One Year Pics

It was that time: One Year Pictures! The question that always gets tagged along with that is, where do I go? Will they turn out? Will the photographer be kind? Too goofy? Not goofy enough?

Well, we decided to forego all the other options and just go straight to Holly!

Who is Holly? Well, Holly is my cousin. Holly takes amazing pictures. And Holly is so creative and fun. Here's a picture I took of Holly in action!



It was VERY hard for me to pick which pictures to post here as they are all my favorite in many ways! So here are a few to enjoy! The rest are posted at our MobileMe site. This is the easiest way for me to post new videos and photos so check it often! This site is connected with my Mac and just uploads as I do. It's so awesome to have a Mac!


http://gallery.me.com/jvoller.


Look at these pictures by Holly! All of these pictures were taken in downtown Rockford where we live. I wanted Celia to see where she grew up and where Mommy and Daddy hung out before Celia came to be.

A Tribute to Celia

We really can't believe the speeding locomotive that was Celia's first year of life. And just like the Little Engine that Could ("I think I can, I think I can, I think I can"...) our choo choo train made it... made it! through Year One.

You remember year one parents... confused sleep deprived soggy headed patience lacker trial and error expert sitting, rolling, crawling standing diaper blow out nipple sore let's all have a good cry year?

Well, here she is: ONE, eating her cake Mama made:



Despite all of the days and nights that we thought we might hop a plane to some remote place and never come back, it was truly a beautiful year as well: full of laughs and smiles and accomplishments, and blissful loving heart bursting moments, and of course, opportunities to discover the true depths within ourselves. Like life, I suppose.

So to commemorate Celia's first year, here are my TOP 7 things I love about Celia. 7 for the 7th month in which she was born, 7 for the 2007 year she was born, 7 for if you add up her birth month, date, and year, and break it down to a single number, you get 7. So yes, mixed in with photos of her birthday party, here are Celia's TOP 7!

1. I love that Celia is so much like her daddy. It's said Steve could sit in a corner and look at books for hours as a wee one. Well, she does that. She can sit on her blanket while I work in the garden for literally 45 minutes or more, just picking grass, playing with finger puppets or reading to herself. I look around the corner when it's too quite, and there she is flipping through Dr. Suess. Oh, yes, she has a temper, she scowls a lot and she is severely independent (all from me), but her true nature underneath mom's bad traits is gentle and intelligent - Like Steve. She's so lucky she has so much Steve in there (here she is with books from Andy and Amy. She LOVES these things)



and yes, with some me in there too: (playing in the kiddie pool at her party)



2. I love that Celia loves so much. She is always telling us she loves us in sign language, giving hugs or kisses or just crawling over to sit in our laps. She is really so sweet. Here she is helping Nana Char make her birthday watermelon punch.



3. I love that Celia loves to dance. She can't walk yet, but when I hold her and swirl around the room she just closes her eyes and smiles so wide that all her teeth sparkle in the twirling lights. She can boogie to Red Hot Chili Peppers or do a waltz to Mozart's Adagios... she just loves to dance! Here she is dancing to this Obama song I sing:



This is just a picture I love:



4. I love that Celia can see the little details of life. Every morning on our walk she has to pick 3-4 flowers to hold onto the whole time. And when we return she points and grunts at the swing that hangs from our 100 year old Oak Tree and we swing for 5 minutes in the warm summer breezes that feel so good in the shade of a Michigan 85 degree day.



5. I love that Celia will try anything. She'll try any food, any adventure, any new toy. She checks it out and then lets us know whether or not she will continue eating, going or playing with the newness. Most of the time, she just takes what is given and is happy for it. Here she is playing with her new toy from Grandma Carol.



6. I love that Celia gets so happy when daddy comes home. It is a true huge gigantoid blessing that as soon as Steve walks in, she is smiling, her legs are shaking in excitement and she reaches out for him. That gives me, the full time at home mom a very needed break every night. She'll pull out books for him, crawl like a speeding bullet to him and his guitar, or just lay on the floor with him laughing and crawling over him over and over and over. Here they are reading together.



Steve also came home on her birthday with her first bouquet of roses. Awww.. :)



7. Lastly, I love that Celia has shown me who I really am. She is a literal mirror to me and this has been the greatest blessing, for she is and will continue to be my Zen master. Her faces, her reactions, her decisions all have a little bit of me in there, and at times I have been exceedingly proud (ie: she doesn't know yelling, she smiles and says Hi to all, she hugs and kisses her "Baby" over and over) to extremely discouraged and embarrassed (ie: she scowls too much, she grabs something and hits you if you try to help her,). Having a child has taught me more about myself that I think I could have ever know without her. I have seen areas, through watching her, that I wanted to better MYSELF on. It's amazing. She really is amazing.

Why Don't He Write?

Here we started a lovely montage of a little lady's life. Here we started discussions of local food and a goal of eating within 250 miles of our home for a year. Here we expressed the private on-goings in the Voller life, the 401K, the possibility of losing our home, the stresses taking over our once peaceful lives... and then zap! Where'd they go? We left you hanging! We left you wondering! We left you.

Perhaps this may explain it all:

Yes, our computer was ZAPPED! But that's not really the culprit. The taker of time is... the garden and the farmer's market. Yes, we are still doing our best to feed ourselves completely locally. We are proud to say that as of January we have not purchased meat from more than 50 miles from our house. We know the farmer, we know the cows, and we know it's yummy!

We are proud to say that 75% of our vegetables and fruits have been 100% locally farmed within 30 miles of our home. The other 25% goes to the bananas, and avocados, and sweet potatoes and other organics for Celia that she needs.

And yes, as part of this goal, this means saving up all this spectacular food for the winter. It is our goal to feed ourselves from our storage for half of the winter... hmmmm... that takes some time... ALOT of time! Good times, though. Definitely good times!

Some grizzly murder scene? Oh no. It's cherry time, folks. Which means, stained fingers, juicy countertops, and yes, bowls full of what looks to be bloody eyeballs --



That's right. Don't mess with the cherry pitter in action.

And as a nod to Sunny and Holly whom I used to play Charlie's Angels with: Here it is: Charlie's Angels Go Garden.



And then this happened. This was the 3rd bucket of beans I had picked! OH NO!



All of a sudden the round zucchini seeds I purchased turned in to those huge suckers sitting like bowling balls waiting for some action on the counter top! I had 4 of these to shred. Not to mention, the cucumbers started to flow so fast you'd think we'd have to have cucumber cereal, cucumber sandwiches and cucumber soup three meals a day for a week.



And then our coop order came -- peaches, blueberries, and greens, oh my!



Luckily our daughter thinks playing in the kitchen is just the most fun thing she could do with her day. And speaking of our daughter yes!

GUESS WHO TURNED ONE!!

July 18th, Celia Scarlet Voller officially ended her first year of life and has bounded with unmitigated joy into a second year of exploration, wonder, and fantasy. This will have to be our next post, as we must move on to the garden.