Baby Contemplations

To have a little baby, who will be
A daughter. A girl. An echo of
Where I was once.

We belong to each other --
You remind me, I remind you
Of traveling -- of journeying.

You take the nuances of your heritage -- hand picked
Or undetected. And I now wonder
Will that blue vein sit plumply
Across your left index finger
Keeping pulse with my Mother and I?

Desi Candor VI

Desi and I were in the kitchen: I was fixing dinner, he was avoiding picking up toys in the living room. He said finally, “I’m gonna go see how my mess is doing.” He left and returned in 3seconds saying, “Its fine.” I wasn’t sure I heard him correctly and I asked him, “What did you say?” He looked at me sheepishly, “My mess is not fine.”

Sorry, maybe next time, bye-bye!

Mommy? I LOVE Daddy!!

I’m a marching band boy.

Mr. Jones drawed in my book!

Des was eating lunch and squishing it through his fingers and said at one point, “Really cool dude, crashin’ dudey!”

We were eating baked ziti the other night at home and remembering the last time we had it, a month ago, at our friends Kendra&Lexi’s apartment. Desi was remembering particular details like: eating it on a plate (that night we were eating it in a bowl) and playing with a couple of cows there on the table. Then he offers up this memory, “She has a wonderful sink!”

I’m a beautiful neighbor.

While taking the train home one evening Des shouts, “Mom! You’re a superhero!”

After finishing a joint effort of picking up toys in the living room and kitchen Des brushes his hands together and says, “Mommy, that was hard work to do.”

After placing a pretend crown on my head and his head, DPJ declares, “I’m gonna marry you!”

While digging through a box Desi finds a random toy and exclaims, “Oh! I’ve been looking all over for this toy!” He then promptly drops it and forgets about it.

Zoe Turns 8 Months!

MyZoeMyZoeMyZoe... still besotted. :) She turned 8-months on Sunday (along with Auntie Holly who turned... shhhh... it's a secret -- Happy Birthday!;))

Zoe's now pulling herself to standing. In fact, this a.m. after waking up and happily laying there for a bit, talking and making sweet sounds, she decided to pull herself up for the first time and take a look! I've been draping a blanket over one side of the pack-n-play so that when she wakes she wouldn't be able to see us from her reclining position. Well, now she can simply stand up and look over. She laughed her raspy little laugh when she saw us over on the bed and I couldn't resist her. It was 5:45a.m. :::sigh:::

We've discovered her ticklish spot -- the ribs. Her laughter is still a bit rusty, not a lot of practice yet so we hope to tickle some hardcore guffaws out of her soon. :) She certainly squeals with delight though. Love that.

A couple of weeks ago I introduced *cheerios* to her! A big hit. She takes it very seriously and focuses and works quite hard to control her little fingers to get the small round 'o' to the small round mouth. I love watching her long delicate fingers make their maneuvers.

Her hair is continuing to grow and I continue to massage (a-la-grandpajones-style) it along. It's a light brown, golden in the sunshine. She's startled us by losing all her darks locks and replacing them with a lighter shade. Her brows are still quite dark as well as her eyes. It's a nice contrast.

She has said "mamamamamma" a couple of times which is sooner than Des ever said it -- I think he was 10 or 11mos.

In the Bedroom

Zoe was about 7mos in this footage. I thought I'd include it here on the blog because I'm often asked how we all fit in our 1-bedroom apartment. Take a tour!

Three thousand flags fly in tribute to those lost in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks at the NYC 9/11 Memorial Field, which opened to visitors this weekend in Inwood Hill Park, on the upper tip of Manhattan. The Flag of Honor exhibit will remain open through today as part of New York's commemoration of the fifth anniversary of the attacks.

We've been taking the babes to the Memorial everyday since it was errected (Friday afternoon). The lovely Inwood Hill Park is in our neighborhood -- about a 10-minute walk from our apartment -- if you've been to visit we've taken you down there. Nathan took Des&Zoe on Friday afternoon and they walked into the middle of the feild of flags sat down and Nate began to tell the story to them. Des was fascinated and Nate said that he was asked to tell it three more times. When I took them Saturday and Sunday Desi wanted to repeat what he did with Nathan, he lead me into the flags picked a spot and invited me to sit down and "tell the sad story".

Howdy Partner!

At high noon we gathered at the church on Labor Day for a Opening Social Ho-Down. We all (well, some of us) dressed as western as we could. There were varying degrees of cowboy gear, flannels and jeans and redneck attire. Professional Callers were located somewhere in CT and brought into the city to lead us all in square dancing, line dancing, and hoolahoops!

There was a Chili Tasting Contest judged by Bishop Billy and the gang (yes, aka nate jones -- HA!) My award for the chili I threw together that morning was, "Chili Most Likely to be Eaten by a Real Cowboy". Others given out were, "Chili Most Likely to Wake You Up at 1:00AM" and "Best Roadkill Chili". My favorite was the award given for the, "Most Chilean Chili" to a new move-in from Chili. Ha!

Click on the above images for a reel good time!! yeeeehaaaa!

PattyCakePattyCake

More updates on little Zoe -- trying to keep up with her -- last week she began clapping her cutelittlehands!!! So sweet! She claps when she's happy, she claps when she's upset, it's her emotional conduit. In fact, I'm playing basketball with Des right now and she just clapped for me when I made a basket!! When she claps she's usually saying something that may translate to, "yeahyeahyeahyeah!"

Other news -- ZoeDKJones has her top two teeth arriving, one ahead of the other. Her Daddy affectionately calls her snaggletooth. She's grinning so much more. Whenever Nathan or I or Des, in fact, enter a room she recognizes us and gives a happy little smile usually accompanied by a squeal.

Desi Candor V

Desi’s new friend Thomas was over playing. Thomas held up his batman and said to Des, “I save bad people.” Des held up his Buzz Lightyear and replied, “I save happy people!”

I’m thirsty for my arm.

I wear my basketball jammajamma’s. I can play basketball with the guys!

“Johnny’s little babysister is a boy?” Des likes to engage in these conversations every once and awhile; going through family and friends and identifying gender and roles. I thought this little mix-up particularly cute.

“And here is the best shirt I’ve ever met!” Presenting his new superman action figure wearing a white poncho made from a wipe.

“Babyzoe want to live on the floor!” In protest to Vanessa picking Zoe up.

“What are you doing?” Desi asked Vanessa, she replied, “popping a zit.” Desi giggled, “that’s funny!”

“Hi Zoes! We’re family together!” I’d just told him he could hold her – it was the first thing he wanted to do when he woke up this morning.

Yes Mother.

Upon entering our building a young woman holds the door open for us to get babes and stroller through. I thank her and when she’d left I remarked to Desi how nice that girl was to help us. He replyed, “That’s a spicy girl”. I couldn’t get him to explain what he meant.

Super Zoe to the rescue!

In the park late one afternoon, Des held up a stick to me and said, "it's wood, our favorite breakfast"