Vine Ripened

I'm pretty sure my kid could eat her weight in tomatoes daily.

Nadia loooooves tomatoes. Her PawPaw has an extensive vegetable garden, and she's earned big point with him by being such a fan of it. Well, of the tomatoes anyway. She could pretty much take or leave the peppers and kale and even the cucumbers...but the tomatoes? She's all about those!

I remember popping cherry tomatoes - sweet and juicy and warm from the sun - like candy as a little girl, and it's clear those tomato-loving genes were passed along to my daughter. PawPaw happened to be out of town a couple weeks ago for the first big tomato harvest, but Nadia made sure no tomatoes went to waste. That first evening, she must have eaten at least a dozen fresh sun-ripened tomatoes straight from the vine.

That's my girl!

The Mother Bear

These photos tug at my mommy heartstrings like no others.

They may not tell much of a story to an outsider - but to me, they speak volumes.

They were taken as Nadia struggled to regain her confidence after her traumatizing moment with the geese.

In these images, I see my baby girl's valiant attempt to bravely walk out onto that dock...and I see the tiny nuances of trepidation in her body language.

They make me want to gather my sweet girl to me, to sweep her into an enormous hug, to smother her in love and protect her from anything and everything that could cause her harm or pain.

In fact, that's why there are only four image in the series.

After that last click of the shutter, I swooped.

I gathered her into a bear hug and held her tight.

She squeezed back, clearly confident in her mother's ability to keep her safe.

If only all of life's crisises could be resolved so simply.

Goose-aphobia

Last week, we spent a delightfully cool and pleasant morning at the park.

Wait, go back. Read that again. (Please?)

Last week, we spent a delightfully cool and pleasant morning at the park.

Did you catch it this time?

This is Texas.

In the summer.

Most days are hot and sticky, about as far from cool and pleasant as possible. Weather that doesn't leave you dripping en route from the house to the car is but a distant dream.

But every once in a while dreams come true, and one day last week dawned 30 degrees cooler than usual. It was almost chilly - ohhhh, the delight!

Of course we packed up and went to the park. What other choice did I have? I knew a storm was headed this way and I was playing a dangerous game, but there was no way I was going to pass up weather like that.

So, off we went to Towne Lake - a park full of memories from my own childhood.



My little pigtailed girl was only too happy to climb and slide and be scrumptiously adorable.



She almost perfected the art of climbing up the slide, too (something that's normally not allowed, but the park was deserted that day. Apparently we were the only ones brave enough/stupid enough to disregard the darkening sky).



Twenty minutes of energetic playing later, I made a grave tactical error. I suggested stopping by the ducks and geese on a walk around the pond. At the time this seemed to be a reasonable idea - even a good idea - but I was wrong. So very, very wrong.

A goose hissed at Nadia.

And my child was was immediately reduced into a quivering, shrieking puddle of tears.

I have never before seen Nadia this utterly and totally terrified. She was beyond coherent speech. I can't emphasise enough her level of terror.



Let's put it this way: when Nadia one day questions why she has a lifelong fear of geese and goes into a full blown panic attack at their mere mention, I will know what to say.

The geese and I traumatized her. Bad geese! Bad Mommy too?



My little sidekick clung clung to me. Had she been able to crawl up inside of me, I have no doubt that she would have done so. Poor kid! Every time a goose came within 200 feet of us, the terror returned.



Even back at the relative safety of the playground, Nadia kept a wary eye on those darn geese. Oh the fearful glances she flashed towards water's edge! It was time to call it a day - our "fun" outing had turned decidedly not fun!



And it was perfect timing. Within seconds of being safely buckled into the car, before we'd even backed out of the parking space - the rain came. It started as a gentle shower of fat raindrops, but before long the windshield wipers were at their highest speed.



A delightfully cool morning at the park, followed by a delightfully sudden summer downpour.

It was a good morning.

Minus the geese.

Now I'm Learning My ABC's

If practice makes perfect, perfection should soon be coming for my little girl and her writing skills.

As I watched Oma's hands wrapped around my daughter's, I couldn't help but imagine them wrapped around another pair of little hands years ago, guiding them in forming the letters of the alphabet.

My hands.

The circle of life is beautiful.

Fireworks and Fun

Joyous. Carefree. Camaraderie. Radiant. Fellowship. Celebratory. Togetherness.

Those are just some of the words that come to mind to describe our 4th of July evening.



We joined a fellow Orthodox church community for an amazing evening of fun. It was the relaxed, comfortable kind of gathering that makes you feel contented deep down in your soul. The kind that makes you smile, relax the tension in your shoulders, and think "this is the way life is supposed to be. Life is good." Ahhhh.



There was a wonderful buffet of potluck foods (homemade veggie chips? GOOD!), and an even more wonderful musical ensemble playing rollicking Irish tunes that got everyones' feet a-tappin'.



There were little girls, barefoot and fancy free, dancing away with grins stretching from ear to ear.



As the music went on, the band of miniature dancers grew....and so did their laughter.



Is there any sound on earth more precious than laughing children? Any site more precious than a gathering of little people dancing away in the rosy dusk of a summer evening?



As the twilight deepened, we passed around the glowsicks (15 for $1, minus my 25% Michaels discount. What a deal!). As you can see below, they were a hit with the young and old alike and before long the grassy field was dotted with bright spots of color.



Isolated fireworks began early in the evening, and each explosion was met with cries of eager delight from the kids (especially my kid, who loves fireworks in a big way and was antsy with anticipation for the big show!) At long last, we spread out the blankets and settled down to watch the evening's big fireworks display.

Full disclosure - all the fireworks below weren't really captured in just one exposure. I just slapped several images together to consolidate.



The City show was being held at a park just a couple miles down the road from the church, so we were close enough to see (most of) it all but also far enough away to avoid (most of) the crazy crowds. In all honesty the fireworks lost some of their majestic boom from there, but it still was a pretty good deal.



Fireworks, food, fun, fellowship. Oh, and dirty little bare feet. Yep, a pretty good deal indeed.