First Snowmobile Ride

This post is about a month overdue.  Around mid-February, when we had snow absolutely everywhere, Ben and Mandee stopped by one Saturday afternoon to visit and give Vera a ride on their snowmobiles.  Vera was very hesistant to get dressed and come outside to see them.  She even said to me as I was getting her dressed in snow clothes, "Mom, are you sure this is a good idea?"  haha  Ben took her for the first ride, and she came back all smiles.  Then dad took the snowmobile for a spin, and Vera hopped on with him.  She had fun on the ride, even though she said it was cold! 

Vera and Ben are taking off!

And on their way back in!

Vera and her dad!

Vera has always had a hard time warming up to Mandee, though she'll say hi and give her a reluctant "five."  I think part of the problem was the confusion between Aunt Mandy and this Mandee.  In a 2 year-old's mind, how can there be more than one?  But, with the snowmobile ride, Ben and Mandee definitely won Vera over.  The other day when she was going to visit Aunt Mandy's house, she asked if she was going to see Ben and Mandee.  ;)  Thanks for the snowmobile rides!  You'll forever hold a special spot with Vera Lou! 

Blessed are Parents of Young Children in Church

I've been meaning to post this for months.  I guess I'll say that I'm sharing this in the spirit of Lent.  Shortly after Christmas, Adam, Vera and I went to church at a neighboring parish.  This was printed in their bulletin.  It really was a great read for me, though it's a little long.

BLESSED ARE PARENTS WITH YOUNG CHILDREN
IN CHURCH!!! You are doing something really, really
important. We know it’s not easy. We see you with your
arms overflowing, coming to church already tired.
Parenting is tiring. We watch you bounce and sway,
trying to keep your babies quiet, juggling the infant car
seat and the diaper bag, wincing as your children cry,
anxiously pulling things out of your bag of tricks to try to
quiet them.
We watch you with your toddlers and
preschoolers, cringing when your little girl asks an
innocent question in a voice that might not be an “inside”
voice, let alone a church whisper. We sense the
exasperation in your voice as you beg your children to
just sit and be quiet, as you feel everyone’s eyes on you.
Not everyone is looking but we know that it may feel that
way. Maybe you’re wondering, is it worth it? Why do we
bother? Maybe you often leave church more exhausted
than inspired and renewed. BUT WHAT YOU ARE
DOING IS IMPORTANT. When you are here with your
young children, our church is more church. When you
are here, the church is filled with a more joyful noise.
When you are here, the Body of Christ is more fully
present. When you are here with your young children,
our worship together as a community of faith is more
complete. When you are here, we have hope that our
pews won’t be emptier in ten years or so when your
growing-up kids are old enough to know to sit quietly and
behave in church. Even now they are learning why we
take the time to worship together, learning that
worshipping together is important.
We do see them learning. In the midst of the
cries, whines and giggles, in the midst of the crinkling of
cereal or pretzel or cheese-cracker bags and the
growing pile of crumbs, we see little girls daring to go
two pews forward to share a sign of peace with someone
whom they have never met. We see children excitedly
coloring a cross and then pointing to the one in the
sanctuary. We hear the echoes of “Amens” just a few
seconds behind the rest of the congregation saying
them. We watch little boys who are just learning how to
read trying to sound out the words in the missalette or
counting their way to find hymn number six-seventy-two.
They are learning and “catching” the faith, especially
from you.
However much of a chore it is for you to bring
your children to church, it really does matter. IT
MATTERS TO US. It strengthens our faith to see you
caring about your faith and wanting to share it with your
young children and with us. It reminds us that all are
welcome in our church.
When we teach our children, young and not-so-young,
that their presence in church is wanted and needed, we
help them to know that they are an essential part of our
church (“let the children come to me and do not hinder them; it is to just such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.”) They are cherished members of our church
NOW. They do not need to wait until they can believe or
pray or sing a certain way to be welcome here. Even their
cries and whines are a joyful noise which improve our worship.
We know that it’s not easy to make the weekly trip
to Sunday Mass with your young children, but please know
that we are ever so grateful for your effort. Please know
that your family—with all of its noise, struggle, commotion
and joy—are a vital part of our church. Please know that
you are blessed, and that you truly bless us, by your presence here.

A Tease of Spring

The last two days have been so beautiful outside.  We have taken full advantage of 60-degree weather by playing outside after school and enjoying the fresh air.  I'm so happy to report that all of the snow in the back yard is finally melted.  It was promising to see the daffodils and tulips starting to shoot from the ground, and I even spotted a few robins in the tree.  (On the other hand, I'm disgusted to report that there's a prediction for another 3+ inches of snow tomorrow. Bleh!)

But, let's focus on the positive.  Here are some photos of Vera playing outside.  Thank goodness for her yellow rain boots from last year.  She was so busy tromping in the gravel, soggy yard, and snow!

One very important job was finding big rocks for her rock collection.  She also spent plenty of time shoveling gravel into her bucket.

She stomped around in the snow that still hasn't melted.  It was also entertaining to scoop the snow into piles around the yard.

Vera and dad drew some pictures after school today.  Can you guess who is who?

Sidewalk chalk on the coat and face, along with mud on the boots, hands and pants....all part of being a kid!

We're looking forward to more afternoons and evenings outside!  9 days until spring officially arrives!!  Can you tell I'm anxious?!

Daylight Savings Time is Hard on Everyone!

Like everyone else, "springing forward" this time of year takes some getting used to!  On Sunday after the time change, around 4:30 that afternoon, I found this exhausted princess....

Is it spring yet?

We keep talking about all of the things that we're going to do when the snow melts and it gets nice outside.  Vera has a long list:

• Play with Blake and Bailey outside at our house.
• Have Karly over to play.
• Go to the dentist with mom.
• Go to the swimming pool and the park.
• Play on her swing set.
• Ride her new tricycle outside.
• Get new glasses.  (Her glasses are scratched and she's having trouble understanding why they won't wipe off.)
• Turn 3 years old!
• Become a big sister!!

In the meantime, we've been doing our best at playing inside.  

The #1 favorite is playing the iPad.  We've recently put new activities and games on it, and Vera would sit and play for hours if we'd let her.  To keep iPad time in-check, I often set a timer so Vera knows that her screen time is up!

Dancing and playing dress-up has also been a hit.  These princess slippers are my favorite.  Crack me up!

We've been working on writing our name and drawing stick people.  This is Vera's first drawing of a stick person (that I've seen.)  Meet Patty on her birthday.  :)  I just love it!

Vera has also discovered the color-by-number activities in her coloring book.  Since she can recognize her numbers and colors, this was fun for her.  She did a pretty good job.

We change our clocks this weekend, and spring is officially 11 days away!  Please hurry spring; we're ready!!

Making Room for Baby

 Our house has been in disarray for about 3 weeks now.  Progress is being made on our bedroom.  The worst and messiest is over! 

We set up our bed in the spare bedroom (soon to be Vera's room) for the time being.  Everything else went in our front living room.  Thank goodness for that room because it seems like it becomes the "store and lock" for every project we've ever done.

Can we say disaster area?  Yikes!

Adam has done a good job with all of the painting.  He spent a week or so painting trim and closet doors for our bedroom.  He and his dad painted the walls last week.  Last weekend, he hung the trim around the windows and doors. 

Vera insisted in helping paint the door one Sunday afternoon.  So they found her paint shirt (or shall we say paint dress?) and a little artist brush, and she went to work.  She had fun and did a good job helping dad!

Next up is tearing out the carpet and laying the new.  Finally, some baseboard trim and some new blinds, and we'll be ready to move our things back in. It will be nice to have everything clean and fresh when we put it back in. 

Freshly painted walls and window trim complete.

I haven't been much help.  Adam will probably tell you that my role has been supervising.  Sewing some curtains for our bedroom has been about the extent of my help.  It has only taken nearly six years for me to get some curtains hung.  I have had the fabric for a long (ok really, really long!) time.

Here's one of the curtains for our bedroom.  I hung it up real quick in the spare bedroom to see how it looked.

My curtain-making didn't stop there.  I also made a pair of curtains for Vera's new bedroom.  My hope is that with some cool curtains and other fun décor, she'll take to the idea of moving to a new room more willingly. 

I've discovered that curtain-making at 24 weeks in pregnancy isn't such an easy task.  It's involved a lot of up and down from the floor.  To make things work, I've had to do my measuring and cutting on the floor, then up to the sewing machine to sew a little.  Back to the floor to lay it out and check some measurements, then back to the table...about 40 times.  The up and down got old and annoying after a while. 

Here's the fruit of my five hour afternoon-long project.  I might add some ribbon or detail to the bottom of them yet.  Overall, I was pretty happy with how they turned out.  Vera was super-excited about the curtains and putting them up in her new room.  She especially likes the sparkly bows on them.

Soon enough we'll be ready for you, Little One!