28 April 2005

C'mon, do the locomotion

My baby, she's a movin'.

It actually started two weeks ago. My husband had to leave town for a business trip in Virginia, so of course, that's when our seven-month-old daughter thought it would be great to crawl.

She started at daycare at noon. By evening when I picked her up, she was mobile. Not fast, but mobile.

Tonight, we learned she's mobile and fast.

She was across our living room (no small room) in under two minutes.

Time for the gates to go back up. Or as I call them, the Mommy torture hurdles. My knees are shot from running distance in high school and college. I'm paying for it now, each time I climb steps, or worse, hurdle a gate with a kid in arms.

Not to mention time to worry about Lincoln Logs, Matchbox cars, and Thomas trains. Oh, and Polly Pocket accessories, Barbie crud, and the various junk rings and necklaces my eldest treasures from birthday parties and Incredible Pizza (think Chuck E Cheese, with a 1950s theme). All choking hazards. All items we have in abundance.

A cautionary tale to all of you sans kids: When you get them, treasure every moment. They grow much too fast on you.

19 April 2005

Habemus Papam

May the Holy Spirit know what She is doing.

Pray for Benedict XVI, that he might have the wisdom to deal with the Church and its upcoming crises.

18 April 2005

Alexander's Terrible, Horrible, Very Bad Day

I love that book. Judith Viorst did a wonderful job when she wrote it, years ago.

A little boy has a bad day. Nothing goes right, at school, at the dentist, at his father's office. Nothing.

But at night, something goes right, and there's always tomorrow.

It's a classic in our house. It's also shorthand: If you are having an Alexander's Terrible, Horrible, Very Bad Day, you are having a bad day, indeed.

Dh and I are both having our separate Very Bad Days. For very different reasons. In very different states. His involves airplanes and TSA officers, mine involves being overinvolved, a crummy day at work, and three overly needy kids.

So I think I'll go up, go to bed, and start over tomorrow. Heaven knows, it can't get much worse.

10 April 2005

Snake attack

Well, not really. But after lifting a rock in one of our flower beds to go after a dandelion, my eldest and I found a garter snake.

I think we scared each other equally.

I flew about three feet, I think, and I like snakes.

The snake jumped up (it was probably 2 feet long) and made for the shrubby undergrowth that we were trying to remove.

My eldest gave of a shriek loud enough to make you think she found a dead body. Hysteria doesn't quite describe it.

After taking a good five minutes to calm her down, we cautiously approached the rock again. I showed her where he was, then we went inside and looked him up in our nature book.

I proved that garter snakes don't eat small girls, or their fingers, but rather bugs and small rodents. So, hey, he can take down the squirrel population here, that would be okay.

After the hysterics passed, she was more than happy to show off the snake to her younger brother, who was duly impressed: "Wow, wook, Mom, a snake! We don't touch snake."

No, we don't.

01 April 2005

Prayer, today and for the Church

I don't normally speak of faith here. I usually speak of parenting.

But Pope John Paul II has almost left us, and I'm left attempting to explain to my eldest not only death (because this is the first person she feels she knows to die), but also how we Roman Catholics are graced with a new pope.

God grant me the wisdom to explain both concepts to her.

And God grant the College of Cardinals the wisdom to select a man who can do the difficult job as well, with as much grace. May they be truly guided by the Holy Spirit, and not by their own whims.

Eternal rest grant unto him, O, Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. Amen.