collaged

my living room looks like mini tornado hit.
it was just the two of them: the chica and the munchkin.
i made the "mistake" of permitting the use of cheerios as "cooking" material.
as if i needed an excuse to vaccum.

for the moment, they rest/sleep.
the trickle of the water filter in melissa's aquarium lets me imagine i sit near a small waterfall, the fan is my cool breeze, the cicadias and crickets a sing homily on summer.

my mind strains forward to the coming of a special birthday and vacation,
but i think it well to pause and look back on the survival of july.

some memories were not captured in photographs:
sleeping on the floor of the playroom, the one room that is air conditioned and the good feeling of us all in one place there;
an ill-advised, but go-with-the-gut decision to rescue-purchase a pair of turtles from a garage sale, though only melissa remains with us, stubbornly hanging on;
sharing a peanut-butter milkshake with my not-so-baby-but-still-My-Baby girl.


i've forgotten or been distracted from recording many more that will forever be lost from my memory.
but here are some with visual record: