just your average evening...

...of pajamas and cuddles...
...cuteness...

...and total exhaustion.

:-)

(I consider that last picture a form of mild revenge for how she's been tormenting me lately.)

Josephine hearts 75860

We headed to Teague the last weekend in September, aiming for a weekend between the birthdays of Sean's dad and mom. (Though technically I guess every weekend counts as such, but that's not the point.) As it turned out, a few hours before we were to leave we received news to pack clothes for a funeral for Sean's paternal grandfather, who has been very sick for a long time. He ended up passing away that evening, and the funeral was planned over the weekend and held on Monday the 27th. I'm grateful that we were able to be there the full weekend, that Sean was able to help plan the funeral of someone so integral to his upbringing, and that everything turned out very beautifully. I'll mention more about this at the end, but here's the chronological take on things, according to my camera...

Of utmost importance was squeezing in some kiddy pool action before the storms brought in cooler weather:

By the way, if you are concerned about the circumstances of her cup drinking demonstration below, you might be comforted to know that the hose is continually running, and she's in a swim diaper...

We also got to preview a Halloween costume Sean's parents found for Josephine. This was quite amusing. It's stuffed in a way that REALLY emphasizes her waddle. Needless to say, this'll be a dramatic step up from last year's duck!
Of course, costumes needn't be limited to Halloween. One year olds understand this, and therefore are remarkably good at playing dress-up. I believe it was Sunday morning when I woke up to find this tearing around the house:Keys, necklace, cards in pocket, watch, shoes, socks... all acquired by scavenging through Mama Jo's bedroom, who then patiently plays the following game over, and over, and over, and over, and over:

"Are you going to the store??" (Josephine smiles and waves goodbye) "Okay, bye, see you later, call me when you get back!" (Josephine walks around the corner, pauses, waits for precisely the right timing-- oh yes, this 1 year old understands punch lines-- and then scrambles back into view) "Oh! You're back! So good to see you!"
...and over and over and over and over...

trust me, it's not tedious at all, especially when your child wants to play it all day every day for the rest of her life from there on out. :-)
All teasing aside, grandmotherly love is like nothing else in the world! For both Josephine and her mommy, who gets to kick back and enjoy full lack of responsibility. It's a beautiful thing.

I also took a few pictures after the graveside service. Of course, they fail to reveal exactly how gorgeous the weather was for the service, and my snapshot camera just doesn't do anything justice. The service was presided over by a relative, Tracy Sims, and he did a great job balancing sincerity and the humor with which Sean's granddad lived his life. The casket and flowers were beautiful.

You might recognize the gravesite from a post I wrote last year. It adds a new dimension to the reality of a grave when you see the hole dug and a vault waiting:

The tent under which the service was held out at Lost Prairie Cemetary. This was after the service, when some folks had stayed around to talk:
Below you can see a guest book and a stack of the memorial cards. Though I never knew De in his prime, I got to look through a lot of photos of him as Sean and his family sought out one to use on the front page of the memorial cards. It seems to me that in some cases, the hardest thing about a death doesn't come immediately after the death. It sets in after that stage where you feel relief that the sick individual is no longer suffering. Once those feelings of suffering and relief fade, you can start to focus on the whole of the person-- and that, it seems to me, is the hard part. You're talking an entire individual, who touched SO many people. As we looked through photos it was evident how much he'd charmed Sean every weekend, how much Gam loved him, and just generally, what a lively character he was. Even when you're prepared for a death (for years, really), it is still a loss of a life that was long and fruitful.
Like I said above, I'm incredibly grateful we were able to be there to celebrate that life.

random

It was rainy a couple weeks ago. But a newly discovered bathroom leak was demanding some attention, so a family trip to Lowe's was in order... (we needed to brainstorm what all to do about this leak, not knowing how much of the shower will have to be dismantled to fix it, all of the tile grout being ancient and not necessarily worth putting back together as is, etc.) ...but I digress.

As with most posts, the point here is cuteness. Josephine in her nearly-too-small rain jacket, and her new shoes (squeakers removed :):
A snuggle attack photo from earlier this month:
Before we left for church last Sunday: Sean and I have concluded that we really like it when her dresses start to get too short, because her belly makes them flare out in the front. :-) And to me she looks old-fashioned in a short dress, like Shirley Temple but, well, with less hair.

6th Anniversary Weekend

Sept 4th marked 6 years of marriage for Sean and I. We celebrated family style, taking a couple short day trips with Josephine. On Saturday we headed about an hour west to go hiking, but first stopped at Flat Creek Estate. We had lunch in their bistro (the building below), and sampled a few wines in their tasting room (another building, not pictured, but cute). They also had a really lovely covered patio (behind where I'm standing to take the picture) with fans and fireplaces and big tables with chairs. It's a small winery (and apparently most Texan wineries actually make their wines using mainly grapes from somewhere out in the panhandle) but a cute stopover, nonetheless.

The hike was just a little 3 mile loop called Rim Rock Trail. Peaceful, though-- no one was out there, and once we reached the top of the hill, there was a great breeze. A while back I'd gotten Sean a book called 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles (the 2nd edition of San Antonio/Austin, including the Hill Country). It's come in handy several times, because I doubt we'd have found out about these hikes otherwise.
We saw a little snake!

Sunday we tried Salt Lick in Driftwood for the first time, and then went a little further down the road to the Duchman Family Winery for another tasting. That one was more challenging because they don't have stools to sit on, which meant we had to actually hold Josephine the whole time, while standing. It was still pleasant, and we hung out on the benches outside afterwards a bit. But I think we had less energy for it since we'd just been to a tasting the day before, and this one was more of a toddler juggling act.

Below is a picture of the restaurant on the grounds; the winery part was right next to it and looked similar. (Didn't take any pictures at Salt Lick).

A busy little girl...

Josephine understands a lot of what we say to her, and there's at least a good couple dozen words that she'll sort of say when she's in the mood to do so, but the VAST majority of what I hear ALL DAY LONG is "this? this? this?" (while pointing at something and wanting it), and "ooookay!" (whether or not we've actually communicated successfully). I'll take the "okay" over "no" anyday, but I also sort of wish we were at the point of reasoning a little more logically with her. Of course-- as soon as I say that, I feel sad for wishing away any part of the baby still left in her. I must always remember to appreciate every moment, because goodness knows she's growing up way too fast. And this truly IS a cute age.

Here's a link to a clip of Josephine outside the winery. For most of it, she's watching people get into a truck in a parking lot. But around the 34 second mark, you hear a "this!" as she's proud of her rocks, and at the end, an "okay!" They're a little slurred in the video. By now, she pronounces both perfectly-- and with plenty of dramatic intonation to make up for what a single word would otherwise be unable to communicate in every possible situation.

As it turns out, there are endless combinations of "this" and "okay" when you string them together, using various vocal chords for each syllable. "This. this? THIS?! ooookay? oKAY!" is obviously very different from "okay, okay... this. okay." And being Mommy, I usually know exactly what she means. When I try to pretend like I don't, in an effort to encourage her to use her other words, she just gets mad at me. I can see her thinking, "Listen lady, I use my signs, I use two words that manage to suggest and then confirm what I want, you read my mind anyway-- let's not make things difficult here. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Now, give me This. Ooookay!"

back to August: Seema's wedding

So while Josephine played with my family (see second-to-last post), Sean and I went to my friend's wedding. I've known Seema since third grade; we stayed friends all the way through high school and have remained in touch since then, despite a lot of distance and time. There was a small group of us girls that stuck together growing up in good ol' Bedford, TX, including Andrea, who also came to town for the event. We had a fun, memorable time, and the event itself was beautiful!

A side perk for me: my mom took some photos of Sean and I-- it feels like forever since we've had dressier pictures of just the two of us. The last one that distinctly pops to mind was from a New Year's Eve date before we were even engaged. Anyway, Seema lent Andrea and I outfits for the morning ceremonies; here's mine:

Seema's family is Hindu. She married Harinder, whose family is Sikh. So there were two ceremonies. In the Sikh one, everyone covered their heads, took off their shoes, and sat on the floor. (And don't worry, a lot of folks in the crowd were snapping photos all during the ceremony-- I wasn't being obnoxious!)

Note Harinder's sword above. There was a young Sikh boy on the men's side of the aisle swinging around a styrofoam toy sword-- it was adorable. The two photos I got of the Sikh ceremony are from the four Laava (wedding hymns); each laavan is accompanied by them walking around the stage in a circle. The hymns describe the sacred journey of the soul through this world to the final destination, the merging with the infinite. (That's an excerpt from the very helpful programs they had for everyone.)

And Andrea, you're going to recognize several photos here, because I totally yanked them from your flicker account! Like the three below!


Seema had the most intricate henna I've ever seen on her hands and feet-- so pretty!

The Hindu ceremony was next, dramatically shortened from it's normal length. Because they had both ceremonies to do, they wanted them each to be about an hour long. In this one, head coverings weren't necessary, we sat in chairs, and left our shoes on. Here are Seema's parents leading in Harinder.

I'll interject here that there were dozens of cultural and religious traditions that happened over the span of days before and after the actual ceremonies. Everything we heard about and saw seemed impressively intense. With the ceremonies being in different languages, and this being the first time Andrea, Sean, or I had been to any sort of Indian wedding, we missed out on understanding a lot of it. Thankfully there were programs that explained a lot, and over lunch, some other guests enlightened us further. I certainly don't have photos from all the different parts, but I'm posting what I do have, because it'll give an idea of the complexity behind all the symbolism. With each picture, I'll summarize bits of what was in the program.

Here, for instance, are two more photos of Andrea's highlighting various parts of the ceremony. The first shows a veil of cloth, or antarpat, signifying their separate identities prior to union. (Harinder is sitting on the other side of the antarpat.)

In the following, the bride's mother and father offer their daughter's hand in marriage through the symbolic gesture of allowing holy water to flow from their hands, through the groom's hands, and into the bride's hands. This is the Kanya Daan (the gift of the bride's hand in marriage) and is considered the greatest gift that can be given by Hindu parents.

Towards the end there is the Mangal Phera (Circling the Sacred Fire)-- they walk around the fire four times, each round symbolizing different essential goals and duties of life. There was a lot of meaning packed into various parts of this process.

For example, during each round, the bride's male cousin placed parched rice into her hands. (Andrea got a great shot of this below). This rice is then offered to the holy fire as the bride and groom pray for a long life together filled with health, happiness, and prosperity.

I'm pretty sure the picture below is from the start of the Saptapadi (Seven Steps and Vows). The bride and groom take seven steps together symbolizing the beginning of their journey into married life. These steps represent seven promises to one another. The priest kept up an impressive chanting rhythm throughout most of the ceremony, and seemed to be expounding upon each promise before they were allowed to take another step.

Andrea also took the next few pictures.

They exchange rings (part of the Mangal Sutra, which ends with them officially being husband and wife):

Before they could leave, Harinder had to literally buy back his shoes, which Seema's sisters and female relatives had stolen (in a tradition that indicates that they don't want him taking their sister away). :-)

This is after they had proceeded out into the foyer. To Harinder's right are Seema's parents, and on Seema's left are Harinder's parents.

The aftermath. How about those aisle decorations?

Andrea and I:

We proceeded to eat a fabulous lunch, (traditional Gujarati food, since Seema's family is from Gujarat), headed home for some rest (see photo of Sean passed out on couch from earlier post). Then we got dressed again (took more dressy-couple photos)...


...picked up Andrea, and went back for cocktail hour and a very well programmed reception, replete with more fabulous food (this time Punjabi, according to Harinder's heritage), an open bar, speeches, dances, a slide show, a very cute bride-groom game, cake cutting, etc. Here's a picture I snagged from Seema's facebook:

My reception photos all turned out too dark-- the following are all Andrea's, whose camera managed to give a good idea of what was going on. The first dance:

The morning's staging area had been transformed...

Pretty sure this is a niece of Seema's who performed a lovely dance...

And I love Punjabi dancing. Once the formalities were over and dinner was eaten, these guys from Harinder's side of the crowd burned up the floor. You can kind of see the little guy in the center of the circle of men (I think he was the same one that had the toy sword)... and he had as many moves as the rest of them! It was really fun to watch.

And perhaps best of all was getting to have a little face time with the newlyweds the next day at lunch. Other than a brief hello the day before, it was the first I'd gotten to spend any time with Harinder, who seems wonderfully genuine and kind. I'm delighted for the new couple, and we really loved participating in their big day!

Hooray for Seema and Harinder!