The Things Kids Say

The old "Starling" here.

Mouse was noting in conversation that I am old (not older, but old). After responding "gee, thanks, honey" I said:

But...how can I be old when I feel pretty young?

Oh Mom. That's just your feelings teasing you.

Christmas morning

This is how Christmas morning went at our house; the pictures speak volumes:

Jaybird did get the baby doll she had asked Santa for.

The kids are always nice and sweet on Christmas morning; Jaybird even stopped to give me the present she had bought for me with her own money, before she opened all her own presents. She was very excited and proud to give a present (a bar of dark chocolate). What a charmer.

Mudpuppy has been giving his own presents: lots of smiles.

Tomorrow we make our way through the so-called super storm (which turned out to be nothing more than a couple days of steady drizzle) to visit my family in the Twin Cities.

Waiting for Christmas

In the weeks running up to Christmas, we prayed with our Advent wreath every night, and some of us made snow angels . . . .

Jaybird had been begging and begging to see Santa; she was very concerned to get her list to him. This, in many ways, has been her "first" Christmas, the first time she has approached it with anticipation. Mouse was also interested in seeing Santa -- somewhat surprisingly. We had thought she was beyond that stage; maybe she's somewhere in between, which is fine.

Not sure where to find Santa in town, we traveled to La Crosse last weekend, where the local Rotary puts up two million lights along the riverfront. We got there just as the display opened, but still had to wait about 50 minutes in pretty cold weather to get to see Santa -- who, mercifully, was inside a warm little house.

Unfortunately, Jaybird -- who had been jumping up and down with anticipation mere moments before -- got "cold feet" (ha ha) when her turn came, and she refused to enter Santa's house. Given that she'd been talking about it for weeks, and we'd driven all the way down the river, and stood out in the cold for almost an hour, we were not about to walk away without having her talk to Santa. So we dragged her into the house, where she plastered herself against the wall, arms spread out. Then Starling had to go along with her, pushing her a bit (the photo is blurry because I had to hold Mudpuppy, who was howling by this point). But she finally got up the courage to tell him what she wanted: a baby doll. She was pretty happy afterward. although she did say that she was "too embarassed" to tell him what she wanted to name the doll: Anna Rose, her baby cousin.

New monikers (take 2)

I've just posted a couple of posts about our triple-dip Sunday (three sacraments in one day), but I also need to explain the new monikers that I came up with. Because the old ones went over like a lead balloon. I actually considered just using the kids' real first names -- but I'm just not totally comfortable with that. So here they are:

Bear: For our 9-year-old boy.

Mouse: For our 7-year-old girl.

Jaybird: For our 4-year-old girl.

Mudpuppy: For our baby boy. Yes, it's the name of a salamander, but it sounds cute.

And "Jackrabbit" for me and "Starling" for my darling wife.

Hopefully these will stick, cause if they don't, I'm going to numbers.

First Reconciliation

Mouse had her first Reconciliation on Sunday afternoon (yes, mere hours after Mudpuppy's supplemental baptismal rites). She's been preparing for this for four months, so it's a big deal. They had the kids do it within the context of a communal penance service, which is good, because then the kids get to see lots and lots of other adults going to confession, too.

Here is Mouse with her confessor. (This was taken after everyone had cleared out.) I went to him as well, and he seemed really good. Mouse said it was :kind of scary but good." She had a big smile on her face when she was done.

Reconciliation is a beautiful, under-appreciated sacrament. We get to present ourselves to God as we really are -- warts and all -- in a very concrete, intentional way. Without intentionality, and without sacramentality (the concreteness of the thing), it's all too easy to minimize or sidestep our faults and failings. I can't speak for others, but I know that for myself, acknowledging my sins to God through the Church is a whole different experience than just acknowledging them in prayer. Sometimes I even come away with a smile, like Mouse did.

Baby's baptism, part 2

We completed Mudpuppy's baptism on Sunday; the actual baptism took place on ur back deck several weeks ago during the H1N1 outbreak in our house. A "precautionary" baptism, as they say. The supplemental rites were completed on Sunday -- the candle, the chrismation, the white garment. Everything but the actual water rite. However, our pastor did bring out a small bowl of water that he used to sprinkle on Monkey as a reminder of his baptism; the rest of us signed ourselves with the water as well.

He was pretty good during the baptism -- even though he's been pretty fussy the last few days. As evidenced below:

"Ack! I'm getting a sugar overload just by hovering near that cake!"

Our friends served as godparents; they are converts from the Nazarene Church. Count on converts to be hard core about their faith and their godparental responsibilities:

Finally, here is a priest friend of Starling's admiring the baby:

Incidentally, Starling wrote up a very funny post about baptism at her blog.

Brothers

Haven't had a chance to update this blog recently with everything that's been going on with Becky, but this picture was too cute to resist.