily use the move of bobbing up and down, but now you will often do that while running in circles at the same time. You never fail to make us laugh. 

A year ago, we could barely get you to sit still for the length of a board book, now you can't get enough  of reading. I even started in on a Winnie the Pooh chapter book the other day and you stayed cozy in my arms for the length of a whole chapter. That is my bliss. You made us read Richard Scarry's "Best Friends" about Huckle Cat's birthday so many times (nearly every time we put you to sleep - that's twice per day for months on end), that I felt I had no choice to throw you a Huckle and Lowly birthday party today. I sewed you your own Huckle and Lowly dolls, and though the stitches are all showing, his overall straps do not match up, and he looks like he has crazy eyes, you grabbed him to your chest and said, "you love him!" and that made my day. 

Not only will you let us read your Bible stories to you now, but you have memorized most of the words for yourself and can recite them aloud to us. You also say many of the words in the Lord's prayer along with us at bedtime. You pray for birds, for squirrels searching for acorns, for the sun, for Big Mama and Big Papa, for Grandma and Grandpa, Auntie Nina and Tio Eddie, for your friends, for people you've seen who are sad, for people who have shown you love, for food that you like, for pain that you don't. It is inspiring to see you learning to pray. 

After preparing for Christmas through the advent season by reading various parts of the Christmas story, we attended a service at our church where they read and sang songs that walked through the whole story together. We were amazed at your engagement with the service, your interest in what was being said, your comprehension and ability to join in with what you knew of the narrative. Hearing you say, "Immanuel means God is with us" is a sweet gift for Daddy and me. One of the sweetest hours of my life was spent watching you play pretend with the characters in our manger scene. I hope these are the first of many steps you take in walking closer to Jesus. 

We have been trying to introduce you to God. We recognize that everyone is doing spiritual parenting, it's just a question of how you're doing it. We're trying to be intentional. We tell you about how God loves us, how He is with us, how powerful and compassionate He is. We think we have a lot to teach you. But then you come back with questions or statements of complicated theological musings that we don't always have answers for. We love that you challenge us, and we hope we'll always be able to admit that we don't have all of the answers, we hope you'll make sure we always keep searching for truth and seeking to know God more fully through His son, Jesus. You once asked me, "Where is Heaven? You will look for it." Amen and Amen.  

I never knew a child could exhibit so much amazingness. I never knew another human being could make my heart feel so very full. You inspire my heart to love God more. Sometimes at the meal table, you will reach your arms out to either side to draw Daddy and I in to one big family hug. You give Daddy and I such delight that we can't help but love each other more dearly. We still go bed every night, gazing at pictures of you. This is what it means for a heart to fill to overflowing. I continue to be undeserving of you, my sweet. Your birth and your life continue to be one of the greatest gifts I've ever been fortunate enough to receive. 

I love you bunches and tons, tons and bunches! Happy Second Birthday Sofia Arabella! 

Love,

Mommy

happy birthday, tabitha!

happy birthday, zoe!!!

Dearest Zoface,

For your birthday, I thought I'd make a complete fool of myself for your amusement.

Enjoy?

Love,
Lahve,
Lurve,
Emily

don't read this if birth stories give you the jeebies.

This time last year, my water broke. 3:30 am. Your father had just climbed into bed after spending a long evening playing awesomely nerdy games with friends downstairs in our townhome in Virginia. He stayed up until 3 am because you were already three days late and we were convinced you weren't coming until the doctors forced you to. We were wrong. So, even though he only had half an hour's sleep, we woke Daddy up and I told him it was time to go.

I was pretty nervous. Everyone says that childbirth is painful and that you don't get to sleep much afterward for the rest of your life. I hate pain and I love sleep, so I wasn't terribly thrilled to get the day started, no offense. I did take comfort in the facts that I would most likely live and that the pain part would most likely be over in 10 - 30 hours. I was a little annoyed that Daddy hadn't slept because I knew he'd need rest to be able to help me make it through everything. I was also annoyed that I was leaking weird fluids. 


We checked into the hospital, and I started feeling contractions about ten minutes after they hooked me up to monitors. We went into a nice large labor room, which was great because then Fee Faw and Grandpa and Auntie Jenna could visit. I was in labor for about eight or nine hours before the pain became unbearable and I asked for an epidural.


Eiley, some mommas power through labor with no medication. That's just not how I roll. I wasn't trying to be a hero.


The drug dealer arrived and told me that I'd feel a pinch of a needle and then I wouldn't feel anything. That guy was a liar. I felt the pinch then relaxed and focused on sitting the way he had requested. And then I felt the most horrible, searing pain of my life. I'd say it felt like someone stabbing me in the back, but if you think about it, he was actually stabbing me in the back. Daddy had to leave the room and cry a little bit afterwards because it hurt him to see me hurting. He's nice like that.


I was comfortable for eight whole hours. I napped, listened to music, hung out with my family, drank juice, breathedbreathedbreathed. Then you decided you wanted to join the party, so I had to push.


Daddy and I had gone to a childbirth class about a month before you were born. We learned techniques about how to breathe, how to focus, how to make everything easier. I threw all that out the window. My eyes were shut for the nearly two hours that I was pushing. (In fact, I learned afterward that there was a nurse who arrived right as I began pushing who I didn't see until about 20 minutes after you were born.) I'm embarrassed to tell you that I screamed for my last few pushes. The nice doctor gave me a little talking to, gently reminding me that I could use all that screaming energy to push you out of there. I listened to him, and he was right - I focused and you plopped right on out. (I later apologized to the staff for the cliche childbirth scene. No one wants to go to work and listen to a fat lady scream at them.)

You were the most disgusting, perfect, beautiful, slimy, giant little thing I'd ever seen. I stared into your eyes for a good five minutes, shocked by you, you living miracle. It was so nice to meet you, and I love getting to know you more and more each day. Daddy and I adore you. Happy birthday!

   

excuses, excuses.

Here's my version of "the dog ate my homework":


I have been M.I.A. on here for over a week now for a variety of reasons. I'm sorry to report that cable television at my parents' house is a main distractor. There is a reason Jeff and I choose to live without cable. We simply can't resist the temptation to watch it all. the. time. I occasionally watch Home Improvement, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, and Boy Meets World. There's often some Backyardigans, as I write we're watching a new show starring Eric McCormack, and my dad tends to watch tennis a lot, which somehow pulls me in as well. I mean, did anyone watch Murray's emotional speech after LOSING winning second place in Wimbledon this week? Eat your heart out, reality TV - that stuff was real drama. 

Gawww. Picture of Murray CRYING borrowed from The Sun

Anyway, my other distractor was Eiley's birthday party and dedication. Eiley turns one on Thursday, and Jeff's mom was able to come visit from Idaho, which was awesome, but meant squeezing in lots of quality time. Also, Jeff and I generally do not stress out when hosting parties, but I somehow let a very simple gathering at a park cause my blood pressure to rise and my head to ache. I think I was too focused on making everything look ideal. Plus connecting people is not my strength, and there were people from six different areas of my life, and I felt pressure. I was able to have some fun though, thanks to the almost 40 people who came to help us celebrate Eiley and the one person who brought me a bottle of water and a painkiller halfway through the shindig (thanks, Ani!). Plus seeing Eiley smash her way through a cupcake was delightful.

Photo stolen from my lovely cousin, Brandi. If Eiley ever has another birthday party, Brandi will be deemed official party photographer.

My third distractor was Eiley's dedication. Okay, this didn't actually require much planning, but I was pretty stressed out just about standing in front of the church. A mild case of stage fright. Who knew?

Photo stolen from Drake, who was totally peeking during prayer

My fourth distractor was work. It's taking a lot of effort to keep up with that. More than it used to. I don't know why though. Maybe it's just the combination of everything else with it.


My fifth distractor was so much more than a distractor. It was learning of a tragedy. The 32 year old wife of my Virginia Beach pastor passed away on Sunday. She was beautiful, loving, welcoming, gracious - seriously, choose a positive adjective and it would apply to her. At my sister's wedding, she toted my sleeping Eiley around for a good half hour, lamenting that her babies were growing up so fast. She has three children, all very young, and she was an adoring mother. While I didn't know her super well, my heart is hurting for my East Coast church friends and pastor.


And that's where my mind has been. I'd like to say that I'll write more often, but I can give no guarantees. 

Happy Birthday Blog!

One year ago today, Emily and I launched our very first post here at Long Distance Lobsters, and we've posted at least once every day since. Happy Birthday Blog! My life is better with you in it.

Here's a silly video we made to celebrate. Enjoy, and feel free to mock us mercilessly in the comments.

You'll be seeing some changes in the new Lobster year:

1. The next two weeks will be devoted to revisiting our favorite posts. We hope you enjoy rereading them too (or reading them for the first time if you're new here). This is partly to celebrate a whole year of uninterrupted fresh blogs, but mostly to give ourselves breathing room to since I am moving and Zoe has her hands full with a very energetic toddler.

2. We will still update regularly, but we won't be quite as diligent about making sure it's daily. (I write this for my sister who was concerned for our wellbeing when we posted very late one day last week.)

3. Those are the only two changes I can think of.


As always, we welcome your input and reader requests. Thanks for giving our little project an audience!

In conclusion, hurray! 

Dear Manny, Happy Birthday!

 Dear Manny,

Your special day falls rather nicely, right at the end of the school year. It makes for a convenient time to look back and celebrate a year's accomplishment. Your first full year as a professor, your first year in Maine, all the while surviving Sofia's first year too. I won't pretend this has been an easy, glorious, triumphant time. It's been hard, especially this past week. I wish you could have been feeling better celebrated leading up to your birthday. But your hard work is truly paying off.

You've taught four courses successfully. You've settled us into a new home across the country. You've traveled to conferences, given a slew of talks, and encouraged your students in their RoboCup tournament. You loved me through sickness and health and a little touch of madness. You helped see Sofia through from babyhood to toddlerhood. And as of this week, your little girl can say, "Ring," and you should be so proud! [Lobsters, Manny's particular brand of Math research is in "Ring Theory"] You've learned about 8 new branches of math in the past 12 months. How many Starred Algebras can there be, I want to know? Those layers within operator algebras just keep peeling away like an infinite onion. Which kind of infinity, you ask? You'll have to tell me.

You just keep blowing my mind with all that your mind can contain, all your brain can conceive of, and all of the love you're capable of giving. We had a long hard night this week, both of us collapsed on the wood floor of Sofia's room, begging her to sleep. But you were right there with me, or maybe it was me that was with you? Either way, there really is no one else I'd want to be roughing this road with.

I knew I had a crush on you when I saw you through my camera lens. But I started to love you when I looked across that BART platform, swarming with people, counting out the members of our SBIC group right along with me, to make sure we hadn't left anyone behind. You had no official responsibilities there, I was the leader, but you saw a burden on my heart and mind, and you took charge to relieve it. With our whole group assembled and accounted for on that train, I stood, fingering the little metal heart you'd just gotten for me on Market Street for our 2 monthiversary, and I thought, "this is a guy who's gonna help me get through the important moments in life."

All those brains, charming good looks, quiet insights, and humor that keeps me smiling while I'm pulling my hairs out . . . you're not supposed to have all of those things, maybe just two at a time. You're never eager to take the fame and glory of the leader role, but you lead me and our family in all the right directions, and I can not tell you how grateful I am for that, even though sometimes it takes more faith and self-control than I ever thought I could have, to follow you. You will probably never appreciate how rare and wonderful you are in this world, but I hope you know and feel how much I know that this is true.

I love and celebrate you today, Husband. Happy Birthday!

Love,
Your Wife

Guest Post: Birthday Song

Check out this great birthday song by Mikkele and TJ for Emily!

More than days have been accumulated

Dear Emily,

Happy Birthday!!

Since we pretty much have a whole blog dedicated to the wonderfulness of our friendship, its extra hard to make a day like this special. But it got me thinking, about how much has happened that we've documented on this blog in this past year while you've been adding days to your lovely life. So much has changed, like Eiley, for one! But in addition to days, I wanted to remind you how much accomplishment you've also acquired. We recount "highlights" from the blog on a monthly basis, based on what posts have been popular. But we don't have much chance to celebrate the posts we just like. And I'm so glad you've agreed to this undertaking with me, because I so like your writing. I had trouble narrowing it down to a top ten, so there are a few posts that perhaps should have made the cut, but here are some of my most favorite things you've written this year - perhaps others can enjoy them too in case they might have missed the good work you've been up to.

Lobsters, stop by Emily's good-ole-posts and laugh with her, and delight with her, and enjoy her skill that she so generously shares with the rest of us!

Emily, You have so much to be proud of in your life. I hope you'll take a moment today and enjoy that! I love you, my Lobster-for-Life!

Zoe's Top Ten Favorite Posts-by-Emily:

1) Your first Movie Review Monday
2) Our Conversational Review of Bossypants
3) Anything Once: Being asked if you were having twins
4) Nervousness
5) Love List for Eiley Grace
6) Happy Birthday to Nathan
7) resolutiond
8) good idea bad idea
9) methods of anti-madness
10) comfort friends

Why traveling with a toddler might be worth it

Santa Baby.

Ok, I got my ranting out of my system last week. Traveling with Sofia after she's learned to walk was not the most fun. But the point wasn't to spend the holidays on planes or on the phone with customer service, the point was to be with family, as long distance as they all may be. And that mission was definitely accomplished. Here are a few snapshots of why all that trouble might have been worth it:

Sofia gets to play with cousin Gus. Much love.

Sofia learns to play patty-cake with great-grandmother, Gee.

Sofia getting a blocks building lesson
from carpenter great-grandfather, Daddoo.

Sofia in intense study of pretty bells with great-grandmother, Grammy.

Sofia entertains the man (great-grandfather, Grandpa)
who supposedly never wants anything to do with babies.

Yep - count 'em, that's four great-grandparents Sofia got to bond with. Pretty blessed aren't we?

Sofia wearing one of four Christmas outfits
for one of four Christmas gatherings.

A glittery birthday lunch. 

Wintery walk with Big and Big Mama.

Quiet reading of "I like you" by Auntie Nina (Lauren). 

Cousin Eric teaching Sofia how to blow out birthday candles.

Birthday fro-yo.

Amazing birthday decor, made by Auntie Nina with so much love.

Gobbling Texas-sheet-birthday-cake, expertly made by Auntie Nina.

Office tour by Grandma.

To sum it up, that's four great-grandparents, four grandparents, one aunt, one uncle, two cousins, four Christmas gatherings, four birthday celebrations, four cities, seven planes, and one very happy and blessed baby girl.

Dear Sofia, Happy Birthday

Dear Sofia,

Today is your very first birthday. Today, you are one year old. It feels like a life time since I met you for the first time, and it has been, it has been your entire life.

I feel like I can no longer call you my "baby girl" because you are not very much of a baby anymore. You feed yourself, you walk, and you babble all day long. You are just a little person, investigating the world right along side us. I wanted to be your mommy for years and years, but I honestly had absolutely no idea how much fun we were going to have together. Unfortunately, you are not going to remember all this fun so well, so I wanted to tell you a few things in writing so you can look back on this some day when you can understand what I'm saying and hear the little secrets I want to tell you from day to day.

You are a woman who knows what she wants. You are filled with passion, desire, and determination. Your favorite color is blue-circle. This is a block you always pick out first from a box of multi-colored/shaped blocks. You take your blue circle all around the house, carrying it in your hand or in your mouth where-ever you go. But you do seem to have a preference for blue in general too.You love shoes and credit cards and jewelry. You are already making me nervous with all your girliness!

You love your little music box that plays different orchestra instruments. You seem to have taken a particular liking to the french horn. You love to dance along to a Christmas-snoopy doll that plays the theme song from peanuts. You bob up and down and clap and we can't get over your awesome, though simple, little dance moves. Whenever you hear music of any sort, live or recorded, you start to smile and clap your hands. We love how much you love a good beat.

A couple of your favorite books are Mama, Baby, and other first words, Dr. Seus's ABC's (both of which Mama and Dada have memorized completely), I love you Stinky Face (which Mama and Dada are also fond of because you have been each of the characters at some point in this first year), Pat the Bunny (which you have totally mastered, and added your own actions, like snuggling and kissing Paul and Judy when you're feeling particularly kind). When we try to read your little bible stories to you, there is much screaming and shouting. Too many words, not enough pictures. We're hoping you'll grow into that one.

You LOVE drinking out of cups. Most of the liquid goes down your shirt, all over you tray, all over us, but you are a woman passionate about consuming liquids! You are a shockingly good eater, considering how horribly picky your parents were. You are usually willing to try anything Mama and Dada are eating. You go in waves, but on the good days, you down loads of yogurt, cereal, fruit, and oh how you do love to eat angel hair pasta with your hands! Oh the mess.

Lately, you've picked up this move where you tilt your little head and rest your temple on something - a stuffed animal, my chest, your food tray. It always makes Daddy and I say, "awww" and you love making us do that, so you make the gesture over and over. I have decided it means, "I love _fill in the blank object__" and I think it is the most adorable thing, even when the object is something like a TV remote.

When you get around new people, you are quiet and cautious at first, but soon, you warm up and make friends fast. You are trusting and quick to have a new person take you for a walk by the hand. With lots of new people you lead people to believe you don't have much to say, but in more intimate company, you have so much to contribute to the conversation.

Right now, you think you can talk. Really, you only have "Mama" and "Dada" down, maybe a few other real words pop up here and there. I swear I've heard you say "all done," "water," "turtle," "Hi, Dada," and once the sentence, "good Jesus, all done." My favorite is your new fixation on the word, "wow," we are hearing that one constantly lately! You have such wonder and curiosity about all things beautiful and fascinating and you help me to step back and appreciate so many things I would have otherwise taken for granted. You babble and babble and babble. Sometimes you cause yourself distress, and furrow your brows, and sometimes you crack yourself up and just laugh and laugh, and I can't help but laugh along, even though I don't get your joke. When you grow up, will you please tell us what you were saying all this time? I'm recording a few minutes of it so you can have it to reference.

I love how quick you are to laugh. I'm not sure if there's anything I love more about life right now than the opportunities to tickle you. I get my face all up in your neck and kiss and nuzzle your soft, warm, baby skin and you squeal with delight and I'm in Heaven. I get your closeness and your laugh all at once. You can't beg me to stop yet, so I just tickle you until I get worn out, and you just keep laughing and wriggling and we have so much fun.

You are no couch potato. While you adore TV remotes, you are really uninterested in TV. Sometimes Mama needs a little rest from all the fun, I'll turn on a kids program and hope to get a little breather while you watch, but you barely glance that way before your asking me to walk with you another lap to explore the house again. I keep trying to tell myself this is good and healthy.

There is one exception to the TV watching dislike. Sometimes, after nursing for a while in the afternoon, we put Pixar's "UP" on my phone, and we curl up and watch it together. You love it for the balloons and dogs, and I love it for the snuggle. That's the only time you are still in my arms and not in the process of going to sleep. These are some of the sweetest moments we've shared all year. Thank you, Steve Jobs, for rescuing this little animation company! RIP.

Sofia, we have recently started trying to provide an enhanced night-time routine for you. Instead of just putting you to bed, we now read Goodnight, Moon and then we say the Lords Prayer together as a family. You have mixed feelings about Goodnight, Moon, you alternate between yelling at it in anger and exclaiming with delight over the sight of the little mouse, the moon, and the red balloon. But when we begin to pray, you clasp your little hands and weave your little fingers together and Dada and Mama well up with happy joy.

After you go to bed, I come downstairs and have to empty my pockets from all the treasures I've had to steal away from you that you've picked up in odd places and tried to put in your mouth? My pockets are getting more and more full and curious lately.

Sofia, did you know that we spend all day together, and then I put you to bed, and then Daddy and I go to bed ourselves. But before we can fall asleep, because we miss you so much, we spend a few minutes looking at pictures on my phone and giggling and gushing over how adorable you are and how much we love you. You are our goodnight story.

We love you so much, not-so-baby-girl Sofia. I can't believe we've had the blessing of being with you for a whole year already. I already love the little person you are becoming. I'm so proud of how hard you work to learn and grow. I can't believe I ever went through life without you. Happy First Birthday my little Muffin.

Love,
Mommy

Nathan Matson, we think you're grand.

Lobsters, today is our friend Nathan's birthday, [Happy Birthday Nathan!] and we felt that he deserved a post of his own. He is a super loyal friend, a fun, goofy guy, and an all around wonderful person. Nathan is one of the first people I think of when I remember college, which is interesting because we only ever had one class together. Some favorite Nathan memories:


[btw - as we try to do with our posts, but may be confusing here without stating it out right, Emily writes in this font, and Zoe writes in this font, so you know the difference between us]


In my first week at Westmont, I was going stir crazy on that tiny but beautiful campus because I only knew one guy there and I hardly ever saw him. So I decided to hop on the shame shuttle (the bus provided for those of us without cars, which was all freshmen) and go downtown just to explore. When I got on the bus, the one guy I knew was there with his roommate, Nathan! They invited me to hang out with them, and we had a blast eating at Ruby's and wandering State Street.


Nathan was super intense about his studies from year one. But almost every night freshman year, he would blare Run DMC's "It's Tricky" and completely spazz. I'm talking flailing, standing on his desk chair, jumping around like he was a one man mosh pit. Impressive stuff.


That reminds me about how addicted to coffee Nathan was/is. He would pound espresso like there was no tomorrow. I'll never forget the day someone told him there was such a thing as caffeinated soap. His responding look of extreme excitement was a little bit terrifying. 

We used to hike. A lot. And always to the same place. We actually went so often at one point that we named a pair of frogs that we'd hear along the trail (Frida and...crap, I forget the other).

The arches!

I also remember hiking up to the arches with Nathan, and hearing a rattlesnake in the bushes just off the path on the way up. It freaked us all out, and we ran past. On the way back down, the snake had ventured into the path itself, and we did not know what to do. Nathan, being the only guy in the group, bravely marched off, found a big rock and was about to lunge it at the snake, when mercy overtook him, he held back, watched the snake retreat, and guided us all past safely. The Texan in me was a little disappointed not to get to kill something that night, the me in me was a little bit ashamed of that disappointment and glad Nate was there to control the situation.


Nathan once took me to lunch and to see Hitch, just because.

Junior year, a bunch of girls wanted to surprise their boyfriends, who all happened to be good friends, for Valentine's Day. Nathan was part of that group, so I got to be his date that night! He tried to get me to eat sea cucumber. I declined. And Senior year, Nathan gave me a bouquet of flowers on Valentine's Day with the sweetest note about how much he valued our friendship. 


Senior year, as a last hoorah for college, a few of us went up to Yosemite for spring break. This shot of Nathan is one of the most memorable and happy moments of that trip:

Nathan and our friend Aaron took me to The Press Room for the first time. That's all I'll say about that.

One night, I was out with a big group of girls at a club. I got super uncomfortable and claustrophobic, so I left. But I was on State Street late in the evening without a car. Somehow, I remembered Nathan's cell number, called him, and found him and a big group at a restaurant nearby. You may recall my post on Comfort Friends - this was another perfect example. I felt instantly at ease when I found Nathan, Aaron, and the others that night.



One time, Nathan made me climb the giant boulder between our dorms.

Was that the boulder right outside my window? There were always topless guys on there, strange site to see at odd hours day and night! Glad to see you two had your tops on! That's awkward, Zoe.


I remember getting together with Westmont friends after college. Nathan, being a great long-distance friend, worked hard to make these occasions frequent. I remember a particularly fun get together, flying kites at Cesar Chavez park in Berkeley [the location where the happy kite-flying scene of Kite Runner was filmed, btw]. Nathan has a tendency to bring out the fun-crazy side of my husband, and I love it!

Manny & Nathan go fly a kite 

I remember when Nathan brought his girlfriend down from Seattle to the Bay Area to come meet some of his Westmont pals. To get to know each other and investigate whether we all approved of this stranger stealing away our Nathan, we all went to see a Harry Potter movie. I have blocked out which one it was for reasons that will momentarily be obvious. Within moments of the movie beginning, a drunken punk-face behind me vomited right on my head/shoulders. Everyone else was so grossed out and wouldn't get near me, but Annie, who works with little kids for a living, was entirely unfazed, dare I say, bored, by my little incident. I was impressed. I am glad we chose to give her our vote of approval, thankful for Nathan bringing her into our lives, and impressed at who she has helped Nathan grow into. 


Even after college, Nathan and I remained close. I'll never forget him opening one of the doors for me to walk down the aisle when Jeff and I got married. He said "This is your moment," which was so cheesy, and so perfect. I'll also never forget seeing him look so joyful the first time he saw his beautiful bride, Annie, on their wedding day.

Proof of beautiful bride, Annie, stolen from facebook.  Isn't she pretty?!

Not only did Nathan prove to be a great buddy throughout college, but when he moved to the Bay Area while Manny was doing grad-school at Berkeley, it meant we got to go to the same church together and have him as a good neighbor [you realize, Nathan, that you need to keep up this trend and move yourself and Annie out here to Maine now, right?!]. We got to be leaders for our church together, serve together with the nonprofit, Project Peace, visit the Vivarium and watch Nate geek out over lizards, visit nurseries and watch Nate geek out over cacti, play hours upon hours of Carcassonne/Mexican Train/Bang!/etc. [where Nathan almost always won], cook dinner for each other [once, he spent at least 3 hours preparing a rabbit stew for us - be impressed!], and generally enjoying one another's company. At the end of Manny's and my spring-break-staycation one year, an afternoon around Rockridge with Nate and Annie was a great way to end a great week. Here they are enjoying some affogato, remember how I mentioned Nate is obsessed with coffee? 

I was actually only pretending to take a picture of
Nate and Annie here to look smooth
 while trying to capture Danny Glover walking past.
It was a fail that turned into a cute picture nonetheless. 

I remember when Annie and Nathan allowed me to crash at their awesome pad for a week while I was homeless in the Bay Area finishing up my PPSC credentialing and Manny started his job down in San Diego. That week was filled with good talks that went into late nights, and a pleasant casual hospitality that exemplifies the great couple these two are. One moment in particular that stuck out to me was when they handed me a cute little gift for my baby Sofia [I was about four months pregnant]. Nathan was SO excited I was afraid he was going to pee his pants. I opened up to find a smattering of really sweet presents, mostly picked out by Annie. But it also included a "baby's first otter" Nathan had picked out himself at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Seeing him so thrilled to love on my child that he didn't even know yet was pretty darn precious. Sofia loves that otter, btw!


Nathan, I am real grateful you were born! I hope you're enjoying a fantastic day today! Happy Birthday!

Nathan, I am proud to be your friend. Happy birthday, buddy!