Sing with Me: A B C D ...

The boys are in that phase where they are soaking up tons of stuff and repeating things back to you all the time. They love letters and love counting to ten. At not even three years old, I'm amazed at what they know.

For the alphabet they have a DVD from Leap Frog called "The Letter Factory." This is not a review, but I love this video, so if you're looking for something for your kids to help them get to know the alphabet, this is a good one.

As I was saying, we have this video and the boys love it. They pick out random letters on boxes and pieces of paper and books laying around and tell us the letter and sometimes tell us what it sounds like. In the last day or so they both say "pu, pu" every time they see a "P" on something. When they want to watch the video they ask for it by pointing at the TV and saying "A-B-C-D, A-B-C-D."

In school they are also slowly working on letters. They occasionally bring home coloring sheets with a letter on it and three items that all begin with that letter. They obviously love doing this. The sheet for D had a drum on it and whenever I ask them about the letter D and mention a drum they bang on whatever is nearby and say "boom, boom."

Peter will often say "A-B-C-D" just to refer to letters in general, not necessarily the video. He was doing that this morning at breakfast. He said it several times while pointing out the letters on the side of his bowl. And then this conversation occurred:

Peter: A-B-C-D
Me: E-F-G
Peter (with a HUGE smile): H-I-J
Me: [stunned silence, I wasn't expecting him to respond]

I then went on to say a few more letters and he responded with the next few after that. We went through a few more and then I stopped saying any and encouraged him to keep going. I think he said "L-M-N-O-P" as one big word (what kid doesn't) and he may have skipped "X" but otherwise, everything was there.

By the time he got to "Z" I was cheering for him. How did he manage to learn to say the entire alphabet?! He's not yet 3 years old! But he did!

I love how they absorb so much at this age, without you even knowing it. Amazing!!

Returning to Work

After three months of being off from work (a glorious time!) I had to return on this Monday morning. I wish I had known that I would be losing an hour of sleep the weekend right before I went back or I might have worked it out to be a different day. Oh well, what can you do!

Sunday night I made a list for myself of everything I needed to be sure I brought with me. For your amusement, here is the list:

• Boys' bag with their nap time blankets, the weekly check, and Silas' vaccination form
• The boys' lunch boxes (don't forget to pack food in it too)
• Silas' bag containing:
• diapers
• wipes
• diaper cream
• two changes of clothes
• three bottles
• An extra nursing cover (for me to nurse him there)
• Bags of frozen breast milk for Silas (stick in my lunch bag until we get to day care)
• My work bag
• My purse
• My lunch
• The breast pump
• My water bottle

If you're counting, that's 10 bags or groups of items.

I happened to acquire an extra nursing cover recently. I was going to give it away to one of the many people I know who are expecting and then I realized on Sunday evening that I could still use it. So I have one in my diaper bag that I can use when we are out and about. Now with this second one I can keep it with the stuff Silas needs at school each day and I can feed him there and have a nursing cover with me. I was worried about trying to keep up with my nursing cover and accidentally leaving it home one day or leaving it at school over the weekend. So having a second one ended up working out great!

Monday morning rolled around and I was ready. Or, I hoped I was. I had laid out clothes for myself and all three boys the night before. Plus all the stuff I needed to bring was piled up near the garage door. Here's how the morning went:

5:45 am: Phone alarm goes off. I reach over and turn it off, sit up and groggily look at the clock. Wonder if 5:45 is really necessary and then alarm clock alarm goes off. Decide that 5:45 is necessary. Get up, wake baby and change his diaper.

6:00 am: Bring baby into bed and start feeding him. Check iPod and see message from friend, read it, decide to respond later, bring up Morning Prayer to pray while baby eats.

6:20 am: Baby finishes on one side, burps, proceeds to poop, poop goes up his back due to my hand being right on his butt. Get up again and change his diaper and now also his clothes.

6:25 am: Back in bed and feeding baby on second side. Manage to finish up Morning Prayer.

6:35 am: Baby is done, put him back in bed, go downstairs to pump more milk.

6:45 am: Finish pumping, clean everything so I can take it to work, head back upstairs.

7:00 am: Shower, dress, dry hair, etc.

7:30 am: Join Hubby and the boys who are all already at the kitchen table eating breakfast. Realize that the goal of leaving the house at 7:45 am is probably not going to happen.

7:50 am: Finish up breakfast, go back upstairs to brush teeth and get baby from his crib.

8:00 am: Get baby in car seat, jackets on the boys, start loading all my bags into the car.

8:05 am: Finally pull out of the driveway, Hubby stops on the side of the road to bring the trash cans back around to the back of the house. I pull around him knowing that I'll now get to the day care long before him.

8:20 am (or thereabouts): Get to the day care, unload everybody and everything, get to the door and realize that I have forgotten the code again. Nice mom pulling out of the parking lot sees me and tells me what it is. Phew!

8:25 am: Drop off baby and his bag in his room, tell the teachers I'll be right back down, bring check and form to office, take boys upstairs to their room. Hubby shows up to say good bye to the boys.

8:30 am: Hubby and I are back in Silas' room, get everything squared away, say good bye to Hubby, I sit down to feed Silas one last time.

8:55 am: I leave the day care.

9:15 am: I finally find a parking spot and start walking to my building.

9:30 am: I walk into the library. Wonder if maybe 5:45 am isn't early enough. Can I do 5:30 am tomorrow?

By the time I got to work I had had a full day already!! I will say it hasn't been too bad yet. I've had one pumping session so far and I'm praying Silas has enough of my milk for the day. Feeding him when I dropped him off helps. I am hoping he will only need two feedings until I can pick him up again.

I have lots of catch up on. My desk kind of says it all:

Yes, somewhere back there is my desk. You can see the computer monitor off to the right. In front are two book trucks (with the breast pump sitting on top of one of them). Unfortunately, all that clutter, piles of papers, and other crap stuff is not a result of my being off the last three months. Sadly it often looks like this.

What you also don't see are the walls of bookshelves on two sides full of CDs, scores, dissertations and theses, books, and various cataloging tools and reference manuals. Obviously there is plenty to keep me busy.

With that said, I must get back to it. Hope you enjoyed the rundown of my first morning back to work. 

[This post was written in haste and for your amusement. If you are bothered by typos, misspellings, or grammatical failures, please keep them to yourself. Or, if you must say them aloud, share them with a friend as long as that friend is not me. My tired brain thanks you.]

7 Quick Takes Friday, v. 52

~1~

I've been a bit slack in writing in this space for the last month. This is usually about the time that I resolve to write on a more regular basis. But I'm not going to do that this time. I'm sticking to my plan of not writing just because I feel like I have to and instead writing because I want to. It's been nice, almost like a vacation, but not really. I actually have a ton of ideas swirling in my head, so I will have to get them out at some point. Or not. What is it about sitting down at the computer to write that makes your brain go completely blank?

~2~

Despite my lack of regular writing lately, I somehow managed to get a blog award recently (thanks, Nancy!). I need to write a post to share it and answer a few questions. I learned of this honor just before a trip I was taking, so it's still waiting to be done (one of the many things swirling around in my head). But wanted to at least mention it and share my surprise! More to come.

~3~

A trip? Yes! It was a work related trip, all the way out to San Jose, CA. It was so nice. The sun was out the whole time I was there, I could leave the hotel without a coat, there was a ton of stuff in walking distance of the hotel, and I got to visit with so many wonderful people and meet many new people. It was almost a shock to my system to come back and it be so cold. And then it snowed here on Tuesday! Snow!! I was starting to think about spring and got jolted back into winter. So not fair.

~4~

While I was away, my heroic husband had to single-parent it for seven days! The whole morning routine on his own, the whole night time routine, including baths, on his own, and everything in between. He's such a great dad. And I could tell he was exhausted by the end of it all.

~5~

And yet, he still got them out of the house on Saturday morning and took them to the mall for a walk. While they were there they ran into some unlikely characters. I was sitting in a session in a massive ballroom at my hotel when I got this picture sent to me on my phone:

~6~

I'm glad to be home. I don't mind traveling, but the actual days of travel are so tiring. Especially when practically the entire day is spent sitting in airports and on airplanes, which is unavoidable when traveling to the west coast. Oh, so glad to be home!!

~7~

I have to share what happened Thursday afternoon that I found kind of funny. I was picking up the boys from daycare and as we headed out the door and down the stairs, another mother and her child were in front of us. Her child seemed a little older than my two since he was able to walk down the stairs on his own without holding her hand. So here I come behind her, carrying one of mine and holding the other by the hand while he starts down the stairs. She looks up at me and offers to let me go in front of them because "it takes us a little while to get down the stairs." I just smiled because her words are the exact same words I use when I'm the one holding other people up with my two children. But the funny thing is, her and her child were moving along much faster than we do. We are the slow ones, I can assure you of that. And of course, her son managed to work his way down the entire flight while we were still only about 3 steps down. They were out the door and she had him in the car by the time we got to the door. So yeah, I had to laugh, I know I'm way slower than everyone else coming in or out of that place. 

To anyone who thinks you're holding me up in any way, please know that you most definitely are not! It takes me at least three times as long as anyone else to get my children in and out of school each day. And that is no exaggeration. Efficiency with twins has so far eluded me.

It's taken me some time to come to terms with that. I used to get frustrated that the parents who showed up after I did were in and out and gone long before me. And it doesn't matter how many children they have and what their ages are, I'm still the slow one. But I'm mostly used to it now (mostly) and have learned to ignore other's abilities to get their children gathered up and in the car so efficiently. One day, though ... one day!

Hope you enjoyed these Quick Takes! For more, go visit Jen at Conversion Diary!

7 Quick Takes Friday, vol. 47

~1~

Just before leaving for our vacation I learned that I had won a book from a giveaway the amazing Sarah Reinhard had up on her blog. I was so excited because I never win anything! The book is The Universal Monk by John Michael Talbot and I'm looking forward to reading it. I even told Sarah that maybe I'd do a review here in this space. We shall see. 

~2~

On our vacation we had a little stowaway. His name is Flat Cat and he managed to get a couple pictures of himself:

Here he is on the beach.

And another on our balcony. Lovely view!

~3~

Flat Cat also met some nice opponents on his travels:

Flat Cat and a kind UT fan

Hanging out with Cocky

~4~

This has been the weirdest week. It has gone by fast while at the same time it felt like it was just creeping along. Getting back from vacation and going right to work first thing the next morning has been rough. We still haven't been food shopping and several bags are still sitting around in the foyer waiting to be put away. Usually nothing sits for more than a day or two. We're going on five days here. That's a lot for me!! So in that respect it's been a slow week as I try to plug along and make it to a day when I can get home stuff done. Yet at the same time I kept thinking it was a day later than it actually was. Wednesday felt like Thursday, Thursday felt like Friday. Maybe that was wishful thinking. So glad it is finally Friday now!

~5~

So someone **coughLynncough** asked me for video of the boys walking. Need proof?? LOL! No worries, I wanted to anyway so I could remember the cute balance-walking from this age. After several takes I finally got one that has both boys doing some walking. Sorry for the motion of the camera, I'm still new at videography.

~6~

So now that the boys are walking and both convertible car seats are in the car, I have no infant carrier any longer to carry one of them into daycare with. It's been interesting, to say the least. The stairs are the biggest challenge. Once I get them both out of the car I usually carry Ethan and hold Peter's hand so he can walk beside me. If I'm parked right near the door I'll let both of them walk to just inside. But once inside we have a flight of stairs. One morning this week I had Ethan in my arms and Peter walking beside me. He's pretty good at climbing the stairs on his hands and knees, so I was going to let him do that. But he was holding my hand and wouldn't let go. Next thing I know he's trying to step up the first stair!! Being that I only had one hand available and he seemed certain that if he could walk he could walk up stairs (!!), it took some effort to keep him upright. Next thing I know his little body is swinging around on one foot as a pivot point. It took all my strength to not drop Ethan and keep Peter balanced so he didn't fall. Not to mention trying to keep myself from laughing at the sight of Peter swinging around on one foot!

Finally, he managed to get both feet on the ground and I was able to get my hand loose from his grasp. I scooped him up by the waist and carried him the rest of the way up.

Lesson learned: Do not let little boy think he is suddenly capable of taking on stairs like a big person!

~7~

One last thing. I may have mentioned to a few people that I was going to be on the local Catholic radio station again today. The topic this time was going to be the USC vs. UK game which is Saturday. [Yes, it is a Catholic radio station.] But due to some unexpected circumstances there was a change in plans. So instead I'll be on next Friday. I'm sure we'll still discuss the game, but since it will be a past event at that point, I'm not sure if that is all we'll talk about or not. So stay tuned. I'll share more here if I get any further information between now and then. In the meantime: GO GAMECOCKS!!

For more 7 Quick Takes, check our Jen Fulwiler's blog Conversion Diary.

7 Quick Takes Friday, vol. 46

~1~

I still cannot believe what I saw on my way home from work Thursday evening. I stupidly took a wrong turn out of the boys' daycare and ended up circling around the nearby park to get back around to where I really wanted to be. This meant driving down a section of road that I'm not usually on. It's a nice area, lots of brick townhomes, several cottage style old houses, and plenty of big trees. It's pretty close to downtown, probably in walking distance to things on the east side of town. So as I turned onto this road, up ahead I could see what looked like a very large dog on a lease. It caught my attention because I thought it might be a Great Dane but wasn't quite sure. As I got closer I realized it wasn't a dog at all. No, it was either a small pony or a miniature horse. On a lease. Out for a walk. Um, what? I know this is KY, but who keeps a pet horse in downtown where there are tiny yards, if you even have a yard? I'm still stunned. And find it hilarious at the same time.

~2~

Okay, I had to go do some internet searching and apparently having miniature horses as pets is not that unusual. Who knew! There is even a book about owning these cool pets.

~3~

Dexterity game on a pendant

We have a very interesting collection of materials at my library. They are called Artists' books. They are works of art, but also considered books. In some cases the definition of book is rather loose. I've been working on cataloging these which gives me the opportunity to see them. I worked on one Thursday that is actually a dexterity game. You know those little plastic containers that had some sort of picture inside with little holes in it and some tiny little copper balls rolling around inside? The objective was to get all the balls into the various holes. This book opened up to show 12 of these little tiny dexterity games lined up together. Each had three balls inside to get into the little holes. Definitely doesn't look like a book, but very cool nonetheless. I love discovering these unique items. It's one of those things that makes my job cool.

~4~

And speaking of my job, something else that makes my job cool is seeing how very divergent fields can intersect with each other. I received a phone call Thursday from a librarian over in our Medical Center Library. Someone over in the College of Medicine was looking for a speaker for something they were doing who could speak on the healing powers of art and music as influenced by nature, or some such thing. She couldn't get hold of the music librarian, so she called me. We talked for a bit and then I was able to finally come up with a name of someone she could contact. [Surprised myself that I actually could even name someone on campus that could speak on that topic.] Got an email from her later in the day that the person I suggested was on board and was getting someone to speak with her about the art side of things. How cool is that! I love seeing how something like music and medicine can actually work well together. They seem so different, but they have much to learn from each other.

~5~

I don't know what was up with my drive home Thursday evening (see #1) but as I pulled into my neighborhood an ice cream truck pulled in just in front of me. He turned towards my street and proceeded to drive about 5 mph with me tailing behind him. I prayed that he would pass by my street and felt pretty confident that he didn't have a reason to turn down into my little cul-de-sac of 5 houses. But alas, he turned and I followed him at a painfully slow pace. And then he stopped, right in front of my driveway! Seriously?? I had to honk my horn to get him to move. And why is he even in my neighborhood? I think he'd get a bit more business in a neighborhood that had more children in it, which is currently not the case in my neighborhood.

~6~

We went to visit my family last weekend. It was so nice and the boys did well on the 6 hour drive down and back. They are still hesitant around strangers (and anyone they haven't seen in a long time is basically a stranger) but getting better. A few pictures from the weekend:

Cousin Caroline shows Peter how it's done

Ethan likes listening to his brother and cousins play the piano

Anna gets to meet her aunt for the first time

Ethan learns that Papa is a little crazy

~7~

Walking is in our future! I can see it. My boys are so funny! Peter took a couple steps at my parent's house this weekend. We got all excited and then that was it. He tried to walk a few more times but was so excited about doing it that he couldn't balance himself and kept falling forward. Ethan apparently had no interest. But once we were home, Peter tried a few more times, got a couple steps in once or twice, and then went back to falling over each time from over excitement. Silly boy! Then the other night, he tried again and Hubby and I burst into applause to encourage him. Ethan started clapping with us. After a few times of this I think Ethan realized why we were clapping so he started trying to stand up on his own. He didn't try taking any steps, it was just the standing up part that excited him. And oh my, the excitement on his face as he slowly balanced himself on those two little feet! Precious!

Finally, Thursday night Ethan actually took a few steps towards me. We clapped for him and he LOVED it! He immediately crawled back to where dad was sitting in the rocking chair, climbed up to a standing position, turned himself around to face me, and took a few steps before falling into my arms. We had such a good time cheering him on and he repeated the process a few more times. By the end his excitement had grown so much he couldn't even steady himself enough to stand up without falling over. 

Yes, walking is just around the corner! Any day now. 

For more Quick Takes posts, visit Jen at Conversion Diary.

Love Mondays!

Okay, I know. I'm crazy. But really, Mondays are much better days for me than Tuesdays. And I'm already guaranteeing that this Tuesday is going to get off to a less than desirable start because I'm up late writing this post. But what can you do!

This Monday was a superb day and let me tell you why:

First, I decided that lugging two babies into daycare in their infant carriers was just too much work. So I carried one in the carrier and took one in my arms and into the building we went. I think I saved a few minutes of time too!

Score one for me!

Second, I got some incredibly awesome, make-me-smile-all-day, happiest news ever shortly after I got into work this morning. Seriously it made my day and it was just past 9am.

Can't score that one, I didn't do anything. Just good news!

Third, I think I need long breaks from work on a more regular basis. I don't dread the "problem" piles on my desk as much, the problems get fixed and don't seem nearly as scary as they did when I had a lot more on my mind. I'm also more creative in some of my decision making and suggestions for future projects. So I think this means I need to get pregnant again!

Score two for me! [And no, I'm not pregnant.]

Fourth, we had a child actually use a sippy cup tonight! Did Hades freeze over? Are pigs actually flying in Cincinnati? Did the university actually put together a winning football team? [My apologies to the UK fans, but you know I'm right.] Finally the fifth type of sippy cup we bought clicked for one of them. Hallelujah! So Ethan may be able to handle a sippy cup or at least he knows what is in it. Peter on the other hand is at least starting to hold a bottle although only if he sits in your lap tilted back, lazy-boy style as Hubby calls it.

I'm taking two on this one. Score four for me!

How was your Monday?

Saturday Smiles, no. 2

In my effort to be more aware of God's presence in my life, I have begun this series of Saturday Smiles posts. I look forward to you joining in as well. God can be present to us in so many ways: through the people around us, through our participation in the Mass, through prayer and sacrifice, through nature's beauty, and much, much more. What made you recognize God's presence in your life this week? Or, what made you suddenly feel close to God in some way this week? I hope you'll share in the comments below or on your own blog (and please share the link here). Let's all relish in each other's smiles from God together.

**************************************

This week I got a big smile when I went to pick up my boys from daycare. Usually they are both playing fine when I get there, but then they see me and immediately start crawling toward me and start whining and crying. The crying gets worse for whomever I don't pick up since I can usually only pick up one at a time in order to use my other hand to sign them out. But twice this week, Ethan smiled real big when he saw me and ran to me with a bit more excitement. It warmed my heart.

Peter still starts whining and crying. Oh well, we're making progress.

Regardless, I love seeing Ethan so excited! It reminded me of how much God wants us to be excited to see Him and wants us to run to Him in excitement too. I need to remember that on Sunday when I come forward to receive Jesus in the Eucharist. God so loves us that He gives Himself to us, body, blood, soul, and divinity, in the Eucharist. What a gift!

How about you?

**********
P.S. Sorry for the late post on this Saturday. I actually got the post set up on Thursday but hadn't finished writing it out yet, planned to do that on Friday, and then got side-tracked. :) Hopefully I'll get next week's up earlier in the day. Thanks!

7 Quick Takes Friday, vol. 43

~1~

I just realized, as I sat down to write this Quick Takes, that it has been over a month since I did one of these. That's quite a long time! Did anyone notice? ::big grin::

~2~

Although I haven't posted a QT in this space, I'm not completely out of practice on Quick Takes posts. I have posted three QTs during this time period over at Catholic Sistas. Have you seen them? They are more thematic posts but all geared at getting to know the various ink slingers over at CS. I conducted a survey about our favorite prayers and did two "interviews" with individual ink slingers: Martina, our founder, and Misty, one of our more prolific writers. If you haven't checked those QTs out yet, I highly recommend you do. They are fun posts!

~3~

Massive downpour + two baby carriers = one very wet mom! It went like this:

• Daycare pickup in the afternoon during massive downpour.
• Two babies strapped into their infant carriers, one half flight of stairs, and one mama who CANNOT carry both carriers up and down stairs at the same time anymore.
• Did I mention the rain?
• Get both babies through doorway and onto landing; carry one down the stairs and leave him by the door; go back up the stairs; carry second baby down the stairs and put him down.
• Still raining ... hard.
• Pick up one baby, make a slow dash to the car, get him in, quickly dash back to the door, type in the code and get back inside.
• (There is, thankfully, a very tiny overhang above the door.)
• Pick up second baby and do the same, then jump in drivers side.
• Mom is completely soaked through and laughing.

Yep, laughing. I just couldn't help it and couldn't stop. I had to sit in the parking lot for a moment to collect myself. I was out of breath, a little stressed, and laughing my head off.

~4~

It's not even NFP Awareness Week yet and I'm suddenly seeing lots of NFP-related stuff all over Facebook and Twitter. It's like all of us who advocate for the NFP lifestyle just can't wait. It's a gear up period; and it doesn't hurt that there are at least two new websites on NFP that are starting to advertise themselves wherever they can. We are so excited to spread the news and to help our friends or family members to reconsider their use of the pill or other contraceptive methods that we start early. I even posted something myself without even thinking about it in relation to NFP Awareness Week. It was totally coincidental.

~5~

Speaking of NFP, can I just say how amazing I find the human body? What an extraordinary creator God is! I see my chart, which astoundingly has been looking semi-normal lately, and I am awestruck that cycle after cycle it works just like the book says it does. We've been using NFP to both conceive and avoid for over four years and it still impresses me. God truly does know what He is doing. Why do people try to mess with that?

~6~

Do you watch the Food Network? I do. I watch very little TV, especially since we moved into our new house. But on Sunday night, I watch Food Network. If I watch nothing else all week, I want that one night to watch whatever food-related, reality show Food Network is airing. Cupcake Wars is okay, but I especially like the Next Food Network Star, Worst Cooks, and the special Chopped series they do (all-stars, champions, etc.). The Next Food Network Star this season is coming to a close quickly and I have really enjoyed the new format they did this time. I have two favorites right now, one who was sort of a favorite of mine from the beginning and another that just became another favorite for me this past week. I can't wait to see how it all turns out!!

~7~

Did you see the Saturday Smiles post last Saturday? That was just the beginning. Check in tomorrow for another one. And I hope you'll share in the comments, too. Or post a Saturday Smiles on your own blog and come share the link on my post. I'm looking forward to making this is a weekly tradition!

For more fun Quick Takes posts, head on over to Conversion Diary and say hi to Jen.

As Expected

First day of day care for the boys went as expected.  We got into the building, found our way to the correct room, managed to find where our stuff all needed to go, realized we forgot to bring a check to pay for child care services {duh!}, and then got the boys our of their car seats.

Ethan's thoughts: New TOYS!  Small people like me!  Look at the toys!!  Mommy and Daddy who??  Wow, TOYS!

Peter: Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Totally what I would have expected.

End of the day report is that the boys did well.  They ate well, slept well, and were overall very good.  Ethan in particular was described as a "very happy baby."

Cute moment of the day: nap time is on little cots.  The boys both slept well and Peter woke up when the other kids started waking up.  Ethan was still sleeping.  Peter moved around some and started checking things out and then climbed up on Ethan's cot with him.  I was told it was very cute and they all wondered if I had them sleeping together at home.  They don't, but I thought it was sweet that Peter crawled into Ethan's cot at the end of nap time.  He needed some brother time.

Overall, successful first day.