Quick Takes: Three Great Days and Some Quotes

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Gratuitous Halloween Recap:

My kids were so dang cute. I wish the jacket belonged to us so I could dress Paul in it all winter. And the side pony, I'm tempted to have it make a weekly appearance.

We hosted a party with a few friends and then ventured to a nearby church from a Trunk or Treat. Hannah was in heaven. She overcame her shyness to say "titt or teat" (wow, I did't realize how bad that would look until I typed it out....) and "daint you" to every warm body holding candy. And although she was majorly pumped by the party and the dressing up and the free candy, nothing could have prepared her for the excitement of passing out candy to the strangers that came to our door. 

For Hannah, the after party was even better than the main event.

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I'm really glad I have another year before I need to hit All Saints Day hard. We didn't do much this year since Hannah's not quite old enough to understand. And I had to work. But this year served as a good wake up call as to how hard I'm going to need to work to help my kids get excited about All Saints Day in the future. Following up a day filled with parties and candy and dressing up with....."We get to go to Mass tonight!" probably isn't going to cut it.

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We did make a small alter to celebrate.

All the importants are represented. Noah and Miriam and saints of the Old Testament. St. Paul, St. Joseph, and Our Lady bring in the New. St. Rose Philippine Duchesne and a collection of boy Saints and holy cards for the early and modern Church. And Sts. Melissa and Doug give it a nice finishing touch.

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Other than our collection of Saints, we spent All Saints Day listening to this song:

Hannah asked for it again and again and I was happy to oblige.

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We failed big time with Al Souls Day yesterday. (I started these on Friday....finishing them on Sunday.) But if everything goes according to plan today we are going to go for a walk and pray in the cemetery. The weather is beautiful and there are several big statues that I know Hannah will love. I'm really looking forward to it.

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Some Hannah quotes:

While reading this beautiful version of Noah's Ark and pointing to what might be an onyx.

H: What's that?

Ted: Well, I'm not exactly sure. It's from Africa. Africa is a different continent. Uh, you don't know what a continent is. It's an animal from a country that is really, really far away.

H: 

Ted:

H: It's pony?

Just go with pony, dad.

While watching me put on my robe.

H: Mommy that's a pretty dress?

Me: It's called a robe.

H: Oh. You're awfully cute.

Me: Awe, thanks Hannah!

H: I want to wear a rose like you.

-7-

Some quotes from Paul.

"mama"

And hearing that word from this boy is likely the sweetest thing I've ever heard. I have pretty stringent criteria for what I consider a first word. Not just babbling. Must be directed toward the person/object. Most be obvious that he's actually referring to person/object. Must say it immediately upon seeing person/object for the first time. Etc.

I waited three days to say for sure. He's not even eight months old so I was very skeptical. But he's saying it. For real. He's saying "mama".

Parenthood is awesome.

Happy Sunday!

Five Favorites

Joining Hallie to share five of my favoritest things this week.

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The St. Louis Cardinals. Oh yes they are. I know not everyone loves the Cardinals as much as I do, but then again, I don't think the Rockies made into the playoffs now did they? If you wanna watch baseball in October, then you gotta be a Cardinals fan.

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If you wanna watch baseball in October, you also have to have cable. We're way too cheap for cable but not too cheap for a date night with free babysitting from friends! So Ted and I actually get to watch game five of the National League Division Series. Together. In a bar. Without children. And with alcohol.

It hasn't happened yet. But Wednesday night's date is already my favorite night of the week.

(And I'm just going to pretend like they are never, ever going to leave us.)

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I started doing some actual speech therapy with Hannah this week. My goal is 20-30 minute sessions twice a week. I've known for a while she needed it but was hoping that my indirect approach would take off. It didn't. So now we're doing it the old fashioned way. It's been a lot of fun to see her rise to the challenge. She asks for it every time Paul goes down for a nap and (so far) has sat attentively for the entire time. I'm excited for her intelligibility to improve and for her to become more confident talking with her friends and other adults.

Don't mind the grease on the wall from the previous renters' popcorn machine. Who does that??

 I'm also incredibly grateful that I have two degrees and five years of experience in the exact area of help my daughter needs. Literally saving us thousands of dollars. That's a favorite.

She hung these up herself. So I think it's safe to say speech is a favorite of hers too.

But my favoritist favorite part of this "favorite" is hearing her say "speech" like "peets."

"We do peets now mommy?" Love it.

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This outtake from our seven month photo shoot with Paul is my favorite. Gosh, I just love him. I could type that a thousand times and it wouldn't even come close to describing how much I love this little boy. He is just the best. An absolute joy.

He's been crawling and kneeling and pulling up for a few weeks now. It's adorable. But making my life a whole lot harder than it was before. A whole, whole lot. Not a favorite.

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This is my new favorite spot of our house. I just moved the recliner about two feet to the right and turned some wasted space into a "reading corner". It actually makes our tiny living room feel quite a bit bigger. The mat on the floor spells out READ but you wouldn't know that because Crawl Joseph has taken it upon himself to continually rip all the books off the cute little spice rack bookshelf. Whatever. He loves it back there. Probably because he eats the floor mat, but who cares. And Hannah actually gets her books out more often because they're not scattered in with all of her toys. Wins all around. It's everybody's favorite.

Stuff and Things

Jumping from topic to topic tonight because writing a nicely organized blog post is just tooooo much work. How do people do it?? (People are really good writers, that's how. I am not one of them.I can blog, but I can't write.) Here is a sample of the thoughts in my head this week.

Sleep training is God's gift to mothers of multiple children. And I assume of mothers of one child but I wouldn't know because I coddled the hell out of Hannah and paid dearly for it. But Paul? Well this afternoon I took a perfectly happy and playful little six month old into his room, zipped him up in his blanket bag, carried him toward the crib, and he practically jumped out of my arms to get into it. Then he laid down and stayed in said crib for the next hour and forty-five minutes. Why? Because mama has worked hard to teach him how to sleep on his own. And mama needed him to nap a little earlier today because we had somewhere to be this afternoon. Thank you son. Now please, figure it out in the middle of the night. Figure.it.out.

Hannah loves to sing Ave Maria (the one that goes "Immaculate Mary, your praises we sing...." Because there are too many versions. Well, you can't have too many versions of Ave Maria I guess.) with me while we snuggle at bedtime. She calls it "Ee-mat-tu-tate Mawy" and singing it with her is just the highlight of my life right now. Precious.

Some links:

This was a really great post about finding the activities that really help you to relax. I know blogging helps me relax for all the reasons Jen mentioned (thoughts come out of my head, I feel good about recording our lives for the future, I feel accomplished for having completed something, I enjoy it) so why do I always find myself spending more time reading blog than I do writing on my own. I really enjoy reading blogs, but sometimes I feel like I wasted a bunch of time after reading and not ever getting to writing. I never feel like I wasted time after writing. So I just need to write more. And read less. And somehow get up enough self discipline to read less when I really like reading.

This was another blog post worth the read today. Elizabeth has such a way of making me want to be a better wife and mother without making me feel like a crappy wife and mother. Her way of praying the rosary with her two year old seems totally doable. So doable I'm actually considering giving it a try. Without the handmade Mystery books of course. I know my limits. And that is way beyond them.

We returned the overpriced trike because when it said it was adjustable, I didn't realize it was already on the biggest setting. And she was too big for it. So back to the store it went, even after we rode it in the street. Because I have no shame when it comes to Walmart's generous return policy. And instead of the trike I got her a real bike. Goodwill. Eight bucks. It has a bell! And she loves it.

I love it too. Especially after I peeled all the Disney Princess stickers off and made it way cuter. Shh, don't tell her.

And she's gotten so good at it in only a few days that she actually needs a helmet now. At first it was just pretending to peddle and us pushing her along but now she can all out ride. We got her helmet down from storage (that she wore exactly one time almost two years ago and hated it) and it didn't fit.

So guess who got a new Winnie the Pooh helmet. The most adorable little boy in the world, that's who.

Ted and I, in an attempt to get out of the house with the kids more often in an effort to keep from losing our minds and do fun family things, have been talking about bike riding. We borrowed a bike trailer from a friend who is trying to sell it to see if we want to buy it. Both kids loved it and now we want to take it on some of the trails around town.

Except that both of our bikes are in bad shape. Ted's is done for. And I have no idea how much mine would cost to get up to speed. I guess that's what you get since they've had to be stored outside for four of the last five years. So our little attempt at getting out of the house with the kids is quickly turning into a several hundred dollar venture. Ugh.

What are the odds of finding me and Ted new bikes at Goodwill for eight bucks? Probably less than likely than my Disney Princess steal. So this family fun idea is still in the negotiation phase.

Since we're being responsible parents and making Hannah wear a helmet (when we buy her a new one that is), we have to actually wear ours to set a good example and not be big fat hypocrites. I'm not gonna lie, I feel like a huge loser. Am I the only one who thinks helmets are just so.... uncool? I mean, protecting my head from brain injury-obviously a plus. But we never ever wore them growing up so it just feels strange now.

Helmets are important. Especially for riding with your eyes closed.

 And even though the temps were still above 90 today, I actually thought it felt pretty amazing outside. The humidity has finally let up and that subtle hint of fall is almost in the air. Like, still several hundred miles and probably another two months away kind of almost. But I was able to ride a bike down my street at 6:30 without dying. So I'm just gonna be grateful for that.

Although a Missouri fall sounds lovely right now. With leaves that actually turn colors and jackets with my jeans.

Ask me how I feel when I'm laying on the beach later this month though.

I think when you devote three paragraphs to the weather it's time to sign off.

And yes,  I know that a paragraph needs more than two sentences.

Hannah's Five Favorites

Linking up with Hallie with a little twist on Five Favorites.

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Fishing with Daddy. 

Ted took her out on the boat for the first time to catch some bluegill ("boo dill") and she loved it. We packed tons of snacks but she hardly touched them. She was that excited about fishing. They fished for about an hour and a half. She handed Ted worms, held the rod, and even reeled in her own fish. I'm not sure which of them had more fun.

Come to think of it, I had the most fun. An entire Saturday morning in the house with a napping baby and time to do whatever I wanted. I think Saturday morning fishing trips need to be a regular occurrence.

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This:

Making a bed for a statue of Mary out of our box set of Lord of the Rings. Very weird. But she loves it.

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Her brother.

Yes, she still kicks him in the head occasionally, but for the most part she really, really loves him. She tells him what she sees out the window while we're driving. She makes him laugh just by looking at him. When her leapfrog laptop asks her, "Hannah, who is your best friend?" she almost always answers, "Paul," and I melt every single time with the adorableness of their sibling love. I think she generally enjoys having him around. Maybe "favorite" is a strong word, but he's definitely loved.

-4-

Her turtles.

Obsessed. They were a shower gift from some sweet Mississippi friends and she has loved them since she first laid eyes on them. They snap together and play music. When she was younger she would make us chase her around the house with them over and over and over again. They kept getting "lost" to give us a needed turtle respite, but somehow she always manages to find them. They make a reappearance every few weeks and she enters back into turtle heaven. This week's game is to try to pull them along the top of the couch without them falling off. As you can see, she's super successful.

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Laundry.

This favorite really should occupy all five spots of the Five Favorites post. She loves to fold laundry. Loves it. "I dold yawnee?" she asks all day long. And she's actually quite good at it. She knows what clothes goes in which piles and she's very picky about laying them out flat and in the proper direction. Putting them away isn't so much a favorite, but we're working on it. She even requests to take all the clothes out of her and Paul's drawers and sort them.

And if someone sends some hand-me-downs over? Well she'll be busy for a good forty minutes.

Pile of clothes sitting by the door for Ted to take out and put in storage? Don't worry, she'll make sure it's neat and organized before being thrown haphazardly into a giant tub.

Those are Hannah's five favorites for this week. Who knows what she'll come up with next though.

Loving the Language

Isn't language development just the coolest dang thing? I know I'm a speech therapist, so I probably care about it a leeeetle more than the average joe. But come on, kids learning how to TALK is amazing. I devoted many years of my life studying language development and then some more years doing language therapy but NOTHING could be as cool to this language nerd as watching my own kid's language take off. To see her wake up in the morning and say ten new words before breakfast. To ask her, "Hannah, what's in those clouds?" knowing she has no earthly idea what the answer is. Until I hear her say matter-of-factly, Wain." And then follow it up with, "Falls down on my head! Gets me wet!"

Mind blown.

Toddlers are fascinating. Yes, they're exasperating and challenging and a whole lot of work. But fascinating. Watching her language expand and grow has got to be one of my favorite parenting highlights so far. As Ted said today, "Oh to be a fly on the inside of her brain."


While making a smoothie with me:
This smoothie is for us. Not for the animals. (Dis moonie is dor us. Not dor animos.)

A conversation after she hit Paul on the head when she was overly excited:
Me: Hannah, I know you are excited but you never, NEVER hit Paul. Instead of hitting Paul, next time you get excited ---
Hannah: Hit mommy!

While on the toilet:
Hannah: Look (yut), my poop made bubbles!

During breakfast:
Me: Here you go. You can have my strawberry.
Hannah: Big strawberry! Really big! Really big like Daddy! (Bid stawbewy. Weawy bid. Bid yite Daddy.)

In reference to the bottle opener that is nailed to the cabinet next to our dishwasher (it was here when we moved in, but man, what a good idea!)
Dis where beer tums out. (holding up her empty playdough jar). Tum out beer!

And during an attempt to get out of bed by telling me she had to poop.
Me: Hannah, do you remember how you told me that you had to poop last night?
Hannah: Yes.
Me: And remember how you pushed and pushed but there wasn't any poop?
Hannah: Yes.
Me: So tonight-
Hannah (leaning in and nodding her head): Push harder!

Seven Quick Takes

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I love reading everyone's Five Favorites posts. But for whatever reason, I can never seem to get one up in time to join the link-up. I wanted to write one from Paul's perspective this week. Here its that entire post in a nutshell: Paul's Five Favorites are 1) mom, 2) mom, 3) mom, 4) mom, 5) being in the water.... preferably with mom.

But it's ok because he's so stinking sweet. I finally found a way to upload pictures to my sister's borrowed Mac so all you people out there can see what a cutie we have.

Ay Ay Cap'n.

Future Cardinals MVP

That drool ain't nothing compared to what this kid can do

This one is from yesterday. We have a sitter! Note the soaking wet shirt, his fourth of the day. I hate bibs.

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Hannah is getting so funny. She's starting to get a real sense of humor and I am loving it. Just a few days away from two and a HALF! She's transitioning from toddler to preschooler and it's fun and exciting and horrible and terrifying all at the same time. But there's this

and that's fun. Wearing Paul's pajamas and pretending like the wrapping paper roll is a cane. Just to make us laugh.

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I think Hannah is inheriting Ted's love of biology. We went swimming Sunday and she could have cared less for jumping into the water, showing off her new swimming skills, or even playing on our friend's iPhone. All she wanted was these

disgusting things. Yes, we swam with frogs. And she will probably never have as much fun swimming without frogs as she did with them. Weird kid.

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For my second quick take about frogs, a story: On the way home from seeing my client for speech therapy today I noticed a tiny frog sitting on my rear view mirror. He was nestled in between the mirror and the driver's side window. I was already on the interstate so I couldn't do anything about it (not that I would have really done anything if I were on a regular road...). I was nervous he was going to fall off so I did my best to send him telepathic signals to stay put right where he was and I would deliver him safely to his new home. Or let Hannah play with him until he wished he was dead. When I got to the a stoplight shortly before our house he tried to make a break for it and hopped to the other side of the rear view mirror, but when I took off again.....woosh! and smear! and no more frog. Apparently he didn't get my mind message.

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In case you were wondering, I love my new job. Love it. I'm still in training but I'm certain I will love it even more when I get going on my own. I love getting out of the house and eating lunch with my coworkers. I love the new play skills that Hannah is picking up from the babysitter. I love that Paul is doing well when I'm gone. And I love that I'm making money. I don't love paying the babysitter from the money I make, but whatcha gonna do? I've been doing all ten hours in the office for training but will drop that back next month. Then comes the real test: working from home!

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Ted and I are speaking at an Engaged Encounter weekend on Saturday. We are doing the NFP presentation and are just about finished tweaking our talk. Say a prayer for us and the couples will ya?

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My email account changed up its format and I didn't pay attention. They sent me a message about that sat unopened in my inbox for a few days until I deleted it. I guess I should have read it because all of my comments from my last post about "changing the bar" were hiding. I thought it was a bit strange I got crickets on that one. I usually love to respond to commenters if they have their email linked, but I'm too behind on that one. Thanks for your comment if you left one!

And now I'm going to break a blogging rule and just forget about all the links in this post. Too lazy. And my computer is too slow. You're stuck with just me on this one with no clickables to take you away. Except for Jen, who is the host and deserves the link.

Father's Day Ramblings

I'm typing this from the hallway outside Hannah's bedroom where she is asleep in a big girl bed! How can we possibly have a child old enough for this? After some awesome advice from last post's comments, we moved her naptime back to its original earliness and she did much, much better going to sleep. Last night, however, she crawled out of her crib and hurt herself. She is fine! But that made the decision pretty easy that we had to get her in a regular bed.

She was super excited about it...until she realized she was actually expected to stay put. When we were setting it up I asked her, "Where do you want to put it?" and she smiled and yelled, "In my room! This one!" And later I asked her, "Whose bed is this?" and said said, "Me's!"

Pronouns. They're tricky little guys.

She watched me quietly as I tucked her in and left her bedroom. And it took her about .4 seconds to crawl out and open the door. Then a half hour of yelling, crying, trying to do a handstand, playing in her kitchen, and peeing in the potty. Then a break for a snack (agh! Why didn't I make her eat more at dinner??) Then back to bed. I laid with her and rubbed her belly (her choice) for a few minutes and then left. And she actually stayed in bed! She rearranged her covers for 15 minutes, which is typical. But she stayed in! And she fell asleep! We told ourselves that midnight would be a success but she was out by 8:30! I couldn't be more proud of her. Hopefully this will help the transition of staying at our families' and hotels when we head to Missouri.

Fingers crossed. And crossed some more.

But about that Sunday....

We actually celebrated Father's Day yesterday with a family trip to the mall. Ted wanted to spend some birthday money and I needed new flip flops. What seemed like the worst idea ever was actually pretty fun! The mall near our house isn't very busy so it wasn't stressful like most malls are (I hate malls!). We spent over an hour in Sports Authority but Hannah was excellent the entire time thanks to the giant display of soccer balls. And checkout took forever but she entertained herself by rearranging the candy. She didn't want to actually eat any of it. She just wanted to tell me what color it was and then put it in a "better" place. Oh her OCD. It really comes in handy sometimes.

We got "ice cream" (sorbet) and played with the train set at Barnes and Noble. It was awesome to get out of the house and walk around but not sweat our butts off and get eaten alive by mosquitoes. I think we might actually try to go more often. Weird.

Today was pretty low key with a solo trip to Costco by me and a team effort of rearranging Hannah's entire room to fit her bed and find an outlet for her entourage of electrical items (nightlight, bunny awake/sleeping light, video monitor, white noise machine, and CD player) (I constantly wonder how people raised their kids before these things existed.)

"Paul and Hannah" gave Ted a Dr. Pepper, some accessories for the grill, and the opportunity to hang out with them while I left the house for three hours to get groceries and go to a baptism.

A win for everyone.

And because my day would not be complete without a crappy cell phone picture of my outfit...this is what I wore Sunday.

Shirt: Target, 8 or 9 years ago.
Skirt: NEW! From Burlington Coat Factory. I actually bought something!
Shoes: Some big shoe store.

I hope I looked as good as I felt in this. Because I felt tall and slender and feminine. I want a dozen of these skirts.

Despite the fact that both kids were excellent today, I have no idea what the readings were about. I took Hannah to the bathroom during all three readings and spent the homily patting Paul to sleep. But they both get A's. In the middle of Mass Hannah pointed to the statue of Mary and fake whispered "Mary! Hair! Brown hair. Hannah brown hair!" I guess that makes her more like Mary too. (That was a horrible pun. I am really bad at puns.)

And even though I am making NO claims that I know what I'm doing with a toddler in Mass, a few people have asked how we manage to do it. Sometimes, she really really awful. But most of the time she's pretty good and I think I have somewhat of an idea as to what works for her. If any of this is helpful to you, then give it a try! If not, well no one is making you read this.

1. We go to 8:30. It's hard to get out the door but it is worth it. She falls apart if we go at 10:00. Earlier is much much better for her.
2. We give her free range within the pew. She can sit on the kneelers, stand on the pew, face backwards, whatever. Ted and I sit pretty far apart and keep her between us. This works so much better than trying to get her to sit still and in one place the entire time.
3. We bring nothing. Nothing! The diaper bag stays in the car and if Paul has a blowout we will simply have to deal with it. No water. No snacks. No toys. Nothing.
4. We let her talk to us as long as she tries to whisper. I just don't think it's appropriate to expect a two year old to be quiet for that long.
5. We tell her when things are coming up so she knows what's about to happen and how much longer Mass will last. We tell her "we're about to say peace", "you're about to go up and get a blessing" and "just one more song and then bye-bye".
6. If she misbehaves we give her to the count of three and then take her to timeout outside. We try to make it as miserable as possible by forcing her to stand in the corner and turning our back to her. As soon as it's over, we go back inside and try again. We've had to do it multiple times in one Mass, but not for very long.
7. We sit in the front. Just do it.

This might sound like a lot of freedom, but she does well with it. As she gets older we'll obviously expect her to step it up. Kneel when we kneel, not face the back, etc. But for now, I'm just happy that she's somewhat quiet and stays in the pew. And just by being there she's picking up so much. She sings along with parts of the Gloria and the Alleluia. She sometimes joins in on an "Amen". And she says cute things about Mary's brown hair. It works for us. For now at least.

Happy Father's Day! I'm off to read today's readings. Better late than never.

Linking up with FLAP and Grace again this week!

Quick Takes

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After two days of Jillian I could hardly move. I was so sore that I seriously doubted my ability to care for my children. Squatting down to help Hannah on the potty was agonizing and I felt like I was going to drop Paul all day. A wise and trusted friend suggested I scale back to every other day until I can handle it. And you know what is super weird? I was kinda bummed when that meant I couldn't work out yesterday. Who am I??? Will this last?? Will I ever make it Level 2?? Stay tuned.

-2-

This is the only quick take about sleep this week. I promise. But what good is a blog if you can't ask the advice of hundreds of strangers on the internet? I usually get better advice than when I ask individual friends (even though I have awesome friends) because it's more likely that someone reading this will have gone through a similar situation.  All that to say.....help.

Hannah is miserable when we put her to bed. For months and months she laid down peacefully in her crib, talked and played for a while, then fell asleep (don't hate us. we endured torture from months 3-13). Now she yells and cries for up to two hours. I'm pretty sure that she just cannot figure out how to calm herself and relax. She's so much like her mama that she gets bored if she lays awake for more than 30 seconds. She climbs all over her crib and swings her legs off the sides because she can't sit still. We've tried music in her room. No good. The light-up sleeping bunny that reminds her it's time to sleep. It helps with middle of the night wakeups, but not at bedtime. We give her books to read and baby dolls to change and she throws them out because "boots no bed" and that's not where books belong in her organized little mind. Earlier bedtime? Even worse. Later bedtime? Nada. What do we do oh vast internet readers?

Is it time to move to the dreaded big girl bed? Will that magically help somehow? We're leaving for a way-too-long trip to Missouri pretty soon and I am dreading every second of trying to put her to bed. Should we try to get into the big bed before we go? Or banish her to the pack-n-play that she's all but outgrown?

If you made it through that entire quick take, I really hope you have the answer I'm looking for.

-3-

Isn't the library amazing? Every time I go I feel like I hit the jackpot. All these books get to come home with me? For months? For free??? I've been using our library website to reserve all the books I want and then all I have to do is pick them up at the desk. But I still love browsing the shelves and finding hidden treasures. These are our favorites right now:

Grumpy Goat

Or "Dumpy Doat". Which is way cuter.

Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus

So cute to hear Hannah tell the pigeon "no no no". I just noticed on Amazon that there several other books that forbid the pigeon from doing things. We'll have to check those out next time. For free.

-4-

Still haven't decided on a computer. Because it's a big decision and I'm overwhelmed so I just do nothing. That means no pictures still. And man we got some cute ones of Paul in the tub last night. This is the only cellphone pic from this past week.

Despite the fact that he's the happiest baby ever, he's not a smiler. In fact, he's pretty much scowling for about 95% of the day. It's his game face. He's practicing early.

-5-

I haven't been on Pinterest much since Paul was born. And my life is the better for it! I need to venture back on to look for some good car activities for Hannah. Our Missouri trip will be two days of driving and even she doesn't love Barney that much. Anyone have any great idea for keeping a two year old happy in the car for an eternity? My only idea so far is lots and lots of food handed to her in tiny, tiny increments so it's takes her over an hour to eat a muffin. 

We're fully expecting Paul to scream for most of the trip. He doesn't sleep well in the car. We're bringing ear plugs.

We've only driven home once since we moved to Florida a year and a half ago. We're taking a different route this time that will take us through Atlanta and Nashville and along the base of the Smokey Mountains. I'm so excited (except for the fact that I'm dreading it with every fiber of my being) because I've never seen mountains. Ever. They better be worth the hype.

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Apparently the readers of this blog are much deeper than the writer of it. So many commenters managed to turn my dumb thought into a beautiful reflection about Mary praying for Jesus. They're so right, I bet Mary repeated the words of the angel Gabriel over and over in her head for her entire life. If God sent an angel to tell me something that profound, I would certainly replay the scene a time or two to relive it.

-7-

In addition to my parents' 30th anniversary this past week, it was also my sister's and Ted's birthdays! Jackie turned 25 and Ted turned 27 (yes, I married a younger man. 10 months younger to be exact.) Is it just our family or are most people born in early June? It's not like nine months before June is anything special. A quick Google search was inconclusive as to whether August or September are the most popular birth month (I didn't technically click on any of the articles...) but I say it's June.

Happy Father's Day Weekend! I linked up with Jen for my quick takes, as usual. And this post has affiliate links because, hello!, I've made $2.94 so far and can almost buy something. Thanks so much!

Sunday Funday

Sunday evening is my favorite time to blog. Probably because Sundays are generally semi-relaxing, spent with my husband and kids, and full of simple, everyday memories I want to record. Today was no exception. Allow me to document it in details that only I care about.

We haven't set an alarm clock for Mass in months because Hannah always makes sure we're up in plenty of time with her screams. But this morning, she actually slept in! Which gave us only 40 minutes to eat, nurse, change, and drive to Mass. We managed to walk in during the processional song. Not too shabby. I had about .3 seconds to pick out an outfit so I grabbed an old favorite rather than trying to come up with something creative.

Just turn your head to the left. There. That solves the problem of me having no earthly idea how to rotate this picture with my friend's Mac. It's really better this way, the vertical version of the picture makes me look really frumpy (someday I will teach my husband how to take a picture without squatting down and somehow making me look shorter than I really am.) (and another day we will finally buy a computer so I can upload pictures from our good camera instead of texting them to my email from my non-smart phone.)

The clothes:
Shirt: Kohls. Probably 8+ years ago.
Skirt: Charlotte Russe via consignment. The zipper's broken so I can't tuck my shirt into it.
Shoes: Maurices. Also forever ago.

Kid's behavior:
Hannah: A. Please, please, please let her always be this good in Mass.
Paul: A+ He sat happily in my lap until he fell asleep.

I needed something I could nurse in today because I had to work in the nursery immediately after Mass and it stretched into Paul's lunch time. Since we have Paul on a pretty consistent "routine", I'm usually able to wear whatever I want to Mass since I'm about 95% sure he wont need to nurse. Neither of those last two statements were particularly relevant to this blog post.

Some actual noteworthy tidbits from our day include:

Baking a blackberry pie.

Reading Good Dog Fergus at least seven times in a row. Ok, that's not noteworthy either.

Eating breakfast for dinner because we didn't have anything else in the house. It was amazing though. Homemade hash-browns with potatoes we grew ourselves. Fried in lard that we rendered ourselves. Homemade pancakes. Three varieties actually. Blueberry (picked ourselves). Blackberry (picked ourselves). And banana (purchased at the store by, yes, ourselves). And to balance out all the homegrown, homepicked goodness, some sausage in plastic wrap from Publix.

I'll try not to mention how badly I was craving a giant glass of raw milk.

Bad. Really bad. I miss dairy really really badly.

And now, a poop story. I know that most of the readers of this blog have their own hellacious poop stories and probably think they don't need to read mine. But how many of your poop stories end with absolutely no poop on the baby's clothes and tons of poop on your boobs???

Paul pooped in his swing while we were eating dinner and I was unaware of this event. After dinner I scooped him up and and grabbed the pacifier that had fallen into the seat. As I'm walking across the room with Paul I simultaneously patted his butt as I placed the pacifier into my bra. (The pacifier always sits nicely between my cleavage. It's the only safe place from the paci-obsessed, germ infested two year old.) When I sat down to nurse him I realized that my hand was covered in poop. So covered that it was in every crevice of my wedding ring. When I patted his butt I must have squeezed poop all over my hand and his pacifier. I then shoved the poop covered pacifier into my bra with the poop covered hand. After I cleaned myself off, I changed Paul and was astonished that not a single dab of poop had graced his clothing. I, on the other hand, had poop on my hand, my ring, my t-shirt, my undershirt, my bra, my nursing pads, my neck, and my boobs!

And no time for a shower because were headed out the door to do this.

"Tie-ats!" Our friends keep them at our house and told us we could take them out whenever we wanted. We finally took Hannah tonight and she loved it. She wouldn't stop talking the entire way there. "Kayaks on roof mommy's car! Hannah go kayak in lake! Go beach! Row row boat!" (or "Tia-ats on woof mommy's tar. Hannah doh tie-at in yate! Doh beats! Woah Woah boat!")

They just paddled around the lake near our house (lake. beach. same thing to Hannah.) for a few minutes while I nursed Paul and took pictures. But again, these cellphone ones are all I can do for now. Ted said she just kept saying "Go faster!" ("Doh dasser!") and "Daddy find gator!" ("Daddy nine day-dor!")

When we were about to leave a lady pulled up and got out of her car with a turtle. She told us that she just "rescued him off the highway from getting hit by a semi" and told us she wanted to help him get far out into the water so he wouldn't get run over by the trucks near the ramp. Ted offered to paddle him out into the deep so she put him on the kayak. She then watched to make sure Ted actually took him far out and didn't just drop him off by the ramp. She struck up a conversation with me (and Paul) and somehow we got on the subject of my family in Oklahoma and Missouri and she asked if they were near the recent tornados. I told her that they were very, very close to the damage and she immediately asked, "Are their pets ok???"

Yes, lady. Their pets are ok. Now go back to your PETA meeting.

The turtle fell off before Ted got it very far out but she seemed satisfied enough. Hannah's first kayak trip and rescuing a turtle all in one day.

It was a good Sunday.

Annnnd, because I'm selfish with the knowledge of the awesome readers of this blog, two questions. Anyone have a good fake tanner they recommend? One that is very cheap and won't make me look orange. I told Ted I wanted to get some for my awful white legs and he said "I don't think you're that vain." But I definitely am. So give me your suggestions to make this Floridian look like she actually gets out in the sun.

Number two. Does anyone know if a device exists that allows you to put an SD card into a laptop that doesn't have an SD card port? My sister has offered us her old Mac (!!!!). We would have to upgrade a few things on it and buy a new battery and power cable, so it's not free but still cheap. But it doesn't have an SD port and I really need it for uploading pictures because it already takes long enough without having to plug a cord in every time. Do the good folks at Apple make a USB/SD card stick thing? If they don't, they should. And give me royalties for the idea.

I linked up with Fine Linen and Purple and would have linked up with Grace if she had posted her Sunday Best before me.

Sleepy Quick Takes

-1-

Since I mentioned Paul's sleeping habits exactly two weeks ago, it took a sudden and dramatic turn for the worse. He's a little better now (and still nowhere near as bad as Hannah as a baby) but am still kicking myself for ever mentioning it. Why did I test fate? Why?

-2-

And even though Paul's sleep isn't terrible, our evenings are still filled with frustration over a child that refuse to sleep. That would be the two year old I'm referring to. Why does my sweet girl who used to just play with her stuffed animals in her crib until she fell asleep suddenly take TWO HOURS to fall asleep every night? She won't stop taking off her pajamas and diaper (not night trained yet). She even magically figured out how to get out of the backwards footie pjs we used as a straight jacket for so many months.

It just sucks. This part of parenting sucks. Listening to her scream and yell because she refuses to just lay down and sleep. It ruins our evening. I don't want sleep to be a battle. I don't want her to cry every night because we refuse to give her an 80th drink of water. I don't want to keep changing her sheets because she gets naked and pees all over herself.

Blah.

-3-

Blueberry picking was awesome last week. I was so excited to snap some cute pictures before I realized I forgot to put the SD card in the camera. So low quality cellphone pictures to the rescue.

We mostly just hung out in the shade and watched

She was in blueberry heaven

Boo-bewies!

About two minutes in we realized Hannah was completely incapable of putting blueberries anywhere but her mouth. "Hannah, just eat one and put the rest in your mouth." All of them went into her mouth. "One in your mouth. Then one in the bucket." Two in her mouth. "Put that in the bucket. Do not eat it." It went into the bucket, only to be plucked out and eaten immediately. She could.not.do.it. It reminded me of a study I read once where they put marshmallows in front of kids and told them that if they could wait to eat them they would be given even more marshmallows in a few minutes. The kids who were able to wait were found to be more responsible adults with better self-control and a host of other good qualities. Hannah would fail the marshmallow test with sinking colors. We just gave up and paid a few extra bucks for the blueberries in her belly.

We picked a gallon and have been eating them all week. I made a pie that is divine and have to talk myself off the ledge of inhaling the entire thing when I'm home without Ted all day. And Ted picked blackberries off the wild bushes near his office today. I see another pie in our future.

-4-

We had to move Paul into his own room. I'm both elated and heartbroken. He outgrew the cradle that fit snuggly next to our bed (Hannah was in it until she was seven months old!) and the pack n play doesn't fit. So he's alllllll the way across the hall. It's too far. But I do love being able to turn the bedroom light on again and talk to my husband at a normal volume before falling asleep.

Sigh. He's already growing up too fast.

-5-

Four takes in and sleep is beating blueberries 3 to 1.

-6-

We still haven't bought a new laptop. Because it's a big decision and I'm lazy. But I have a ton of pictures that need to be uploaded and shared with the world (or just the grandparents) so I need to get my act together. Another cellphone pic to the rescue.

All my blankets are pink and purple and I like it like that.

-7-

I know I'm probably way behind, but I'm watching the 4th season of Parks and Rec on Netflix while Hannah naps. I can't for the life of me get their naps to coincide, so Paul and I hang out and watch TV and make faces at each other for an hour. My favorite character on the show is April because she reminds me so much of my youngest sister. She's moody and sarcastic and hates attention. My sister Haley is pretty much the blonde version of April. They even dress alike. A lot of people might be offended by being told that they are just like April, but when I told Haley she said something like, "That's the best compliment anyone could ever give me," in a nonchalant matter with just a hint of a smile. Just like April would have said it.

.......my children's sleeping habits just won today's quick takes with 4 points. In case you lost track.

Join Jen for more!

Weekend Recap

It's Sunday evening and you know I'm in the mood to write a What I Wore Sunday post. They're probably my favorite. But alas, no picture. I write the WIWS post in my head every Sunday (stop laughing) but rarely get around to actually taking a picture so I can, you know, write the post. We go to 8:30 Mass. And it's 20 minutes away. And we don't wake up early before the kids to get ready. (We also don't shower....) So a before Mass picture is out of the question. And despite all my good intentions, I just cannot stay in my Mass attire for more than 15 seconds when we get home. There's the nursing of the baby and the doing of the dishes that were leftover from breakfast and the hungry toddler and the naptime routine and, well I just don't want to be dressed up for any of it. It's hot. Almost 100 this week. So I strip down to shorts and a t-shirt almost immediately and get to work on all that crap that didn't get the memo that Sunday is supposed to be relaxing.

It's really too bad. I wore my favorite favorite favorite skirt today. And up around my waist with my shirt tucked in for the first time. I felt like I was falling in love with it all over again. And Hannah was the picture of Southern perfection in her hand-me-down smocked dress and giant pink bow. Ted and Paul coincidentally wore matching white polos with gray pants and I soooo wanted to get a picture before he spit up all over himself. But it didn't happen. Just imagine us all looking really awesome. Cause we did.

So no linking up with FLAP today. But, if I mention the kids' behavior in Mass I can still qualify for this link-up. So on to bragging about the two best kids in Mass today. Not sure why. I don't ask questions. But Hannah was wonderful. She tried to sing along with the Gloria, only tried to grab Paul's paci a handful a times, was thankfully unsuccessful in unclipping the back of the carrier Paul was happily sleeping in, and entertained herself for almost the entire Mass by counting to "nen" (skipping five of course).  Paul slept on me in the Beco carrier and woke up at the end of Mass just in time for everyone to tell me how cute he is.

Both kids get A's. Link-up rules met.

Grace even mentioned me in her inaugural post, so I can't not participate. And I admit that when I read my name and realized it was me she was referring to I told Ted, "I have arrived". The sleeveless clothes in Mass discussion has been great. So great that maybe I'll even find the energy to actually reply at some point. In short, my takeaways are this: For the most part, sleeveless in Mass isn't appropriate. There are times when this rule doesn't apply (like when you have a baby strapped on your shoulders anyway). And that it's not a hard, fast rule. Some dresses are definitely modest even if they have no sleeves.

Is it possible that my black and white sense of morality is becoming a shade of gray? Could it possibly be?? On the bigs things, no. Never. Abortion=always wrong. Euthanasia=unacceptable. Wearing sleeveless shirts in Mass=eh, I dunno. Probably not but maybe sometimes?

If you know me at all, you know how hard it is to admit that.

Next up on the ramble train,

We had a great homily from our priest. At least the 60% or so that I heard was good.  He quoted St. Justin Martyr (whose feast was yesterday!) who spoke about the Eucharist in the 2nd century (because today is the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ!)

This food we call the Eucharist, of which no one is allowed to partake except one who believes that the things we teach are true, and has received the washing for forgiveness of sins and for rebirth, and who lives as Christ handed down to us. For we do not receive these things as common bread or common drink; but as Jesus Christ our Savior being incarnate by God's Word took flesh and blood for our salvation, so also we have been taught that the food consecrated by the Word of prayer which comes from him, from which our flesh and blood are nourished by transformation, is the flesh and blood of that incarnate Jesus.

I had a thought while listening to the quote. Our Church is so rich and blessed by the writings of the early Saints and Doctors of the Church, that if all priests immediately stopped writing original homilies and all theologians suddenly ceased their studies and Catholic speakers stopped speaking and Catholic writers stopped writing, we would still have enough amazing reflections and teachings on our Faith to last us until the end of time. Priests could simply read from the great Saints that have gone before us, especially from the ones who lived in the early days of Christianity, and we would probably never hear a repeated homily. And although I am grateful for the many Christian books and talks that come out all the time, nothing beats going back to the beginning. Nothing beats finding out what the original Christians said about Jesus. Pastor so and so can say all he wants about the Eucharist. What does St. Paul say? What does Justin Martyr say? That's what really matters. It made me once again feel blessed to belong to a Faith whose roots are so deep and members are so wise.

Annnnd because as soon as I finish this post I have to get up and do dishes, I better add a few more unrelated bits of information.

We had a joint birthday party for Ted and our friend Summer today. I'd show you a picture, but oh my I cannot figure out this Mac. It has no Right-Click! How can you save pictures off facebook or correct a misspelled word with no Right-Click?! Do you know how many times I had to re-tyrp the word inaugural because I had no idea how to click on the little red line below my failed attempts? (silver lining: I can now spell inaugural)

A few of Paul's NINE MONTH clothes are too tight. And he rolled over from his stomach to his back. Before his third month birthday. Who does this kid think he is? (imagine cute picture here)

Go read these.

And check out the amazing hair on my friend's new baby.

And pray for this mama and baby.

And have you seen this? So funny. (But say a prayer for that family while you're at it.)

Ok, I'm stalling. Dishes.

[Update. Two fingers on the keypad+clicking the button=Right-Click. I'm a genius for figuring that one out by myself. Pictures successfully saved off facebook.]

Quick Takes

-1-

Yesterday, a terrifying thing happened. Our dresser fell on top of Hannah. (She is fine!) All of the drawers fell out and hit her but I caught it just before the actual dresser landed on top of the drawers. A glass jar candle that was sitting on top broke just inches from her face. We're fortunate it was a very lightweight dresser, that I was right there when it happened, and that she wasn't hurt. But what if.....

I remember reading about a little three year old girl who died while her parents were sleeping because her dresser fell on top of her. Her twin sister was even sleeping in the same room. When I read it I vowed to secure all of our furniture to the walls immediately. We already had the bookshelves secured, our dresser was the only thing left that needed to be anchored. We put it on the "to-do" list and it never got done.

Please, secure all your furniture to the wall. Guardian angels are wonderful, but we don't want to have to depend on them. Do it today. Do not put it off.

-2-

On a much lighter note, anybody have any good tv show recommendations? I am not someone who really enjoys tv. We hardly turn ours except to let Hannah watch Barney. But I have gotten into a few shows lately and I find that the short break every few days really helps. I love Downton Abby, obviously. Really enjoyed Once Upon a Time on Netflix. And I just finished the second season of Call the Midwife on PBS. But now I'm without a good series. Suggestions? It has to be available to be watched on Netflix or somewhere else online for free.

-3-

I cannot wait until Hannah is verbal enough to warrant her own regularly occurring "verbatim" type post here on the blog. Reading other people's kid's quotes are some my favorite type of posts. Especially when you know the kids and how adorable they are. For now, I'll just devote one take to Hannah's cute comments.

Hannah: Hannah yite Paul. (meaning, "I like Paul")
Me: Awe, you like Paul?
Hannah: Me too!

And while watching a lizard crawl up to the roof (which we talk about every.single.day. [they are probably just trying to get away from Hannah.] Look, that lizard is going to the roof. I bet the lizards are the roof. Lizard-roof. Lizard-roof. She even threw her plastic lizard onto her own roof where obviously belongs.)

Me: Oh Hannah, where do you think that lizard is going?
Hannah: (blank stare)
Me: I bet that lizard is going to the ______
Hannah: Library!

-4-

Tuesday morning was rough for us this week. I decided we needed to get out of the house before it got any worse, so we drove to the park that's just two minutes away (no, I cannot walk to it. it's already in the 90's here!) When we pulled up we saw that they had bulldozed the playground! What? We had just been there a few days before. I'm going to call and ask if they are getting rid of it all together or (hopefully) putting in a new one. Needless to say, our morning didn't get much better.

-5-

Tuesday afternoon, however, was great. We took a trip to the library (because obviously it was on Hannah's mind). Just like her daddy's, Hannah's cheeks get really red when she's hot and it was so hot that afternoon that she was red just from walking from the house to the car. When we walked into the library she threw open her arms and shouted "yibaewy boots!" (that's "library books" fyi) loud enough for everyone to hear. As she walked through the study area to the kids' section she was so excited that she waved at a random man and said "hi!". He smiled and turned to his friend and said "Did you see..." I thought he was going to finish his question with, "that cute little girl?" or, "how friendly she was?" Instead he said, "Did you see how red her cheeks were!?"

Oh Rosie, you certainly live up to your nickname.

-6-

I found a great deal of support from the comments on Wednesday's post about bonding with Paul. Thanks so much to everyone who made me feel not-crazy. If you've struggled at all with bonding with your kid(s) I suggest going back and reading the comments. Especially the sweet comment from sayin' i love you about love as a choice. So very true! I was loving Paul by feeding and clothing him, even though there weren't any mushy feelings that came with it.

I meant to include this video on the post and forgot. But now you get to enjoy it today. You're welcome.

-7-

I really want to write about how great Paul has been sleeping. But, One: that pisses off people whose kids are not sleeping. Rightfully so. Two: No one really wants to read about the length of his naps or nursing intervals. And Three: it will surely change drastically and immediately for the worse if I so much as brag for .2 seconds on how great it is. 

So I will just say.....Happy Weekend! Thanks as always Jen!