{p,h,f,r,} Flora in Eastertide

I'm not sure if I've ever participated in this time-honored series that's hosted at Like Mother Like Daughter, but I do always enjoy seeing others' posts of this sort, so I'll throw in my own little contribution this time and see how it goes.


~Pretty~

A plate of Easter eggs that I keep on the dinner table.  The fully painted ones are wooden eggs that I've collected from here and there.  The white ones are real blown eggs I made and decorated with colored wax.

~Happy~

Lots of happy things these past couple weeks.

We had our traditional wedding anniversary dinner late at night after the kids went to bed.  It's the one time a year we splurge on the really good steaks from the butcher's case.

Flora got baptized, and our good friends from college came into town to be her godparents.

 And....a baby in a lamb hat.  If that doesn't make you happy, nothing will :-)

Simba!

~Funny~

Flora conked out on Tom's lap while he drinks a beer.

~Real~

When a baby falls asleep on a Boppy pillow on your lap, but you have things to do....you gotta do what you gotta do!  We've gotten pretty good at finding objects to slip in and substitute for our own bodies/arms/warmth, effectively tricking our babies into staying asleep when we need to put them down.

Holy Lents, Holy Easters

Has anyone noticed that the more penitential and prayerful the Lent you observe, the more joyful the Easter you will have?

Before I had kids, I had some really spiritually productive Lents.  There was the one year in college where I wrote out a big list of all the things I would give up - things like drinking coffee, checking Facebook before the evening, and "wearing my hair down"  - (my hair was pretty long at that point, and I'd noticed that I'd begun to spend way too much time and thought each morning primping it and making it look nice).  Even when I spent a week in Italy, I continued to experiment with new ways to wear it pinned up.  Including this unfortunate attempt at "Heidi braids" the day we visited Assisi:

Not a suitable look for you, Christine!

There was another Lent where I decided to join Tom (who I was dating at the time) in practicing the Byzantine-style fast for the whole of Lent.  This is where you not only give up meat EVERY day, but also pretty much all animals products - milk, butter, cheese, etc..  You're essentially a vegan.   Plus, you're not supposed to consume wine or olive oil.  So the foods available to you are...simple breads, and vegetables. Or, in our case, you could just eat a steady diet of french fries!  This was during the time when we were young and stupid and wasted lots of money going out to eat way too often.  And what's the one vegan option on most restaurant's menus?  French fries.

For the past 5+ years, I've been pregnant or breastfeeding during Lent.  So since I'm technically dispensed from the need to fast from food - on the two measly fasting days a year that are left on the church calendar -  I've definitely taken advantage of that, and not been very strict at all with any food-related penances during Lent.  And I feel like this laxity has carried over into the rest of my attitude towards Lent and any sacrifices I choose for myself.  I'll think, "well, I"m pregnant/recently post-partum!  That's sacrificial enough for me this year!"  And who knows?  Maybe I'm not entirely wrong in thinking this way....but I will say, in looking back over how I've actually welcomed and celebrated Easter these past few years, as compared to in the past....I  just don't think I've been living our holy or focused enough Lents.

*****

We went to the Easter vigil Mass again this year.  At our church, it doesn't start until 10pm, and ends sometime after 1am.  It's long!

This year, still being so newly post-partum and dealing with a baby who doesn't like to sleep in her own cradle at night, I'm already feeling tired much of the day.  I had told Tom there was a "100% chance" I would fall asleep if we decided to go to the vigil, but he still pressed for us to do it.  Well, I was right - I probably slept through about half of it.

It worked out okay, though.  All the kids slept as well - spread out across an entire pew :-)

For the small amount of the Mass I was actually fully awake for, I wasted way too much time stressing out over something I thought I heard our priest say to us.  As he was going down the aisle, sprinkling holy water on everyone during the Renewal of the Baptismal Vows, he glanced at all of our sleeping kids, and I heard him say something like "they're too young to be here."  I was so shocked that he would reprimand us like that, publicly, in the middle of the Mass.  Didn't Christ say "let the little children come to me"?  What does it matter if young children sleep through most of a vigil Mass?  They're not bothering anyone, and there are still plenty of open seats left!  At least we're all here as a family!

I spent the next twenty minutes thinking back over other little thing this priest had ever said or done that I wasn't entirely happy about, and basically letting myself feel totally victimized.  Not the best way to spend the holiest Mass of the year.....So it's probably for the best that I decided not to go up during Communion, considering I'd spent much of the last hour asleep, anyways.

When Mass had ended, Tom made some comment about how cute the kids all looked, asleep on the pew.  I sarcastically rejoined, "yeah, well, Fr. _______ didn't think so.".  Tom didn't understand what I was talking about.  After sharing what I thought the priest had said to us, Tom explained what had really happened.  The priest had been joking about Flora - being less than three weeks old - as being "young to be here", and then had added that he "couldn't bless her yet" (since she has not been baptized yet, and thus has no baptismal vows to renew).  Oh :-/

So I felt extremely petty for thinking all those thoughts.

A friend of ours snapped this photo of all our sleeping babes after Mass.  I know, I know, I look really sleepy!

*****

Easter Day itself was pretty nice.  The kids were quite excited to finally eat candy again (I'd convinced them all to give it up for Lent).  The weather was unseasonably warm - in the low 70s during March! During naptime, Tom and I took some time to pull out our rugs and furniture for the front porch, and get things set up for summer.  Then we went to my aunt's house for a nice Easter dinner with the extended family.

Happy Easter to all - Resurrexit Sicut Dixit!

Easter and More Than You Want to Hear About Breastfeeding

Happy Easter to all!

Our Easter was sort of a blur for me, because I was sick for much of it.  I'm pretty sure I had mastitis (an infection related to breastfeeding) over the weekend.  We had all been planning to go to the Vigil Mass on Saturday night.  We were going to put the kids to bed early, then carry them to the car when it was time to leave, still in pajamas, and just let them lay on the pews and sleep through the Mass.  It worked for us last year.  I'd been feeling cold all day, and Tom kept saying I was crazy, because it was so nice out and the rest of the family was in short sleeves, while I was in a sweater and slippers.  As the kids' bedtime approached, it got really bad, and I was developing major chills, soreness, and other symptoms.  It was clear that I had a fever, so Tom ended up going to the vigil alone and I stayed home in bed.

When he got home at three in the morning (he'd gone out for delcicious unhealthy food afterwards with friends, as used to be our tradition before we had kids...I'm only a little jealous), I croaked out instructions to him as to where he could find all the hidden Easter goodies for the kids, and how I wanted them all layed out in their baskets.

Sly was so excited to see his basket in the morning, and kept saying, "I LOVE Easter!".  And we did our first-ever egg hunt for the kids, because we actually have a yard now (have I exclaimed this enough times yet?)

Sly changed into more a Spring-appropriate outfit later

I still didn't feel great, but the fever had broken, so I didn't feel like I was sick enough to miss Easter Mass entirely.  Though he didn't need to go again, Tom decided to come too so we bring the kids. We ended up at the Easter morning Mass, which I don't think I've attended for many years.  I wasn't prepared for it, so I didn't really have an outfit picked out (I feel like the vigil Mass calls for darker colors, and the morning Mass for brighter ones....but that might just be a personal opinion).  It's almost impossible to find a dress in my closet that both fits me and works for nursing.  I didn't even remember to wear a fun hat, let alone a nicer-than-usual veil!

And this was the best family photo we got, after many attempts.

Later, at our big family dinner, my uncle asked Sly, "So did the Easter Bunny visit you last night?"  Sly just gave him a look as if he thought he was totally insane, then said, "you're goofy."  We've never actually mentioned the Easter Bunny to him.  I just think it/he(?) is kind of silly, and doesn't really hold the same magic and legend status for me as Santa Claus.  We haven't explained how the baskets get filled, and Sly hasn't asked, so...I think we're all happy for now.

As the party wore on, I started getting feverish again, so we went home.  I sweated through another miserable night.  In the morning, I called up the midwives, and said basically, "I think I have mastitis, and I need antibiotics!!" But the midwives tend to prefer the least intervention possible, so I was told that instead I should spend the whole day "resting, drinking fluids, nursing my baby, and not doing anything else."  Ha - yeah right.  I think I actually laughed on the phone. 

I didn't get a ton of rest, but I tried to keep my workload light.  Thankfully, I seem to be getting over whatever it was, and the fever hasn't come back.

***

So I know we really should have done this long ago, but we haven't provided Sly with the actual word for "breasts". He knows all about how babies nurse from their mothers, and he asks me a lot of rather personal questions about it when I nurse Linus.  But each time, he's fumbling around in his speech, because he doesn't have terms for the parts he's asking about.  The other day, he asked if it hurt me if Linus pulled on "those little things" (nipples).

I should probably just tell him what everything is called, but I don't know - I guess I'm embarrassed about it?  Anyone have suggestions?

On a related note, today, Sly pointed to one of my breasts while Linus was nursing, and said "half gallon" then to the other, saying, "whole milk."  Oh my.

Easter Joy and Post-Easter Whining

We had a busy weekend, preparing for and celebrating Easter.  I was baking up a storm on Saturday, having to prepare two cakes to bring to Easter dinner and also making two batches of scones for our own Easter breakfast (at Tom's request).  Plus we had to cook and dye all the eggs.

Orange scones, inspired by the ones at Panera

Chocolate chip scones

 

Buckeye cake (with minor revisions)

strawberry cake

We were planning to attend Easter morning Mass this year.  We had reluctantly resigned ourselves to the fact that our days of being able to go to the Saturday vigil Mass (which runs from 10pm-1am at our church) were over.  We figured we would have to wait many years until all our children are old enough to hold it together that late at night.  But Tom was getting more and more bummed about it throughout the day, and finally decided that we should just give it a try, and cross our fingers that the kids wouldn't turn into crazy people.  And it worked out amazingly well!  We put them to bed at home, woke them up when it was time to go, and carried them to the car.  They were in their pajamas, and we brought their blankies into the church.  Both of them slept the entire time (Stella in her car seat, Sly lying on the pew).  It was probably the first time since Sly was born that I was actually able to pay full attention at Mass!

It was nice, too, having the next morning to stay in and take our time, enjoying our little family.  For breakfast, we ate scones and hard-boiled eggs, and the best bacon I've ever eaten (thick-sliced is the way to go).  We had an egg hunt and played with the kids cheap-o new toys from their baskets.  And then we went over my dad's house for another egg hunt and dinner with the extended family.  A nice day.

*****
And then, the crash.

Sly is experiencing a familiar condition today.  A few months ago, I termed it "Too Much Christmas".  Today, it's re-surfacing as "Too Much Easter".  He endured broken sleep for the vigil Mass on Saturday, a late night on Easter, no naps all weekend, way too much candy/cookies/pop to eat  (I hate how you can't control their consumption when you're at a family party and all the relatives are basically forcing the sweets on them!), and several days of elevated excitement and activity.

Pretty much the only thing that's issued out of his mouth all day is one continuous droning whine.  The only real words I can make out are mostly some variation on "Sly want candy." 

Here's a typical conversation today:

Mommy: "Sly, do you want a drink?"
Sly [whining]: "ehhhhhhhhhh"
Mommy: "Say 'yes' or 'no'"
Sly: "ehhhhhhhhhh"
Mommy: "Okay, I guess that's a no."
Sly [louder, and more urgently]: "EHHHHHHH!"

Which means that he apparently does want a drink.  Sigh.

 *****

Yesterday, I made the stupid stupid decision to trim my own bangs.  I don't know why I thought this was a good idea to do on Easter, of all days.  I've trimmed them myself many times, but I recently had them cut in a different shape that I'm not used to, and I really have no clue how to trim them.  I snipped one part too short, so then I wanted to even up the rest, so I cut everything else around it shorter, then I saw that another part was too short, and then.....you get the idea.  They look WEIRD and bad.  They don't swoop now at all, and they aren't even heavy enough to stay down on my forehead so sections of them keep popping up in weird directions.  Tom came into the bathroom, saw the horrendous job I was doing and said, "ahhh!  Stop NOW!  Put down those scissors!  Just because you're having a bad hair day, doesn't mean you should reach for the scissors!"  He stated matter-of-factly that I would have to just wear them clipped back until they grow out a bit.  Ugh.  I think he's right. 

But it's a testament to my maturity that I'm not really freaking out about it.  Though I have to say, it's still pretty tempting to go grab the scissors and try some more to "fix" it.

Anyways...that's why you won't be seeing any pictures of me from Easter day this year :-P

Preparing My Toddler For Easter

I've been pretty lazy about teaching Sly about Easter.  During Advent, I was really on top of implementing different devotions and traditions, and explaining them in ways he could understand.  I read Sly many versions of the Christmas story, let him play with a couple different nativity sets, had him add "hay" to the manger.  By the time Christmas rolled around, I was confident that he had a pretty solid understanding - at least for a two year-old - of what it all meant.

But this Lent, I haven't even tried to get Sly involved.  He's too young to be able to give anything up, or even participate in abstaining from meat.  So I haven't bothered to mention those aspects to him.  We've been praying the Rosary regularly again, but I haven't explained what prompted it.  Lent is supposed to focus not just on prayer and fasting, but also on almsgiving.  That would have been easier to involve Sly in...but I just didn't think about it.

He has said to me a few times, "It Lent, Mommy."  I know he has no clue what that means, but it is cute, and it tells me that at least he's picking up something from listening to our conversations.

But how do you explain Lent to a toddler?  How can I explain Jesus' death, when Sly is too young to grasp the concept of death?  And harder still, how to teach him about the Resurrection, which is a difficult thing even for adults to understand?

I think we have a couple books about Easter packed away, but I haven't dug out any Easter decorations yet.  Maybe we'll take a look at them this weekend while we dye our eggs.

Anyways, it's tempting to beat myself up for not being some kind of "Catholic super mom", but I think it would actually be prideful to expect myself to be.  Yes, I probably could have done more to prepare his little heart for Easter.  But as long as we've been consistent on slowly teaching him how to love God,  how to obey his parents, and how to pray...we're doing enough, I think.  He's only two-and-a-half!

And I remembered an incident which allowed me to see how much Sly is able to figure out, even without my help.  When our new missal arrived a few weeks ago, I sat down with Sly to show him some of the pictures.  On one page was a scene of the Crucifixion.  Sly described it to me, saying, "Jesus on cross.  Jesus have boo-boos."  Turning the page, we saw a drawing of Christ risen from the grave.  Sly said, "Jesus happy now."  <heart melting>

And I'm perfectly satisfied with that level of understanding from him right now.

Easter

Happy Easter to all!

Tom and I managed to get to the vigil Mass this year, which we were weren't planning on.  We sorta figured our vigil Mass-going days are over for a long long time, since it's so tough to bring young kids out so late (and tough enough bringing them to Mass at all, even at a more appropriate time!).  But on Saturday, we got an unexpected visit from Tom's sister, so we conned her into babysitting that evening.  I was feeling totally exhausted by 8:00 pm, and wasn't sure I would be able to make it through the Mass, but Tom really wanted to go, so I decided to tough it out.

I love the beginning of the Mass, when the whole congregation is standing in the pitch-black church in silence.  It feels like you're inside the catacombs.  And then the priest enters, carrying the newly lit Easter candle, and chanting "Lumen Christi!"  As he goes, the altar boys help to spread the fire from the big candle to the smaller ones which all the people are holding.  And then the light just spreads in a huge wave to the front and sides of the church.  It's awesome.

I managed to hold it together for that part, and some of the readings.  But during the blessing of the water, I was out.  I slept through most of the Mass!  yikes...maybe vigil Masses aren't so good for mommies, either.

On Sunday, it was nice to have the whole morning free to just relax with the family, though, and not have to rush to church.  Sly got a visit from the Easter bunny, and was already in a crazy sugar-induced rage within minutes of being given his basket.  We tried to limit the amount of candy we put in, knowing he'd be receiving more baskets soon: one from Tom's parents, one from my mom, and one from my dad.

I remembered to hide most of the candy from his sight last night, but I had forgotten a bag of plastic eggs sent over by my dad.  As soon as Sly saw them this morning, he whined for more candy.  I tried my best - really I did - to get him to eat some "real food" first.  I gave him some yogurt and grapes for breakfast.  But he refused to touch any of it, continuing only to point at the candy.

And then - I am ashamed to admit - I did something that I never would have believed possible before actually becoming a mother...I asked him, "do you want to put some candy in your yogurt?"  He nodded vigorously.  Of course.  So I took a small handful of M&Ms/jelly beans/mini Robins Eggs, and stirred them in.  But hey, at least he ate it all up!

Happy Easter! He is Risen!

It's been awhile since I've written. Holy week and Easter are such busy times, and the past few days have provided me with many little chores and tasks needing to be taken care of. Also, I felt like I had an overwhelming amount of things that I could write an entry about, so I took the noncommittal route, and chose to write nothing!

In an attempt to keep things short and sweet, I'll just post a few pictures from the past week, and speak about them as the inspiration strikes...

I hung up some of the lovely roses Tom gave me. This picture was taken over the weekend, so by now, they're mostly dried. We keep small vases of dried roses on our home altar, and I also have a large vase of them decorating our mantle. I'm not sure yet what the fate of these ones will be...we'll have to see how they turn out, color-wise. But I admit, I kind of like the rustic charm they add to the kitchen just when they're hanging there from the ceiling. I mentioned to Tom that it might be nice someday to decorate with bunches of dried flowers in this way, and he surprisingly agreed completely.


We spent Holy Saturday fixing up our garden and getting stuff planted. I finally got to get those tomato seedlings out of the kitchen! (The front planter has my lavender seeds, which seem to have just been complete duds, all of them).


The quality of this picture is pretty poor (it was taken from Sly's bedroom window), but this is a view of our backyard. The two garden patches in the back now have: tomatoes, carrots, Romaine lettuce, and sugar snap peas. We also planted morning glories along the side fence this summer, so they won't completely engulf all the crops again.


Sly really enjoyed picking the dandelions in the grass (which needs to be cut badly! I should call the landlord about that...)


I snatched it out of his mouth right away (well, after getting this picture of course :-P)

Saturday evening, we dyed our eggs. I also dipped twelve blown eggs into the dyes, to be decorated with wax at a later time. Notice how I have Sly AND Lance in my lap at once. They fight for my attention all the time.

I made a "Sly" egg with the handy clear crayon that comes in the dye set, and Tom suggested I make one for each of us as well. But it seemed inappropriate to write "Christine" and "Tom" on them. I mean...in relation to Sly, we are "Mom(my)" and "Dad(dy)." So that's what I wrote. And it did feel strange. I think that's the first time I've ever referred to myself that way in print before.


Our eggs looked much nicer the night we dyed them. This picture was from Sunday morning, after the fridge had already covered them with condensation and made the dye drip.

We went to the Easter Vigil Mass at 10:00. For weeks, I had been insisting that would be a bad idea. Tom really loves the Vigil, and I knew he wanted to go, but I didn't think Sly would feel the same. I kept trying to paint pictures of the awful scenes we could expect to endure, having a cranky baby out well past his bedtime. Somehow, though, in the end, Tom convinced me it would be okay. He assured me that Sly would just sleep through the whole thing.

Hah! I should've listened to my gut! He screamed through the entire first half, and I had to sit with him out in the narthex, missing everything. Well, technically, I could still hear the priest. But it was all in Latin, and we only own one missal that has the updated Easter Vigil Mass in it. So I really couldn't follow what was happening. But Sly finally did sleep, and we were even able to go out for food afterward with friends (I got a milkshake)!

On the way home, we were discussing what Easter traditions we may like to have once Sly gets a little older. In Tom's family, the kids had to find their Easter baskets as well as all their eggs on Easter morning. At my house, we came down to find the baskets on the coffee table, and the eggs in the fridge - just where we'd left them!

That night, Tom was very insistent that I should just go to bed, and he would stay down to clean up and get Sly's Easter basket ready. I should have known...

...that he was actually hiding all my wax eggs around the house for me to find in the morning! I spotted this one first, hidden in the coupon holder thingy.

Sly wore an adorable too-big Easter suit. This only lasted about half an hour, until we decided to change him into something we didn't mind getting dirty.

As soon as I saw he was getting green dye on his mouth, I took the egg away.

We read that babies can eat egg yolks, but not the whites, since they have a lot of allergens in them. "This will be perfect," I thought, "since I only like to eat the whites!" But no such luck. He did not enjoy egg yolks one bit, and started crying each time we tried to give him a second bite!


He got some Cheerios instead. Sly always reaches into the pocket on his bib to get the food he dropped. I think it's adorable - like he's digging for treasure.


The Easter Bunny brought him a basket filled with....plastic eggs to play with! No candy for babies!

After spending the morning around the house, getting our fill of chocolate and hard-boiled eggs, we headed over to my dad's house, where he was hosting the entire extended family for dinner.

For a while, Sly was the only baby there, so he was getting passed all around. At some point near the end of the night, someone must have given him a pretzel rod. He LOVED it and was munching away on it for a happy half hour, and getting himself covered with little bits of pretzel-turned-slime. Next time he was handed back to me, I saw that someone had given him a second pretzel, which he was clutching in the other hand. So for over an hour, he went back and forth, sucking on the two pretzels. Since it was well past his bedtime, he was amazingly cranky, and cried everytime we tried to take one away or clean him up.

Overall, a nice Easter spent with family and gorgeous weather!


And one last picture:


Sly's really starting to love solid foods. Monday night, I sat near the sink so I could clean him up, and he grabbed a slice of leftover pizza off my plate on the counter!