Category Archives: 2 Mi Familia

All things family-related. My husband and me, the children we made, the grandbebes that thrill us now. Our whole great big, loud, messy family. Love! *sigh…

‘Bout Birthin’ Babies

I will soon go a doula-ing (doula is Greek and means “a woman who serves”) for Stef and Wrex when Sawyer Joell is born.  I’m not really a doula, I just get to play one with people I adore (Carol Ann is soon to do the same thing with Emma of Gospel Journey fame!).

“I don’t know nothin’ ’bout birthin’ no babies, Miss Scarlett…”

Actually, I do.  I got to attend birthing class with the Phipps a few weeks back and recently checked out a few birthing books from the library.  It is bringing back the memories, omygoodness!  Because, you know, I had a few babies back in the day.  And I was really good at it, if I do say so myself.  Now-how will I be in this role?  I am hoping not to faint or require constant fanning or smelling salts.  I hope I don’t get too empathetic with Stef and start crying out to God for mercy in a loud voice.  I just don’t think that will help.

The book.

Meanwhile I have been studying and researching and brushing up on my birthing knowledge.  I have enlisted prayer support and continue to madly write in the litle journal I will leave with Stef and Wrex for Sawyer to enjoy someday.  In it is advice on labor and delivery and some sound wisdom on raising kids.  I have included lists of things I want to remember while at the hospital and signs to look for as labor progresses.  There are make-you-sniffle baby quotes and prayers for Sawyer.  I have given baby girl the inside scoop on who her parents really are and shared favorite scripture passages.

 

In short, I am hand-writing an entire book just for the occasion of the birth of Sawyer Joell Phipps.

It is good stuff!  And yes…none of it is original, but I have collected it over the years and I am writing it in the book, so it is mine!

 

O Sawyer?  Where are youoooo?

Now, truth to tell, we had actually sort of cleared our calendars for today seeing 8.9.10 as a wondrous day for a birth.  But we know God has this thing all planned out and are just anxious for Him to let us in on His perfect plan.  He seems to have us on a need-to-know basis for the moment.  But we are ready, I tell ya!

 

Thoughts on the threat of C-Section during Labor

I do come across some very thought-provoking information these days.  For instance, an article about the negative hormonal effect on a woman when she is laboring and is told “If you don’t start progressing/dilating/efacing (or whatever her shortcoming) soon, we’re going to have to do a C-Section” and how that actually is detrimental to her labor and begins to inhibit the process was explained thus:

If a man was told that he had to get an erection and ejaculate within a certain time or he’d be castrated, do you think it would be easy? To make it easier, perhaps he could have an IV put into his arm, be kept in one position, have straps placed around his penis, and be told not to move. He could be checked every few minutes; the sheet could be lifted to see if any “progress” had been made.

– Nancy Wainer Cohen & Lois J. Estner, Silent Knife, Bergin & Garvey, 1983

Hahhahahahha!

Certainly gives you something to think about. ;p

PREVIOUSLY…click here.

These are the Days

THESE ARE THE DAYS I’LL REMEMBER

These are days you’ll remember

Never before and never since, I promise

will the whole world be warm as this

 

Guini’s birthday celebration was delayed by the Heaven Fest craziness.  So how could I refuse when she asked for a really big cake, purple and yellow, chocolate with buttercream icing and lots and lots of color and flowers…plus sparklers on the top.  Presents first, dinner and swimming, then cake and ice cream.  A lovely way to spend a summer Sunday evening.

And as you feel it, you’ll know it’s true

that you are blessed and lucky

It’s true, that you are touched by Something

that will grow and bloom in you

  

Left:  Amelie Belle is 4 and a half months now and she is good buddies her Aunt Stephanie.  Center: Guini the birthday girl loves her baby cousin.  Right:  Aunt Tara is always popular with nieces Averi and Gemma May.  

 My amazing and insightful sister-in-law, Dawn recently commented that these family times together, the little cousins playing tug-of-war over some toy or the other and whatever mischieviousness they can all find to get into will be memories they will cherish as they grow up.  I hope they’ll know that they ARE “blessed and lucky” and that the love of these days will grow and bloom in their lives, too.

These are days you’ll remember

when May is rushing over you with desire

to be part of the miracles you see in every hour

 

Here we are, Dave and I and our 6, very longsuffering grandbebes.  They pose for us, they smile and coo and endure photo ops.  They act silly and one day, when they are old enough, they will really wonder about us!  Perhaps they already do.

You’ll know it’s true, that you are blessed and lucky

It’s true, that you are touched by Something

that will grow and bloom in you

 

It was Guinivere’s birthday celebration.  She just turned 5.  Hunter is 5 and a half.  Gavin who is holding baby Amelie Belle, is 7 and baby girl is 4 1/2 months now.  Best friends and cousins Gemma May and Averi are 3 and 2  1/2 respectively.  These are the grandbebes on a summer’s evening in August.

These are the days

that you might fill with laughter

until you break

  

Left:  Jovan is such a good mommy to her girls.  My son married well.  Middle:  These are the men of the family – Dave and Tristan, 2 sons-in-law who could not be more wonderful if they tried, my husband and lover of 29 years (and a very flirtacious friend for almost 3 years before that), Dave and Rocker-Bo, the kid probably most like me in the world…only waaaaay better.  Right:  And my beautiful firstborn, Tara with her beautiful firstborn, The Little Prince.

These days you might feel a shaft of light

make its way across your face

 

Dave’s hair looks really  gray in these pictures, but not in real, up-close-and-personal life (except for the salt and pepper facial hair and a little in the temples).  Hmmm…wonder what is up with that?  I KNEW that camera was trying to make me look old against my will.  This is proof!  The little girlie-grandbebes rely on Poppa to keep them safe from the splashing boys in the water.

And when you do

you’ll know how it was meant to be

  

Left:  Averi following the grandbebe swimming ritual, which is, you get out and dry off so you can go right back in again.  Middle:  Steph loves her cake.  Right, Gemma and Averi are always in deep discussion and generally some disagreement about some topic or another.  But they are besties.

See the signs and know their meaning, it’s true

You’ll know how it was meant to be

  

The grandbebe painted, wooden stools…crazy-looking-maybe-I-should-have-planned-before-baking-but-the-brithday-girl-loves-it-anyway cakes…a zinnia that both Amelie Belle and I took a fancy to last night on our way around the yard (where new bikes for Stormie and Rocky, no less, were being assembled, a game of catch was going on, kiddies were splashing in a pool and sweet conversation floated on the summer air).  These are the signs…

Hear the signs and

know they’re speaking to you, to you*

NOTE TO SELF:  To get over myself {for the love!} and get over my ridiculous heartbreaks…See the signs, hear the signs…it’s true.  These are the days…

* LYRICS:  “These are the Days” by Natalie Merchant

Such devoted sisters~

“I do not believe that…birth makes people sisters and brothers. It makes them siblings. Gives them mutuality of parentage. Sisterhood and brotherhood are conditions people have to work at. It’s a serious matter. You compromise, you give, you take, you stand firm, and you’re relentless…And it is an investment. Sisterhood means if you happen to be in Burma and I happen to be in San Diego and I’m married to someone who is very jealous and you’re married to somebody who is very possessive, if you call me in the middle of the night, I have to come.”

–Maya Angelou

S I S T E R S ~ A song I adore!  Dedicated to Tamara Dawn Moslander Ayento!

BTW – I am definitely the Rosemary Clooney (blue eyes/Bing Crosby) of this scenario, and Tami is Vera Ellen (brown eyes/Danny Kaye). ;p

The Preacher’s Wife

My little sister (both little at barely 5 feet AND younger by 6 years), Tami Ayento, is a preacher’s wife.  They recently took a pastorate in the heart of Chicago, so the neighborhood reminds you of the movie by the same name starring Whitney Houston and Denzel Washington (The Preacher’s Wife, 1996).  I think it is cruel and unusual punishment that I got her when I was almost 6 and we shared a room for many years and then suddenly, we both marry and move thousands of miles apart.  She knows my faults, my secrets, the worst of me.  And has yet to disown me.  She is and will always be the sister of my family heritage, and the sister of my heart.

tamis wedding 8-1-87

The Moslander crew at Tami and Gerron’s 1987 wedding. I had already provided 5 of the 7 grandchildren and nieces and nephews for this family. Come on, people!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SQUAMPI-DOODLES {a.k.a. Tami Ayento}

Also – she just had an anniversary on the first. :)

tamis wedding august 1987

Guinivere ~ You’re 5 now!

Happy Birthday to my first-ever granddaughter!

We tour the yard together, watering cans in hand and Guinivere asks me, “What is this flower, Nonna?”  “What is that flower?”  I tell her the names and she commits them to heart.  Gavin loves the veggies, but Guini says, “I love the flowers!”

A little project Guini and I did for her birthday ~ because ~ I LOVE my little flower girl!

Dear Guini~  Sorry your birthday kinda got rolled over by the Heaven Fest train, but we are still just gonna celebrate you and love you like crazy.  Party coming up!  Love you, Guini-Poo!  xxxooo ~ Nonna

Dear Sawyer Joell~

I get to do labor and delivery with Wrex and Stef when Sawyer is born.  Stefane gave me a little note-taking book for the Birthing Class we took a few Saturdays back.  I didn’t take many notes (I did have 5 babies myself, you know), but there are some.  And I have decided to use the rest of the pages to write advice and parenting encouragement to Stef and Wrex or little notes to Sawyer for reading someday when she is grown.  Plus there are prayers and blessings and silliness, along with little doodles and baby quotes.  Somedays I write quite neatly and others (like this one), not so much.  I consider it the secret code to a treasure…Sawyer Joell will apply herself to learning about her beginnings someday and will have to decipher my code.  And I hope she will discover how much she was loved and highly anticipated before she was born, by 2 incredible parents-to-be.

PS To Sawyer:  And I feel certain I shall break into song, as well, with great joy at your impending  birth.  I’m like that.

On being a grandparent

THE MOST AMAZING THING…according to me.

“THE most amazing thing about getting to be a grandparent is that the very kids you made so many mistakes on

(may have-could have damaged irreparably) 

grow up and honor you by trusting you with their babies.  Could there be a greater grace?”

You may quote me on this!  It is true!

 

 

The first five: Guini, Averi, Hunter, Gavin and Gemma. (group shots by Aunt Stormie)

And baby Amelie Belle…soon to have her own plastic weapon.

Half Glass and the Grandbebes

Half full or half empty?

What sort of wee ones surround me?  I know I tend toward “the glass is half empty” but I don’t necessarily think that is a bad way to look at things.  It keeps me pushing for more and zealously pursuing what I actually want to see in the glass.  Yes, I overcompensate, but then I never run out!  How much does it really say, anyway?  It made me ponder my little grandbebes.

Gavin, 7.  The glass is half-full, of course.  Everything will be alright.  There is a way to solve any problem, plenty to go around.  Just look for it.  Keep a good attitude and chin up and all things will work out fine.

Hunter, 5.  It’s not half-full or half-empty.  It is in the middle.  It is what it is.  That is how I wanted it and so that is where it will be.  Not a drop more or less.

Guini, almost 5.  Why is this all I get?  How much did the boys get?  More, please.  The glass seems half empty.  Sensitive to what’s right and true justice, Guini will come back for more until she has had her fill.  Then she will smile with contentment.

Gemma, 3.  The glass is delightfully half full. “Look how much I have!!”   In fact-even just a drop in the bottom of the cup will cause GemGem to twirl with delight and satisfaction, full of gratitude and laughter.

Averi.  I will fill my own glass, thank-you very much.  And I will also sweet-talk you out of some of yours.   Give it!  She is 2.  : )

Amelie, 3 months.  Remains to be seen.  But we currently make sure her glass is full to the brim.

And me, really?  My cup is full.  Overflowing.

Absquatulated

“to have made off with, decamped, or to have absconded“

Using it in a sentence:

Some thieving nincompoop absquatulated with Stormie’s Canon Powershot SX10 IS digital camera the other night.  Very sad indeed.

This is a slightly different model

And if said person is truly honest and returns the camera, I shall change all absquatulator-related adjectives in this post.  I really just wanted a reason to work absquatulate into a sentence.

Paper Chains, Paper Roses, and a Sunny Day for a Baby Shower

Stef and Wrex are having a baby!

If they didn’t already both have great parents, we’d just legally adopt them.  Meanwhile, since their bio-fams are far away, we have scooped them up and just love the stuffing out of them.  It’s a match made in heaven.  So, sweet bebe Sawyer is due to arrive on 8.9.10, which is a very cool date and works for me, but if if she should decide to arrive earlier, say July 31 when Heaven Fest is happening?  I will have to miss HF for I am serving Stef and Wrex as their labor and delivery doula/keep-Wrex-in-line coach!  Oh yeah, baby!  I was pretty good at having babies myself and though there are three previous births I was supposed to coach people through, each time something would happen and I didn’t get to (medical or the out-of-town husband would make it back in time or whatever).  So this will be FUN! I hope I don’t end up needing Wrex to hold smelling salts under my nose and Stef to fan me while she is laboring.  I am pretty empathetic.  Haha.


  

We had a little waiting-with-great-anticipation-for-you-baby-girl-Phipps Shindig.

 

Tredessa (Stef and Dessa are tight!), Tara, Stephanie, Jovan, Stormie and me threw a little shower in Casree’s backyard not long ago.  The day was brilliantly sunny.  Which is what we ordered.  But exTREMEly windy, which we did not.  For you see, we had decided on PAPER decor.   We got together and gathered our zany-patterned scrapbook paper and big wads of brightly-colored tissue paper from another baby shower (recycle, people!!) and piles of paper the school was getting rid of and jars of old buttons and old pickle jars and some goldfish and glue sticks and bits and pieces of ribbons from previous projects. 

It was all about creating a colorful, vibrant, bright, engaging, fun, delightful afternoon for Stef and her beautiful friends and family, all of whom adore her wholly.  And the key words were: Lavish. Recycled. Reuse. Re-purpose.  And utilize dishes and serving utensils we already have! 

Pictures of the preparation~

     

  

   

Click on thumbnails for a closer look.

We cut circles and made pinwheels, by hand!

 

 

 

We created miles and miles of paper chains.  We made accordion-fan circles.  We created old-fashioned paper fans with pinwheels on them and fancy tags for all the treats and foods.  We used every bright color from the spring pallette, but zeroed in on orange and hot pink.  Goldfish swam in a bowl on the treats table, around the orange daisy stems, for they matched the decor.  Huge, fluffy tissue-paper flowers hung as garlands from posts.  Hot pink coffee-filter roses were woven vines ’round about.  No one knew, it is safe to say, they had once been white coffee filters.  We also grew some triticale (a wheat/rye-blend seed) for display purposes on the serving and buffet tables.

We ate, drank and made merry.

 

 

 

There was a triple-layer coconut cake made with love especially for mommy-to-be.  There were candies and sweets galore, lemon-poppyseed cupcakes filled with fresh lemon curd and topped with mounds of delicious cream cheese icing.  There were swedish meatballs and spinach-artichoke dip along with deli meats and cheeses.  Fruits artfully arranged on skewers and chocolate, of course, were there, too. All the girlies and me made the food. Bright-colored cookies on sticks were even more incredibly delicious that they looked!

We withstood tornado-force winds. A slight exaggeration, perhaps.

 

 

Seriously?  It was windy.  That was the one tiny, little thing that did not go our way.  Kinda messed up some backdrops and wreaked some havoc on having all-paper decor.  Had to go to Plan B (devised there on the spot), but it was still lovely because Stef is lovely and it was our chance to tell her so.  But the one thing that was nice about wind?  No sweat.  The wind kept us cool in spite of the heat and brilliant sun.

 

   

Thing that made me most happy at the end?

 

Mandy asked if she could have the decorations for her daughter’s upcoming birthday party.  Yes. Yes!  YES!  Recycled yet again, which I LOVE!  Because I am sort of becoming a greeniac.  {I may just have invented a new word again}  I kinda like that whole waste-not-want-not idea.  I am so happy Sawyer will see these pictures someday and know that the real value of the day, the place most of our energy was spent?  Was on the love for her parents, on our delight in the creating, all because she was going to soon arrive!

 

 

Etc.

   

   

The people.  Are the real decorations.  And everyone of us?  Love Stef and co.  Something to celebrate!

PICTURES:  Mostly by Stormie, but 5 or so by Mary!