A Day at the Park

Grandma has decided to stay in the Philippines, Genieve. It's too bad because she is a smart little lady who isn't scared of very much and always has interesting things to talk about. We took these pics for her. Grandma is about 4 feet tall but look what she has done! A couple of people weren't able to make it, and as you can see, not all of us checked in enough to wear white.

Piano lessons = ...

Some advice doesn't make sense right away, but when you start your lessons,
listen to Mom and Dad when they tell you to practice your piano:

You Go Girl...

Once we have a kid in our lives, even if he or she is not our own but is very important to us, a constant question forms its own neurological pathway in our brains: How can i help my kid have healthy self-esteem?

I don't know how bad it's going to get before it gets better, but one thing seems to be sure. It's that girls (and boys) suffer from the endless images of what they're supposed to look like if they want to be considered as: smart, talented, successful, whatever...existing...

We have come a long way, yet we, in general, still are fools for beauty. Once we have been loved for our inner beauty, that fool goes away; it tries to sneak back, but the love you've been given fights it. Kids seem to not have this "fool" inside of them until they get compared to someone else in one way or another...but let me get to why I wanted to put this here for you, Genieve: You like to jump on your Mom and Dad's bed. You sing some kind of wonderful song that I can't understand, with your eyes closed.

Then (I hope you do this routinely, I've only witnessed it once so far) you run around on the bed and yell "YAY ME! YAY ME!"

When you're taking your first door in service, graduating from school, going into your first job interview, 34, going on 35, when your 95 but almost 96, please keep saying "YAY ME! YAY ME!"

Extra Cheese Please...

Before it was this:

It was this:


By the way, Mom, and Genieve, make the best pizza. Yes, we are privileged to have the best fried rice, eggrolls, pancit, mung beans, halo-halo, fresh ginger tea...and pizza!

So Be It

Jehovah knows why He wants us to "teach them from infancy": Genieve's first "Amen" was at lunchtime, May 6th, before a plate of Bertolli's 10 minute pasta. Conditions were partly sunny with a slight wind blowing in from the East (lol...). Took place on the deck. The mood of her Amen was loud and clear, and confident. Pronounced "ay-may", in the key of E. lol. ...good job Genieve!

Intro

By the time Genieve is a teenager and old enough to think that a blog all about her was the most embarrassing thing I could do to her, blogging will be obsolete. We'll probably have halogram texting or something even better. But for now, I'll continue in this blogging parade, and what an appropriate time; I feel very grown up for at least 4 reasons:

• 1) I got mad at my Mom this morning because she called me to see if I was on my way in a timely manner to my first official day of watching Genieve (Thursdays). I'm grown up because I'm venting about Mom on the Internet. (I'm still in trouble later.)


• 2) I'll be having a car seat in my car.


• 3) I don't care about makeup...as much. On Thursdays.


• 4) I'll have to talk louder so Genieve will listen to me. A loud, authoritative voice. On Thursdays. I've never done that on any day.

So Genieve, you are "bossy boots" (not from the book about "magical" boots) , but you are the youngest in a line of bossy boots (even those of us with small voices). As Maria says, "Starting with your Lola Lola (Great Grandma) down to you, but you wear the cutest bossy boots of all."

Expect music, lifetime Ugly Ballet Moves lessons, laughing, health tips, writing and drawing tips, pictures of yourself, walks outside, reminders of how beautiful you are and that the boy who really loves you won't want you to wear makeup anyways, and...us. K...let's see how we do...oh, and we love you.