8.11.16 - Hugo's joys

"Local activists throw a Trump Cinco de Mayo piñata party/poetry night - I am one of the spoken word poets invited - I read my poem - one of the guests friends me - we start talking - I am now working the job of my dreams after nearly 5 years of trying to break into the PR/Marketing field"

"Music drives me: 2a. My Spotify playlists (pic attached) 2b. Belting out MercyMe's 'I Can Only Imagine' the same way most people will belt out Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody 2c. My two favorite stations are sports and new country 2d) I love the sound the fiddle makes in country songs and the accordion in tejano/norteña songs"

"I LOVE shopping malls. They're like a playground for my senses."

"I geek out over in-depth stories."

"Late-night conversations, or really, just the art of conversation in general."

"Playing soccer is one of the few things that stills the storm inside my head"

"I wanna call out my friend Lupe Mendez as part of this joy inventory. He has been a mentor, a friend, a supporter, and a cheerleader for my art since we met in 2012. He's the one that made me believe I could write poetry and brought me into the social activism scene in this city. Him, you know how people use the phrase 'well, he's a tireless such and such'? Lupe is a tireless a lot of things. He is an intensely devoted husband, teacher, social activist, poet, friend. His "summer vacation" this past month included going to the prestigious https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macondo_Writers_Workshop. Like, his form of relaxing was going to an intense writer's workshop. So yeah, I take joy I have him as a mentor. Also his poem 'I teach' is amazing and I think youshould check it out."

"Joy in darkness. I think, in all honesty that as beat down as I can get by life sometimes, I know that I have surrounded myself by people who in many different ways give me the will to keep fighting."

8.10.16 - Paintings I like

Found all of these on the I Require Art FB page.

Sea with Violet Clouds and Three Yellow Sailboats - Emil Nolde

Stormy Weather, Georgian Bay - Fred Varley

Zaandam, Canal - Claude Monet

Laid Table with View of Saint-Paul de Vence - Marc Chagall

In the Bois de Boulogne - Vincent Van Gogh

The Blue Fiddler - Marc Chagall

Night Scenes - Yoshimune Arai

La bonne adventure - Rene Magritte

Boat in the Moonlight - Odilon Redon

Milky Way - Peter Doig

8.8.16 - Amusement parks and county fairs :)

8.6.16 - Erin's joys

8.4.16 - When time slows down or speeds up how you want it to.

8.3.16 - Beach days!

8.2.16 - Clara plays with parents

There are so many ways Clara delights me and I wish I could remember all of them.

Tonight Jack and I were lying on our bed while she sat between us and would alternate between climbing on one of us or the other and rubbing her head in our chests and being super cuddly. Then for awhile she'd stick her face in between both of ours and we'd kiss her on both cheeks until she sat up again. And she'd laugh and then stick her face between ours again for more kisses. We did that for awhile. At some point she climbed onto me so that her legs were straddled around my neck and she was squeezing my face between her knees and I was laughing so hard at her little toddler wrestling moves I was crying. Jack was near that point too, just watching. We played around this way for probably 15 minutes or so, and it was not only funny but pretty touching. Just the three of us.

I'm also delighted at how her incoherent babbling is becoming slightly more coherent. She's more clearly trying to mimic us more often, and she also tries to sing "ABCs" now ("Ah Bah...bah bah bah"). In particular, after I finish singing the ABCs at the end of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, she'll take the book herself and start pointing to the letters and trying to sing the ABCs. So studious.

She had a lot to say to me in the bath tonight, trying new ways to make sounds wih her mouth, looking me right in the eyes and babbling with such conviction. I stopped pretending to respond and just listened for awhile, marveling that this kid is mine.

I remember not long after Clara was born I watched some TED talk about how parents achieve higher peaks of happiness than non-parents, but the parental average happiness is lower. Maybe that's true on average, or more true in the beginning, I'm not sure--I remember thinking it resonated with how I felt then, with Clara. Very very high peaks but also a lot of stress (and sleep deprivation). But then I was thinking tonight I no longer feel that way. Sure, there's plenty I miss about a childless life--mostly to do with getting things done and sleep and cleanliness--but there's so much I love about being a parent, so many delightful moments, that I feel the average happiness, as it were, has risen as we've gone on.

8.2.16 - Neil's joys

7.31.16 - Clara's bedtime routine

Most nights once Clara starts acting tired, I put her in PJs and then I go to the bathroom to get her toothbrush ready. I call "Clara Lynnnn" in a sing-song voice and, between that and the sound of the water running on the toothbrush, she usually comes running, laughing or giggling on the way.

Then I hand her the toothbrush and get my own ready and we brush teeth together. She watches intently as I spit out my toothpase and rinse off my brush, and then I ask her for her brush and she hands it over to me and gets excited as I rinse off her brush too, and put it back in the toothbrush holder.

Then we read some bedtime stories. Sometimes we sit on my bed, other times on the living room couch (depending on which room Jack isn't in). In either case, it's starting to get to the point where she will come to me as I'm picking the books and try to crawl in my lap in anticipation.

I read 4-5 books, usually. She helps turn pages. She still grabs my finger to point to each letter if I sing the ABCs at the end of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. She's starting to do this thing now where she makes sounds with the same cadence and pitch as my "Theeee end!" at the end of stories. Tonight in particular, when I finished reading "Good Night Gorilla" she squirmed off of me, took it back off the coffee table, carried it to the corner by the front door, and sat down and read it to herself for awhile. I just sat and watched her, trying to tell if she was mimicking the way I always read it to her.

Once story time is over, I take her to her room and hold her next to the Lumos/Nox light switch and let her turn her lights off. I always tell her good job when she does it, as flipping that switch is still a bit of a struggle for her very tiny fingers.

It used to be after that I'd give her a kiss and/or snuggle and put her to bed. Recently we've added a new element, where I put a baby bottle of water on the crib edge and she goes and picks it up and has a drink before lying down. This seems to have made bedtime even smoother as she's less likely to fuss with a bottle in her mouth. I also feel better about it because in the middle of summer now its pretty warm even at night, and I like the idea that she has access to water right away. Most mornings the bottle is empty when I go to get her, so she seems to be using it plenty.

Anyway, just some sweet moments I wanted to remember.