Dad time = Mad time.

it's 9:20 in the am on Nov 17th.  the sun has been up with the Roosters baking Encinitas like a scone.  maybe it's a broil.  heat pounds off the concrete and thru the windows.  the santa anna's are up, which means that the air is dry and warm, and the waves are finely shaped by the off-shore breeze and buttery smooth.  Augustella is happily yelping in the background while her toes, just inches from these pages, squeeze an imaginary sponge.  Every once in awhile i pause to rub them and she clamps my fingers with her foot claw.  We've been having a lot of dad time lately while Jenna has been powering through an intense weekend of doula training.  It's worked surprisingly well, the way our schedules collide.  it can be a bit, drop-the-girl-off-and-go, but it's working it's way into normality.  totally a fireman's schedule, minus all the life threat and heroism.  i leave town, get 2 weeks of work done in 5 days, come home and am home, until the next tour stretch 2 to 8 days later.  I get be in a lot of places while not being there at all.  the culture becomes some venue somewhere, off some highway in some town.  being home, watching those toes turn to a timing of their own is a delicacy.  Those toes are growing.  Those hands are cunning.  And we get dirty.  Me, by association with her and her by quick touch exploration.  On Friday night she submerged a nearby tumbler with seven-up and dark rum, that stealthily went unnoticed to my radar until i saw a dripping hand, smacking lips and trail of splash from crime scene to culprit.  On Saturday Morning Augustella Mike Tyson'd a bowl of oatmeal, slopping oats on the both of us during our weekly fellas breakfast at the Potato Shack in Encinitas on I st. and the 101.    As this is becoming a staple in our father/daughter routine, i look forward to introducing her to one of those manhole sized cakes of pan and watching her eyes bounce with syrup and sugar.  On Sunday I got domestic.    The crock pot simmering on low all saturday prior with a homemade chilly potion as evidence of it.  It must have cooked for 36 hours, mingling smoked sirloin, smoked sausage, black beans, chilly, cinnamon, crushed red pepper, port wine, merlot, jim beam and fat tire.  It was a death trap.  A first class ticket to the nearest bathroom!  So good, but so so so bad.  Sunday, football day, chilly day started the way every sabbath should, with some boys, some instruments and Augustella.  She fell asleep in my arms, turned limp and i rushed her home while she slept in her Curly - Lamb - Bow Green Bay Pack onesie for 3 hours while i ate chilly and cheered on the Packers.  Throughout the weekend, Jenna would call to check-in for the eating and sleeping report.  I was very unlucky with solids with the exception of a leaf that Augustella consumed while i was pointing to the tree it fell from.  we are proud to announce that Augustella is still 100% organic.

folding tiny clothes...

i just finished one of my favorite things... folding augustella's little pants and footed jammies and onesies and socks. the load tonight was exceptionally larger than normal because earlier today, i went through the 0-6 month storage bin which hides under her crib, and pulled out new articles that have been waiting to make their appearance in her wardrobe. what really floors me is that she's suddenly fitting into things which less than a year ago, i couldn't envision her ever being big enough to wear. the same little lady that fit into 5-8 pound gerber onesies (which hung loose on her) is now wearing clothes, many given as gifts, that i've been so excited to see her in. i know everyone says that they "grow so fast, enjoy this time," and i have been 100%... but it's still so shocking the day by day, little by little, she's growing and changing so very much.

earlier in the evening, she and i went over to joe and jessica's for fish tacos... as we walked through the front door and were greeted with a chorus of hellos by friends that were already inside, augustella was suddenly a bit overwhelmed and responded with tears and clinging tighter to me. it absolutely melted me... this little human, who is so curious, so amazed by all the new sights, sounds, smells, tastes and things to touch around her but still so tender and in need of the familiar, what's safe and secure to her. one of my other very favorite things about life with august is this... that she fully trusts me. that when she's shaken by something, she's calmed by me. that when she needs something, she's able to communicate it to me without words, but just by acting a certain way or making a noise or showing it in her face. that she's not skeptical or jaded by life... that she truly believes the very best and as far as she is concerned, is content and thinks that all things are as they should be.

it's pure joy to live life as augustella's mom... it's a gift that i don't take lightly.

a is for apples & augustella

and then we attempted apples... from our co-op and made from scratch... oh augustella- someday you'll like them.

let the solids begin

so we started with rice cereal on sunday, october 26... 6 months and 2 days old. here's a look at what she thought about them. (she's got a gag reflex just like her mom and dad!)