Friendly Bedroom Jack-o'-lanterns

Are the very best kind. 

"It's my sweet little pumpkin," says Tadhg.

(Pip, on the other hand, was at first downright scared after the transformation. It's mellowed to distrust at this point, but he definitely wanted the PAINTED pumpkin by his bed.

First Family Photos Ever-- ATTENTION ALL GRANDMAS!!!

(Plus extra photos of Marnie because she looks like a little autumn gnome.)

Last Christmas I was very pregnant with Maranatha. I planned to give all the grandmas a framed family photo as a gift, but I thought it'd be kind of silly to take photos with Marnie in my belly instead of out. So I gave frames with a wedding photo of Rundy and I instead with the promise of family photos to come.

And look! 

I've finally delivered. Marnie. The photos. 

(Thanks for being photographer, Abigail! )

So, Grandmas one and all--I've put the cream of the family photo crop here in this blog post. A lot of them are very similar, just with slight variations in individual expressions. Above each family photo is its assigned number. Let me know which is your favorite and I'll print it out and deliver it. :) If you want the whole bunch so you have them at your disposal, let me know and I'll email you a link to a digital photo album.

First, though, Marnie gnomeling.

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Ten Months with Our Marnie

She jabbers. She points at everything. She holds out her arms to be picked up and is darn near irresistible. She sings to beat the band whenever there's music. She loves baths and cries when she has to get out of the water. And she's desperate not to be left out whenever somebody looks like they're doing something she thinks she should be doing (which is most of the time). I just moved her out of 3-6 month clothes this week, though to be honest she still fit into most of them just fine. She's working on her first two teeth, but they haven't poked through yet. No crawling yet--just the littlest bit of scooting on her bottom in a two-foot radius. She's huggy and snuggly and the sweetest little girl-child that ever was.

I think Tadhg said it best the other night before bed.

"When I was littler and Pippin was a baby, I really wanted another baby. And God gave us Marnie! And she is the perfect little baby, just EXACTLY what I wanted!!"

Freeze-Frame: Coming into His Own

Tadhg has dominated any freeze-frame I share for a while, not because Pippin isn't awfully funny and sweet but simply because his language was less sophisticated.

But, oh boy, I think he'll play a powerful game of catch-up for the rest of his life. 

I don't know how many times I've wished I could remember all the snatches of our ordinary days that strike me--the hysterically funny ones, the poignant and tender ones. The simple things. But there are too many, and humans aren't made for keeping in such a stranglehold of memory anyway. 

But on occasion, time and memory cross paths serendipitously and I remember to write down just such a snatch. 

Given the recent happenings in these parts, Pippin has become increasingly conscious of the presence of modern medicine in our lives. Yesterday he scraped a finger while playing outside. I put a (purple, as requested) bandaid on the wound before sending him off again. Walking by me later, he said matter-of-factly, "I might need new finger. From doctor 'pointment. They might grab new fingers for me."

Earlier in the day as he was lamenting a particularly painful and recurrent lost comfort, a side effect of his increasing age, he pathetically cried with crocodile tears coursing down his cheeks, "I want to grow down!"

Don't we all, my Pip? 

At least sometimes.

Seventh

 emptiness fills 

fullness empties

nothing is turned

to loam and sea 

bone and tree

returned again 

to insubstantiality 

the thread hangs tender

between one and two

 blindness knows

 the Lender lends true

heaven is riven

hope enfleshed

the riving somehow 

a gift to the blessed

Ode to an Orchid

It's only a flower, I suppose, but it's a simple pleasure. 

This white orchid is the Orchid of Infamy (Very-Pregnant-with-Tadhg-Valentine's-Day-Broken-Tailbone Infamy).

It's been blooming nonstop since February. Just as one flower stalk was beginning to show signs of the blooms fading, another stalk budded up. It's had constant blooms for over eight months. 

There must be a metaphor in there somewhere.

Some Days

Some days the tenderness is a steady ache, the loveliest and most gentle hurt.