MuellerMommyAdventures

It was all about the car seat, the baby car seat. You know the type—the ones new moms or dads hold on one arm while transporting a sleeping baby? The ones that rock and have flexible sun shades? A few months ago, my two-year-old graduated out of her portable car seat. She didn’t grow out of her baby car seat, she’d just finally made the weight requirements necessary for the front facing chair. The transition happened without a hitch, she happily took to her new ride…until today. One of the perks of being so small is that the baby car seat is her back-up. Today she needed her back-up seat for a friend to drop her off. So, I packed her baby car seat into the car next to her big girl’s seat and went back into the house to gather a few more belongings for our trip to my friend’s house. When I walked back to the car, there sat Felicity, happily smiling and cozily ensconced in her baby car seat. Naturally, expecting reason from my two-year-old, I told her she needed to sit in her bi...

  Yesterday, Felicity and I had a late lunch by the river. I sat eating my gyro and she stood pointing out the squirrels and birds, enacting a slow dance towards the animals and back to me. “Squiwell,” she said. “Burd,” she said. Time stretched forever. How is that time can both stretch forever so that the moments pass one sleepy point at a time, and yet they go so fast? —my last post was in September. Felicity is now twenty months old. Her words are coming, rapidly and more distinct. Words hold power. Today, we woke up to discover our water heater broke. I used my words to upbraid a poor, home warranty customer service representative for telling me, “Hot water is a convenience. We will not fix it until Monday. It’s not an emergency.” With righteous anger, I detailed how this action showed they only want profit. How dare they deny me, my favorite modern convenience? In a moment, thirty minutes had passed in heated conversation, but the water in our house ...

Three nights ago Felicity tried running. She was wearing her long maxi-dress, with the little ruffles around the top and the bottom. She tried with all her little might to run after her two year-old friend who had a ball. Into the long grass, she went. The thick grass was taller than her knees. She stumbled on the grass and her skirt, but stood up again, and again. She tried so hard. Three weeks ago she took her first step in California. Three weeks ago I was living in California. Not anymore. People ask, “How do you like Waco? What do I think of moving?” Putting into words the experience of moving is difficult. On the one hand, there is something so ordinary about it. Yesterday, I sang to my baby and put her to bed. This morning, I went for my mile run. I dropped Nathan off at school, carpooling, the same as we’ve always done. Yet, it is different. Here, Felicity has a room of her own. The brick buildings of the classically, beautiful Baylor campus put Makita Tool compa...

May came bringing with it crawling, babbling, teaching, traveling, house buying, weddings, trains, and a trip to the zoo. Writing went by the wayside for a little while, but as I sit now in front of the open windows of our little back house, the writing frame of mind returns. Felicity sleeps and for a little while I can reflect. Our first family vacation started being stuck in the airport since San Francisco was whipped with high winds temporarily grounding all incoming and out-going planes. When we finally boarded, Felicity found plane windows as fascinating as they are supposed to be. At take off, her whee of excitement and intake of breath filled the air—another confirmation that my genes run strong in her. On the train, from San Francisco to Omaha she woke up in the middle of the night sleepily delighted to find her mommy was sharing the small sleeper compartment. She won’t remember it, but crossing the Rockies, she saw her first snowstorm. White flakes fell down in a whit...