It's been a really wonderful day. Willow and I went for a walk this morning, down to the ocean and back through a lusciously green park. The weather here is a gorgeous 80 degrees, with warm Santa Ana winds brushing off stagnant heat and swirling around the sunshine.

This afternoon, I've been sitting on our porch, rocking my babe, listening to the wind crinkle the red bud leaves and sway the palms. I love how trees dance to the season's song... swaying with a breeze, glisten and shimmer with a heavy rain, rest heavy with the weight of a cold blanket of ice or snow. To my pleasure, there always seems to be a bevy of little birds joining the tree chorus, harmonizing in natural, perfect pitch. There's also a handful of birds of prey that reside in the branches nearby. I love watching them ride the warm winds, without effort or seam in their glide, casting quick shadows over our lawn.  Sometimes I wonder if they do it just because it feels good. As I sat there, watching life unfurled on my little plot of grass and stand of trees, feeling the weight of Willow sinking lower into sweet sleep, I couldn't help but feel my soul rise and join the song. 

I began whispering in her ear the Doxology we used to sing before diner when we were children...

Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow;

Praise Him, all creatures here below;

Praise Him above, ye Heavenly Host;

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

 Amen.

More video

Here's more Willow clips. She was super happy and vocal this morning. We had fun cooing and gooing at each other!

Here's a little clip from this evening. She was chatty and smily for me; of course I kept missing all the best ones! But here's a little sample of her sweet little coos.

2 months!

Willow had her 2 month check-up today and we got a good laugh. She's a svelte 15 lbs!!! That's double her birth weight and she's added an additional 4 inches in length. Now who says a few rolls aren't precious? The Pediatrician jokingly (I think) asked if I was sure she's only 2 months. So she's in the 95th percentile for weight and 75th percentile for length. Maybe she's just an overachiever like her momma :-) We got a thumbs up that she's wonderfully healthy and happy. I'm truly am just so very, very thankful for such a blessing and pray for continued good health and pudginess. 

I Heart Faces- kids contest entry week two

Willow's first "tub" bath (actually it's a giant rubber duck). She was a bit apprehensive at first, but warmed up to the idea pretty quickly and enjoyed a little splashing. I'm betting she'll be a little fish before too long.

Frills and smiles

My perfectly pudgy girl is also perfectly pink! I love her blushed little (okay, big) cheeks and rosebud mouth. She's getting to be very generous and ready with her smiles and is "talking" up a storm when we have conversations. I'm really curious to see how that displays itself when she does have words; if we'll get a surprise and have ourselves a little chatterbox!

 

If you look close, you can see she has ruffles on her collar AND bottom.... as every true Southern girl knows, you don't go out without a little frill somewhere on your person. Not that I wear ruffles on my bottom, I've graduated to more sophisticated frills.

Perfectly pudgy

We went grocery shopping today and had the usual throngs of baby admiring senior citizens ooo-ing and ahh-ing over sweet Willow..... maybe it's just that I shop at that allotted time of day, when it's just retirees and mommies in the store. Anyway, in the check-out line I had one particularly interested, inquisitive little lady asking me all about her: her birth weight and length, exactly how old she is, how much she weighs now (which I don't know precisely), and did she really have that much hair when she was born???? 

After all the facts, she kindly concluded that Willow should probably be put on a diet or feeding restrictions, because "that just seems like an awful lot of weight she's put on in 8 weeks". 

I politely replied that she's just perfectly healthy, and besides, I sure don't want a scrawny baby :-)

I Heart Faces- kids contest

I came across a website called I Heart Faces that is dedicated to the capturing of, well...faces obviously! They'll have a contest (each week?) with different categories and themes and you can enter your fabulous face on your blog and create a link to theirs. Fun! And since I have the most precious baby in the world, of course I had to play. 

This is one of my very favorite pictures of Willow, taken in the early quiet hours of the morning. Those sweet, plump cheeks, that perfectly pug nose, those whispery, dreamy eyelashes....what's not to love???

I Heart Willow ;-)

As Willow is getting older (all 8 weeks of her) and I've been doing a little bit more reading and perusing of parenting books and websites, I've come across so many labels and how-to methods and parenting styles. If you do xy&z, then you're doing it this way, if you do ab&c, then you're this style, but if you only do p&q and add a little ab, then you're doing this and probably messing your kid up for life.  

Okay, so maybe it's not quite so rigid, but I feel it's a bit excessive and almost insulting at times. Some of the so called methods eliminate any room for God given parenting instinct, or they seem just plain common sense and silly that someone actually put a name to it and called it a "style". As I've skimmed blogs of other Moms who write mostly about their adventures in motherhood and homemaking, I began to feel like I was supposed to be subscribing to one of these methods, that I had to pick a name for how I was going to parent in the event that some playground  Mom turns to me and asks "...and what style are you using to parent Willow?".

How about the "Fly by the Seat of My Pants" style??? Just kidding.

But really, as I considered parenting and who the original parent is, I drew the correlation to what I've been doing, and think I'll continue to do as Willow grows, with how the Father parents us as his children. I thought about being a brand spankin' new christian and what is so crucial during that infant stage. I think so much of our God parent-child relationship is rooted in believing, trusting and accepting and receiving His love for us. REALLY accepting.  And I think often times we don't. What if that's all we did in the beginning, if we spent the first year as a believer just soaking up His love and not wanting to get out of His lap, just being cooed over and not feeling driven to go and do, or join this ministry team or follow this 25 step guide to Christian living, but just let Him sing over us as a new parent and all we do is drink it up as we learn how to trust and dwell in that relationship? And then, what if when we move into toddlerhood, we are so secure with our parent, we don't doubt His love, His wisdom, we are safe to venture out and make choices, receive discipline, respond with obedience out of that love-relationship and desire to please our parent. What if, when we make a toddler mistake and we exercise our free-will and test our independence and we are lovingly, firmly corrected, what if we don't dwell on it or wallow in it, but safely go back to the lap and are content to rest and receive.

Maybe my interpretation is itself infantile or misdirected, but I do hope Willow grows to operate out of trust and security in our love-relationship.

kissable...

...sweet little skin.