She speaks!

Funny little C moments, as her vocabulary has greatly exploded this past month (her favorite and most common words used to be "No" and "Me"; we've welcomed the change!!) This girl has no problem speaking her mind now!! Just a little sample...

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Mama: (Reading to C from "There's a Wocket in my Pocket")
"Do you ever get the feeling there's a geiling on the ceiling...
or a zamp in the lamp...
or a ghair beneath the chair?"

C: No.
Mama: No?
C: Nope!
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After very uncharacteristically wetting a diaper that we'd just put on her before bedtime, I looked at her with a puzzled face and said, "C, why'd you wet the diaper I just put on?"

C: I dunno.

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For naptime I lay down with both Chiara and Caedmon to nurse them to sleep. Almost everyday now, Chiara likes to snuggle up next to me and 'stake out' her side. Then she'll look at me and say,
"Das my side, and..... das baby's side... otay, Mama?"
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M was reading something to C and told her she had to be quiet and listen. With the most hilariously serious and exasperated grown-up sounding sigh, C looked at her and exclaimed, "Not a-den!"

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And let's just say, anytime she feels she has been wronged by her big sister ("Dah-duh") or her big brother ("Bye"), she comes and tells me great detail what has happened....

"Mama!! Bye's mean! Bye hit me! Here!"
or
"Mama!! Dah-duh's no sare me (i.e. Maia's not sharing with me)!"

(They can't get away with anything now!!!)

Charge that prayer on my card, please...

At our church- as in most Catholic churches- there is a place on each side for lighting prayer candles to offer a prayer for someone. I love the traditional real prayer candles: visual symbols of prayers. I love everything about them actually, from  the sacredness evoked by lighting one candle from the flame of another, to the familiar smell of burning candles and extinguished flames in the ashes, the flickering pulses of random candles lit by some other persons interceding for their loved ones, to the memories of my own days back in Minnesota as a child staring in awe at candles like these and always considering it a special treat to light one, just like my own children do now ...  yes, I definitely love the real candles.
Unfortunately, the candles at our parish are 'lit' by pushing a button rather than actually lighting a candle. However, this doesn't make it any less enticing or less intriguing for most children (perhaps the one plus about it is the safety factor! No real fire involved!)
There is a little hole for placing an offering when you choose to light a candle, and when our children want to 'light' a candle at church, we'll dig in our pockets to find some change. More often than not, though, we forget to grab some change before we leave home, since we don't normally carry cash with us. Today, on our way out of Mass, the kids stopped to gaze at the candles, with the 'light up' buttons especially tempting L and C (how can you not want to press a button that's going to light up a candle?!) M walked by and tugged at Papa's sleeve with a pleading look on her face. After he dug in his pocket and brought out empty hands, he shook his head at her regretfully.
M: "Can't you just put your credit card in there, then?"

Hmmm... maybe she's on to something there!!!