One thing I have to say is that I am bummed that I can't find one of my favorite blogs anymore. Maybe it went private, which I totally respect, but if that's the case, I'll have to be "Laughing All the Way" by myself from now on. (If that name rings a bell to you, and you know what's up, drop me a line! I can't help but try to solve a mystery!) I have a totally dry sense of humor, which isn't always that uplifting to me, so I am missing the fun and reality she brings. :-)
Last week was a good one. One afternoon, the kids were helping me pick up sticks that had been dropped all over the yard after a couple of windy days. Kassia said to me, "You know what, Mom? I had a thought. We are like Bernadette, gathering wood. We are Bernadette followers!" I was so proud that she made such a beautiful connection, and it made me smile from the inside out. Thanks, Kass, for your insight. You are such a wise little one.
Nadia took a big step toward big-girl-hood this past week as well. She learned to ride a two-wheeler, as in, no training wheels! It started out four or five days before, when we went for a walk/bike ride (they rode bikes, I walked and pushed Sophia in the stroller) and I noticed that Nadia's training wheels only touched the ground when she was starting or stopping. Enough with the waiting, I thought to myself. She's ready, even if she thinks she's not, and I know she'll have more fun if she can keep up with her sister, which will not happen with training wheels slowing her down. Well, when we got back from the walk, I took off her training wheels. She was apprehensive about the change (ha! she's a mini-me, so that was very much expected anyway) and avoided her bike for 4 or 5 days. On that day, she saw her siblings riding joyfully and I reminded her that she was practically riding without those extra wheels anyway, so how about giving it a try? She was open to it (shock #1) and I showed her how to start on her own power without the wheels to balance her. I told her I'd run behind/with her, and she said, "OK" (shock #2). She then took off up the slight incline our dead end street has, and rode up to the top, letting the incline slow her down until she got to the top of the hill and stopped gracefully. Shock #3: my little girl, the one who is so much like me, learned to ride a two-wheeler on her 1st try - a full 2 years younger than I was when I learned (yeah, I was a baby about it and only learned because my younger sister did). :-) It's so good to have those moments that remind you that a child with whom you have much in common is not necessarily going to be subject to a hindrance in growth as you were.
Other random stuff: I want to change the look of my blog, but don't really have time. Kind of a bummer, but that's life.
Last night we found a very fat raccoon eating the cat's food (it's outside, like the cat now is). I have never seen a raccoon so huge. It could stop eating and live through a winter and half with that much fat on it. Obviously, this presents a predicament, but we enjoyed the glimpse of wildlife anyway.
We (Paul, Kassia, and I) flew to Louisiana for our godson's baptism and it was lovely. It's nice to be home, though, too. I can't believe we had to take 5 planes over the course of 3 days; you'd think they'd have come up with a more direct route, but I guess the people in charge just didn't think to ask me. If that had, we'd be served fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies in flight, along with milk for dunking. We missed the kids a TON and I teared up thinking of them every day I was gone. I think we've finally admitted that we can't go on a vacation away from the kids that would last more than 3 nights max. I've got awesome pictures of the trip, but it will probably be awhile before I get those up. I've got about 4-5 other photo stuff to upload here that happened prior to the trip, too.
Here's a picture to wrap up - something we saw over a month ago that made us laugh:
The poor guy - not exactly the name one would want when guiding a flock, although I suppose it would have been worse had he become a doctor. A few weeks following, we got an updating listing of all the priests in our diocese and I found another amusing name: Fr. Mullarky. Cute, huh? I just hope no prospective clergy has a last name like Heresy.
hmm I can't get to her blog either, maybe she did go private?
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