Ride Like A Girl

In June of 2010, the Mathis family rides southward, from San Francisco to Santa Barbara, along the Pacific Coast Highway of California. The ocean waves, the spinning wheels, and the setting sun are the only ways time is able to encroach, and this is pleasant. Each day would begin with a psychological challenge and end in blessedness. The reunions with old friends in Petaluma (Rachel) and San Francisco (Callie and kids) are highlights, before the journey even begins. Then you hit the road. There you are, Selah. You are one when you start. There is an ocean to wade in, there are rivers to soak in, and mountains to climb. There is a never ending supply of fresh produce to eat. Tourists and local people are kind to baby bicyclists who hang Elmo on their panniers (people offer their homes, rides, food, shoulder space and encouragement). June weather is mild and dry. Coastal winds blow most often south, pushing you up the steepest climbs. Before you know it, your daddy's own feet and a simple machine have carried you and your shelter over 400 miles along some of the most beautiful coastline in existence. The waves crash in your mind as you travel home across the Mohave Desert. You talk of nothing else for weeks, and can still tell stories about your trip over six months later. What a fun second birthday party, Selah! You're two now!

Casson's up in the attic today, removing thousands of old unread newspapers. Insulation? But how would that explain the empty vodka bottles, and old empty cans of Malt Liquor? The dust is settled thickly over everything. How much asbestos is too much? Just kidding, I mean, sort of. Who knows if it is or isn't. So yeah, how much is too much?

The weather people promised rain. Not even a cloud came. Just wind and dust and pollen. But today is cool enough that our heater is kicking on as I speak. Selah just went for a snooze with her plastic egg that Miriam gave her. Miriam is one of the little girls across the street. They're home today just like me, because it's Good Friday. And we all have Monday off too, though I'm not sure why. I guess it's the day after Easter.

Grandma Judy and Papa Mike came to town for the second half of Spring Break. Grandma brought Selah a boombox so that she can now dance whenever she feels moved. We did a lot of hanging out on the front porch, the backyard, and in the new dining room, wearing everything in. A trip to the arboretum and Globe to get out of the city. The wildflowers were in full bloom. Then a train ride to Tempe, and a bike ride up the Greenbelt, to everyone's liking. Plenty of sunshine and wine. It was a great visit.

We ate out at the Parlor, which seems to be the new Phoenix "place to see and be seen." Selah ate Duck Pizza.

Visiting the Arboretum for a picnic and a nice walkabout through the desert and the Australian outback. Selah and Papa read thousands of books. Selah's new favorites include Bears On Wheels, The Spooky Old Tree, and Happy Birthday Moon.

Taking Grandma Judy and Papa around the block. She ran around pointing out all of the interesting frog statues and palm trees. "Quickly, quickly" she said, until she tripped and skinned her knee. What do we put on an owie? "Ice it."

Hanging out on the newly opened up front porch.

Spring Break

We're on Spring Break this week. It does feel like the first week of Spring in Phoenix. This is the week that the wildflowers start blooming if there's been rain, which there has. It's also the week that the "desert rats" (aka "people who actually freeze throughout Phoenix's winter") start venturing outdoors for the upcoming summer season. I would called them wusses, except that they can take the 110 heat like it was nothing, in fact they love it. Spring is the time to get out on a bike, don't you think? Scottsdale's Greenbelt is the greenest and most spectacular bike path in the valley. More than ten straight miles of uninterrupted pathways follow golf courses and ponds and canals and parks. We'll have to bring Grandma Judy and Papa on this ride when they get here tomorrow. Biking is in the same category as snowmobiling, as long as you're doing it for the distance, the scenery, the companionship, and the destinations (aka. beer, food and ice cream).

Granny and Grandpa Come To Town

We worked 'round the clock to get things painted before Granny and Grandpa got here. Selah did the bulk of the down low air-painting. When they arrived it was a Relaxation Station, well, with the occassional sink plumbing job to keep it interesting. We went out to eat at least a hundred times, played outside when it was sunny, watched a bit of rain roll through, drank fine wines, and had a great time, mostly talking and watching that baby. Selah wasn't feeling the best in the respiratory system, but she pulled through without complaining. She performed some new dance moves, such as the Crazy Chicken and the Arm Pump Twist. She learned to really throw a ball with Grandpa. She wanted to copy Granny's ponytail, and kepts saying "cute, cute" about it. The highlight was eating at the Farm, which is a true Phoenix treat this time of year. Then she had some alone time with Granny and Grandpa while Casson and I had our rare date night. And another great family weekend sadly comes to a close.

Got all my monsters in a row.

Meet "the Guys" - Elmo, Crazy Chicken, Mickey, Jenny, Bo-Bo and Monkey. I walked in after her nap and found them all seated like this.

Aunt Jackie and Uncle Tim came to town. We all went out to the Breakfast Club, had a great meal and got to catch up for a couple of hours. We even got a glimpse of a big beautiful SYSCO truck passing by, right down Drinkwater Boulevard. Then we all went to get a great view of the valley on a cloudy day, from the great Papago Park overlook. Thankfully the clouds cleared up that afternoon, despite contradicting forecasts, so the Peterzen's got to enjoy a true Phoenix spring day, hopefully. It was great to see them. Selah had who's who of "Tim" and "Jackie" figured out right away. We'll see you guys in just a couple of months!

Happy Birthday Michael

Hey Michael, it's your birthday.

A stroll through the arboretum in Superior.

Our new friend Marisa took this picture of Selah at the LUX a few weeks back.

There is an arboretum in Superior, AZ. Superior has a lot of potential, but it goes by Inferior to our friends. It's supposedly the first town in Arizona to have gone wireless. It's an old mining town that no longer has a good mine. Yet it is situated in probably the most beautiful spot I've ever seen, other than Havasupai. Surrounded by cliffs and foothills, and wilderness on all sides. We went with Josh and Nadine, had a picnic and a nice walk through all the gardens. More videos coming soon.

It's raining in Phoenix

Selah's updated vocabulary: dada, mom, key, lock, ham, cheese, hush, tea, sheet, up, done, no, yes, got it, pop, light, sock, shoe, walk, kick, cookie, hot, cold, kitty, woof, stuck, uh-oh, doggy, hi, bye-bye, ball

Selah practices her Samurai moves. I made her that shirt, it's a bit shabby, but she likes the bows.

The backyard

Selah's favorite outdoor activity is pushing her old rusty push-cart around, picking up sticks.

We ate our first homegrown vegetable.

This little girl plays cars like a boy. She runs them up and down our heads, soars them through the air like airplanes, and likes to see them fly by on our street outside.

This video was taken a few days before she finally started saying "mom." It's been a running joke between us that she would try to say "mom" but "dada" would come out. She'd point at me and say "dada" and then immediately point at Casson if he were in the room, as if that was what she'd been trying to say.

Casson's been working at the house everyday. He's taped up cracks, mudded, sanded, cleaned and primed the front bedroom. I helped clean the windows. It's taken 15 days so far.

Selah and I met our friends for coffee on Saturday morning. Selah only chipped one plate this time, and spilled only a few drops of coffee on the couch. Doris and Dave were there, tired out from their new jobs, but so caring and sweet. Mike and Robin were there, Robin just back from India where she worked with lepers and gave eye exams to the poor. Dave and Rachel relaxing from long hours at their new jobs/positions. Saturday afternoon we played in the park and met a guy who used to know Josh and Nadine from their time in Israel. Big coincidence. They have two little kids, so Selah made a friend of Abe, who's almost 2. She gave him a hug. Sunday we went to church in our keeping-it-real-every-two-months style. I love creating concepts with hyphens. Church was great. I cried a little, so, you know. Selah loves her friends in the nursery. She helped clean up all the dolls and balls and books. Then we ate .50 hotdogs and hashbrowns, gleaned some ripened grapefruit from our tree of provision on 3rd Ave, and headed home. Monday Josh helped Casson prime, while Selah did circles around the yard, drank tea and warm milk, and hung out with Sara and Josh for dinner. It's Tuesday night now and it's raining like crazy. I'm worn out, need to let my shoulders relax. Enjoy the photos and videos...

Minnesota and Back

The last day of video at our old apartment. Actually we were there for another month, but I lost my camera after recording this video. We've moved into our house, but are going to be unpacking over the next few months, as we finish patching and painting one room at a time. Selah likes the room where we have her sleeping. When we were in Minnesota she started singing to herself in her crib for the first time ever, something that little babies are supposed to do much earlier on as part of speech development. She keeps doing it here in her echoey room, even to the extent that Casson put her down for a nap yesterday and she just sang for an hour and then got up. I think maybe sleeping in that pitch-black closet for a year and a half had a negative, though evidently not permanent effect.

She started saying "no" the day she was 18 months (Dec 20). In Minnesota she experimented with saying "papa, clock" and not surprisingly "cooooold." When we got back to Phoenix, I kid you not, she started saying "hot." It was about 90 degrees warmer. She says hot to refer to food, glade plug-ins, too many clothing layers during a bike ride, and jacket removals.

I tried to add more video and blogger is slow tonight. Sorry grandparents.

Found my camera.

Fall Break

Death Valley

The Kearn River in Sequoia National Forest (not Park).

Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara Mission

Somewhere in Sequoia Nat'l Forest, at Lake Isabella.

Some state beach in California.

Climbing in Joshua Tree Nat'l Park.

Strolling around Joshua Tree.

Minnesota Visitors

Aunt Patty visited us on Thursday the 1st of Oct. She was in town to meet her friend Gail for their annual American adventure, this year the destination was Arizona, lucky for us!

Then on Friday Grandma Judy and Papa Mike got here. Selah read lots of books with Papa, played on the floor lots with Grandma, and we all ate out at several cool Phoenix bistros, and took a lengthy city bicycle tour. I need Grandma to send me more photos, since I didn't take enough.

Cell Phone Mannerisms

This one is actually from August, I just forgot to put it on. I wonder who she thinks she's talking to?

Selah was walking sideways to her right, while looking at me to her left. I told her to "watch out or you'll bonk again." So she stopped and walked around the chair to where she bonked yesterday, and softly whacked her head in the same spot and pointed and laughed. Also for anyone who, like me, thinks that she doesn't eat enough, we took inventory today: she had a couple ounces of milk at 6:30, a few corn flakes at 7:00, a full bowl of oatmeal with raspberries and applesauce at 8:00, with two cups of diluted orange juice, another 4 oz. milk bottle at 9:30, the biggest bowl of spinach pasta blended up that you've ever seen (because you probably haven't ever seen it in any size) for lunch with water, another 4 oz. bottle at 3:00, and then about 60 raisins and a cracker at 4:00, then a bowl of egg, chicken, cheese and tomatoes for dinner at 5:30, washed down with no less than three sippy cups full of water, followed by several crackers, then an entire adult-sized chocolate chip cookie and a cracker at 7:00, and another 6 oz. bottle of milk at 7:15. It's pretty much more than I ate all day, and she definitely has me beat on liquid intake. I made up my extra needed calories with cookie dough though about 5 minutes ago, so I'm good. Casson made homemade cookies yesterday and they were way too good. Suddenly last night he realized that he had used twice as much butter as the recipe called for.

I lost my camera for real and for good last week, so I'm using our webcam to take some low quality videos for all of us who are going through video withdrawal. Selah is starting to jump and to attempt running. She walks up and down small hills or inclines and over cracks and across dirt lots. She'd rather be walking around than doing anything else other than eating. This morning was the first morning in months that she slept past 7, so we got to sleep in on Labor Day.

Language Sample 13.5 months

Selah hanging out in Kachina Wilderness near Flagstaff.

Learning to walk in her new shoes.

We took our first long bike ride with Selah, fifty miles and about 2500 feet elevation change down and back up. The loop went from Sunset Crater National Monument down towards the Painted Desert, through Wupatki National Monument Ruins, and back up highway 89 towards Flagstaff. This picture was taken just before the last 15 miles, which were uphill into the wind the entire way. It was so stinking hard. The parents nearly passed out, the baby loved it, switching between chair and trailer eating cookies and drinking Gatorade the whole way. (Please humor me for a paragraph, it's my first week back to work as an SLP and I'm loving it) Selah's language development is occuring at a normal rate. I would describe Selah as being much more focused on developing receptive language rather than expressive. That is, she understands significantly more than she can produce, which is typical. At nearly 14 months, Selah is not really saying any words other than her favorite word "dada" which is used consistently for dada, mama, baby, bottle, and bye-bye. "Da" is her word for "dog." She says "uh-ah" when anything is brought low by gravity, and has made up her own signs for more and all-done, which is not much more than a double-clap accompanied by a smile (for more) or a frown and headshake (for all-done). Even though she only uses the sound "da," I would still say that cognitively she has those nine words that she produces as well as she can so far. She babbles the syllables "ga gla da ba sa la wa ya das:" usually connecting 2-3 syllables into jargony words and phrases, and with very little variation on the vowel. She imitates adult prosody, sliding between high and low pitch. She does this the most obviously when she pretends to talk on her cell phone. She communicates a little through nodding when asked if she is sleepy, needs a snack, wants lunch or dinner, and a few other daily routine things. Because we only ask her when we know that that is what she wants, her answer is always yes. She only comprehends that we are asking her a question, and she answers yes, I think because most of the time we give her something that she would want around that time of the day. She demonstrates consistent comprehension of the words fan, bottle, chair, baby-chair (highchair), lamp, car, dog, bicycle, door, spoon, bowl, apple, stacker, shoes, socks, foot, ears, head, hair, mama's nose, cookie, cup, bear, books, piano, couch, trees, banana, teeth, pillow, camera, mama, dada, baby, diaper, bath (about 36 nouns). I just tested her today, and she doesn't understand bed, blanket, fridge, oven, ceiling, carpet, ugly-mobile, shelf, wall, curtains, mirror, the rest of the items in the house, etc. When asked "where is the ..." she points, walks to an item, or picks the item up. That's how we have figured out what she does understand. She also seems to know who Robin and Rachel are when asked. She responds correctly when asked to "jump (she tries to jump, looks like trying to pick yourself up by your own collar), kick, clap." She plays pattycake. She waves to "hi, bye" She also makes the correct gesture when given certain prompts, even though we are sure that she has no concept of what we are talking about, as in the previous video.

Walking

Here is Selah walking with support on June 16.

Here she is taking a few first steps on her own on July 1. She forgot how as soon as Casson got home.

And then she mastered turning on July 2. She now claps every time she falls.