Everybody's Goin' To China

My sister is in China now, visiting friends from college and other past lives. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers, that she remains safe and happy. She'll be gone from her Thailand home for about 3 weeks. While she's there, the Olympics will start. Also while she's there, her home country of Thailand will receive two special visitors en route to China, W and Laura Bush. Laura's been pretty vocal in bringing attention to the political/humanitarian crisis in Burma and the refugees with whom Meredith works. Mer's Mae Tao Clinic will host Mrs. Bush (not W--he's just going to Bangkok) in early August, which is great from a publicity standpoint and great because she is donating thousands of much-needed mosquito nets. Mer will miss this visit since she will be in China. After the Bushes do a little Thai tour, they will go on to China for the opening of the Olympics.

I am not going to China. But I might just order a little take-out at some point next week and eat with chop sticks. And that's pretty much the same thing.

Safe travels, sweet sister!

What Every Parent Should Know

Last week I had two days with kids in daycare and no work scheduled. I spent one day doing laundry and getting my eyes dilated. On the other day, I did a full Kid Clothes Inventory and spent my morning at the big kids consignment sale at the Agricenter, a semi-annual event full of moms elbowing each other for the best bargains. (Actually, it's not that bad.) There are some amazing deals to be had, but one fellow shopper and I exchanged a brief conversation about the insane price of some children's clothing. As she thumbed past a cute--but not that cute--outfit for a 6-year-old, she bemoaned the $80 price tag--now half off on consignment. Here are a few clothing do's and don't's I have come to live by as I raise Girl Child Number 3:
1. Do not buy white. I am truly at a loss as to why clothing for children is even made in white. If you plan to let them wear it once, fine. But you can count on dirt, mustard, tomato sauce, snot, pee, markers, etc., marring it within approximately one hour of wear.
2. Do not pay a lot for shoes. And by "a lot," I mean more than $20, preferably less than $10. Kids are hard on shoes. Playgrounds and sidewalks are hard on shoes.
3. Do not buy expensive accessories. The handmade expensive bows are all cutesy, but they will get lost. Or broken.
4. Learn which clothes will hold up as hand-me-downs. If you have three daughters, you will need to let them share. Fashion--at least in my opinion--is not that important when they are under age 3, so who cares about trends? Go with what you like and what looks great after 571 washes.
5. Look at the tags. If it says "dry clean only" or "hand wash," pass on it. You will not have the time or money to do these things. Also, at 11 pm when you switch the washer stuff to the dryer, you will not remember to remove the "lay flat to dry" item.
6. Dresses with puffy stuff underneath are hard to clean and hard to maintain. There has been more torn netting-looking material in my house than I care to admit.
7. If outfits have matching pieces, store them together. That way, when Dad or Grandpa goes to pick out clothes, he will have better luck.
8. Fight the fights that are worth fighting. If she wants to wear a tiara to the neighbor's house, let her. If she wants to wear ballet shoes to the playground, draw the line.
9. Ask your older kid if she likes it BEFORE you buy it. If she doesn't, she won't wear it. No, she really, truly won't wear it--see #8.
10. Do not buy a dress at a consignment store for $80. That's just stupid.

Splish Splash Fun

No summer would be complete without swimming lessons. Every night for two weeks, we carpooled to the University of Memphis for Swim School with two of our very favorite friends, Sage and Autumn. The improvements were certainly notable, but perhaps most exciting, the fear of the water (other than to wade and splash) seems to have dissipated. They're both willing to try new things in the water. My favorite Rebecca moment: watching from the bleachers, I saw the teacher step back from the side in the 5-feet-deep part, clearly urging Rebecca to jump in to her. Rebecca responded by visibly waving her hands to get the teacher to move even further from the wall. She then promptly leapt in and swam at full force to the teacher! My favorite Molly moment: while holding onto the kickboard, Molly swam out to the middle of the very big pool, got distracted and turned her head back, letting the kickboard float away in the process. Without even realizing she was swimming just fine on her own, she frantically tried to recover the board. I pointed this out to her later, to which she replied, "Well, yeah, I can swim. Duh, Mom." Guess I could have saved that swim school tuition money...

Welcome Travis!

We have a new nephew! Travis has recently turned 6, and his new forever family includes Peter's sister Jennifer and her husband Rob--and all of us! We are just tickled BLUE (after all these Marsh girls--7 granddaughters in all for Nana and Pa--we now have a little boy!).

They live in Oregon, so we're all trying to think of when and where we can meet Travis to welcome him into the family. For now, we're all trying to figure out what in the world to buy for little boys...

Congratulations, Jennifer and Rob! Travis, we love you already!

The Sky in July

Who needs a fireworks show? This was tonight's sunset:

TubTime

Amelia, now 9 months old, must be going through a growth spurt. She is eating like a horse these days. We're offering limited smooshy table foods now, and for dinner, she tried organic yogurt for the first time. So in addition to having nursed one hour before dinner, she had an entire kid-sized container of yogurt, a jar of Earth's Best Vegetable Turkey Dinner, a big handful of Cheerio's and four complete slices of cantaloupe. She was sated, thrilled and a TOTAL MESS! After dinner, it was straight to the tubby for Splish-Splash Time, some Snuggly Robe Time and then some serious brushing of those two little teeth.

Girly Girls

Molly's Daisy Girl Scouts troop completed the requirements to "bridge" to Brownies earlier this summer. Though their troop does not officially meet in the summer, the moms decided it would benefit the girls to at least have one activity per month to keep them connected. The June event was a PAJAMA PARTY at our house! Each Brownie built her own sundae (topped with a sparkly decoration for 4th of July) and had a manicure. For their community service project, they made summer-themed pictures to put on a bulletin board that I put up at the nursing home where my 99-year-old grandmother is a resident. They decorated pink bags to take home, and got goody bags with lotion and bath stuff. They all wore their PJs and, though they didn't stay overnight, they were winding down by the end at 10 pm, watching "Land of Sweet Dreams" (or something like that), a Strawberry Shortcake movie. Molly is really looking forward to this year with her 6 Brownie buddies!

Honey, Have I Ever Mentioned that I REALLY Want a Boat?

We took advantage of the holiday weekend to escape to the lake in Cherokee, Alabama. My mom's wonderful, generous cousin in Iuka has an amazing house on the lake, and we joined my folks there to celebrate the 4th of July. There are scads of pictures, but I will post just a sampling here. Eventually, the website will have more (see link on the side of this blog), so keep checking.

Peter is convinced he wants a boat. What I have not yet seen is any ongoing PASSION for boating, other than when we see boats during little trips such as this. As far as I know, he doesn't know about brands or sizes or boating safety or maintenance of boats. But when we are near a lake, he mentions this desire with gusto. Since renting a "real" boat proved cost prohibitive, my water-lovin' hubby bought an inflatable raft and we rowed with the bigger girls on Saturday afternoon.




Other highlights included lots of games for kids and grown folks alike; a tea party; manicures & pedicures; fireworks over the lake; fireworks in our driveway; butterflies and lizards; grillin' out; watermelon; great weather; and relaxing as a family.








While I do not see a boat in our near future, I certainly loved the lake--and the refreshing weekend we all shared on it.

Amelia--too big fer her britches!

Amelia was 9 months old as of July 2! She is a VERY active crawler and pulls up onto anything that will sit still long enough, cruising around with little fear or caution. She giggles, mostly at Molly and Rebecca and their silly antics. Over the holiday weekend, she started dancing, which is just a riot to watch. She says 3 things: Dada, Banana (a-nana) and Ta-Da (when she stands up). Her moods are quite extreme--completely happy and mad as a hornet. The happier Amelia is the one we see more often, now that she's mobile. So far, in addition to various organic foods, fruits and breastmilk, she has also eaten (and passed!) a sticker (thanks to the check-out lady at Wild Oats Market), a glittery piece of paper and a small piece of red crayon. We're just strengthening up that digestive tract, you know. She sleeps in her crib now (yippee!), occasionally through the night. Tomorrow is her well-baby check-up so we can see how big she is--though she is truly a little peanut for her age, despite large amounts of food going right through her every day.

Fairy Ballet Camp

Rebecca's chosen summer camp involved her very favorite things: pink stuff, magic wands, jeweled crowns, dancing and ballet shoes. She spent a week at "Fairy Ballet Camp," which culminated in what she proudly dubbed a "recital." Papa came from his office, and we were all there to cheer her on. Each day they made a princess-oriented craft and learned some basic ballet moves. Their final performance was dance to the theme from Sleeping Beauty, which is Rebecca's very favorite princess. She chose to wear her purple leotard (she has no fewer than 5 dance outfits) and was simply thrilled to show off what she had learned.

DAY ONE--WANTED TO POSE WITH AMELIA

Oh Say Can You See...In West Tennessee

One of my most relaxing moments in recent weeks was spent on Tuesday afternoon...driving to a funeral. Peter's great-uncle Raymond went Home on Saturday, so family and friends gathered to say farewell. He lived most of his adult life (over 80 years) in Bolivar, Tennessee, which is about an hour from Memphis and about 45 minutes from Jackson, TN, where I was at work Tues morning. My peaceful country drive evoked nostalgia for a simpler life, the kind celebrated in country music songs. I drove through one-stop-light towns, marvelling at the hand-painted political signs ("Re-elect Becky for Councilwoman!"), the trucks stocked with hay bales and rusty refrigerators, the full-service-only gas stations with pumps that did not take credit cards. I drove past a movie theater showing one film at 7:30 each night, the old-fashioned marquee announcing the popcorn specials for the weekend. I passed fresh local produce stands, lunched on watermelon slices and juicy peaches. American flags and yellow ribbons graced mailboxes for miles. My soundtrack was all country, since that was the only station I could get with any clarity: first, a twangy song about Sundays, followed by the quintessential country ballad about a guy who drives past his lady's house and finds something he wasn't expecting ("that's my girl, my whole world, but that ain't my truck!"). Bolivar's town center features a big county courthouse, tree-lined streets and homes with porches.

As I sat in the pew watching the photo slideshow of Uncle Raymond's life (teaching school, at the beach with his daughter, in his military uniform), I quietly relished this seemingly bygone era. I knew the next morning would bring back changing diapers, singing about teapots, packing sack lunches for summer camp, an office schedule full of patients to see, and a To-Do list three miles long. But for one afternoon in July, Uncle Raymond's final gift was to help me remember the things that matter: God, family and community. Happy 4th of July, everybody!