Hall of Fame Festivities Have Begun!

Tonight, Niels and I took Daniel to see the hot air balloon launch. We didn't actually make it to the festival grounds because we saw so many balloons being launched from various backyards in residential areas. Daniel was quite intrigued by these balloons, especially since he was just introduced to regular helium balloons two weeks ago! We stopped at one place and were maybe fifty feet away from three different balloons just as they launched. Pretty cool! But we were back at home by 8pm for a little boy's bedtime. Ah, the exciting life of parents of a 7-month old!

Four Sets of Hands

One of my goals when we were on our Midwest Adventure, was to get a four generations picture, with Daniel, me, my mom and my gramma. I didn't get the exact picture I was hoping for, but as news of my gramma's hospitalization reached me yesterday, I'm glad we were able to get what we did. This poem came to me tonight. My creativity isn't what it used to be, so I'll likely make some edits to this, but I like the sentiment of history intertwined.

Four Sets of Hands

Four sets of hands

Lay still on the green cloth

Four sets of hands

Representing four lives

Intersecting, intertwined.

The great grandmother’s hand

Still wears the ring of her late love

A testament to her years,

The depth of her heart,

And the fullness of her life.

The grandmother’s hand

Is marked with rheumatoid bumps

Her life has not been easy

And her hand shows the marks

Of a life filled with dream-chasing and dreams fulfilled.

The mother’s hand

is reaching out

first to her elders, gleaning wisdom from experience

and then to her son

as she learns to nurture him.

The baby’s hand

is curled up tight

life is too new

to fully embrace yet

he is drawn to hands:

the safety of his mother’s hands

the delight of his grandmother’s hands

the serenity of his great grandmother’s hands.

he reaches to them

making their hands his own.

- Jen Abbas de Jong

7/30/09

de Jong family on our 2nd anniversary

Two Years of Wedded Bliss

best.anniversary.present.ever.

Picture of the Week: Week 33

Our big boy

Soon the swing will be added to the list of things Daniel has outgrown. We really can't complain since he stayed so small for so long. We got great use out of everything we have. He's still is mostly 3-6 clothes, although we are starting to put some 6-9 month clothes in the mix. Here's our chubby bunny filling up his swing:

Cherrio!

Daniel has hit another milestone! He's using Cheerios (and now, puffs) to work on his pincher grip. He does pretty well, although some of the Cheerios land in strange places. Bailey is most excited about this new development. She watches him very carefully and has even taken charge of cleaning up any Cheerios that happen to land on the floor.