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!
_____

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!!!

Up and Running again!

Praise the Lord! After an exceptionally L-O-N-G day, starting at 11:30am, of toting four children from Ocala to the Apple Store in Orlando, then to the Apple Store in Altamonte Springs, then finally home at 11pm tonight, we have our computer back up and running, and we have both dvd's successfully un-jammed, out of our computer (and presently placed far, far away from any disk drive that any little fingers might be tempted to place disks in!!!). I'll say it again: Praise the Lord!!!
Some things that certainly 'refine' a mother (well, that's what they're supposed to do, from a holiness standpoint anyway) I was definitely reminded of today, such as....
-The not so joyful necessity of potty time several times a day, with 4 children, at a Mall. My 'solution' to at least help lessen this laborious necessity: if one has to go potty, guess what- they're all gonna go potty, whether they think they have to go or not! So, our potty breaks take no less than 15 minutes each. I need a nap after each one, seriously.
-The not so fun job of having eyes on all sides of my head to be aware of all four children at all times in a busy mall. Yes, I felt like a drill sergeant, constantly scolding a child for not holding their 'buddy's' hand and staying connected to Mama's hip, but hey- I'd rather breathe a sigh of relief that I was able to tuck all 4 children safely into bed tonight, not having lost any of them or ... well, you get the idea!
-The not so wonderful realization that the world doesn't revolve around you, no matter how many children you have, no matter how exhausted you are, no matter how far you've driven or how hungry, thirsty, tired your children are! It just doesn't!!
-The not so delightful recognition of how very impatient I can be. I sure wish I was more patient!! Just when I catch myself 'patting my own back' for how patient of a mother I am, those darling children of mine will do something not so darling, and thus quickly bring me back to the reality of my own imperfections, and that self-praise comes crashing down on itself!! Refining indeed!
-The kindness of other people who recognize a mother that could use a little helping hand at times, especially after an exceptionally long day. Thank God for genuinely kind (and not pitiful or apologetic) smiles, kind offers of help, and computer guys that are willing to come and pick my computer up from my car and - after fixing it for me- deliver it back out to my car.

Now- time to crash in my bed and look forward to a day at home sweet home with my wonderful babes tomorrow, enjoying another day of school and fun together!

By the way- we still don't know for sure who the culprit was, and no one's fessin' up!!!!
Anyone want to put their guesses in?
Was it my boy....

or my little Diva...

Only Heaven knows, eh?! I look forward to watching a rerun of that 'hidden moment' someday! I wonder if guardian angels chuckle at some of the things we do as children...

Signing off...

Signing off for perhaps a few days due to a crime that has been committed in our household....

The Crime: jammed disk drive
The Victim: our iMac.
The Suspect: an unnamed, unpresumptuous, darling 4 year old with sandy-brown hair, hazel eyes, and an infectious grin, prone to mischief now and then!

The story: 2 DVD's went missing in the past 24 hours, and we searched the house high and low for the missing dvds to no avail.This morning, going to put a disc into the computer drive, it was discovered that the drive was jammed with at least one- if not two- dvds. So, yes- good news and bad news: we found the missing dvds (which were not ours to begin with!), but they are stuck in our iMac, with no hope of being recovered manually here at our home. Thus, we seek the help of experts in Orlando, parting with our iMac for a bit of time.

Hopefully the crime can be righted by an expert at Apple ... and for little cost!!

In the meantime, if you encounter the suspect, do NOT give him a DVD- despite his charm!!

Brothers

"Mama, I'm so happy to have a baby bruhver. But... how long til he can wrestle me?"

And you know Who won't be left out!! Here she is trying to teach her little brother (aka "Baby") how to join their funny faces club. Good thing this kid is very easy-going!!!!