07.03.09
Posted in Adventures in Parenting, Images of Mary at 9:26 pm by ginny
Luke, who is nine months old, has always been a fairly easy baby to handle.
Until now.
In the last few weeks, he’s become a real twister and turner. I try to change his diaper, and he’s reeeeaching for things, angling his body, flipping halfway over onto his stomach, and just generally stretching his body as far as it can go. He’s strong, too; amazingly so. It’s like a wrestling match in there on the changing table. It helps somewhat if I hand him a shoe, or a sock, or some other benign item plucked desperately from the drawers underneath the table. It buys me about thirty seconds; a minute if I’m lucky. Depending on the contents of his diaper, that may be enough time … or it might not.
It’s frustrating, sure. But I am somewhat cheered to realize that Luke is in good company.
You see, I’ve found pictorial evidence that the baby Jesus HIMSELF was also a twisty-turner:
From the look on Mary’s face, though, I’d say she’s handling it with far more patience than I am.
Credit Where It’s Due: Madonna and Child by Raphael
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07.02.09
Posted in Adventures in Parenting, Feast Days and other fun times at 5:53 am by ginny
I knew motherhood would change me in lots of ways. I expected the sleepless nights, the baby weight, the house overtaken by toys. What I didn’t expect is that it would make me more patriotic.
You can read all about it at BustedHalo.com.
Happy Fourth!
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07.01.09
Posted in Musings at 3:40 pm by ginny
I’m sad to read that the actor Karl Malden just passed away. I remember him as child in all those “Don’t leave home without it!” commercials. Later, I admired him for his role in A Streetcar Named Desire (one of my favorite plays).
But I’ll always love him most for his role in On the Waterfront. He plays a crusading priest who gets Marlon Brando to listen to his conscience and take a stand against waterfront corruption. The scene where he eulogizes the victim of mob violence is so powerful … and a great reminder of the role that religion can (and must) play in achieving social justice for all.
I just learned something else about him, too. According to this article, he was married to his wife for 70 years (70!) . Even if he weren’t a tremendously gifted actor, I’d admire him enormously for that.
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06.30.09
Posted in Musings at 6:36 am by ginny
What is the housekeeping chore you hate the most?
For me, it’s a toss-up. If you’ve been following this blog lately, you’d probably guess vacuuming. That is admittedly one of my least favorite chores. I hate dragging the darn thing around, barking my shins, banging the furniture, and always having to stop to switch attachments. Perhaps, for Christmas, my husband can buy me one of those space-age Oreck vacuums that are supposed to make the chore an absolute pleasure. Or perhaps I should just delegate Hoover duty to him. That seems far more economical, and frankly, it’s usually what happens anyhow.
But even more than vacuuming, I hate picking up kids’ toys. It’s unfortunate that I feel this way, because we do have kids, and those kids have — well, not a TON of toys, but a modest number of toys that have a ton of pieces each. I’m talking about Legos, and blocks, and train sets with little crossing guard signs, and these wonderful alphabet and number puzzles. When my son wants to play with these puzzles, the teacher in me thinks, What a great way for him to learn his letters! The housekeeper in me thinks, We’ll be finding vowels under the sofa for weeks.
So what’s your least favorite chore? And how do you make yourself do it? (or do you?)
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06.28.09
Posted in Adventures in Parenting, Musings at 4:05 pm by ginny
Just back from a weekend of camping. It was Lukey’s first trip, Matthew’s second, and in spite of my concerns about camping with two children under three, it went extremely well. It was unbelievably hot, but when you are with a bunch of old friends – and you have plenty of marshmallows and good wine and filet mignon fajitas (we sure believe in roughing it, don’t we?) — even the heat can’t ruin it.
I do, however, have a few lessons learned/observations to share:
1) You can never have too many Wet Wipes.
2) One change of clothes per child per day: NOT ENOUGH. (What was I thinking?)
3) Tired and hot toddler + audacious gnat buzzing in his ear = lengthy hysterics
4) We ate well. The mosquitos ate better.
Woodpecker courtesy of karenswhimsy.com
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06.26.09
Posted in My [kinda] green thumb at 7:52 am by ginny
I am grieved to report that the slugs did not go for the Budweiser. It made our yard smell like a bar, and the flowers remain in peril.
Maybe I should have offered them a nice microbrew instead.
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06.25.09
Posted in Images of Mary at 7:45 am by ginny
When I was young, I — like every other girl in a five-mile radius from my house — was a Girl Scout. This led to some pretty fierce competition when cookie sales began.
Unfortunately, my parents would never do the take-the-order-form-to-the-office thing. They believed that my sister and I should earn the cookie patch on our own merits. Actually, I kind of admire them for this. I suspect that hounding their coworkers to buy Thin Mints would have been much easier than pounding the pavement with two tired girls in beanies.
If only we’d thought to ask for Mary’s intercession:
Isn’t this card fabulous? It’s from Holy Cards for Your Inspiration, a terrific site that does, in fact, give me a LOT of inspiration. There’s a Boy Scout card, too … check it out.
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06.24.09
Posted in Images of Mary, Really random at 7:48 am by ginny
I usually do intensive house-cleaning only when visitors are coming. And since these visitors don’t venture into the master bedroom, guess which room almost NEVER gets cleaned?
But yesterday, spurred on by some random burst of domestic energy, I hauled out the vacuum cleaner and went to work. I found herds of dust buffaloes in the closet and along the moldings. I found socks I thought had gone forever. I even found my son’s purple kazoo (some things are better left hidden).
There’s still some dusting to do, but the lovely Mary on my dresser now has a much cleaner room to live in.
And that makes me happy.
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06.23.09
Posted in Really random at 2:50 pm by ginny
I vacuumed.
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Posted in Adventures in Parenting at 7:49 am by ginny
So last weekend, when we were at the ER dealing with Matthew’s encounter with a very hard bench, the nurse was quite smitten with nine-month-old Luke. She kept smiling at him, and asked permission to rifle his gravity-defying hair. She also called him a “corker.”
I smiled at that. Hey, I haven’t heard that word in a long time! I love it! I must start using it more often!
And then I realized that I’m not entirely sure what, exactly, a corker is. And – as one of my favorite high school English teachers used to say – if you can’t define the word, you don’t really know it.
So I looked it up. Guess what? It means “someone or something that is astonishing or excellent.”
I know I’m Lukey’s mom, and therefore somewhat biased, but you know what?
That nurse was absolutely right.
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