Mama's days

I'm a night time person, always have been, always will be.  This complicates my life with an almost-toddler.  Elijah usually wakes up between 7 and 8.  When I didn't get to bed until 2 the night before, I have trouble getting out of bed and getting into the nursery to get him.  It helps that he's waiting for me holding his paci out because he knows pacies are just for bed and naps now.  It always makes me laugh.

But he's going through a rough time, getting in some of his back teeth.  All he wants is to be held--all day.  I love him, and I love to carry him around and snuggle.  But he's almost 14 months old.  He's heavy, he needs to play and figure out the standing and walking thing.  So, occasionally, I put him down.  And he screams.  So, I pick him back up and he starts pointing at things he wants to play with, but only if I'm holding him.  It makes for a long day.

His new favorite toy is the cats.  They are less fond of him.  Once again, this complicates life.  He loves to "pet" the cats.  Usually this means he grabs handfuls of their fur and skin and pulls.  Or, he pulls on their ears.  We're trying to teach him about gentle.  But he's young and still doesn't quite get it.  I usually don't let him pet Hecate because she's much more likely to bite him.  Hyperion just glares at him and deals with it.

Since he's teething, his napping schedule is all off.  He takes a morning nap and an afternoon nap.  Morning nap usually between 8:30 and 10.  Afternoon nap between noon and two.  That's not how long he sleeps, that's just he time he goes down depending how long he slept in.  But even if he's been rubbing his eyes and yawning for an hour before hand, he still jumps in his crib and screams after I put him down.  Then, I end up hating myself until he actually falls asleep.


Elijah is trying to work on words these days.  He knows what sound a cow makes, but he seems to think that's the sound every animal makes.  When I ask what the cow says he pulls his mouth tight and blows air across his little teeth it sounds like a tractor sound.  It's too cute.  He also tries to mimic what the cats say he makes a high pitched little "ah."

He is the cutest, funniest little guy ever.

Pope Francis

I kid you not, this conversation happened yesterday at IKEA.  My parents and I were discussing the conclave, the different candidates and naming possibilities.

Dad: I would love to see a "Pope Francis."  (My dad has a deep devotion to St. Francis of Assisi.)
Me: Dad, stop.  Who ever it is, is not going to take the name "Francis."  He'll take something more traditionally papal like "John Paul III."

Today, as I was driving to Aurora for a blood test, my husband called and told me about the white smoke.  Nathan was at work, so I called my dad right away to find out what was going on.  I had to wait until my appointment was over for any real news.  Then, after the election announcement was made, this conversation happened:

Me: Well, what name did he take?
Dad: I thought he said "Francis" but I couldn't hear him very well.
Me: Seriously, stop it.  He did not take the name "Francis."  (And yeah, I laughed a little bit.)

Then, the call dropped.  A few minutes later, Dad called me back.

Dad: I just talked to your brother--it IS Francis.  SO THERE!

Moral of the story: have better faith in Dad's Latin.

Let's pray that our dear Pope Francis is able to engender greater love and understanding between the Holy Church and the secular world which surrounds Her.   That people will remember, while we may disagree with each other, it does not have to lead to hate.

7 Quick Takes

one

Today is Nathan's 32nd birthday!  For his birthday this year I did something completely unexciting and let him pick out his present.  We had a date night last night, which was awesome, and we stopped at Best Buy where he picked out a new set of super spiffy headphones for his computer.

Elijah's all bundled up because that was the day we took him sledding.

two

Check out how grown-up this kid looks!  I can't get over it.

three

Please say a prayer or two for my sister's friend Taryn who is trying to pay off the last thousand dollars of her student loans so she can join the Discalced Carmelites in Buffalo where she was recently accepted.

four

My car is officially fixed.  It's out of the shop and back in our garage.  I won't get into all the details of what was wrong, mostly because it was my fault and it's embarrassing.  But I will say that for all I hate to drive in general and even though I get mad at the car when I do something stupid and it has to be worked on, I actually do love that little car.  I drove it home from the shop yesterday and was very happy to have it back.

Nathan's car is a stick shift and I really hate having to drive it.

five

  I don't think anything has caused me more "first time mom" anxiety than what to feed Elijah now that he's eating regular food.  We have the chart about serving sizes and what he needs nutrition-wise everyday, but I keep wanting to feed him more.  He usually gets bored of sitting in the highchair before I think he's really full.  I also need to figure out better snack foods than just giving him Gerber crunchies and Goldfish.

six

As I said, last night was date night, so Nathan and I went to see the new Oz, the Great and Powerful.  I have to say I was surprised by it.  The plot did things I didn't expect and it was actually a pretty good movie.  A big thanks to my father-in-law for babysitting last night!

seven

Are you as excited as I am that the conclave starts Tuesday?  I can't wait!  

For more 7 Quick Takes, check out Conversion Diary.

 

I'm back.

I seem to go through phases in which even though I have things to say, I have no inclination to write them.  And trust me, after these past two weeks, there is a lot to say.

I've weathered some kind of storm of bad luck and my own stupidity.  I'm not going to get into it too much, but let's just say it involved two mishaps with vehicles when the weather was less than great--one in which the car is still in the shop. 

There was a sick and teething baby involved, a wasp sting (me, not him) and a set of keys which were lost but not really and I was just being stupid.

But now I'm on a four day weekend and hoping to clear the air.