FALL

Inspiration

This inspires me.

I wrote in my 8th grade autobiography that she was my queen... She was the one that I looked up to and wanted to be exactly like.

Not much has changed in a matter of ten years (wow, has it really been that long?). Yes, we have taken different roads. Yes, her road led her faraway places. Places where I couldn't sit on her bedroom floor anymore and watch her get ready with big, eager eyes. Places where she had to face fear and heartache alone, with only God to hear.

Through each new stage she faces, I still see the queen I wrote about. I didn't know then, when I was 14, that she would accomplish all that she has.

But I could feel her light. If you don't know her, and you haven't felt it, it is the kind of light that oozes out of someone who has a lot of faith. Someone who has excitement and passion.

So the moral of this post is, I still want to be creative like she is. I want to be as passionate as she is. I want to be beautiful and graceful like she is. I want to have faith like she does.

***Photos taken at Laguna Beach, Dawson Cole Art Gallery.

September Highlights

I considered that Mary had SIDS. And I'm not trying to make light of a serious thing that sadly, happens all too often. She just doesn't usually, well ever, sleep for more than 2 hours during the day. Which is why Mary's 3 hour nap brought me to that morbid conclusion. I hadn't heard a sound. Not a PEEP for 3 hours. I finally decided to crack open the door to see if she was still breathing. To my immense relief, this is what I found...

...just waiting. So happy. So content, exploring this crib that she sleeps in every day. Discovering it for the first time.

Her discovery of the world continues...

She liked playtime and dress-ups with her cousin, Noah.

She is anticipating crawling, but still enjoys playing on a blanket on the floor.

Mary is sleeping through the night (YES!) but not without her precious little bear.

She giggled in her new swing at Grandma's, as well as anxiously eating any new solid food within reach.

And she has to be dressed up, even when she just goes to the grocery store. What can I say? She is my girl! (well, let's be honest. I can get away with sweats if she is dressed up, right?)