Dah Dah

I meant to post this with yesterday's. It's a game they play quite often :)

Have a happy Friday and a fantastic weekend!

A Baby's life

Junk Drawer confessions

Just for the fun of it, everyone go take a picture of your junk drawer and post it. Right now! It will be a junk drawer blogging confession. I know we all have one, or two...or five. Growing up, us kids could usually find useful stuff in the junk drawer, like quarters and batteries and such. Now mine is full of useful items like the sign you see. Okay, so is clearly it is not a useful item. But, it was rescued from the dumpster a while ago and I saved it for Mike to put in his office (well, cubicle) once his company moves buildings next month. So many stories a junk drawer can tell!

What's in yours???

Will next week be better?

My what a week it's been! Rough I tell you. I feel like the days have just blended together and the weekend seemed like it would never arrive. I found myself wondering what the date was, I thought it was April 30th. Actually I feel pretty good today, much better than I have all week. We've all had colds and they've left us with no energy. Lou has been really difficult, too, because she is still teething and is fighting a nagging cold. She's just been fussy and not napping well and frankly, she's been testing my patience. I have had to pray a lot this week; mostly for patience and fortitude. A few days all I could do was shut us in her room and lay on the bed while she looked at books. But the thing is that she is in a hitting and throwing phase which is the main patience-trying behavior. So I had to be shielding myself from books being thrown at my face. Yikes! But I can understand her frustration, too. I mean, our schedule has been all thrown off and she hasn't been getting outside as much as she should. Also, the teething thing is no fun. I know God is helping me work on those virtues I mentioned, though, which is a good thing about being a parent. You are kind of forced to become a better person.

The picture is of a jar of my grandma's jam that Lou got a hold of and threw on the floor. (You can see the little hand print on the frost) Glass on the floor is something that really freaks me out. I had to wipe like a million times to makes sure the pieces were gone. But then it made me realize that my floors are pretty dirty, and I should really do a deep cleaning of them, along with the bathroom. Don't you hate that when you realize that you've been neglecting some very important chores? I still don't have much energy though, so it'll have to wait a bit.

Oh my goodness, did I mention I'm so grateful it's Friday? I need my husband here to keep me sane and remind me that every day isn't a walk in the park. He is really a great husband and daddy, I love him so much. Do you know he's been sleeping in Lou's room with her to help her sleep through the night? She's been doing great, actually! She is now weaned from nursing at night, which I think is the biggest factor in her learning to stay asleep. I'm pretty sure full weaning is going to follow really soon. She is doing it on her own, which I'm actually really grateful for because I was really dreading it. I just didn't know what to expect, but so far things have been going fine. It all happened quicker than I thought, which is OK. We hadn't planned any of it, but she's nearly 15 months, and if she is weaning herself, that makes it pretty clear that she is ready. Even though I know there are a lot of other things going on, like her cold, I'm still pretty sure she is weaning on her own time. I say that because she had already gotten down to 2-3 times a day in the prior weeks, and of course at night. But I think she only nursed once yesterday, now that I think about it. Yeah, it won't be long before my baby is done with that phase in her life. Wow, the time goes by quickly.

Hmm, I wasn't planning on writing about all that. I should get going because I have things I need to do before the beanie wakes up. I hope you all have a lovely weekend. I hope we can re-charge our batteries so that next week is easier!

A literary gal

It's so fun reading to Louisa these days. She used to just be interested in eating the books, but now she is totally engaged. I love it.

Another Trip to the Zoo

This time with grandma! The animals were out Friday enjoying the sun just like we were.

Our weekend was nice...we tried to relax as much as possible as we've both been really tired lately. Mike got contacts and ordered a new pair of glasses (he is far sighted, so he doesn't really need to wear the contacts while at work, just when driving or watching t.v.) For the last two weeks he had been wearing broken glasses, courtesy of Lou bear.

We decided we are going to purchase a desktop computer as both our laptops are starting to be outdated and mine has a virus.

Lou is still a sweetheart, but I am definitely noticing more toddler-like behaviors starting to come out. Such as being a little more willful ("Louisa, no", then she looks at you and does it anyway...) and has starting to hit. We know that this is normal, so it's just a matter of teaching her good behaviors gently and consistently.

She almost always has to be in the same room as me, so when I am cleaning around the house I have a little tag-along. I try and get out of the apartment once or twice a day, usually after her morning nap I'll run errands, and after her second nap I like to take her to the park or for a long walk outside. Otherwise she gets bored and frustrated with me for not entertaining her :)

Well...I ought to get going...I've got some organizing and laundry I'd like to get to today. Just wanted to update you since I haven't done a post since last Wednesday! God Bless, hope you have a lovely Monday!

It's good

To live by the ocean.

To feel the salty breeze.

But not so good to eat rocks.

Like this crazy girl kept trying to do.

I think she actually liked the salty taste.

Happy Friday...

...to you!

Us girls are off to the mall! :)

Pretty smoothie to start the day

As I lay in bed last night I started to wonder what I was going to do with all this left-over pineapple I have from Easter. Then, I'm pretty sure I dreamt about making a smoothie with it. Figuring it wasn't a bad idea, that's exactly what I did!

I'm sure everyone knows how to make a fruit smoothie, and probably has their own way to make it extra delicious. This one constituted 2/3 cup pineapple, 5 strawberries, 1 cup OJ, half a banana, and a handfull of ice. Both Lou and I enjoyed this tropical-tasting treat. (I watered hers down quite a bit.) I thought about adding plain yogurt and some milk, but decided I wanted it more juicy than milk-shakey.

Side note: When Mike and I got married, I totally rejected some of his dish-ware . I didn't let him take any of his taller glasses. I don't know what I was thinking now, 'cause all the glasses we have are small and short. We really ought to pick up some because there are times, like today, when having a tall glass of juice just makes sense. Mike would be happy that I'm admitting that I was too judgmental about some of his bachelor-day items :)

Cinderella Cinderella

I've shown you how she is my little kitchen helper. So lately, she's wanted to help me with laundry, too. We can't really tell if she's trying to put on the clothes or help me fold them. Either way, it's pretty charming :) (she is shirtless because we just had a snack, and these days she insists on feeding herself)

Easter festivities

More pictures outside our Byzantine Catholic church

Lookin' our best for the Lord :)

Our Easter basket this year.

Hmmm...chocolate! I think I likes it :)

Discovering there is something inside these wonderful eggs!

"hunting" for eggs at the store. It wasn't too difficult to find them...they were everywhere. But we were proud of Lou cause she figured out fast that she was supposed to drop them into her basket. Smart kid!

I had to do another post about Easter. We took Lou to a easter egg hunt on Saturday morning at the Thriftway across the street where I spend alot of time :) It was a blast. Man, they had alot of eggs! I was told to arrive early so since we only live across the street I was sure to get us there early, we were second in line in fact! Good thing because it meant we had a few moments to ourselves before it turned into a mad house! We even had a lady from the local paper snap a picture of Lou, and in case I haven't already shown you, here is the link to it.

Then, everyone looks so snazzy on Easter morning that I couldn't resist snapping lots of photos. Plus there was our beautiful Easter basket, which we bring to church to be blessed. I have to say, it was a very blessed Easter this year. I felt God's presence and knew that we (as a family) had done our best during Lent to walk with Christ through his suffering, so that when Easter finally arrived all the joy was felt even more profoundly. Lou is older, so of course it made it especially fun to enjoy all the little things...like trying chocolate for the first time ;) As you can see she was a fan (though, NOT a fan of peeps, but who is? :) I hope you all had fantastic weekend, and don't forget to continue to celebrate this great feast all week! God loves you!

Christ is Risen!

Happy Easter,

from our family to yours!

Good Friday

He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed.

Holy Thursday

Yesterday I helped my little cousins color eggs. They are over for a whole week and it's been fantastic having them play with Lou bear. She loves it. I know she's going to be way sad when they go back home. Already she looks around for them when they are not in the room. But the Easter eggs are pretty, no? I think that this baby is the prettiest one of all :)Today is Holy Thursday. It is the day that Christians around the world commemorate Jesus' last supper with his disciples. We will be going to liturgy tonight, like we did last night. I hesitate to say this, but I am actually dreading it a little :( Only because Lou bear hasn't been doing so well at the evening services. It starts at 6:30, which normally would be okay if it weren't for the fact that she's getting tired by then, but not tired enough to sleep, and she's still getting in those molars. So she becomes a weird combination of hyper and grouchy, so you can't just hold her and you can't put her to sleep. It was quite difficult last night, and when we finally made it through Mike and I looked at each other and said, "we get to do this all over again tomorrow night." Sigh. Last year she was a tiny newborn and my my I miss that in way! Okay, I need to just get a better attitude about it. I do have some ideas. We finally, finally picked up some of the Hyland brand teething tablets that all the moms in the universe have been raving about. Maybe those will help her discomfort. Also, I'll bring the mei tei and maybe that will help her go to sleep if she's tired enough. Overall, we will just have to do our best to pay attention, soothe the baby, and remember that it is important that we are there as a family. (Yes, it has occurred to us to leave one parent behind, but it is truly a very important day in the church and we want to be there together......)

Hope you have a chance to think about Christ today, as this was the day he said goodbye to the disciples that he loved dearly. He also gave us all his body and blood and instructed us to receive him in the holy Eucharist.