Five Favorites

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

-1-

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.

-2-

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.)

-3-

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.

-4-

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.

-5-

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.

Quick Takes

-1-

We're still in Missouri with  my side of the family this week. And we woke up to six inches of snow the day after Christmas! Hannah loved it during the ten minutes we allowed her to be out in it.

-2-

My mom and sisters and I saw Les Miserables Wednesday evening. It was the first time I had been to a theater since I was 35 weeks pregnant with Hannah two years ago. What a great movie. So nice to watch a well done film where good is portrayed as good and evil as evil. Great singing. Awesome music. Holy ending. Two days later and I still can't get it out of my head. Did you see it? What did you think?

-3-

Tomorrow marks 32 weeks!

-4-

Today is the Feast of the Holy Innocents-the baby boys who were killed by Herod in an attempt to kill the baby Jesus. Ted, Hannah, and I went to Mass this morning and prayed for the victims and familes of Sandy Hook. Bonnie wrote an excellent post, as usual, about the sensitive topic of what to say to families who have lost children.

-5-

I just learned that Christmas lasts until the Sunday after Epiphany (January 6th). I always thought it ended on Epiphany. Since January 6th actually falls on a Sunday this year, Christmas lasts until January 13th. Ted noted that this year has the shortest possible Advent and the longest possible Christmas. Pretty cool!

 

-6-

What were your favorite Christmas presents? Some of the highlights around here include a subscription to the Magnificat (no more excuses for failing in daily prayer....), a giant crock pot that's made for feeding nine people (so it should almost be big enough for me and Ted...) and wooden cutting food.

 

-7-

I'll end with a Santa photo circa 1989ish. I know you're jealous because your grandma didn't make you a special elf costume. Sorry 'bout your luck.

 

 



Merry Christmas! It's not over yet!

Christmas Highs and Lows

Low: Hannah waking up at 4:55.

High: Ted playing with Hannah all morning and letting me sleep until 6:30.

Low: Getting to Mass on time-only to realize that the Mass schedule has been changed and we were an hour early. Or 45 minutes late depending on how you look at it.

High: We still got to go to Mass. And sing Joy to the World, Silent Night, and Hark the Herald, Angels Sing.

High: Pigtails.

High: Hannah took TWO naps.

Low: She woke up from her second nap puny and sickly.

High: Christmas pajamas. Even though we opened gifts at 2:00 in the afternoon.

High: Presents!

 

 

High: A wonderful dinner with my family.

Low: Hannah's dinner coming up all over me and the baby bump just minutes after she consumed it.

High: Cuddling on the couch with my little girl watching Barney while I snuggled her back to health.

High: Watching her gradually feel better and play with her new toys as the day went on.

High: Playing with the box.

High: this:

 

High: Rocking her to sleep singing her favorite song, Hail Mary, Gentle Woman, and hearing her finish the phrases as I was singing. "Blessed is the fruit of thy woom.....Jesus, Howy Mummy......Mother of Dod.....Pray for us sinner now......and at the hour of death, Ah-me."

Low: The horrible backache that's been forming for the past few hours and the kicks that have me buckling over in pain. I seriously feel like I'm about a two days past my due date. And I have two months to go...

High: The wonderful and long massage from Ted. The one he doesn't know he's about to give me as soon as I finish this post.

Low: Not getting a single decent family picture from the day. I think I'll make Ted wear his tie to church again next Sunday just so we can snap a fake family Christmas photo.

High: Getting an awesome picture of the extended family. I can't believe there are eight of us in this picture!

Low: Looking at this picture and realizing how unflattering this sweater dress is...and that it's the only church outfit I packed for the next two Sundays.

High: Christ is born! The word was made flesh and dwelt among us! Christmas is finally here!

Merry Christmas! My massage is calling!

Making Memories in MO

We spent the last week and a half visiting family and friends in Missouri.  It was too short. But it wasn't too hot. Or too humid. Or too covered in mosquitoes. Those are things that Florida definitely is, but Missouri definitely is not. At least not in June. So we spent the week....

running outside. In grass. Real grass. Just because we could.

and kissing Mary. Because we love Mary. And we just couldn't stay away.

going to the zoo and seeing all the animals that we've been looking at in our books for months. The only day that was super hot.... 

so we cooled off in the splash pad.

and finally found those elephants we'd been looking for.

we swam in the creek. And loved it. Even when Dad was distracted by a fish and let Little Girl walk into a pool as deep as her head. Little Girl just spit the water out, wiped off her face, and tried to jump in the pool again.

we relaxed. And cuddled with a great godmother. And introduced Hannah to one of my favorite spots on earth.

we ate a lot of ribs. But didn't cut a single tooth.

and barbecued not once, not twice, but three times. And said, "Yes Hannah, that is a dog," way too many times to count.

and we finally went out on the boat as a family of THREE! 

we trusted a 16 month old to steer us to safety.....

because apparently she knows how to drive.

and she definitely knows how to dance.

and stay up way past her bedtime.

Because we only had a few days to pack as much fun in as we possibly could. So we pushed back bedtime, dealt with waking up at 5:00 am, and experienced as much of Missouri as we possibly could.

When we got home we were greeted by a freshly painted house! The owner decided it needed a new coat of paint. We used to live in a red and green duplex-but the green is now white and the red is now......pink. Definitely pink. Fuchsia to be exact. I'm pretty sure they were going for the same shade of red-but they failed miserably. We now live in what our neighbor describes as "a strawberry candy cane."

Good thing our lease expires at the end of this month! Where are we going? Oh that's a whole 'nother post. And it's a doosey. Our crazy little life is about to get a little bit crazier. With plenty of heat, humidity, and mosquitoes.

*objects in picture are pinker than they appear)