Before I talk about my daughter as a future “Phenomenal Woman,” I’ll share how phenomenal my son is. The two pictures below were taken one morning last week, before I took Hunter to school. We started the “school day” schedule last week and I was pleasantly surprised by how easy my child was before and after school. The mornings are the best because he is a morning person and I am not, but he makes me a better person in the morning. And the afternoons were great because the weather was nice and we took a walk every single day. Wonderful!
We bought these Melissa and Doug beads a couple weeks ago and Hunter was good at sorting them by color and shape pretty much out of the box. Of course, there is one shape that I don’t really even know the name of, so we call them barrels (no clue). But he wouldn’t string them himself – he would just hand them to me for me to string them for him when I said “give me all the red ones” or “give me all the squares.” I told him last week that he needed to do it himself – I think my hands were full with coffee and maybe rocking the carseat with baby Jenna. He figured out with my instruction how to get that string through the bead holding onto it with one hand and then switching hands to finish the deed. He proceeded to string the shapes together, all by himself. I was so proud, as evidenced by getting the camera out.
Oh, and he has gotten his hair cut since those pictures, by the way. My goodness, he was shaggy. And that awful bruise is fading too – he fell hard into a baseboard a week ago and the bruise got much worse before it started fading.
Now for that “Phenomenal Woman” I mentioned. The Today Show on NBC had a piece this morning on Glamour’s “Women of the Year” one of which was Maya Angelou. During the piece, Matt asked Dr. Angelou to quote a part of her poem “Phenomenal Woman.” Her reading was amazing. I had never heard this poem before, so I had to look up the words to the entire thing, and the pictures I’ve inserted are more of Jenna at three months, which I did not get a chance to post last week. I pray Jenna will be as phenomenal a woman as she is a baby. I pray that I will grow to be even more phenomenal because of her, and that I will set a good example for her always.
Phenomenal Woman
Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them, 
They think I'm telling lies.
I say,
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.
I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It's the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.
Men themselves have wondered 
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can't touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can't see.
I say,
It's in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.
Now you understand
Just why my head's not bowed.
I don't shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It's in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
The palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
'Cause I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.
Maya Angelou
