Our Girls

Today was One of Those Days. I thought about writing a humorous blog post about how I was barely on top of my day and constantly reacting to mischief, defiance, and wild antics. Plus messes--oh so many messes! It was the kind of day when the selfish part of me kept thinking, "Are you kidding me?!" so then I'd try to override that by thinking, "All for the love of thee, Jesus!" Thus, I won't write a humorously complaining post, and will simply share some cuteness.

Over the weekend, we were all in the back yard when I witnessed Mary running pell-mell and trip over a tree root and fall face-first into another tree root. I thought she was just fine until Chris mentioned to me, "Um, hey, I think I see blood." Boy, do faces bleed! Blood was pouring down her face in rivulets. Considering how I shriek hysterically and dance uncontrollably in reaction to something like the children placing a cicada on my skirt, it is really surprising how calm and comfortingly cheerful I am in the face of real injuries. Anyway, I kept Mary quite calm, which isn't that hard, considering what a tough cookie she is. She split her forehead skin open, but all it needed was a bandage. She raced downstairs and made goofy faces to show Daddy.

On Sunday, the kids went to a child's birthday party with a Star Wars theme. For a few minutes, Mary dressed up like Yoda. The kids had a blast and some highlights for John were winning a prize for Pin the Light Sabre on Yoda and getting to feed crickets to Uncle Daniel's bearded dragon.

Today was a special feast day meriting a dessert: in the old calendar, the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and in the new, the Feast of the Queenship of Mary. (Good thing I took a photo when I did because next I laid eyes on these chocolate chip cookie cakes, they were wounded with a dozen stabs issued by a certain momentarily unsupervised two-year-old wielding a knife.)


Margaret is five months old now! She is rolling over readily and, in the last few days, rolling repeatedly to traverse the room. I see her yearning with determination to get to a toy and trying to lurch her chubby body toward it, so I bet she'll be scooching soon.

Margaret's daytime sleep is ever more consolidated, although I don't pay enough attention to know for sure. I think that most days now she is taking three naps, often a shortie in the morning and then two longer ones, or two longer ones with a shortie around dinner. Her bedtime sleep is highly regular, as she has fallen into the habit of crashing at seven o'clock and making no bones about informing me that she is tired. She wakes for the day anywhere between 5:00 and 6:30 in the morning, but much more often the former, so I think she might turn out to be a 10-hour overnight sleeper like her two older siblings. Oh, how I yearn for a child who sleeps 12 hours overnight! And in between 7:00 p.m. and the morning, she wakes many times to nurse, but I am accustomed to that after two babies doing the same.

Miss Margaret still hates the car, so I mostly stay home except for perhaps Mass a couple of times, one grocery trip, and one social visit per week. I try to time my outings for when she first wakes from a nap, so she's fresh, and she will now tolerate a short drive when she's fresh and happy, so that is an improvement. And our girl still proves not to be very portable, so if we're caught away from home when she's tired, watch out!

And please join me in praying to St. Anthony to find our camera. It went missing days ago, even though I am consistent about keeping it in one spot on a particular shelf in the kitchen. I am really hoping that I set it somewhere strange (like in the pantry or in a coat closet) and that it is not the case that the worker who was in our kitchen last week stole it. I would be really sad for his desperation and thieving if that were the case, so let's pray it was my own absent mindedness. In the meanwhile, all fuzzy photos are thanks to our cell phones' cameras.