Sign Language

We have been teaching Karol a few signs here and there. Mostly signs that I remember or pick up from my sister in law. Karol has just laughed at us when we have signed words to him though. Milk, ha ha ha. Eat, ha ha ha. You get the picture.

Today I fed him his lunch (peanut butter on a tortilla, apples and grapefruit juice) and sat down to nurse M and eat my own nutritious lunch of beef flavoured Ramen.  K came over to me as I started eating and begged for food. I gave him a bite, then quickly ate about 1/2 the bowl, so I would at least get part of my lunch, the kid is a mooch.

After he was done eating his bite, he signed “more”! While I wasn’t too keen on sharing my lunch, how could I deny him?

Filed under: General Stuff

So the bedroom door doesn’t latch

I found out earlier this week that our bedroom door doesn’t latch. How did I discover that? I am glad you asked!

Sometimes when Margaret is hungry, I  go up to the office and nurse her while checking email and reading the news. When I do this, of course Karol joins us. I close the bathroom door, my bedroom door and put the gate up at the top of the stairs. Karol is free to roam in the office or his room (where he likes to dump out his clothes or all the Legos.) The other day, I heard a door close and thought he closed his bedroom door but after about a minutes, I didn’t hear any noise and a glance over my shoulder told me the door was still open. Off I went to search for him.

Bathroom door still closed, bedroom door still closed, his room empty of human life. Where oh where could he be? That’s when I heard a noise coming from my room. I opened the door and let me tell you that I am GLAD that I  sought him out when I did. Why? I am glad you asked. I guess we had a thing of petroleum jelly on the changing table and he grabbed it and managed to open it. Fortunately he only had it on his hand and a little on his shirt when I found him.

Today he rediscovered the bedroom door and let himself in, closing the door behind him, of course. Being hip to his plans now, I quickly followed him. He was “folding” laundry. That is, he was emptying the basket of diapers that are waiting to be folded. Nice.

Filed under: General Stuff

Karol Does Stuff

For a while know, Karol has been folding his hands to pray. He just started one day, probably in the middle of December. He folds them when we pray before eating a meal (and looks to us for approval, very cute). And recently, he started doing it during Mass.

Well today, as we were leaving Mass, he did what appears to be the Sign of the Cross. Well, if you didn’t know what to look for you might miss it, but it was there. What a smart kid!

Filed under: General Stuff

Margaret Does Stuff

Saturday morning, at Mass, Margaret smiled for the first time. You can say it was gas all you want, but I know she smiled. It was a big as the day is long. She smiled right at her Papa and he was mighty pleased. I was too, even if I did catch the tail end of it. She also lifted her head up for us the other day. This girl is AMAZING! She taught herself to nurse, sleep through the night (5 hours is what counts as the “night” and she does it most nights!) and she lifts her head all at less then 2 weeks old.

Of course there is a Karol update too. He is handing me a Rosary right now, that must mean I should be praying and not blogging. Other things he has started to do as of late: making monster noises, sharing toys with Margaret, singing at Mass and whining. I hope the whining goes away soon. Any tips to help that would be great! As for making monster noises, he does it all the time and it is quite funny. For sharing with Margaret, the other day, I ran up stairs to get my shoes, leaving Margaret in her bouncy seat downstairs and Karol playing with his toys. (I am sure that I am a bad mother for doing that.) When I got back downstairs, Karol was patting baby Margaret’s head and putting some toys next to her. Good kid.

That’s about it for right now, keep an eye out for new pictures and don’t forget to check out the forum!

Filed under: General Stuff

Habemus Infantem

We have a little baby! Margaret Thérèse was born at 8:05 pm on Wednesday 10 January 2006. She weighed in at 7 pounds 5 ozs and measured 20 inches. (Just a little bitty one). She is quite beautiful.

The birth was amazing. I had irregular, strong contractions all day long but nothing was really happening. The midwife said I was either on the cusp of having the baby or that I might go on like this for a few days. (Ick, even at 15 minutes apart, contractions are not the way I want to spend my days.) We sent Karol out with Miss Kristine Keeney for some dinner and fun at some friends’ house to see if a little distraction would help things along. It did.

At 7:05 pm, I declared I couldn’t/wouldn’t have this baby. (FYI, this is a sign of transition, that the baby is in fact on its way.)
I showered to see if that would help then Joshua filled the birthing pool up. Our midwife, Mary Ann, arrived shortly thereafter. She was bustling around when I went to the room with the pool in it, leaned against the bed and said “I can’t do this.” After a few major contractions, one right after the other, my water broke and we moved me to the pool (not even half filled, but I wanted the warmth and comfort the water helps to provide). I had a few more contractions, debated again not having the baby when my body decided that pushing would be a nice thing to try. I pushed once (I am willing to say I didn’t even push because, while it hurt, there wasn’t much effort) and out came Margaret Thérèse.

She is stunningly beautiful with dark hair and long fingers. She has Joshua’s colouring but the rest of her features are hard to figure out.

As for the name, Margaret Thérèse, we named her after my mother’s mom, Margaret Kress and St. Thérèse Liseaux.
Check out the link to the pictures: http://pictures.catholicmumma.net

Filed under: General Stuff

My New Blog

Welcome to my blog. The blog of a Catholic Mumma. This blog is part of a whole big website to be called Catholicmumma.net. At Catholicmumma.net you will find a forum to discuss NFP, Home Schooling, Modesty, Social Concerns, Home Birthing (from a Catholic perspective), Pro Life issues and last but not least, issues that come up in every day life trying to live as a Catholic Mumma.
I hope to have the whole website up and running soon. In addition to the forum, there will be pictures of my wonderful children, Karol Jozef (Age:1) and the soon-to-be-known baby, due any day now. But that’s not all! I will also share with you delicious recipes that I find and test out, I will also share with you my daily triumphs and struggles in being a Catholic Mumma. I will also post social commentary about things I hear out and about in the world.

I hope you all come back to visit again, soon. Please email me and let me know if there is anything you would like to see on a webpage dedicated to Catholic mummas.
Beth

Filed under: General Stuff

His Own Room

Karol got his own room this past weekend. Yep, we moved his crib in to what we have called his room for nearly the past year. He seems to like it pretty well. He has learned how to open the door from his crib, letting me know he is awake. He has also mastered the light switch, quite humorous.

He is getting bigger and tells us what he likes and doesn’t like. He likes egg yolks but not the whites. He likes bread but not bread dough. He likes cookies but not cookie dough. (More for me…) He likes to play in the sunlight that comes in the window but he doesn’t like to have the sun shine in his eyes. He likes to sit and read with Papa at night, but he doesn’t like to sit still for mass.

He has learned who cousin Geoffrey is. If Karol is in the kitchen and you say Geoffry, he walks/crawls over to the picture on the fridge and hits it.

Did I mention he walks? Today he walked from the end table to the entry way to the dining room….about 7 steps. Right now he is hiding under his Papa’s desk, shuffling paper. My kid is a genius.

But now he stinks and needs some lunch, so off I go to change his diaper then to feed him yummy food.

Viva Christo Rey.

Filed under: General Stuff

Not so heavy a post this time

Joshua gave me the wonderful idea of writing down all the things that Karol does. Well not all the things but the cute things. So instead of pulling out his baby book that I have written all of 10 things in, I will use my blog!

Today’s addition:

Karol snores. I went in to check on him a little while ago. I didn’t have to walk to far in to make sure he was okay, he let out a big huge honkin’ snort when I walked in.

All is well with the world.

Filed under: General Stuff

Ode To Stem Cells

Okay people. Let’s go over this again. No matter what YOU want to believe, life begins at CONCEPTION. Yes. When that little bitty egg is fertilized by that even littler sperm, a life is CREATED. And no, this isn’t wacko Catholic-Girl coming at you, this is scientific proof. When an egg is fertilized, a seperate DNA is created right then and there, got it? When there is human DNA, different from the Mother and the Father, LIFE BEGINS.

So, please tell me how creating a life, just to take it from its mother’s womb for the sake of “advancing” human life is a good thing. Research has yet to show embryonic stem cells healing a person. YET, with ADULT STEM CELLS, there is hope and actual cases of healing.

http://stemcells.nih.gov/info/basics/basics3.asp

This link talks about embryonic stem cells. I direct you to the last paragraph
where it states:

If scientists can reliably direct the differentiation of embryonic stem cells into specific cell types, they may be able to use the resulting, differentiated cells to treat certain diseases at some point in the future.

You know what this means? That they HAVE NOT been able to use them for the so called greater good!

I now direct your attention to this link:

http://stemcells.nih.gov/info/basics/basics4.asp

Please note the second paragraph, where it states:

Research on adult stem cells has recently generated a great deal of excitement. Scientists have found adult stem cells in many more tissues than they once thought possible.

I then direct you further to this link:

http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=IS04J01

This article shows cases in which ADULT STEM CELLS were used to heal spinal cord injuries, heart regeneration, corneal regeneration and so on. Pay close attention to the heart regeneration section, in particular to this paragraph:

The capability of adult stem cells to regenerate a damaged and malfunctioning heart was clearly seen in the case of Dmitri Bonnville. A 16-year-old from Almont, Michigan, he was accidentally shot in the chest by a nail gun while conducting house work on February 1, 2003. The injury was exacerbated by cardiac arrest a few days later.

His family examined the available effective treatment options. Physicians informed the parents of the possibility of a heart transplant or the use of extended medication while noting the risks and failures of such procedures. The doctors also notified the parents of a procedure that involved stem cell extraction from Bonnville’s own body and subsequent transplantation into his heart. Predicting success, they determined to go forward with the surgery under the direction of Dr. Cindy Grines, Dr. William O’Neill and Dr. Steven Timmis at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan. The treatment had never been conducted on a human patient in the United States prior to this occasion. Within a week of the February 21 surgery, Bonnville’s heart pumping capacity had increased from its previous 25 percent to 35 percent.

I guess my question now is, why should we create then destroy innocent lives when we have the real option to use adult stem cells?

Filed under: General Stuff

We Hold These Truths

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

All men are created equal. We have the right to LIFE, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. If a government should infringe upon those rights, we have the RIGHT to alter or abolish such a government.


Wow, those are some powerful words. As citizens of the United States of America, we have a right to all those? Especially a right to life? And if a government should infringe upon those rights, we can alter it or abolish it? We the people have some power. Why don’t we use it?

Sure every four years there is something called an election where we get to pick out a new guy to “run” the country or we can decided to stick with the guy who is “running” the country already, provided this would only be his second term. However, in America some 75% of the population sits at home on election day. I am sure they have their reasons, but that only leaves 25% to decide for the rest of the country what we are going to do next.

Sadly of the people who do vote, a great majority put their pocketbook before their brain. We live in a country where any woman can go in to a “clinic” up to 40 weeks of pregnancy and abort their child. We live in a country where people think that the world is two colours, Red and Blue. To be honest, I have no idea who the “Red States” represent and who the “Blue States” represent. Let me tell you something folks, the world of politics isn’t black and white, red or blue, cut and dry.

No, this past Presidential Elections, we had a man running for office who proclaimed his Catholic Faith from Sea to shining Sea, yet is a supporter of a “womans right to choose” in all 9 months of pregnancy and supports so called Gay “Marriages”. Does that mean I am a supporter of our current “Leader”. No. For those who know me, this may come as a shock, but I think the man is a baffoon. He courts the so called “Religious Right” during an election year, passes some poo-poo legislation, signs some executive order then proclaims that he is “Pro-Life”. First of all, anyone who supports the death penelty cannot not pro-life. Hey bring it on, I will take this argument on any day of the week. No matter how evil no matter how awful the crime, one man cannot take the life of another man.

Our country has bought in to the lie. The lie that abortion is a simple easy procedure that can now even be done in the comfort of your own home. But wait there’s more. We also have bought the lie that those who are pro-life are women haters and have no desire to help the woman burdened by an unwanted pregnancy. We think that by using contraceptives, we will keep the teen age girls from getting pregnant, we will keep our marriages childfree, and we will prevent any more children from spoiling our already “perfect” mom/dad/son/daughter family.

Ah yes, since 1973 there have been over 42 MILLION, yes MILLION abortions procured in the USA. (Land of the Free, Home of the Brave) 42 MILLION. Praise God that I wasn’t one of them.

We the People of the United States of America can no longer afford to sit back and watch our future generations be aborted away. We need to fan the flames of the Pro-Life Revolution that has begun. How do we do that?

We start by recognizing that life is valuable from CONCEPTION to Natural Death. We need to recognize the sanctity of the marital act as being between one man and one woman for the procreation of human life. We must remove the contraceptive mentality from our daily lives by being open to all that God gives us.

We must realize that in our fallen world, we may think that “Gay Marriages” are good, but they aren’t. They do not support the Pro-Life Revolution. They are not open to life, they do not create life, they are contrary to the design of the world and they are not faithful to the union that God created for man and woman. We do live in a fallen world, many have same sex attractions, many but they are like a cross to bear and one must learn not to give in to the desires and to give those feelings to our Lord. It is not sinful to have the attraction, it is sinful to act on them.

We must realize that each and every person on this planet has a purpose. If the person is in a permanent coma, they still have a purpose. A crying infant at 3 in the morning has a purpose. Grandma with alzheimers has a purpose. YOU have a purpose. However, the purpose may not be known at this very moment.

Filed under: General Stuff