Hello! I promise I will get better at posting more often.
I have some BIG news. Margaret is trying VERY HARD to crawl. This morning she got up on one knee and moved about 3 inches. AMAZING! Soon she will be able to chase Karol around!
Also, I started taking a class to learn Italian. This in preparation for us going to Italy in 2008. JF expects me to teach him. Hmmm. Let’s hope I can!
Margaret made her first trip to the beach yesterday. We went to a beach north of Chicago, about 3 miles south of the Wisconsin border and it was beautiful. Sadly the water was FREEZING. It wasn’t something one could get used to either, it was probably about 45-50 degrees. Karol enjoyed eating sand. He did this last time we went to the beach, I figured he would have gotten over it, having teach and all but no, he didn’t. He was eating a cookie that he stole out of the beach bag (cookie thief) and let’s just say that he got to keep it because it was covered in sand. He then ate the whole thing.
We played on the beach for a while, Baby M took a nap then we ate lunch/dinner. Delish. Grilled steak with onions and mushrooms with a side of asparagus and a hint of sand. On the way home, we decided to take a quick trip in to Wisconsin where we saw the Jelly Belly factory! It is located at 10010 Jelly Belly Lane.
I think we are going to Italy. Not anytime soon, but we have a time frame and I picked up Passport applications for me, Toddler K and Baby M. We are most likely going in the late summer/early fall of 2008 for Brother B’s Solemn Profession of Vows. Exciting.
Other then that, not too much is happening. We are done with training and doing our job now. It is challenging but lots of fun. The kids are getting big. Toddler K is running around making those monster noises again. His papa has been teaching him to make animal noises and he is pretty good at him. Next time you see him ask him to make an elephant noise!
Hope you are all having a Blessed Easter! Christ is Risen. Alleluia!
…well sort of. We have moved. Have you ever moved with at 14 month old and a 2 month old? Wowsers, talk about busy times. Toddler K (14 months old) kept helping by either throwing tantrums or packing away fresh produce in to boxes. (I hope we got all the onions out of the food boxes.)
Of course, in keeping with some anonymity, I won’t say were we moved to, but I will say that we work together and our employer pays for housing. (No this isn’t the witness protection program.) However, when we got here, they didn’t have our quarters ready yet. Not a problem, we would sleep anywhere but a hotel. (See first paragraph but substitute moving with staying in a hotel.) They put us in another house for the time being so we are living out of our suitcases and dealing with not knowing what is where. Not too bad. Toddler K hasn’t noticed his toys haven’t been unpacked yet. Baby M is perfectly happy using her swing, bouncy seat and has discovered the joys of watching the ceiling fans.
Our job is going well. We are in intensive training with a few other people. It is a ton of information but lots of fun. It is nice to go to training classes that are well laid out and presented. I hardly have time to fall asleep and the instructors have great wit in addition to being very encouraging.
Today we ventured out to the stores around here to pick up some stuff that we needed. I needed pants. (Pregnancy does wonders for a ladies wardrobe. I have pre-pregnancy clothes, maternity clothes (both early and late maternity), post pregnancy clothes (about 4 sizes bigger then normal) and clothes that I can’t stand the thought of parting with even though my hips will never move back to the position they were before Toddler K came along!) We also needed more storage tubs and some stain stick and colour safe bleach. (We recently discovered how awesome that stuff is!)
So off we go. First of all, I, the navigator (compliance) missed the turn that would take us to the clothing store we were heading to, so we had a 10 cent tour of the FAR FAR western suburbs. Nice little area. We finally made it to the road that has quite a few stores on it and after revising our plans (I couldn’t find the clothing store we started out going to), we went in to Meijer. Meijer Sucks. Plain and Simple. We got to the “Home Storage†section. A whole aisle of wonderful plastic storage tubs. Two (2) (1+1) price tags. So Husband J went to seek some “customer assistanceâ€. He found 2 associates standing together trying to locate another item. He stood where he could be seen. He was prepared to say “Excuse me for interrupting, I have a quick question…†A manager type person came up (so described as said person had keys) and joined in. All the time, J was ignored. Nice. We left after that. Didn’t even look at pants, stain stick or colour safe bleach. So off to Target we went.
Target smelled of something interesting, I say puke. J said he didn’t notice anything. I found the clearance rack and picked out some pants. Target also has some nice linen pants too. I grabbed a pair of those and headed to the dressing room. Baby M started crying just prior to getting to the dressing room. Toddler K decided it would be fun to stand on his seat in the cart. I decided that I wasn’t going to be “that woman†and so I said, lets go.
I went back to Targhetto this evening. Found EVEN better things on their (different store) clearance rack and got the tubs, pants, stain stick and colour safe bleach. I also bought raisins, cheese crackers, cereal bars, off brand Triscuts and off brand peanut butter Ritz Bitz. And to think, Meijer could have had all that business IF only they had acknowledged J.
One more thing about Target. The tubs that I did buy were not marked. No UPC code to be found. What is up with that? So Troy, the wonderful and very polite cashier requested customer service AND Dustin the wonderful head checkout dude came over used the little walkie talkie thing and got the sticker for the items. Great job guys!
Oh and one more thing, (not having to do with Target or Meijer). The reason I had to go and purchase new pants today. Well, this post pregnancy thing is insane and nothing fits me right now and I am TIRED of wearing maternity pants. Two weeks ago, Sunday, I ordered a few outfits from a company online. I paid for “expedited shipping†meaning I would get it in 3-4 days. Just prior to pulling out for the big move on Saturday morning, I stopped by our post office to check our box (in actuality, I should have received it on Thursday, Friday at the latest). Nothing. I emailed them when I was able to get to a computer this week. They preferred to be contacted via email. I sent them an email stating that I hadn’t received the package and that I have now moved and the reason I requested “expedited†shipping is so that I would receive it before moving. (I was/am looking for a refund on the extra shipping cost) Their reply back? They sent a whole email (very poorly formatted I might add) of their shipping and handling information. So now my outfits are in mail limbo as they probably sitting at our old PO box and we have forwarded our mail to this address.
Alas, things have been going well though. Baby M gets to meet her God-Father this Friday. We are so excited for that. He was in the Holy Land when she was born and Baptized so we look forward to seeing him and hearing about his trip. He even got to spend some time with Toddler K’s God-Father in Italy. We are hoping to get to see him in the next year or so. (Prayers would be great on that one! Oh and if anyone knows how to fly to Italy fairly cheaply, feel free to leave a comment!)
One more thing, our internet has gone from High Speed to Dial Up. (Cause we actually moved back in time.) So my updates may be slower at coming but please keep checking back. Don’t forget about our picture site: pictures.catholicmumma.net.
Have a joyous Lent and God Bless you all!
Quick history and information about us. We are Catholic. We like to go to Mass. We like to go to Masses that follow the Rubrics. We like when the presiding Priest does EVERYTHING correctly and does not add anything to the Mass. We like it when they leave everything in the Mass that is supposed to be there. (FYI, sign of peace, not a required part of the Mass). When we started talking about applying for a position in a different state, I started looking up information about Catholic Church’s in the area. I found one that offered confessions EVERYDAY and has Perpetual Adoration. We went to daily Mass there and decided that is seemed to be a very orthodox parish.
When I found out we got the position, I looked the Parish back up and found out its Parish Mission Days preacher was none other then a well known Catholic Priest. Saaa-weet. Parish Mission Days were starting the day after we moved. We went to Mass on Sunday morning with the PMD preacher presiding. Talk about disappointing. While he didn’t say ANYTHING contrary to Catholic Chruch Teaching, he just put them in parts of the Mass that they totally didn’t belong. That bothered me. I wanted to leave when he did something weird to the Creed but we stayed. The rest was just odd (save for Consecration, that was done correctly according to J, Baby M had a diaper ER I had to attend to.)
Okay, enough complaining. Just remember, if you are priest, the people in the pews really do prefer the Mass to be done with reverence and according to the rubrics. They also don’t like Homilies that start out with a joke, ditch those. They only laugh because well, they are being polite.
And people in the pews. Please come to Mass with one thing in your mind, Jesus. Please dress accordingly. Flipflops, tank tops, halter tops, strapless tops, sleeveless tops, shorts, really short skirts, beer teeshirts or coats, belly shirts, lowrider pants, oh the list could go on and on, but those don’t belong in Church. Would you wear those to meet the President? Okay then, don’t wear them to go to see your Lord and Saviour. Oh and one more thing…when you see a family with young kids, please don’t roll your eyes at them and pray they don’t sit by you. Also if you are sitting at the end of a pew, moving down would be nicer then just letting the family crawl over you. It won’t kill you to sit in the middle of the pew this one weekend!
Off my soapbox now. Have a joyous Lent!
Margaret (Baby M) had a weight check yesterday. The midwife was concerned that she wasn’t gaining weight fast enough as she only gained 3 oz in 2 weeks. At weigh in yesterday, she was 7 lbs 7 oz. 2 ozs above her birth weight! Yippee! And she gained 10 oz in one week. Piggers.
I, for the record, am back down to pre-Baby M pregnancy weight. Now just to lose that other 20 from the 50 I gained with Karol.
Karol is doing well, he is using more of his sign language and aside from an occasional tantrum is a good helper and a great eater.
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?
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, IÂ 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 IÂ 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.
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!
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!