Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Friday, January 21, 2011

7 Quick Takes

1. The past 2 months have been so hectic  (filled with Christmas, work, and illness,) that we've been taking a break from any kind of formal homeschooling.  (And by formal, I mean weekly themes, library books, activity sheets, and planned crafts.) But yesterday I decided, spur of the moment, to do a simple craft with Addie (Gabe wasn't interested) that I found over at Catholic Icing.  We had a great time painting with the glue and sticking on tissue paper, and the results were really pretty!  It's gotten me excited to get back in to the rhythm of things again.

2. Someone has replaced my adorable, happy, little baby with an adorable, cranky, little toddler.  I'm pretty sure she's having a molar or two come in, which is never any fun.  She has also started mimicking Gabe's tantrums when she doesn't get her way.  She will sit down on the floor, slooooowly lower herself down on her back, and then proceed to kick and yell. If she weren't so upset it would be really funny.

3. Not all is unhappy with Ana though, she's started repeating words back to us and it couldn't be more adorable. Diaper: Dah-poh.  Ziti: See-tee.  Cracker: Cah-kowh.  Please: Peas. Cake: Chhk.  Cookie: Cooh-kee.  Addie: Ah-tee.  Grandpa: Guh-bawh.  Cheese: Chhsss.  All Done: Ahh Guhh

4. We had our most difficult moment of the week on Wednesday.  It was during the horrible-no-good-very-bad-Walmart-trip.  Aside from getting fingers closed in the sliding car door, dropping food on a carton of eggs, and a meltdown at the checkout line, there was one very memorable moment in the bathroom.  Gabe had a potty accident in an aisle so we rush to the bathroom to clean up and change. But then all the kids went their own way at once: Gabe waddled around the bathroom with wet pants around his ankles, Juliana dumped an entire bag of pea crisps on the floor and then tried to eat them, and Addie opened the door to leave the bathroom all together! There was a brief moment of yelling and pushing back tears on my part before... brainwave.  I started to sing a verse of This Day God Gives Me and everyone calmed down and stopped what they were doing, possibly because it was so unexpected.  But it helped to center me and bring me back.  Definitely worth remembering.

5. I have made some serious decluttering progress in Juliana's room (and my own) to prepare for a massive cleansing on Saturday.  We have several large pieces of busted up or unusable furniture that are finally (finally!) making their way to the dump.  I am so excited for Ana to actually have her own room that all the kids can play in, and space in my room to organize my office, homeschool, and crafting supplies.  Woo Hoo!!

6. I've been trying to do yoga again in the mornings.  It's a nice, calm way to get in some exercising before the kids wake up. The past few mornings though, the kids have made their way downstairs before 7am and have found me in some pretty funny positions.  Gabe asked what I was doing and I told him it was called yoga.  He said, "Yeah.  I do yoga, too!" And proceeded to go into the warrior pose in which he found me.

7. Mom came over and helped me sort through all the kids toys yesterday. After the chaos of Christmas we still had boxes of unsorted gifts and random toys. We ended up filling an entire large garbage bag full of trash, a box for the attic, and a box for goodwill.  I had picked up some plastic bins at the dollar tree so now everything else has its own place!  Ahh... I feel like I can breathe again.

This post linked to 7 Quick Takes.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Little Mommy

She loves to mother her dolly near Juliana.
And when Dolly's not around she loves to mother Juliana. Addie, like most 3.5 year olds, still has some issues with listening and obedience, but we never have to ask her twice to help Juliana. Running upstairs to get a blanket, helping us find her sippy, or fetching new diapers is never a chore for her.  She will also bring toys, hugs and kisses to Ana when she's sad, tenderly petting her head.  She is such a sweet and gentle little helper.

Monday, January 3, 2011

Playing Mass

The twins decided to play Mass today. Addie walked to the front of the room, placed her hands together to pray, closed her eyes, and started talking slowly with deep inflections.

"We at Church. I a priest. A priest and Jesus are friends. We come a Church to pray a Jesus and God. (incoherent mumblings) And up a cup as well."

She then sang Yes Jesus Loves Me to her congregation.

Gabe took over at this point and prayed the Our Father, actually getting a great deal of it correct. We finished with the sign of the cross and Addie offered her blessing of, "Good Job!"