Safety First

We are currently:

• trying on goggles
• practicing the back stroke in the tub
• measuring and weighing suitcases
• counting our pennies
• losing sleep
• praying last year's swimsuit will fit

Our trip to Hawaii is just around the corner.  Back in December, I told Jace this Hawaii trip with all 4 of the children would be a good idea.  No!  A great idea!  That was back in the day when Mikael used to chill on my lap.  For hours.  Not the case today.  How will I manage a 6 hour flight?  Me and her are sharing a seat.  Luckily, 4 of my sisters and all of their hoodlums children will be on the same flight.  What's that you say?  It's not a lucky thing?  I feel a lot of sympathy for the old man that was purchasing his ticket the same night we all were.  He will be stuck right in the middle of us - all 23 of us.   I ask that my relatives acknowledge they know me and my redneck/chicken smuggling crew (and that they take turns holding the only squirming infant on the plane).

So, Aloha for now.  I'll be back to retrieve my large Old Navy box sitting at the post office.  Can you believe a government office was closed today and will be closed on Monday as well?  What do they expect Noah and Ezra to wear to the beach?  Sheesh.  I will also be back to make sure these flowers did not die and start swim lessons.  And we will return to buy that one house. :)

p.s.  Macy asks all to pray for the safe return of her and all her limbs.  Taking her to see the movie about the surfer getting her arm ripped off by a shark in Hawaii right before our trip may not have been my brightest move.  We will be lucky if her ankles get wet this trip.

Milestone - 7 Months

7 months

I have decided Mikael is a busy girl.  My sisters are rolling their eyes at me right now.  They think all the Baum babies are calm babies - like drunk, sleepy sailors.  They think I don't know what a busy baby is and maybe they are right.  But for a Jace/Lindsay Baum baby - Mikael is busy.  And it just happened this month.

Warming up.  Stretching out.

She turns circles on my lap.  She scoots, then crawls, then dive bombs to anywhere she wants to go.  She does her morning push-ups in her crib everyday.  She still frequents the all you can eat buffet at night.  She's ticked if she's not the one manning my cell phone.  She types 60 wpm.  And she is completely offended if she is not bumbo sitting in the middle of the table at dinner - she needs to watch every bite and hear every word.

Mikael - bumbo sitting

And I'm happy to report that my teething suspicions are true!  5 months later!  She is finally cutting her two bottom teeth.  She still loves her mother the best and is a champ at spitting her baby food out.  My children are the world's worst solid food eaters - or is it a lazy mother?  Who prefers nursing over a 30 minute pea spooning-spitting session?

Check my photography skills.  One eye out out of focus.  One in focus.  Tricky.

Looks like my baby is growing up.  It is a good thing she gets cuter every day she gets older or I'd protest.

Tuesday Afternoons

Grandma Gaye on the right.

Most Tuesday afternoons, my 2 youngest children and I can be found at an assisted living facility in Show Low.  My Grandma Gaye's new residence.  She is always so happy to see me us.  One time I tried going in without my babies  and she asked why I even bothered coming at all.  She loves the babies.  As does most of the other residents there.  We wave and smile and throw candy to the old people in the halls as we pass by.  They ew and ah over that Mikael.  Grandma Gaye wants to hear all the family gossip and if you share she will in turn share her popsicles and cookies with us.

My crew with Grams on her 83rd (?) birthday last month.

It is about the only time during the week that my kids and I exit our little world and get to serve someone else.  Getting old is not for sissies.  I can only imagine how lonely most of her days have been since my Grandpa died 15 years ago.  I'm sure in her mind's eye, it wasn't very long ago, her body and life looked just like the 1st photo.

Grandpa Don furthest to the right.

It appears to me from these photos that I inheirted my curly hair from my Grandpa and not his long legs.  Dang.  The funniest thing about this photo is is that he looked so much like this up until the day he died.  He did not age or change much.  He believed that there was only 1 way to do most things - his way.  The right way.  He didn't believe in cutting corners.  He was a rule follower.  I'm pretty sure a cuss word never left his lips or his hands ever littered.

On his Navy ship.  Mount Vesuvious in the back ground.

He would wave his American flag on every holiday, including my birthday.  The man had a serious soft spot for his country. He ate his fiber and vegetables regularly.  He lived to make my Grandma happy and did it in such a way that you had no idea he was doing it.  Ding, ding, ding!!.....a lesson I should try learning - make Jace happy *quietly*.  I should also quit cussing while I'm at it, wave the flag more often, and teach my kids that littering is a nasty habit and people will think less of them and their upbringing if they see them polluting the earth.  We can't have that.  Grandpa Don wouldn't approve.

You never know how your life story will play out.  Will I be sitting lonely for years without my Jace?  Waiting to see him and hear his funny stories again?  Or will Jace know life without me for a time?  Either way all we can hope for is that somebody loves us enough to brings us ice cream and babies every week.