Camille and I got spoiled rotten when Nana came to stay with us for a whole week, and now that she’s gone Camille keeps asking forlornly, “Nana?” I explain that she had to go bye-bye. Then she asks “Ga-da-dee?” (for Granddaddy), and I say he went bye-bye too. But at least I can tell her they are together finally! Granddaddy returned from China Wednesday night and I’m very happy to have him back on US soil.
Several times when we’ve walked past the guest bedroom, Camille has tried opening the door saying, “Nana! Nana!” I have to show her that Nana’s not in there. This morning, I got one of the sodas Nana brought and left in the fridge, and Camille saw it and said, “Nana’s drink!” While Nana was here, Camille liked watching her do her back exercises. Even now, Camille will plop down on the floor and say “Exercise!” Then she’ll start mimicking Nana’s exercises and saying, “Up, down! Up, down!”
I’m kicking myself for not taking more pictures while Nana was here. We went to the beach twice, and Camille had so much fun, but I forgot my camera both times. Nana got some pictures though, so as soon as we see her again I’ll have to get a few copies.
I did manage to snap this one before Nana left. Camille moves so fast these days it was hard to get her to look at the camera for more than a nanosecond. Or should I say “nana” second!
We got out the door early this morning to beat the crowds headed to the beach for Memorial Day. The weather was great and we got a parking spot right at the boardwalk, which is handy for schlepping all our stuff over the dunes. Miss Camille was super-excited to be there and loved playing in the puddles and digging through the wet sand, although she took off running any time a wave came lapping up into her puddle. She likes her water to be predictable.
She was great about keeping on her hat, but the hat was pretty worthless because it kept falling behind her head or in front of her face. Time to go shopping for a new hat!
At one point, a little boy about her age came wandering over wanting to play, and we chatted with his father while they exchanged shovels. It came up that the boy speaks three languages – English, French and Spanish.The dad went on to explain that the family lives in Atlanta, but the father is from France and his mother is from Cuba.
Of course, my ears perked up at this and we mentioned our recent trip to Cuba. As it turns out, we met the uncle of the French man’s wife! In fact, we toured his Havana home and took him out to dinner. I knew the Cuban man had a brother living on Tybee, and it turns out that’s why this family was visiting today – to spend time with the father-in-law.
How random is that?!
Anyway, it was a great way to spend the holiday – beach in the morning, shopping and the pet store in the afternoon. And best of all, we got to spend it as a family.
That’s my sleep number.
After years of sleeping on an old mattress, after countless nights of rolling toward the valley in the middle of the bed, after numerous mornings of extracting ourselves from the indentations our bodies wore into the springs, we shelled out the dollars for a better bed.
We considered a lot of options, but based on the recommendation of my brother and of Anna and Jason, we decided to go with a Sleep Number bed. It was delivered yesterday, and I have to admit I had my concerns. It’s basically a really expensive air mattress, and when they pulled out a coleman pump to inflate it, I had flashbacks of sleepovers on those uncomfortable air mattresses that usually lose firmness throughout the night until you wake up touching the floor.
But I am pleased to say that so far, the mattress feels quite unlike those old air mattresses and quite unlike any other bed I’ve slept on. In fact, it may be a little too comfortable, because I have a really hard time getting out of it. I think Miss Camille likes it too. I usually bring her to bed in the morning and she’ll sometimes lie there for 10 minutes (15 if I massage her feet). This morning she stayed in bed with us for 30 minutes, so maybe she has a hard time getting out of it too.
I’m always nervous about big purchases like this, so I’ll probably feel a little skeptical for a month or two, hoping the mattress doesn’t begin to feel less comfortable. But for now, I’m really liking our new bed!
Oh my goodness I think this little guy is cute. This felt elephant hair clip is not perfect by any means, and he probably won’t last long hanging on for dear life to the hair of a very busy toddler who likes to pull out her bows periodically for inspection. He took way too long for me to make – I don’t even want to admit how much time I spent stitching his toes. My next few hair clips are going to be simpler because I need to wait until I get better before tackling something so small and detailed. It’s not like I suddenly have all this extra free time to make hair clips. But I think Edmund the Elephant is sweet and fun, and best of all, I think Camille will like him when I show him to her tomorrow!
I haven’t been able to speak to my dad since he arrived in China, but have been lucky enough to get fairly regular emails from him. The updates have been fascinating and heart breaking, and I thought I’d share this one, written by my dad on May 17:
Today’s English edition of the “China Daily” lists these figures in a front page text box:
22,069 confirmed dead, 168,669 injured, 4,432 aftershocks in Sichuan in the past four days, 21,125 pulled alive out of debris and 140,000 soldiers and armed police mobilized.
For those of you reading this update these numbers are sad statistics of a tragic earthquake happening somewhere on the other side of the world. For me, these numbers draw a picture of the stark reality awaiting me on the other side of my hotel room door.
Let me regress. On Monday morning at 6:30 I left Knoxville, Tennessee headed for Chengdu, China to begin a three month sabbatical. I had been preparing for this venture for almost a year, reading about Chinese customs, trying to learn bits of the language and preparing lesson plans to teach young pastors; but no amount of preparation could have prepared me for what I encountered when I arrived in Chengdu. The fear and grief written on Chinese faces delivered a message that transcended translation. Something terrible had happened and I was getting ready to sample its bitter taste.
Chengdu, capital city of the Sichuan province, is located about 50 miles from the earthquake’s epicenter. Though approximately 1,000 Chengdu residents died as a result of the earthquake, much of this large city sustained only minimal damage. The area where I’m staying seems safe. The aftershocks catch your attention but, at this point, they seem pretty minimal.
But words describing the lack of structural damage don’t begin to tell the whole story. As I began to interact with Chengdu’s residents I realized structural damage was only the first phase of this earthquake’s devastation. The most severe devastation was not in crushed buildings but in crushed lives and shattered dreams.
Since Monday’s tremor, fear and grief have spun their pattern in the fabric of the Chengdu community. Everywhere you turn people are living in makeshift tents, afraid to go back inside their houses. Each aftershock only heightens the level of apprehension and each new event gives birth to rumors that produce new waves of panic.
At this time I have not personally gone into the most devastated areas, and rightly so. The Chinese people take pride in “caring for their own” and are conducting a well-coordinated relief effort without the intervention of unskilled foreigners like me. Since I cannot go into the crises areas I have tried to support the effort by helping to collect supplies for the victims.
On Wednesday morning, as we began the supply effort, the city’s water was temporarily cut off and it was rumored that the water supply might be out indefinitely. Immediately, the streets were filled with panicked buyers purchasing food and water at exorbitant prices. My friends and I became a part of that crowd, scouring the city by foot in search of food and water for victims. By early afternoon we had walked a couple of miles only showing minimal results for our effort. The water outage only lasted a couple of hours but, because of the rumors, the entire city was pitched into chaos.
Later that day another rumor sent Chengdu residents scrambling for their lives. According to some unknown source, mice in the outlying countryside were evacuating barns and buildings en mass. According to spin doctors, this strange rodent behavior could only signal one thing – a worse earthquake was on the horizon. Obviously, the rumor proved untrue.
Despite all the chaos, things are stable in Chengdu, but it’s a tenuous stability. I have no doubt the buildings will endure the shaking, but it’s the quaking souls of hurting people that gives me greatest concern.
Pray for those whose lives are changed forever and pray for my friends and me as we seek to be the presence of Christ to those who desperately need to feel his comfort and love.
P.S. Some of you have asked about making contributions to help in the relief effort. If you wish to do so you can send a check payable to First Baptist Church with a note designating it for China Earthquake Relief. The church’s address is 1610 Russell Ave., Jefferson City, TN 37760.
Hi sweet bunny and Happy 22 Month Birthday! Right now you’re sleeping all snuggled in the cutest sleeping gown, and you look like such a big girl in it. Until now, your pajamas have been a mixture of shorts and shirts and (my favorite) footie p.j.s. But this gown just looks so grown on you – but that’s mostly because you’re looking quite grown up yourself!
The gown has little strawberries on it, and I’m fairly certain there will be many times in the coming months when you’ll put it on and say, “Elsie!” You must have loved picking strawberries with her a couple of months ago, because you still say her name nearly every time you see or eat a strawberry.
I’ve enjoyed watching you become even more of a social butterfly this month. Being home two extra days a week has given us more time to play with other kids your age, which has been fun for both of us. You interact with your friends even more than you used to, even though you still often play around each other as much as with each other. Your little friend Hart is quite a lover, and I snapped this photo at the park recently when he couldn’t resist a kiss. I can’t blame him, and you liked wrapping your arms around him too.
Sometimes I’ve wondered if you were even that interested in a particular friend, or just liked being around kids in general. I think it’s some of both. You definitely like to be around other children, but you have your favorites too.
I found this out the other day after our last playdate with Elsie. You two played around our house, and then Beth and I decided to stroll you to the park. My heart melted when your little hands stretched out toward each other across your strollers, and you insisted we move your strollers close enough together so you could hold hands as we pushed you along the street. Then when it was time for Elsie to leave, you became hysterical. As her mom buckled her into her car, you cried and kept yelling “Elsie!” over and over again while she peered back at you from inside the car. At first I thought it was cute and funny, but you were just so upset and didn’t seem to be getting over it, not even when I took you inside. I finally had to get down on the floor and tell you quietly that Elsie had to go bye-bye and it was ok, we’d see her later. You sighed, then wrapped your arms around my neck. I think it’s so sweet you have friends and that you love being with people, because having good friends is important in all our lives.
Do you know what else you love? The beach. Oh my goodness you had so much fun the last time we took you to the beach. It was the first time you’d been this season when it was warm enough to wear suits and play in the water, and I wasn’t sure what you’d think of it.
We timed our trip perfectly because it was low tide and little tidal pools had formed along the shore. They were shallow and had warmed in the sun, and you had so much fun running from one to the next, kicking and splashing and laughing, periodically stopping to yell, “BEACH!” I don’t have to say too much about it – this video pretty much sums it up:
Beach! from Ginger on Vimeo.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, because I love the ocean and I’m looking forward to being beach bums together. We’ll definitely go back again soon.
You also love flowers – actually you love any kind of scented thing. You’ll carry a candle (unlit of course) around the house for a long time, sniffing it and insisting we smell it too. The gardenias outside our house are blooming, and their flowers are very fragrant. We were playing in the yard the other day when you discovered them, and I got this great picture – one of my favorites.
You held on to that bloom so tightly and we kept urging you not to pull it off, because if you had it your way you’d pluck them all and take them with you everywhere you go. So instead you buried your face in it, looking like someone whose very breath required the sweet fragrance.
You’re talking so much more this month, repeating whole phrases and with increasing accuracy. This morning, you pointed at the embroidery on your highchair cover asking what it said, and when I told you, you repeated it back with the most perfect “Eddie Bauer.” It cracked me up, as if you were interested in brands or something. But I think one of my favorite things you say is “Hi, Mommy,” because you say it so sweetly. You’ll be playing and then stop suddenly, leaning in with your arms outstretched and croon, “Hi, Mommy.” Then you’ll pull me into a tight hug and hold me there for a while. I love it because it seems so genuine, and I think it’s your way of saying “I love you.” I love you too. Hi, Camille.
You’ve started saying your name this month, and it’s adorable. We’ve been going back and forth between calling you Cami and Camille, but you seem to prefer Camille. You’ll point at yourself and say, “Meal.” I’m sure I’ll still call you Cami sometimes, but I love hearing you say Meal.
Another favorite of yours is music. We have some fun kid’s music CDs in the stereo in your room, and whenever we walk in there you’ll run up to the stereo cabinet and yell “Nu-nic!” for music. When it plays you dance and twirl and laugh, and then you ask to get in your crib where you dance and twirl and laugh some more. If you’re really feeling it, you’ll thrash around in your crib like it were a mini-mosh pit, flopping down against the bumpers and collapsing in a fit of giggles. I need to get it on camera, but I’m usually so busy clapping and cheering you on I don’t think of grabbing the camera in time.
But you also like playing music, and thankfully, I’ve captured that on tape. Your Daddy keeps a guitar in your nursery, and when you see it you say, “Pick?” You love holding the pick, and have grown quite adept at strumming the strings and playing with Daddy. I love watching the two of you play.
Camille Plays Guitar from Ginger on Vimeo.
Sweet girl, thank you for another great month and for all the music you bring to our lives, whether it’s on Daddy’s guitar, or through your own sweet singing, your laughter, or the way you say “peek-boo!” while hiding behind the curtain in the dining room. The other day, your Daddy said didn’t think he’d ever laughed as much as he has since you were born. You bring smiles to our faces every day, and I’m so thankful for another month of being your mommy. I love you peanut.
Several months ago, I bought Camille some super-cute felt hairclips from Maya Papaya on etsy.com, and loved them so much. But unfortunately, all three have been lost, most likely in the mulch covering Camille’s playground at school. Then Jody sent Camille an adorable clip she made, which thankfully we still have, and I began toying with the idea of trying some myself.
I’m not a super-crafty person, but I still enjoy being creative and seeing a project through from beginning to end. I saw some more hairclips online this morning that were so cute I could eat them, and I knew Camille must have them. So I went to the fabric store, bought some felt, hairclips, beads, hot glue and embroidery thread to see if I could make them for her.
My first attempt was none other than Elmo, and he’s not perfect but he’s pretty cute. Best of all, Camille really seems to like him and wore the clip all afternoon and didn’t pull it out ONE TIME. That’s a big deal. Tonight, I made a watermelon in honor of summer and with fond memories of my Grandmother, who collected watermelon stuff and would’ve liked to have seen her great-grandbaby with a watermelon clip.
I’m learning as I go – like about how the clip looks fine when I lay it out, but when it’s stitched together the thread draws it in and can distort it a little – so I still have some kinks to work out. It’s fine if they look hand-made, but right now they’re looking home-made. But I’m beginning to feel addicted, and I’m already thinking about what clips I might make tomorrow. Maybe an owl… she’s into owls these days…
I had Headline News on Monday morning as I was getting ready for work, only half-listening. But suddenly, I was glued to the set as the anchor began telling a story about the earthquake in China. At that very moment, my father was on a plane headed to China, and I had no idea what all this might mean. I kept waiting for her to describe the area of China where the quake happened – I mean, after all, it’s a big country. Hopefully it didn’t happen near Chengdu, where he was going.
She just said Chengdu.
Of course my first and greatest concern, selfishly, was and still is for my father’s safety. He arrived in Chengdu late Monday night/Tuesday morning, and from our most recent update he’s doing well. The area of town where he’s staying wasn’t largely affected. While he would’ve traveled to help in the hardest hit regions, he says foreigners aren’t typically allowed in the disaster areas. So instead, he spent his first day in Chengdu helping gather food, water and supplies for the relief workers to take with them to the disaster zones.
Now that I know my dad is relatively safe, my thoughts have turned toward the devastation around him. I’ve been listening and watching with sadness as the death toll rises, thinking how unbearable the pain must be for the people there. I can’t imagine the despair felt by the parents standing around those toppled school buildings, wondering if their child might’ve found a pocket of air and somehow survived.
Then yesterday, my heart was truly broken as I listened to a story by Melissa Block on NPR. She went along with a mother and father as they desperately led a search in the debris of a collapsed apartment building for their son and the father’s parents. The son was 2 months shy of his second birthday – a little too familiar to me. The mother had left her son with the grandparents so she could go to work just a few minutes before the quake. Her son had asked her not to leave.
He was later found in his grandfather’s arms, with the grandmother close behind. All three were dead.
I can’t understand why these things happen, and sometimes I feel paralyzed with fear knowing they can happen anytime and anywhere.
Melissa Block’s story is remarkable journalism, but it’s such a difficult story to hear, made even more tragic by the knowledge that the family’s misery is being mirrored throughout the region. I wish there were something I could do other than pray, but I find a small amount of comfort knowing my father is there. I know he’ll do anything he can to help, anything he’s allowed to do. He was sent there on a mission trip to teach new pastors in a seminary, but I have a feeling he may do some pastoring of his own. It’s one of the things he does best, and I’m very proud of him.
I couldn’t have asked for a better Mother’s Day weekend. I got to be with my girl and my mom, and had the chance to show Camille off to lots of family members I hadn’t seen in much too long. We went to Macon where my extended family always gathers the weekend of Mother’s Day. We haven’t been able to make the trip in a while, and in fact, I hadn’t seen most of these people since Christmas of 2006. When Camille was 5 months old. She’s changed just a little in that time…
The family luncheon at Aunt Glenda’s brought back a lot of great memories. I’d forgotten about the play room with cabinet after cabinet full of toys. So many of the toys I loved as a child were still there, just as I remembered them. I’m so happy Aunt Glenda held onto them, because her house is like a gigantic playland. And it was no surprise that Camille loved all the old toys too, and it was really neat watching her play with them now. She even had a few firsts – like her first drive in a car.
And her first experience on a big girl swing! She held on like a pro, and I think she was even a little proud of herself. I was proud of her. SO BIG!
She wanted to get in the pool so badly, but it was starting to storm and I didn’t want to chance it. But I look forward to bringing her back there again someday and letting her play in the pool where my cousin Lee first taught me to swim.
We also got to visit with Lee’s Dad and Donna on Friday, and then Saturday morning had the great treat of seeing Uncle Trent and his girlfriend Michelle. Trent was down from Cincinnati and met us for breakfast before heading back out of town. As we were driving to the restaurant, I told Camille we were going to say hi to Uncle Trent, and she started chanting, “Hi Tent! Hi Tent!” before we even got out of the car.
I was very glad to see my folks, because things have been so crazy for them lately and I needed to give them hugs. I was relieved to see Mom doing so well after her back surgery, and I was glad to spend the extra time with Dad before he left for China today.
But a real highlight was being with my sweet niece who has grown so much in the last 5 months.
She’s such a happy baby who likes to laugh and coo and blow bubbles and seemed to enjoy standing and bouncing in her aunt’s lap. I wondered how Camille would react to her, and I must say I was quite proud. Of course, Camille got pretty upset at first when she saw us holding Stella, and demanded that I hold her too. I wasn’t surprised – I mean, she doesn’t have to share Mommy with other babies too often, so I’m sure it was unsettling. But when Stella would be sitting on the ground playing, Camille seemed to enjoy sitting near her and interacting. Maybe it was all the new baby toys, but I’d like to think she also found Stella to be interesting too.
She was very gentle with Stella, and if she heard Stella starting to cry, she’d bring her a toy and try to make her happy again. And when I asked her if she would give Stella a hug, she leaned in so slowly and carefully as if she understood that she was the big cousin and needed to be gentle.
I think Stella likes her cousin too, and this weekend makes me even more excited about all the fun they’re going to have in the future. And all the fun I’ll have watching them grow.
The beds of ivy in front of our house are also home to a lot of weeds, much to my annoyance. But one welcome intrusion is a patch of wild blackberries.
I love blackberries, and it’s an affection that goes deeper than taste. Much like watermelon, they remind me of my childhood and of my grandparent’s farm. Wild blackberries grew along the road to their house, and I remember spending many summer days with baskets along the dusty roadside plucking blackberries from the vine. One for the basket, two in my mouth. Then when we got back to the house, my grandmother would make the most delicious blackberry cobbler, made even tastier because I knew I’d contributed.
So even though I plan to weed the ivy beds this afternoon, I’ll not be removing the blackberry vines. Instead, I’ve been bringing in the berries as they ripen, with Camille’s help of course.
There aren’t enough for a cobbler, but after a quick wash, Camille seems to like them just they way they are.
