Thoughts

My mom got a cat today. Well, more accurately, I gave her a cat for her birthday. Hope Dad doesn't kill me.

He's a beautiful dainty Siamese kitty with dark grey ears and paws and tail, blended into a light grey body. And gorgeous ice blue eyes.

Beautiful thing.

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I am sick again. Thanks, Layla.

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Flowers are all throughout our home. I love you Nathanael.

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The past few weeks the sun has been fighting with the fog, trying to see who will win over the coveted Carpinteria space. Most summer long the fog has won. Maybe now that we're more than half way through September we'll finally get our summer?

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Musician Jason Reeves just released a single Helium Hearts which you should absolutely check out. Our friend Josh Newton took a bunch of pictures used on his new website, and my very own Nathanael made his music video (which is coming out any day now!!).

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I have a painting project currently being undertaken and I am considering trying my hand at children's books. It may just stop with Layla, but I would like to give it a try. Anyone interested in doing the artwork?

Sorry for the random uncohesiveness of this post. I blame the cold Layla gave me.

Love

Watching some video footage of Layla tonight, I am staggered and overwhelmed by the love I have for her. It is SO deep, SO full, so beautiful and good. I mean, honestly, this pride and love wells up in me just watching her drink from her sippy cup so independently! Haha, it sounds ridiculous (I know, it wasn't that long ago I was single and responsibility-less without a kid) but it is true! I am so proud of her for being able to drink water on her own and just for how beautiful she is and how grown-up she's getting. It is profound and gives a whole new level of understanding of the love that parents have for their children. Helps me realize how much my own parents love me and also how much God loves us, that He would call us His children. Amazing.

This evening Nathanael was sitting in the chair in Layla's room and Layla was playing on the ground. She found one of her many board books, grabbed it, crawled over to Than with the book in her hand and got his attention by tapping his leg and looking up expectantly. He picked her up and she nestled in on his lap, sitting back, ready to be read the book.

How cute is that?!?! She is becoming such a big girl!!!

doubled existence

Layla is 9 months old today! Which means she has officially doubled her existence (9 months inside, 9 month outside) and from here on out, more of her life will be out in the real world than in the cozy confines of the womb. And she is quite adept in her world these days...crawling (race crawling) throughout our home, playing chase (her favorite) with me, giggling, squealing with delight.

We celebrated by getting cupcakes from Whodidily with a friend Penelope who was also born Nov 10th!

She tried curry the other day for the first time, and she loved it. Good thing or we might've disowned her. Haha, JUST KIDDING! But we are excited that she enjoyed it. Her meal yesterday was straight off our plates: rice, lentils, potato, curry (squished together, but still, pretty close!). It is so much fun these days. She's definitely more trouble too. We had to put a baby gate around Than's work area..haha. She enjoyed the printer and his hard drives a little too much.

Other news...Santa Barbara just had their annual Fiesta celebration of the Old Spanish Days. That was terrific fun. Nathanael and I got in a date thanks to my mom (thanks Mom!). We even bought some confetti eggs and smashed them on each others' head to join in the festivities.

And we had shave ice (as they call it here).

So much fun. I love this age!!!

Nursery

We have finally (mostly) finished Layla's nursery. :-) Yay.

I made the paper balls (they weren't that hard actually). The hanging pictures are above her changing table, which is causing a problem because Layla finds great joy in pulling them down....