goodnight little sun

flanz: "It's getting dark outside."
m: "Yes, the sun is going to bed and it's time for you to go to bed too."
flanz: "does little sun brush his teeth? .... and does his mommy-sun read him books?"
m: "yes, I think so."
flanz: "And then he goes to sleep and pulls his blankets up all by himself."

the end.

Otto

Otto Charles Malmberg

our nephew and cousin

August 22-30, 2008

Sweet baby boy.  I wish so much I could visit him and hold him again.

Dark blue eyes, soft fuzzy hair, long feet and toes, chubby thighs squeezed between my fingers, little fists darting towards my face, thumb in mouth, my brother holding him, stroking him, loving him, his mommy looking at him with intense, open, all-encompassing love, his mommy's elf ear, his daddy's chest, his button nose, his sweet, gentle presence.

Loving him from the moment Jessie plopped that stick down in front of me.  Waiting for him, hearing his name for the first time, the burst of joy upon meeting him, holding him, kissing him, loving him.

I can't bear that there will be no more moments with him. But if it is so, the ones I had will somehow be enough. I love him, my nephew.  I have so much sadness but also gratefulness. His life, his person, and my memories of him will forever decorate my life. 

Happy Birthday, Flannery!

We had a great day at the park with family and friends.  Highlights included sprinklers, bubbles, strawberries, gifts, balloons.

Two Years ago!! 

Happy Birthday, precious one. We love you!

Markers

This one's for Laura. See Lydle isn't the only one with marker frenzy. This was after her bath (I mean her outside-hose-shower to wash off sand), so other than some that rubbed off on her shirt, she went to bed like this. Oops. Earlier in the day, her legs looked like Lydia's too.

Here we have "Funny Bunny" from Mary Engelbreit's, "Lovey Dovey" a.k.a. "Ubby Dubby". :)

Other than that, anyone have any good tips for getting an almost 2-year old to open clenched lips enough for a tooth brush to enter?

Today we had the playground all to ourselves. I followed her around, "Mawwee, come", sliding, laughing, climbing, sitting. What a joy this little growing person!

Aunt Jessie's baby shower

My beautiful sister-in-law, Jessica, is due in August. We loved hanging out with her and Uncle Ryan last weekend.

Mom, Jessica, me.

Flannery with Cousin Laura's girls- Lydia, Flanz, Rosalia, Sophia
We love our cousins!
...and Aunt Jessie's new baby too.

Back in SoCal

Is 10 months too long between posts? I keep thinking I need the perfect post-hiatus, post-movie post, but alas maybe pictures will do.







"Happy Maaeee's Day"

Daddy's Little Girl

Does this picture remind you of Gary or what?! Love it.

After Flannery's birthday, we had 2 weeks of teething and lots of practice walking. She doesn't eat when she teethes - except apparently a whole lemon, hummus & lemon chicken.

With walking has come a new independence and enough bruises to report me...

She's a little person now. She can finally be put down to run around when we're out. On one outing I coaxed, "Come over here, Flannery." She squealed and took off in the other direction her little hands waving in the air balancing her wobbly legs. :)

Notice the moving box in the above picture. Yes, it's true! We're packing all our stuff into storage and going off to Oregon next week. We just found out last Friday that we're starting production on our film October 1. Wow. More later.