This was one of the most beautiful moments of my recent trip back home — Aveline, completely unprompted, leaning forward to gently kiss her great-great grandma on the cheek. I can’t believe I was holding my camera when this happened!
Tag: love
The One Where Aveline Wears a Bandana
It’s summer. I can smell it in the fresh air blowing in through the open French doors as I sit drinking my coffee out of a cobalt mug. I can see it in the wind that blows through Sierra’s long silky fur, and I can taste it in the tender lettuce greens heaped high on my plate.
We’re on a mini-vacation, Aveline and I. We’ve survived the “flying with an infant” thing (second time in Aveline’s short five months!) and now we’re resting getting spoiled at my parents’ home.
Josiah is at home, working hard. I miss him. I wish he were here with us, to experience the cool temperatures and the incredible peace that is everywhere in this restful place. Aveline will tell him all about it, I am sure, in her delicate voice and unmistakably Italian hand gestures.
We took a little stroll around the yard the other day, soaking in the quietness and the trees.
30 Day June Photo Challenge – Day 14 – Someone You Love
Oh, I love him. I love him to pieces.
“The moon turns its clockwork dream.
The biggest stars look at me with your eyes.
And as I love you, the pines in the wind
want to sing your name with their leaves of wire.”
-Pablo Neruda
[Click photo to view a larger version.]
30 Day June Photo Challenge – Day 8 – Sunset
I missed yesterday’s photo (high angle shot). I lovingly blame a growth-spurting Aveline, who went on a sleep strike and ate hourly for fifteen hours. So you can imagine I’m quite glad to see tonight’s photo, a setting sun. It means bedtime is right around the corner. For how napless my bebe is, she lays her little head down obediently every single night and falls right asleep.
And every single night, I marvel at how incredibly blessed I am and how rich our life is. Like right now, for instance. Aveline is sitting on my lap, holding on to a wash cloth in one hand and beating on the desk with her other hand. She says, “Ahhh. Hahhh. Ahhh. Gahh. Eeeehaa.” while looking over at Josiah, who is sitting next to me clicking away at his computer. I think she’s singing along with Cary Brothers, who is softly crooning, “There is something about you baby so right / I wouldn’t be here without you baby tonight / If ever our love was concealed / No one can say that we didn’t feel a million things / And a perfect dream of life.”
Josiah gets up, walks into the kitchen and switches the light on. I hear the clink of dishes as he unloads the dishwasher. Aveline drops the washcloth to the floor and sticks her tiny foot up on the desk between my hands, still babbling away in her precious little voice.
“You’re the secret I keep, I just wanna be the one, I just wanna sing this song with you.”
[Click photo to view a larger version.]
aveline alenka is 16 weeks old
can you believe it? sixteen weeks already. i took the top photo this morning as she was lying on her quilt, looking at me with those huge eyes and impossibly squishable cheeks, melting my heart. she’s amazing. she babbles away non stop, and is becoming shockingly mobile (rolling and scooching and doing the worm).
she never stops moving. and she smiles dozens and dozens and dozens of times per day. she’s such a happy baby, and she’s growing up so fast. even looking at the other picture, it’s hard to believe she was ever just two days old. it seems like yesterday she was that tiny, but it also seems like a lifetime ago.
i can hardly remember what it was like before she was in our arms. i’m treasuring every single moment–even the sleepless ones.
love is like a river
currently listening to travis oberg and the saltwater merchants. we once saw him live at bloom coffee+tea…he was amazing.
the best kind of evenings
these are the best kind of evenings ever. josiah working on art. aveline and i just hanging out on the floor, happy as can be.
i love my life.
POETRY & WORDS :: our love story: how long distance became i do
Some of you will recognize the following story — I penned it just months after 26PM and i were married in 2008, and published it on my old blog (Remember Xanga? That’s how we all rolled back in the day, ha ha!)
Anyway, I rediscovered these words again today, and realized that I never shared our love story on this blog.
So, here it is. The story of a love that spanned the distance between the Atlantic and Pacific. The story of two people who could not remain apart. The story of our lives.
once upon a time, he saw her. after church, playing football in the grass. she was barefoot. this is his first memory, but she did not notice.
she does not remember, except for the time he could not understand something she said and then she refused to speak.
[we were both sixteen. –yellowcard, ocean avenue]
well, seventeen, actually.
[they had lots of common friends. –dennison witmer, 24 turned 25]
the same church. the same ski slopes. the same junior college.
but they did not notice.
[you never even see me. you look right through me. –coldplay, shiver]
she remembers how he flew before he could drive, and how he drew color and life bursting from grey rubble. she told her mother he thought about things, deeply.
he did not know he was present in her mind.
she did not know she thought of him, even when she did.
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