Juna Loves

Juna's loves
at twenty months
in March:
WALKS
ELMO
DOGS
BRACELETS
RING AROUND THE ROSIE
ROCKS
BUILDING WITH BLOCKS
MAKING TOWERS
AND KNOCKING
THEM DOWN
THE SANDBOX
ALEX
HUMMUS
VIDEOS OF HERSELF
CURIOUS GEORGE
NIGHT-NIGHT
MATCHING
MAKING BUBBLES
IN THE BATHTUB
HATS
YO GABBA GABBA
PUTTING SOCKS
ON HER HANDS
NURSING
ALEX'S MAMA
BUSES
DRESS UP
WASHING HANDS
AND EVERYTHING ELSE
WATER
KIPPER
BOOKS
THE IPAD
SINGING
BALLS
SIPPY CUPS
MUD AND PUDDLES
THE GYM
JUMPING
PEEK-A-BOO
CREAM CHEESE
ANIMALS
THE MOON
EXPLORING
SORTING
COINS
"STANDING" ON HER HEAD
NOISES
ROBOTS
FEEDING FISH
DOING THINGS ON HER OWN
OUTSIDE
HELPING MAMA

Spring

It is SPRING!  And with Spring comes one of my other favorite things, Spring Cleaning!  Am I being unrealistically optimistic that I will be able to fulfill this enormous task with Juna by my side?  And what do I hope to accomplish?  Spring is the time of rebirth and great change, of course, which spurs us to on to make those changes to ourselves and the places we reside.  I don't get this feeling with New Year's, which is an arbitrary day chosen on our calendar, but having no connection to any environmental changes, and perhaps that is why my resolutions quickly went by the wayside.  With the blooming of the trees and the glorious warm sunshine, I am feeling the stirring of the desire to make those changes once more... and what better way to start then to organize all the closets, to throw out all of the accumulated useless or unused objects, to scrub every inch and scare the spiders from their corners, so that my surroundings can start to resemble the changes that I wish to make inside myself, and I can start to mirror them in my actions and thoughts.  Because it IS time.  It is time to change and grow.  It is time to become more of the person I wish and hope to be, more of the person I want my daughter to see.  It is time to live in happiness, health, and free from past habits and thoughts that bring me down. 

And Then Came The Toddler

Juna at twenty months,
an ever-growing vocabulary
which delight both she and I,
but still so hard to express herself
as moment to moment flies by,
one minute a smile from ear to ear
clapping hands and "oh yeah"
the next she's about to cry,

and even I, who know her so well,
don't always know why,
an independent person, all her own,
Oh my! putting on her own clothes,
washing herself and blowing her nose,
retelling all the events of her day
and all the stories she knows,
this amazing person in front of me,
She, a wonder, that just grows and grows.

A Love Letter To My Sister

I've always felt that we were closer than a marriage, that of our parents,
that we were closer than a life spent growing up together, closer than friends,
I've always felt that if fate hadn't brought us together and made us sisters,
the universe would have found some other way of bringing our souls and hearts
into the same world, I feel that they have always been one,
but because of our childhood and our past, spending so much time saying good-bye,
always being separated from each other without making that choice ourselves,
it's been hard to keep our relationship close, even while our hearts were always so,
we haven't always shared our lives with the other, but we are always striving
to close those gaps and reunite, mend those loose threads that came apart,
because you are the light of my lighthouse, you are the anchor of my ship,
you are all that is sweet and innocent in my history.