PART 2: Friends

'Summer' in installments....

PART 1: Squinchy Face

York Beach


more beach



Abdu'l-Baha's room


Sanam's wedding!


Kiddie pool


After her first slip and slide


At the fair


Raising of the peace flag at Green Acre

Yeah

Samaya is going through her 'yeah, yeah, yeah' phase. At first we thought her understanding of language had suddenly taken a giant leap. And then this conversation happened:

Me: Do you want milk?
Samaya: Yeah (breathy and passionate, accompanied by head nodding)
Me: Do you want to go outside?
Samaya: Yeah
Me: Do you want Daddy to hold you?
Samaya: Yeah
Me: Do you want to eat garbage?
Samaya: Yeah!
Me: Do you want us to leave you at Grandma and Grandpa's for the weekend?
Samaya: Yeah. yeah. yeah.

To her benefit though, she does understand a great deal. Especially anything involving milk.

1 Year Around the Sun

It's sort of hard to believe that Samaya has already experienced all four seasons, each of the 12 months, each of the 365 days this little planet earth has spent traveling around its sun, and each of those days' sleepless (still!) nights. She most certainly has her parents circling around her, out of love yes, but also out of necessity. We got a fearless one, folks. The kind that will leap unhesitatingly over small cliffs, and into oceans and oncoming traffic if we let her. We try not to. Usually.

She had a lovely little birthday party with her little friends on Tuesday. Just a simple lunch in a nearby park complete with a pinata made by a dear friend and homemade cupcakes. We gave Samaya the opportunity to partake of sugar for the first time but she opted out and went for the strawberries on top. That's my girl.

We love this little fireball with her own ideas about the world. No doubt it will prove a challenge as we accompany her on her journey to join fearlessness with wisdom, willfulness with compromise, independence with interdependence. I hope we prove to be adequate mentors. And it is comforting to know she will never be walked on, bullied, or oppressed if she has any say about it. This one can fend for herself. Let's just please, please be gentle about it, Samaya. Deal?

I have been hoping and praying that we could get her a wooden kitchen for her birthday, and with the help of her grandparents, aunt, uncle, and the wonderful man in Gorham who makes beautiful children's furniture, today I got my wish. (I'm pretty sure it's Samaya's wish too.) She is quite pleased so far. My vision is to surround our family with what is necessary, high quality, and beautiful and to do my best in keeping out the incessant flow of plastic that inevitably seeps in. So here's to stone soup, mud pies, and pockets full of flowers.

Pools, Potties, and Pasghetti. And hugs.

The Littlest Gardener

Our community garden is growing! I cannot tell you the joy this little piece of earth brings me with its magically appearing rows of tiny green shoots and sunshine and little muddy feet. I'll let Samaya show you around...

Here is Dada's potato plant


And these are the snow peas


here we have the radish rows (which do look an awful lot like green butterflies!)


and this is my little garden in the corner


Mama lets me help with the watering. I mostly water myself.


and there you have it. I hope you enjoyed the tour!

Mother's Day

Today was my first Mother's Day. To celebrate, I scared the bejesus out of my daughter. Twice. I swear on Baha'u'llah that normally I am a very loving and empathetic mother but on both of these occasions I laughed. hard. really hard.

The first time I was attempting to turn the radio on - which is connected to the speakers also used for the TV. Apparently someone had been watching Oprah rather loudly (Sisay) and the antennae was disconnected, resulting in VERY LOUD fuzz. Or is it static. You know the sound. Samaya was right behind me trying to eat the antennae wire or gnaw on the glass door, and at that moment she let out a blood curdling scream while wrapping her body around my back and doing a little jiggle.

I promise I did NOT laugh until after I was holding her in my arms and had assured her that everything was okay. But then I started imagining what could possibly have been going on in her almost 1 year-old little brain and all I could think about was the smoke monster from Lost. I don't know, it felt appropriate at the time. So while I was assuring Samaya that the smoke monster had not in fact traveled through the radio waves to get us (besides, the reception was too poor), I started laughing. Because it was just so funny that she had thought of that! This was also followed by another disconcerting feeling: she must have her grandfather's 'creative' imagination.

The second time, now that I think of it, was also my father's fault. Well, to be more accurate, it was Elmo Buff's fault. I was reading his wacked out blog this evening while Samaya played quietly across the room. We were both lost in our own worlds and when I finished reading I let out a strange high-pitched little chuckle. I guess I didn't sound like her mommy or something, but she screamed again and ran toward me like something had just nipped her on the butt. I might have laughed before she reached me.

There is a little girl in our house now who talks (in her own language, but convincingly so), walks, plays, laughs out loud, and gets scared. Where did my baby go?