Daley Ponderings

I think I have found a key to living selflessly.  When there's an emergency, it's easy to serve.  I see the great need, and I know it's temporary.  It's hard to keep serving in the ordinary, mundane, because it feels like it will never end and the needs don't always seem so great. The key, I just realized, is to remember that these ordinary things are temporary, and the needs are still great; they're just spread over a longer time.

When Barbara and Phil's house burned on Wednesday, all of a sudden the self-pity I had been feeling the previous weeks just evaporated.  Helping them and getting our apartment ready for them to live in has made me even more busy than I was, and I'm not less tired at the end of the day.  But my attitude is so different and it makes it so much easier!

Now if only I can keep this when life returns to the mundane.  It IS temporary - Jeremiah won't be a baby forever (he's already a toddler now!)  They do learn.  AND, that is part of the great need.  I'm their only mother.  They need me greatly. They need me to help them learn and grow and discover.  They need me to comfort them and rejoice with them.  May I remember to rejoice in that and not resent it.  And maybe someday I'll ask Jon to hold one of my hands behind my back and tap my shoulder and lean in between my face and the screen while I write a blog post, just to remember the Good Ol' Days.

12/4 - F putting on chapstick.  Joy recalls, "Last time my lips sting.  Now my lips better."

12/6 - JDD, in a growly voice, with a straw stuck in his teeth and the other end in a glass of water, "I am the savage, saber-toothed mosquito!"

12/6 - JPD upper right primary incisor

12/7 - Noah, "You can use anything for dress clothes.  It just won't look as nice."

12/8 - JPD 9 steps to Mommy

by 12/19 - JPD record 11 steps, and 24 seconds standing up.

12/20 - JDD realizes that the words to Deck the Halls are not "Don we now our gray apparel."

12/23 - I'm upstairs with JPD on toilet.
Joy, "Mommy, come down here."
"Is it an emergency, or do you just want me there?"
"It emerdenee."
[I come down, naked baby on hip, wondering if the cider is boiling over, or what]
"Guy come in here."
[yikes! Don't see anyone, oh, maybe just UPS man]
Then I see our friend on the porch peering in. 

I was very happy with the way Joy handled the situation.  She didn't freak out when she saw someone, but she also made sure I knew it was not just a whim of hers for me to come down.

12/23 - It's all how you look at it.  Joy's take: "That nice day.  My 'pecial time."  It was 32 and rainy as we walked to the bank.  But we found a quarter in the slush, and she got a lollipop at the bank, and we looked at the water pouring into the grates, and she had her special time with Mommy.

~12/25 - JPD upper left primary incisor

1/4 - The fire in the pellet stove went down some, and I looked at the thermometer to see why.  I exclaimed, "It's toasty now!  Seven degrees." Jonathan doubtfully replied, "Negative seven isn't all that toasty..." Me, "No, positive seven!"  JDD, "Oh! That is toasty!"

1/6 - JPD walked 21 feet.

1/11 - The boys had their first karate test. It was very interesting to watch.  For the first rank up, from white to yellow, it is "only" two hours long.  All testers are in the dojo together, and they do much of the same moves at first.  Lots of pushups, jumping jacks, sit ups.  Lots of repetition.  It required concentration and endurance.  It was intense, hard work.  As time went along, I could see red cheeks, sweating brows.  After an hour, the current white and yellow belts got to rest in the meditation position while the upper belts did more advanced work.  However, after a while that turned out to be a test of endurance also.  I think if I stay in that position too long, my feet fall asleep!   They got a water break at the hour mark, and then a few more after that.  Jonathan commented that it wasn't fair that they got more water breaks than the more advanced kids.  But everyone says the test is harder the more advance you are.  Jonathan's concentration and determination never wavered.  Noah did the best I've ever seen him (sometimes he gets sloppy) and he only figeted towards the end.  They did a great job and they earned their yellow belts!  (Sorry about the picture, our camera puts orientation info in it but the blog didn't read it and I do not want to redo it.)

1/12 - JPD went down the kitchen stool steps successfully.  Also that same day, he got down off the bed purposefully by scooting himself backwards, tummy down feet first until he slid off.

He is now definitely a walker.  Still holding his arms up for balance.

1/17 - JPD has a pincer grasp now.

2013 Daley Christmas Letter