Seb's baptism

What a happy day! Sebby was glowing with excitement. We are so proud of the good choices he is making and for the wonderful boy he is. And Seb's favorite foods are breakfast foods, so we had a pretty great brunch afterwards to celebrate!

I can't believe it's already been three years since Abraham's baptism day!
 I think it's so funny how Seb is hugging Marigold's foot like that :)
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More cumulonimbus clouds

Another thing I love about late summer is the thunderstorms. There were lots of cool clouds along with them, usually in the afternoons and evenings. Sometimes it actually rained and other times the clouds just passed by.
I love the way the light comes through the back and around the edges of these. And the purple outline around the inner shapes!
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Shortcuts

Someone, who shall remain nameless, cut her own and her sister's hair. There was great weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth (I hadn't known I was so attached to their hair, but seeing it all uneven and shorn just made me fall apart) and then at last the hair genius at the salon (I wanted to hug her) transformed them into these sweet little angels again. Daisy looks like a stylish young lady, and I think little pixie Junie is just darling; the haircut really suits her! So maybe it was all for the best, and anyway I'm no longer crying into my pillow about it. (That only lasted one night, really.)

And here they are playing chess. No, they do not know how to play chess. But has that ever stopped anyone around here?

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August Skies

I love August so much. I feel like the prettiest clouds are often in August, and I love all the things that go with the August weather: afternoon thunderstorms and huge looming clouds on the horizon, and sunsets and sunrises that rim the cloud-edges with gold and pink, and, often, hints of smoke in the air that make everything change color just slightly. 

Seb has lately become fascinated with cumulonimbus clouds, and every time we go anywhere he's asking, do we think that's a cumulonimbus cloud? What about that? That one doesn't look quite tall enough, but that one's top is spreading out, so do we think that is one? I'm sorry to admit that I said to Sam in a fit of exasperation, "If I have to hear the word cumulonimbus one more time I'm going to scream!" The next day as we walked home from church I saw Sam discreetly take Sebby aside and murmur something quietly in his ear while pointing at the sky. He was considerately trying to keep me from following through on my threat, but he just couldn't bring himself to pass up an opportunity to point a cumulonimbus out to Seb. Luckily I was over it by then, because there were many more cumulonimbi yet to come. Sam, as you know, is really nerdy about clouds too, so you can't really blame Seb for it. :)

I'm sorry to say I can only provide one cumulonimbus, but here are some beautiful pictures of the recent August skies. So, so beautiful!!
Sunrise

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Random Thoughts

Malachi's fingernails, for some reason, seem to always be longer than everyone else's. I feel like I'm always having to cut them. (The toenails, on the other hand, never grow at all.) When I cast my baleful eye on this thumbnail, Ky begged me not to cut it because he wanted to set the world record for Longest Fingernail. I told him we'd take a picture of it instead. (I told him he really, really didn't want the world record. Please don't click on that link.) Poor boy, I am stifling his dreams!

I resent being forced (metaphorically speaking, of course) to use silly words and phrases by the increasingly inane names of baby products on the market. I feel faintly ridiculous every time I have to yell across the house, "Will you find the snappi for me?" or "Is the boppy down there?" or "Sebastian, you're too big to sit in the bumbo!"

It reminds me of how my friend who worked at Papa John's used to hate having to say, "Do you want to 'Papa-Size' that?" to her customers. Or the large fries at Wendy's---I never order them because I don't want to infantilize myself by asking for "Biggie Size."

I have no problem using babyish words, actually (I say "get in beddy" instead of bed, more often than not, and I can't remember the last time I washed anything other than someone's toesies in the bath)---but I want to use them on my own terms; that is, when I WANT to, not when I'm forced to by marketers trying to be cute.*

Speaking of words, I love the Oxford Words Blog. I can't get enough of stuff like this and this and this. I had an online subscription to the OED in my misspent youth, but it's long-since lapsed. This blog fills the void.

Still speaking of words, Sam employed a particularly good usage of "purchase" the other day: "My feet are over here scrambling for purchase on the footstool." You don't hear it in that sense often, but I like it. So apt.

We bought a new car awhile ago, and before we purchased** it I was reading up online about its features. Several articles talked about how quiet it was and, as our current car always seemed rather loud, I was quite excited to experience this for myself. But several weeks later, as we drove down the freeway listening to music in the new car, I found that I still couldn't hear the music very well and we still had to raise our voices to talk to each other. It was then that it occurred to me that . . . maybe the noise level of the car had more to do with the six children inside the car than with the noise reduction features provided by the car manufacturer! I'm so perceptive.

*See discussion of MyRewards, etc. here
**Here we have the more common usage, for your enjoyment
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Kyndergartner

I felt like we should have some pictures of this darling kindergartner in the quintessential backpack-by-the-door pose. Even though the doorway, qua doorway, is not quite as significant to his schooling as it once was.

He's the sharpest knife in the drawer and the brightest bulb in the box, this boy. We love our Malachi!
Squintums

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Sunshine girls

 I love Daisy so much in her buttery yellow birthday dress, I could eat her! When I was little there was a children's singing/dancing group that used to ride around on a truck singing perky little songs in the summer parades. Sunshine Generation, they were called, and I was DESPERATE to join the little cherubs so I could wear their uniform: a frilly little orange and yellow dress with several tiers, and a lace petticoat sticking out at the bottom. My mom (wisely) refused my repeated pleadings, which is just as well since there are few things I dislike more than lisping renditions of "I saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" and "All I want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth."

Anyway, yellow dresses are still my favorite. And little dottie-dress next to her isn't anything to sneeze at, either!
The fingers and the ear (they go together)
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Junie in her nightgown

I took these pictures of Junie-bird a few weeks ago, but they already feel old because she has a new haircut now. She's such a funny little elf. She loves her purple-baby, and she loves repeating everything anyone ever says. If no one else is around, she repeats herself. "Is it Sunday, Mommy? Is it? Is it? Is it Sunday? Mommy, is it Sunday today?"
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