Salome and Her Whole Entire Summer

Well it's been three months since my last update, so this post is going to cover just about the whole summer. The pictures are shuffled out of order for some reason, so I apologize if it's confusing.

I guess the first thing I should mention is that Salome will be getting a new baby brother or sister this March, which is kind of why the blog fell by the wayside. I was sick sick sick for a little while, but now I'm back in the land of the living. Salome is over the moon about being a big sister - I've had her request to me anything from "Can I get in your tummy with the baby?" to "Will you push her out right now because I want to hold her." That's right, "her". We have no clue of the sex, and won't till it is born, but Salome is set on a sister and she wants to name her Peter.

Anyway, more on that to come.

Besides a few miserable weeks for me, the summer was about as perfect as we could ask for. The weather was phenomenal and it extended itself beyond the official last day of summer, which was great for us.

We started off with a trip to Billings, to visit Salome's great-grandma Alice and family. Auntie Hilly and Uncle Jacob were along and it was one of our last summer trips with them since they left for Cincinnati in August (where Hilly is attending law school.) So it was fun to cram in some quality time with them and Salome enjoyed pretty much the whole trip - from the time spent playing in Grandma Melody's yard, to the point where we ran out of gas in the middle of nowhere. She was happy to play in the gravel by the side of the road and then we found a serendipitously situated playground. Once Grandpa Jerry and Uncle Jacob secured us a gallon or two of gas, we were back on the road without a hitch.

Here at home we have had plenty of friends visiting, and as an added bonus, Salome has really bonded with our next door neighbor Candice and her boys, so whenever I'm wondering where she has gone, I can find her at Candice's, having a snack and being read to, or doing an art project. We're so lucky to have neighbors like that.

We got a chance to go on two camping trips - one at the beginning of the summer, and one on the very last, gorgeous day of summer. The first was a raft trip with Uncle Jacob and Auntie Hilly and Uncle Jacob's friend, Uncle Asher. The river was beautiful and the best part of camping...unfortunately we weren't able to have a campfire and the mosquitos were feeding on us in clouds. But it was lovely weather and great to get Salome out in the wild.

The second camping expedition consisted of Salome and me and three other mamas with 4 other kids and two dogs. The campsite was on a lake and everyone enjoyed a campfire and wading in the water and encountering lots of crawdads/crayfish: some dead, some alive, and all fascinating to the kids. It was a great way to usher out the last day of summer, though we could hardly tell fall was coming in the 85 degree weather.

Our other outings were to Echo Lake to the beautiful wedding of our friends Teryn and Matt, where Auntie Hilly was a bridesmaid, and also up to Flathead Lake to visit our midwife and have a prenatal appointment. What an amazing place for a prenatal - we had a wonderful time; it felt like a little vacation.

And our last big trip was to Boise to see Taj Mahal and Bonnie Raitt in concert and visit cousins Kerri, Fiona and Hunter. Salome and Fiona really hit it off and had a blast dancing to the music at the concert. Salome was especially crazy about Taj. Another great part of the trip was the drive along the Clearwater River and our stop at one point where we stopped to picnic and Salome went for a dip. A beautiful river to travel along.

I guess that covers the summer...whew!

I'll make sure not to get so behind for the next post and fill you in on all that Salome has been up to. Her imagination has taken off and she has many stories to tell me throughout the day, mostly about the adventures of her baby doll, "Baby Kade" (named after her cousin Baby Kade). She also gloms on to certain words she hears from various sources and then uses them in as many contexts as she can: "Hey mama you are a secretary man and it is secretary day," or "This is where my fantastic baby sleeps." She has also used the words "surely" "manager" and "comedian" in various ways. I don't even always know where she hears them. She's still a sponge, soaking it all up and delighting us when she squeezes out her interpretations.

Salome Soaks Up July

Salome's Appachen and Ammachi from Florida visited last month and were happy to play and read with her for a good week.  She loves when they visit and especially enjoys climbing on Appachen and bouncing on his bed.

Salome's been doing a lot of imaginative play and pretending with her toys lately.  She talks to inanimate, random objects like dirty laundry or a dead fly and asks how it's doing.

She still likes making nests and laying baby birds too.

She NEVER seems to tire of having books read to her and we visit the library several times a month to satisfy her desire for books.  She loves Curious George and Winnie the Pooh but you could read her just about anything - she'd sit for twenty books if you were willing. 

Salome also really loves her new sandbox that I scavenged from the alley behind our house and has been cooking sand food, etc.  

We've had fun in the heat, visiting parks and splashing in the pool and the sprinklers, often with her friend Hannah.  She really enjoyed meeting some new baby calves at her Uncle Duncan's and Auntie Jana's in Arlee and I have a feeling we'll be back out there to see those babies as they grow.

Salome On The Way To Summer

As of late, Salome has been doing some art (mostly on herself), enjoying the newly hot weather and playing with her many friends.

We spent a fun Mother's Day in Arlee with her grandparents, where she helped Grandma clean out the playhouse, and then on our next jaunt out to Arlee for Grandma's birthday, she got to meet some baby chicks, which she promised not to squeeze too hard.

She's been invited to a few birthday parties that have been celebrated at fun places like Bonner Park and the Carousel.  She is still a little leery of the extreme speed and height of the horses on the carousel, so we stuck to the chariot at 15 mph and that suited her fine.

Now that we have a back yard again, Salome has been taking full advantage of our new garden and eating lettuce and sorrel to her heart's content. She also likes the setup under the cherry tree for tea parties.

She's been talking even more than ever, if that's possible, and using all sorts of big words like "collection" and "similar" ("I don't want that cup, I want a similar one.") and using adult terms like "unless" and "actually": 

Me: "Look, Salome, a bug!" Salome: "Actually that's not a bug, it's an ant, Mom."  And she told her Ammachi when she said the lion had brown hair, "Actually that's not hair, it's a mane."  So she's really been telling us how it is. 

She has also been grouping and naming random objects, invisible or real.  She recently sat in a basket (her nest) and hatched some baby chicks named Isa and Brennan.  She set "Brennan" on her shoulder and "Isa" on my shoulder.  And she named two slivers in her foot "Hannah" and "Salome".

Her last molars have finally come almost all the way through so she's been much happier about that. Nothing like the absence of tooth pain and the presence of brilliant sunshine to brighten the spirits in time for summer...

Salome in the Spring

It's been since before St. Patrick's Day when I last wrote...and the weather hasn't changed much. Salome has, however.  She continues surprising every day with a new joke or some little tidbit that we didn't know she knew.  She's been using her own language of made-up words lately: "gronch" and "chooch" are among her favorites (and Uncle Jacob's), though they can be much longer and harder to pronounce.  

She is also excited about learning the sign language alphabet and practices on the potty.  She likes to sign letters to me while she nurses and is verbally incapacitated.  'a', 'x', 's','d' and 'f' are some of her specialties.  

Another of her new talents is singing of narrative, improvised songs: "I'm sitting here on the rug...eating a strawberry....and my mama is standing next to me...and I want to go outside...but it's raining..."

She loved the St. Patrick's Day Parade, especially the candy aspect.  Easter was also a big hit for the same reason but she also loved the eggs and Easter Bunny.

After Easter came a fun albeit snowy trip to Chico Hot Springs. Salome loved the huge warm swimming pool and especially liked gazing at the moon and stars through the mist that rose from the pool.

We've been seizing every sunny warm moment that we get and Salome has had lots of fun chances to play outside with her cousins and friends. She is a lucky duck to have so many playmates of all ages.  She loves cooking pretend meals in her outside kitchen, going for rides in the stroller (especially when Auntie Hilly runs with her), practicing riding the tricycle and hammering things.  She has also been helping me weed the garden.

She's been working on cutting two of her last molars this past week and it's been tough on all of us. It seems like such a painful undertaking and we'll all be glad when they finally emerge. Despite her crankiness and sensitivities from these "two-year molars" it sure is fun to hear this two-year-old tell her mama "I love you" during a sunny walk home.   A sweet thing to remind us to look on the bright side.

Salome Turns Two

We have a two-year-old on our hands now.  She is something else these days.  Salome continues to amaze us with all the things she soaks up and surprises us with later.  She's very perceptive and has a good memory too...and she's quite independent. ("No, I'll do it.")

She had a great, albeit pretty overwhelming, birthday week, complete with lots of festivities and many batches of friends and family coming over to celebrate. We got to go to Michigan to see her Aunt Sherry, Uncle Mo and cousins Daniel and Delani a couple weeks before her birthday so we had a little pre-party with them, which she loved.  She had a great time with her cousins and new friends Kiren and Vivek (she referred to Kiren as "the other one Delani" when she first met her.)  It was fun to see Salome and Delani together after almost a whole year apart.  They both have lots of personality and large vocabularies.

Salome got to have her Ammachi and Appachen from Florida come out for her real birthday and she regaled them with her rendition of "You Are My Sunshine".  ("...you make me happy when skies are great...you'll never know dear how much I'm loving you...")

She also got a new cousin, or first-cousin-once-removed, and she is crazy about him. He looks quite a bit like she did when she was born - lots of dark hair and pretty tan skin.  She loves to hold him and doesn't seem too perturbed that she isn't the baby of the family anymore.  :)

She likes pretending a lot these days, i.e cooking me fake food or giving me invisible gummy bears, fake sleeping so I'll wake her up, or pretending to be different characters. ("Hey Mama, I'm Papa," or "I'm a koala bear/fireman/monkey/etc.") She's also been making up her own language and uses her new gibberish at random points during the day.  (Me:  "Hey Salome did you put your boots on?" Salome (looking down at her boots): "No, these are zhoodoos.")

Every day brings something new and funny...sometimes awkward, like when she points to someone who is walking mere inches or feet from us and saying loudly, "What's that guy/lady eating/doing?"  It's refreshing to see how little kids don't have all the boundaries put up like adults do.   Reminds us to take it easy...

Salome In the Snow (Finally)

We've gone straight from Halloween to Christmas and New Year...

It was a long time coming, but we finally got snow in December and Salome has been loving it. She especially likes eating it and being pulled in the sled down the sidewalk.

She had her pictures taken at Sears, where I expected her to be shy and maybe clingy...but no. As you can see, she was happy to ham it up for the lady behind the camera.  She was even volunteering her own unsolicited poses and tricks - she was like a pageant kid.  I think she might be used to having her picture taken or something...

She had a fun Christmas morning at home with her parents and then spent the rest of the day with her cousins.  

We are frog-sitting for a friend and Salome loves to let them out to hop around the kitchen.  It's pretty fun till they go under the stove...we've learned our lesson.  

We can't believe she's going to be 2 next month...but she is gambling and studying geography already, so I guess it's not too surprising. 

She's fun.

Salome On Halloween...and in Maui

We've had Halloween and been to Seattle and Maui since the last photos...and it was fun.

Salome was a scary lion for Halloween.  She wore her costume from morning till bedtime and brought out her roar several times - she'd been practicing.  We discovered at our last trick-or-treat visit at her friend Echo's house that they had coincidentally worn identical costumes. Salome's had been previously used about 8 years ago so it looked a little shaggier though.

In Seattle, Salome had a good time at the Ray Lamontagne concert and loved seeing Uncle Mo and Aunt Sherry who met us there to play for the weekend.  Then in Hawaii (besides a yucky bout of carsickness due to windy twisty roads), she had the time of her life.  She was in heaven: her mama and papa at her disposal 24/7, warm weather, lots of fruit, and the beach nearby kept her happy as a clam.  

We took a photo reminiscent of one taken 16 months earlier at a different beach - and Salome's physique seems to have changed drastically.

As Salome's second birthday draws closer (February), she seems to be learning by leaps and bounds.  She refers to me mainly as "Romy" or "Romy Bay" and Suresh is now exclusively "Papa Bear".  She is a whiz with puzzles, and letters too, so she now goes around naming letters on signs around town.  We're just trying to keep up...