Quick Takes: Luther, Christmas Cards and Dol Jan Chi

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After writing this post, I did a little digging on what Martin Luther taught about Mary. I had always heard he upheld the Church's teachings on Mary and had a great devotion to her. Boy did he ever.

The veneration of Mary is inscribed in the very depths of the human heart. -Sermon, September 1, 1522

[She is the] highest woman and the noblest gem in Christianity after Christ . . . She is nobility, wisdom, and holiness personified. We can never honor her enough. Still honor and praise must be given to her in such a way as to injure neither Christ nor the Scriptures. -Sermon, Christmas, 1531 [emphasis mine]

One should honor Mary as she herself wished and as she expressed it in the Magnificat. She praised God for his deeds. How then can we praise her? The true honor of Mary is the honor of God, the praise of God's grace . . . Mary is nothing for the sake of herself, but for the sake of Christ . . . Mary does not wish that we come to her, but through her to God. -Explanation of the Magnificat, 1521

Christ, our Savior, was the real and natural fruit of Mary's virginal womb . . . This was without the cooperation of a man, and she remained a virgin after that.
-Luther's Works, Sermons on John, chaps. 1-4 (1539)


Those are really beautiful words written about Our Lady. If I had heard them without knowing who said them, I could have probably guessed they were from the Pope or Scott Hahn or someone. I genuinely wonder how the reverence and honor that Luther showed to Mary has become practically extinct in Protestant belief today.  Anybody care to shed some light on that for me?

-2-

Some Christmas card picture outtakes. The first, Overly Concerned Sister.

I call this one, Stupid Cat.

And my personal favorite, Achoo.

These were all taken before I realized I had forgotten my sweater. I put it on for the rest so we could pretend like it's actually cold here. But it's been in the 70s and 80s all week. Don't hate me. Just come visit!

-3-

Despite what the outtakes may have you believe, we did manage to snag one decent picture that is going to make the most beautiful card. I did the (very, very, very) simple design myself with Picasa and uploaded it to VistaPrint. Way cheaper than using their designs. And with the Groupon I bought, we'll be getting 100 gorgeous Christmas cards for only 28 dollars. Except that I waited until now to order them and have to pay 20 bucks for shipping. Still a good deal, but ouch.

This is only the second year we've sent out Christmas cards and last year I did my best to keep it a secret. I'm so worried about hurting someone's feelings who doesn't get a card. But the truth is, we both have huge families and are blessed with lots of far away friends from our time spent in Missouri and Mississippi. Plus friends from all over the country through this blog. Not to mention our awesome community here in Florida. So 100 cards goes pretty quickly and there are lot of people that have to get left off the list. I know it's a good problem to have but I hate it. But we can't buy 200 cards so it is what it is. I still love getting cards from people who I don't send one to and hope that no one reading is hurt if they don't get a card. Surely I'm not the only one who stresses about this right?

-4-

This wasn't from this week, but I still have to share.

Me: Today is the Feast of St. Andrew. He was a fisherman!
Hannah: He went fishing with Mary!
Me: Well......maybe.
H: Saints are people who live in heaven. We ask them to pray for us!
Me: That's right!
H: God is in heaven. He's so so so up high. 
Me: And Does God love you so much?
H: He does love me so much!
Me: And does he love Paul too?
H: No. No He doesn't love Paul.

That's not true Paul. Everybody loves you.

-5-

Our tree went up the first day of Advent. I try to act like I understand people who wait until Christmas to do their tree, but really I just can't imagine going without. The smell it fills the entire house with, the calmness and warmth the lights bring to the dark evenings and mornings, the sentimental feeling each ornament gives as I bark at Hannah to get her hands off before she breaks it.

Oh Christmas tree.

-6-

Today is my one and only nephew's first birthday! My brother-in-law (Ted's sister's husband) is from South Korea and they celebrated the traditional Dol Jan Chi for Theo's first birthday. Isn't he totes adorbs? (No, you will never, ever find that expression on this blog. Ever.) 

Isn't he precious? We didn't get to make it to St. Louis for the party but I do get to see the little prince in just a few weeks. I can't wait for him and Paul to wrestle.

Happy Birthday Theo!

-7-

Since I'm a few days late in posting these quick takes, I get to wish you all a most blessed Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Forgive me if I end with just one more quote about Mary?

It is a sweet and pious belief that the infusion of Mary's soul was effected without original sin; so that in the very infusion of her soul she was also purified from original sin and adorned with God's gifts, receiving a pure soul infused by God; thus from the first moment she began to live she was free from all sin"

Yep. Still from Luther.  From a Sermon entitled, "On the Day of the Conception of the Mother of God" in 1527. Ok, I'm done. Promise.

Head to Jen for more.

Oh, I almost forgot! Do I have any readers that live in Arkansas?? Particularly near Fayetteville? If so, email me! I have quite the treat for you.

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.

-2-

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.

-3-

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.

-4-

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.

-5-

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.

-6-

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!

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!

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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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!

Why I Love My Husband-Quote Edition

Me: (talking about the automatic payments for online donations) "I signed us up for the St. Thomas More draft today."

Ted: "I didn't know we were at war with the Lutherans."

As I'm getting dressed to go to my baby shower on a rare chilly day in Florida:
"Hannah, mommy is going to a boot-fest. Do you know what a boot-fest is? It's when women in the South all get together and wear boots because it's less than 50 degrees outside."

Ted is always amused impressed by my ability to use baking soda and epsom salt in 95% of our household cleaners and toiletry products. When he saw me squirting breast milk in Paul's goopy eye he said, "What do you think you could get if you combined breast milk and epsom salt? That kind of stuff would cure cancer!"

And although this won't make any sense without a background explanation-I think it still speaks for itself in describing the type of man I married:
"I'm leaving work now but first I gotta stop by Egg Man's and explain an article about raising turtles in Florida."

Hannah Speaks

This is one of those posts that only the grandmas really care about. You'll just have to deal with my detailed doting on my little girl for today.

A few of my favorite Hannah phrases:

"move please" (moo peas)-spoken at least a hundred times a day, said when she actually wants me to move out of her way, said to an inanimate object that is blocking her path before she removes it, said to me if I enter the room while her and Ted are playing together (girl loves her daddy!), spoken to me if I so much as speak to Ted from the other room while they are having their special time together!

"very careful" (wear-wee tear-toh)-spoken as I hand her yet another cup of water while she's playing her favorite game "Fill up all the cups of water in my play house on the back porch". I told her to be "very careful" with the water so many times that I think she thinks this is actually the name of the game

"oh no" (she can actually say this one!) she's never been an "uh-oh" kid. I like "oh no" even better. Spoken when anything in her organized little world is out of whack-something falls, something is on the wrong shelf, something is broken, something is missing

"dirty, clean" (dur-dee, neen)-obsessively repeated during diaper changes to reassure herself that the diaper being taken off is, in fact, dirty and the diaper being put on is, in fact, clean.

"mommy daddy poo poo"-spoken during diaper changes to remind herself that only mommy and daddy wipe her poo poo. Not Hannah. Ever ever ever ever ever. Eew.

"be happy" -sweetly and happily exclaimed to anyone who appears the least bit sad

"Barney Sun/EIEI/I Love You" (bah-nee un/EIEI/ah wu doo)-interchangeably used to request youtube videos of Barney singing her favorite songs

"daddy home"-repeated to reassure herself that life will be more fun when daddy gets home. "Hannah-I can't make you fly right now but Daddy will when he gets home"

"2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9" (too, tee, tour, tah, ti, neh-nen, ate, nine)-she hates 1 apparently. 2 and 8 are her favorites

"2, 3, GO!" (too, tee, doh)-this is one of my favorites because it sounds like she's saying "tootie go"

"no YEAH!" -a knee jerk refusual-cause that's what toddlers do-before realizing that she actually wants to do what I suggested. "Hannah-can I read you a book? Wanna go outside? We're going to the zoo!" "no-wait, that actually sounds good-YEAH!"

"green means GO!" (nee mee doh)-stoplights, they're fascinating

"snuggle me" (nuh-no me)-my personal favorite :)

There are more, but I better stop or even the grandmas might stop reading. And to any speechie friends reading this-yes it does pain me not to use phonological symbols to explain her pronunciations-but I'm just that nice to my readers to spare them the confusion. And yes-she does exhibit every single phonological process known to man. We're working on it. Pray for me.

Verbatim

"dada"

"dog"

"done"

"duck"

Ok, so maybe this post isn't full of the funniest dang things to ever come out of a kid's mouth, but these words are HERS! My girl is talking. Mostly still repeating-but we definitely get spontaneous "dadas" a few times a day. She was allllll about the bilabials for the first 12 months of her life. M's and B's-that's all she would say. So was her first true word "mama"?? Nope-dad got to claim that prize.