My Daddy's Heartbeat

I hear daddy's heartbeat;
it beats so steadily.
And it tells me of all the things
he promises to be:
Strong arms to hold me close
and calm my every fear,
To lift me up so I can see
the world from his point of view.
Hands to guide me along the way,
to keep me from falls and stumbles;
I know that his firm grip won't fail me
as he directs me, gentle and humble.
Feet upon which to alight my own
to teach me how to dance
through life's hard times and challenges
with grace that's unsurpassed.
Ears that listen so intently
to all that's on my mind;
whether big or insignificant,
I'll have his undivided time.
Broad shoulders upon which to perch me
when the waters get too deep;
though current swift, I'll rest assured
dry land will meet my feet.
A chest which keeps that beating heart
so close for me to hear
those promises to remind me that
my Heavenly Father is near.

The Baby Mullet

I took Gwen to my work place when she was a couple months old, basically just to show her off. One of my friends, Kathryn, noticed that she hadn't yet developed that neat bald patch on the back of the head that infants the world over have come to sport, also known as the "baby mullet."

"Yet?" I said. "But she has so much hair," I reasoned with her. "Surely she would bypass that embarrassing phase."

"No," Kathryn returned, "All babies get it. It's like a rite of passage."

Certainly, I thought to myself, that my baby was special; that she would dodge that bullet.

But alas...

Business in the front...

Party in the back!

(And it turns out that baby mullets only add to that whole "special" factor. Go figure.)

Baby Firsts: The Beach

As you may have guessed, this blog entry is about Gwenivere's first time at the beach. But it's not just any old beach. It's Refugio Beach.

It's THE beach.

The beach I was practically born at. My parents discovered the little bit of heaven a few decades ago and we've been vacationing at it every year since.

My love for Refugio runs deep-- countless memories of small, unimportant things, like eating red rope licorice on the 1 hour 45 minute drive up the 101 freeway; that first glimpse of the ocean on our route up the coast; pulling into camp and rolling down the windows just to smell the clean sea breeze; sitting around the campfire and having marshmallow roasting contests; going on nature walks; hiking up to the point at the far end of the beach; walking sandy-footed into the camp store to buy Abba Zabbas; being chased by the waves; making sand sculptures; getting sun-burnt; cleaning the tar off our feet with lighter fluid; hearing the freight trains screech along the rails above the campground-- not to mention their squashing the pennies we put up on the track; discovering the tailless feral cats in the reeds by the estuary; laying on the beach at night to watch the stars... The list goes on, but needless to say I was very excited about bringing Gwen to my "home away from home".

My Refuge.

Scoping out the view.

With Grandpa.

And Grandma.

And Aunt Carolyn.

Yodelay-hee-hoo!

Well, after a month of searching for a new rental, we'll be calling Pine Mountain Club home! For now :) It seems we've been moving every year, which isn't saying much since we've only been married a little over a year, but we have 4 moves between us in the span of the last 18 months, so it's become something I'm very good at and something I loathe, all rolled into one... cardboard box.

In anticipation that we'd be moving to that somewhere, anywhere, we have been slowly but surely packing up. All the home decor is down, which is a bummer since my favorite time to put up seasonal decorations is Fall, but hopefully Pine Mountain Club (here on out referred to as PMC) will save us a little bit of Fall to enjoy before Winter moves in.

We're so excited to call that little hidden gem of a town "home". Not so sure if we'll be excited about our very steep driveway in 6 inches of snow come winter, but it'll be an adventure, nonetheless :)

(not our house, btw, just showing off the area's snow!)

We knew it was going to be a big day.
One doesn't simply sprout bunny ears and not expect great things to happen.
Gwen's pediatrician gave her the go-ahead to start solid foods, and thus begins the journey...

Solid food? Bring it.

Liquids are so five minutes ago.

Hmm. Texture: oozy. Taste: bland. Consistency: homogeneous.

Excellent. I give it four and a half stars.

Oh, mumsy, you know how I hate looking unkempt before the camera.

Oh well, at least I discovered the joys of messy eating!

Fin.

Fingers, Toes, Moving-- Woah!

Has it been a month already since my last post?? Sheesh, time flies when you have a baby!

Gwen is 4 months old today! I can't believe how fast she's growing up, yet sometimes it seems like she was born years ago (probably because she's had years' worth of milk from her poor mother!). Needless to say, she's growing like a weed (a cute, drooling weed). She's leaping in and out of clothing sizes, she fits a few of her 3-month old things, but has no problem wearing 6-month old sizes!


This past week Gwen's started to explore things with her hands, her favorite being a little cloth toy filled with crunching, crinkling cellophane. She's also been captivated by her hands and feet. When I'm doing the dishes and she's in her swing, and I notice it's been quiet for a little while, I come over to see what she's doing, which ends up to either be staring intently at her slowly moving fingers or toes :)


And no, the hat didn't pop clear off her head, though it probably would have if I hadn't taken it off!

I think Gwenivere also noticed our dog Pippin for the first time. I was sitting on the couch with Gwen, and Pippin, our little chihuahua, decided to join us. Gwen, being attracted to eyes, immediately homed in on him, and Pippin, being attracted to faces, homed in on her. So there was born a staring contest between the two, though Pippin quickly found his place at the bottom of the family totem pole, He turned away and would only look at Gwen sideways :)

Other than Gwen's weekly milestones, it's been one busy month here at the Vaughan homestead. Back in September Aaron and I made the decision to move... somewhere. Anywhere but here. But we wanted to move fairly soon to avoid paying another month's exorbitant rent. We had been making a list of places that interested us; places that #1 had a church with the denomination we currently attend, and #2 had a school where Aaron would eventually do his PhD work. We narrowed it down to Eugene, Oregon for those reasons as well as way cheaper housing, getting away from the hustle of So Cal, greener land and mild, rainy weather-- perfect for gardening. And not sweating.

Aaron had gone up to visit Eugene with his dad and came back with raving reviews of the place, the people, et al. To make a long story short (which kinda defeats the purpose of a blog), Gwen and I flew back up with Aaron two weeks later for me to scope out the place and decide on housing, and to make a short story even shorter, decided that Eugene, and all of Oregon (and Washington-- Aaron scoped there, too), wouldn't be the wisest move for us right now, mostly because we would be uprooting so quickly from friends and family, and a baby in the picture makes that even tougher. So back to So Cal we went, a bit out of spirits, and stressed out from all our scurrying across the Pacific Northwest (which really was beautiful).

Our hunt continued locally, and to make a shorter story fit on a car license plate, we found a great little home 50 miles north of where we're currently living. It's in a town called Pine Mountain Club with a pop. of 2,000 (25% of which are bears, raccoons and snowmen). We're so excited at the possibility of living in the mountains! It will almost be like being on vacation all the time (and it actually was a vacation home, so...). Aaron and I are also equally excited that we actually agree on where to move to. Now we're just hoping the home owners will agree with us :)