Mama-luia

Last Wednesday afternoon, Patrick informed me he had to go to Ottawa for all of Thursday. I would be left home alone with the three kids for all three meals, as well as bedtime. I wasn't happy about this, to say the least. That morning, however, I remembered something a dear friend of mine said when her husband went away for a whole week, and she was left alone with their three kids, ages five and under. She said, instead of asking herself, "How can I get through this?" she asked herself "How can we get through this together ?" I thought that was a great attitude to adopt. Why see my kids as my adversaries, especially when they are actually kind, sweet and fun to be around? So with this in mind, I set about making it the best day I could. And it really went by beautifully. We enjoyed each other's company immensely -- finger-painting, going for a little walk to our local grocery store, reading books, not squabbling (!), and eating Kraft Dinner  I mea...

The bells being rung at our parish, by my niece, nephew and Isaiah. A joyful noise to celebrate the baptism of our sweet Anna. Our church is so beautiful. My dear little nephew, only four and a half, said so when he first walked in. A friend of ours, a priest at Madonna House, commented that in baptism "into the water goes a baby, but out of the water comes an icon of Christ." Amen.  Our little icon is glowing brightly now with much grace. And we were so delighted with such a beautiful baptismal day! After Sunday Mass a few weeks ago, the very same priest who married us baptized our third child (how much has changed in the five years since our wedding!). It was such a joyful celebration. My sister, Anna's godmother, commented later how the ceremony was a wonderful combination of "old school liturgical stylings" with comedic flair. For instance, dear Father Hattie, right after the beautiful prayers and anointing...

"When will you be posting your birth story?" my legion of eager readers ask. Or rather, three people have asked. The answer is, I won't be. It's not that Anna's birth hasn't already been cemented in my soul as a beautiful memory, a life-changing experience -- as every birth is -- and worthy of note both for me, and my daughter when she grows older and wants to know. It's just that I don't have any desire to put it up on the Internet. I blogged about Noah's birth  only ten days after he joined our little family, and Isaiah's birth , only three days after. But the memory was so fresh and so raw in both instances that I wonder if perhaps I was sharing something prematurely? I absolutely think birth stories need to be shared; it seems every woman has such vivid memories of her births, and has this overpowering desire to share details about them, even with perfect strangers, as often happened to me when I was pregnant. Yet maybe these stories ...

I'm sure you understand why I didn't post our All Saints' Day activities; Anna was all of five days old when we suited up the boys to attend our parish's All Saints' party. Besides simply being worn out from having such a new baby, the entire day was a crazy scene. To give you some perspective, the previous evening, Patrick tucked the kids in, I sat on the couch nursing the baby, and my mom took it upon herself to sew the boys' costumes. (We already had a cassock for Isaiah, as it was a hand-me-down from Noah {the story of my poor middle child's life} but she needed to sew a cassock for Noah and a surplices for each child. Their one request was to go as altar boys. The "saint" part was completely irrelevant to them. {In an attempt to catechize them, however, Patrick and I would correct them whenever they said they were 'altar boys' and tell them they were St. Dominic Savio and St. John Berchmans.}.) Within moments of her sitting d...

Today was my first day with the children by myself. Patrick returned to work last week, my mom left yesterday, my sister-in-law just moved out this weekend. So I was the sole adult looking after them, and I think it went wonderfully. For one, I had this little darling at my side who is still in the lovely stage of sleeping lots, nursing lots (but oh-so-well) and looking adorable in headband bows. Yes, I know, I swore I never would put my daughter in one if I were to have a little girl. But I did today. And she looked so Aunt Jemima-ish and adorable that I could hardly stand it. The boys were enchanted by their sister in a headband too!  And we did a craft this morning. Using some rather pink tissue paper and school glue, the boys and I decorated mason jars for little lanterns to celebrate Martinmas. Noah took this picture of our morning craft, and I thought it was charming. This lovely appliance made its dishwashing music while I went about my day....

Anna Therese Marie Born October 26th, 2013 She is healthy, we are blessed, God is good.

My darling youngest (ex utero) child is beginning, I think, to feel the tectonic plates shifting already: He is going to be a big brother very soon. While this is mostly good and wonderful news to his sweet two-year-old self, a milestone event like this can't not involve some trepidation. So he is expressing his hesitancy, and doing so in curious ways. Our champion-sleeper is suddenly having frequent night wakings. He cries and cries and wants Mommy-only-Mommy , so even if I ship Patrick off to ease him back into slumber, I hear the crying continue and realize he'll remain inconsolable until I waddle into the boys' room and sing verse after verse of whatever soothing song I can think of as he drifts back into sleep. Meanwhile, he is waking up earlier, too, -- at about 5am -- and I have 'programmed' him to want and expect to crawl into our bed at that hour. I am too lazy / tired / pregnant / what-have-you to think of a better way to get him back into sleep...