Day 3 at Disney!

We found out that there is actually something more exciting than meeting Princesses.  Meeting animated characters.  

Mae Bae was a little less enthusiastic.  At least when it came to meeting giant bugs:

We took a break from meeting characters to ride a triceratops:

And Mae Bae realized that not all the characters were scary.  Every time Pooh Bear looked forward she would reach over and touch his face.

Eeyore was another Mae Bae favorite.  She kissed him a couple of times on the nose!

Sadie danced with Donald Duck:

And twirled around with Chip and Dale:

She showed Miss Bunny that she knew how to curtsy:

She was excited to meet Minnie (she'd been asking about Minnie and Mickey and "how we would find them" since the day we arrived):

She was super silly when she met Goofy.  She barely stopped giggling the entire time she was standing with him:

More dancing, this time with Mickey:

Then we met Thumper:

Sadie was a big fan of Meeko.  We realized that she's a little shyer around the princesses, although she did like Pocahontas' long hair:

She did tell Tiana that "Mae Bae is 1!"

The cutest part of our Tiana visit was the little boy in line in front of us.  He was about two years old.  He stood proudly for a picture with Tiana and when she leaned in to kiss him on the cheek she quickly whipped his head around and kissed her on the lips!  He looked pretty pleased with himself.

We did stop taking Mae to see princesses.  If a princess isn't Snow White she isn't really all that interested in meeting them.  So I tried to get Mae Bae to nap, while Sadie visited with everyone.  She finally fell asleep after dinner...

When Sadie hugged Tigger, her hug was so enthusiastic that Tigger lost his balance!  And there was more dancing.

After dinner we went to the street party.  We watched our second parade of the day (the street party is kind of like a parade), and Sadie and I danced in the street with the cowgirl from Toy Story and about 20 other preschoolers and a handful of moms (I just can't remember her name and at the moment I"m apparently too sleepy to open a new window and google the answer...).

Mae Bae slept through the excitement.

And then it was time for the castle lighting!  Everyone was so excited!  And it was even more beautiful than I imagined!

Tomorrow afternoon we head home.  This vacation was definitely worth the very long wait!

A Princess Adventure!

Sadie and Mae had another big day today.  The highlight of today was princesses.  First Mae got to meet her favorite princess:  Snow White.  Mae Bae will only play with Snow White dolls these days.  And when we met the princesses it was pretty apparent that she recognized her favorite princess.  She was a little bit shy, but her little smile gives away how thrilled she was!

Belle was another favorite.  While Sadie will tell you her favorite princess is Aurora, she kept hugging Belle over and over again!

Sadie was a little bit shy when it came time to meet her favorite princess!  But she did give her a hug and she got an autograph in her princess book!

And we also got to meet Ariel!  We weren't quite up to standing in the very, very, very long line to meet Rapunzel!

I wore my mouse ears.  We couldn't convince Daddy to get a pair.  

As a side note... I feel like my three time broken nose is definitely more noticeable since the latest break.  Maybe someday I'll get it fixed (the damage on the inside was pretty bad before the latest break!)!  In the meantime, I'll work on not walking into things (what is it with people in this family and walking into walls and doors?!?!)!

And here we are on Mae Bae's favorite ride.  On our second trip through she started to fuss when we got to the end because she didn't want to get off the ride!

Sadie and Mae's Great Adventure

We set off early this morning so that we'd arrive when the park opened and get in a full day of fun.  Sadie could hardly wait on the car ride there.  Finally, after an agonizing ten minute drive (agonizing to the three year old who was asking if it was morning before 8pm the previous night), we arrived and took the tram to the ticket booths and then the monorail into the park.

I had read up on toddler/baby Disney World strategy last night after everyone was in bed and when we arrived at the park I had a plan.  We went straight back to fantasy land to ride as many rides as we could before the crowds arrived.  We breezed through the carousel, Dumbo ride, Winnie the Pooh ride and Tea Cups pretty quickly and then headed over to the other side of Fantasy Land to go on the Small World ride, the Peter Pan ride and to see the Mickey Mouse 3D Phil-somthing movie.  I was a little nervous about taking Mae in to the movie, but it was really good (3D technology seems to be a lot better than I remember it!) and both girls sat quietly through the whole thing).  And all of that was before lunch!

Here Sadie is on the Tea Cups.  This is where we discovered that she had a need for speed...

After lunch we headed over to Frontier Land.  Can you read the name of the ride that we're coming out of?  It's Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.  Sadie is over 40 inches tall, which means, at the ripe old age of three (she isn't even 3 1/2 yet!), she's tall enough to ride most of the faster rides at the park.  I thought we'd try out Big Thunder Railroad to see how she liked it before trying anything else.  As the car climbed in complete darkness I began to wonder if this wasn't a little too scary for Sadie.  And then she started to giggle.  And she began to yell:  "Ready, Set, Go!" and "Faster, faster!"

As soon as we got off the ride she was begging to go again, which was perfect because the park has a ride-swap program.  This meant that when we got to a ride Mae couldn't go on, we'd go up and ask the fast pass person for a swap pass.  Sadie and one of us would stand in the regular line (the longest ones we saw today were like 10-15 minutes), while the other one walked around with Mae outside.  Then when the pair on the ride finished, they'd come off and Paul and I would swap places and Sadie and whoever hadn't gone on the ride would go back and use the fast pass to bypass the line and go on the ride a second time.  It was a pretty sweet deal for Sadie.

Big Thunder Railroad was a success, so we tried Splash Mountain.  Sadie thought that Briar Fox and Briar Bear were very scary.  But she giggled and cheered the 50 foot waterfall drop (twice!) and begged to go again each time.  She's pretty fearless when it comes to rides it seems.

We headed to Adventure Land after Frontier Land and went on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, where Mae Bae fell asleep, mid ride.  Three minutes later she woke up when we left the ride (and refused to nap for the rest of the day.  She was determined not to miss anything).  We were on the Jungle Cruise when it began to pour rain, but it was back to blue sky by the time we'd reached the end of the river and emerged from the covered boat.  

Then Sadie met her first Disney Character.  Unfortunately with her new hat she thought that the best thing to do was to charge Mary Poppins, with her little head down like a bull.  Thankfully the hat is soft.  And Mary Poppins was very gracious as we apologized and told Sadie that we do not charge people with our hat, and she said that she didn't think she'd done it on purpose, she was just a little top heavy with her new hat.  

After dinner we headed over to Epcot.  Sadie announced that she would like to live in an Earth shaped space ship.

This is my favorite picture of the day.  You may not be able to tell why until you see the close up:

Paul smiles through the tantrum without batting an eye.  This would be a I'm-done-with-pictures-pinch. Both girls were actually really well behaved 95% of the time today.  But we still had our moments!

After a walk around Epcot, which included going on the Nemo ride and walking what felt like miles and miles (my feet were pretty tired after hours of walking!) we took the ferry back across the lake, and then the monorail back to the main park.  In this picture I'm pretty tired!  And Mae Bae is trying to stand up to climb out of the boat!  

I have to say one thing kind of surprised me today.  We brought a stroller for Mae.  Sadie walked pretty much everywhere until about 4pm, when she got tired and Paul started carrying her around Epcot.  I was rather surprised to see how many, not exactly fit (to try to put it mildly), kids in the 8+ range were in double strollers (because they wouldn't fit in the single ones) at like 10am, being pushed around by their parents.  Something just seemed off about that.  It seems like Disney World would be a great place to get your kid outside and running around (or at least walking).  Instead of being pushed from ride to ride with a bag of cotton candy in their lap.  Anyways, that's just an observation.  I have a hard time imagining kids when I was a kid riding in a stroller after a certain age...

And that, in a nutshell, was our day!  I feel like we fit a lot in, since the park wasn't very crowded!

This is the first vacation we've taken with out little family in a very long time and we're pretty excited!

The Latest in Princess Dresses

Sadie and Mae are getting a very big surprise this week (through the magic of groupon, early Christmas presents and being Florida state residents now).  Two of these dresses were the first part of the surprise.  And since we only found out we were leaving for the surprise this week, on Friday afternoon (so only two full days to get ready), I managed to sew three of these dresses in a little over two days!

Sadie's Mass Injury, a Misunderstanding and the Mae Bae "Incident"

Yesterday at mass Sadie was standing next to a window (we were at the very back) at the English Mass that we'd gone to after oversleeping (waking up at 7:17 am is oversleeping in our house) when she slipped and banged her face against the marble windowsill.  

This picture was taken a little over and hour after Mass was over.  It's now turned into a noticeable purplish-blue color, that's not entirely unexpected since we'll be snapping quite a few pictures this week, and somehow the possibility of picture taking seems to be preceded by some sort of a facial injury in our family.

And since this is a Sadie picture I thought I'd add the latest variation of her favorite prayer.  She's getting a little more wordy:

"In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.  Dear God.  New Baby.  Give Mae Bae a new sister.  Give me a Mary.  (mumble, mumble, mumble).  In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen."

Sadie and I also had a small misunderstanding after walking home from Mass on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception last week.  Since Sadie had tried to receive yet again, I tried to explain that in a few years she would be old enough to receive communion, and that when she was she'd get to wear a beautiful white dress and a veil.  When we got home she set out to find her angel dress.  And she found her veil.  Then she stomped around the house wearing it.

I have a feeling that this is her newest strategy in her attempt to convince us that she's old enough to receive the Eucharist.  I can't help but wonder what her next move in her campaign is going to be.

Then there's Mae Bae.  Don't let her sweet princess fluffiness in the above picture fool you like it did the Eucharistic minister (and me) at Mass on Sunday.  Some time after the window sill incident it was time to go up for communion.  For obvious reasons to long time readers of this blog, I'm a bit nervous when I go up to receive from a Eucharistic minister, because if there's going to be a tongue/hand incident it seems far more likely to happen in an... "extraordinary"... situation of that sort (although I'll be the first to say that I can see why this parish needed a giant flock of eucharistic ministers because it was huge and very, very crowded).

Anyways, I was holding Mae Bae and I opened my mouth, received the eucharist without incident and breathed a sigh of relief that there'd been no dropping or slipping... and Mae Bae lunged.  I barely caught her hands as she went for the shiny golden dish, while the eucharistic minister quickly slipped her hand over the plate.  It was a seriously close call.  So apparently I have two little ones with big plans as we go forward for communion.

Now hopefully they don't start working together...

"Are you going to make Mary a cake?"

I know, I know, I've had a lot of cute-things-Sadie-said posts up recently.  I think it's because she's at that fantastic age where she's just absorbing everything and because our faith is something that comes up frequently in conversation around here, she thinks about it quite a bit.  As we got ready to go to Mass, two days ago (the same Mass where she attempted to convince the priest, yet again that she was old enough to receive communion) she began to ask questions and the conversation went something like this:

Sadie:  "Are you going to make Mary a cake today?"  I thought this was a bit odd.  She'd gone in at some point and gotten the little bakers dough Mary-baby that we'd made for the Feast of the Nativity of Mary, and had brought it out and put it on the dining room table, after having a conversation with it about finding something she'd lost.  I'm sure she'd heard us talking about how we were going to Mass for the Immaculate Conception, but we hadn't talked about what "Immaculate Conception" meant, and I don't think we'd even mentioned Mary yet.  Finals had been ruling the last two weeks around here, so this was going to be a low key feast day celebration.
Me:  "No, we made a cake for Mary's birthday."
Sadie:  "Is today Mary's birthday?  Are you going to make her a cake?"  She eyed the cake flour as I got something out of pantry.  
Me:  "No, today isn't Mary's birthday.  We did make a cake for her birthday."  I got down on the floor to be at Sadie's level as I tried to think of a way to explain the Immaculate Conception.  "This is the day that we celebrate Mary starting to grow in her Mommy's tummy."
Sadie:  She paused and then looks at me expectantly.  "Is she born yet?"
Me:  I quickly tried to figure out how to explain how we celebrate the liturgical year in a way a three year old would understand:  "In our story of the year she's not.  She's just a teeny tiny baby in her Mommy's tummy.  But in real life she was born a long time ago."  Sadie understands the "long time ago" part pretty well, or at least finds it interesting, because she's constantly asking me how old Mary and Jesus are.  
Sadie:  "Are you going to make her a cake?"  Apparently the link between cake and feast days is pretty strong in her three year old mind.  Thankfully a neighbor made cupcakes, so Sadie did end up getting her feast day fix the next day at lunch.  

A while later Sadie sat next to me at Mass while Mae Bae dozed.  Sadie had insisted on holding the new Mass pew card (it was our first time going to the revised Mass and it did definitely make me more aware of what was being said, despite the fact that Sadie was wiggling the card pretty much non-stop).

As we sat she traced the response that had music written above it with her finger and sang to herself very,very quietly "Happy Birthday to you.  Happy Birthday to you.  Happy Birthday dear Mary.  Happy Birthday to you."  "Shhhhh."  I hushed her quietly, as she gave me a wide smile.  I was grateful that this Mass was in a classroom and we had taken two desks that were well over to the side so that Mae could be in her stroller, but still be out of the way.  As a result her tiny song, which was so small, couldn't be heard by anyone other than me, it was just the tiniest whisper of a tune, which seemed to burst forth every time I wasn't hushing her.

A while later, as we stood in the kitchen, she gave it one last shot:  "Are you going to make Mary a cake?" she asked hopefully.  Maybe next year I'll remember too.

And for all of you who are interested in a more grown up explanation than the one I gave Sadie (which I was hoping to do in a post here, but just didn't get around to!  Again, maybe next year!), there's a good one here.

Shiny Happy Catholics

After lunch this afternoon, as Mae napped peacefully, I announced to Sadie that we had a guest coming over.  "My friend Martha is coming to visit in a little while.  You remember my friend Martha? " I asked her.  "Miss Martha!"  Sadie quickly corrected me.

Sadie was instantly charmed when she met Miss Martha, who was wearing a beautiful bright flowing "twirly" skirt  the first time she met Sadie.  Sadie asked about at the start of the following two tea visits (weeks apart.... apparently it made a big impression!).  When Sadie sees Miss Martha she's quick to say "Miss Martha I missed you sooooooo much!"

I've become an avid reader of Miss Martha's blog, Shiny Happy Catholics.  When I found out that Martha had a new blog I was pretty excited because she's a fantastic story teller who can make just about any subject hilariously interesting (although she has addresses all sorts of topics and I'm always checking in to see if she has a new post).  So I'd strongly recommend it if you're looking for new reading material! 

The Home Stretch!

Subject matter jurisdiction....  28 USC... 8 (c) 1...  1331... I have Civil Procedure echoing around my brain.  I woke up with terms running in a pretty much non-stop stream to Mae Bae saying "Ma, ma, ma, ma, ma!!!!"

Paul basically explained what he'd learned this semester to me and then had be quiz him from 7-something to almost midnight last night.  While proofreading theology papers for his Masters was a bit more interesting, I have been amazed as I quiz him by how much he's learned!  And if anyone wants to offer up a quick prayer for him, he's taking the exam today at 9 am and I'm sure he'd appreciate it!

This is his last exam before the Christmas break and I am so excited that the last two weeks of finals are almost over and that we'll be seeing him again!

Daily Dose of Cuteness: Round 2: Sadie's Determination to Receive...

We stayed on campus for Mass today and Sadie apparently thought she had a chance of tricking a priest that she didn't recognize into giving her the Eucharist.  I was carrying her when I went up to receive and as I turned to go back to my seat I realized that she'd been sticking out her tongue and pointing to it, while we were at the front.  Thankfully this priest didn't fall for it either.  As I pointed out to Sadie: "If you're young enough to be carried up to the front, he knows you're probably too young to receive."  But hey, she's probably about halfway there!

When we returned to our seat I whispered: "Did you just try to trick the priest into giving you Jesus."  He answer was an emphatic: "Yes!"

I have a feeling we're going to have this conversation to come many times in the coming years.

My Voting Criteria

Yesterday's post resulted in some great discussion and questions, and had me thinking over my own voting criteria as I went about the day trying to regain some control over the house.  You see, usually I clean after the girls to bed, but this last week I sewed and made rosaries after bedtime, and the house was definitely in disarray.  One bed could hardly be located under the pile of clothes when I began cleaning (it felt good to get that done!).  As a result I didn't have much time to join in the conversation until this morning.

Here is, roughly, the criteria I use when I go to the ballot box:

First there are the non-negotiable qualities that I look for.  The politician must be solidly pro-life (at least that is the dream... that there will be a "solidly" pro-life choice...  sometimes we have to make due with the choices we have on the ticket...).  This means they protect human life, regardless of the circumstances, from conception to birth (and beyond).  It means they aren't okay with embryonic stem cell research (and hopefully they understand that the alternative is much more promising anyway) and that they're going to fight against euthanasia and eugenics.  Those are the top requirements.

Then I go down to the next tier of requirements (on my personal list), which is the whole marriage issue and the issue of capital punishment.  For me, the issue of capital punishment is slightly more negotiable than other "life related" issues.  I really would like a candidate who was ready to lock up offenders who were convicted of horrific crimes and throw away the key, but who wasn't for capital punishment. I guess I'd say my belief is in line with Blessed John Paul the Great in Evangelium Vitae:

"...the nature and extent of the punishment must be carefully evaluated and decided upon and ought not go to the extreme of executing the offender except in cases of absolute necessity: In other words, when it would not be possible otherwise to defend society. Today, however as a result of steady improvements in the organization of the penal system, such cases are very rare, if not practically non-existent."

I'm not sure how often I would say it is necessary these days to execute someone to defend society.  I mean, most of these guys aren't going to be posing much of a threat from the inside of their cell in a super-max prison.  But, as it is, I do give candidates more lee-way on this issue, and it isn't a deal breaker like abortion is.

Because most pro-life candidates are also pro-marriage, that issue doesn't usually come up.  But if I were given the choice of a pro-life candidate who wasn't going to defend the definition of marriage as I understand it/ and a pro-choice canddiate who was for "traditional" marriage, I can tell you I'd still be voting for the pro-life candidate because on the list of priorities I'd put the slaughter of the unborn at the very top. However, again, it's rare that one needs to make that choice, because these things generally fall along party lines.  

When voting I don't buy into the line that all evils are equal.  When our family living below the poverty level, and eating rice and beans for a month while we figured out finances after we moved, it was not an evil on par with a child be torn apart in his mother's womb.  Us struggling to pay the $1600 bill that we just received from a collection agency (after contesting it and hearing nothing from the hospital until now... not even another bill...) for the horrible care I received during my miscarriage, is not equal to a child being murdered.  Poverty is a very real issue, and a very important one, but there are different ways of addressing it.  And so, while I probably am more towards the center on this particular issues than the average conservative, it usually doesn't affect the way I'm going to vote, because abortion is a greater and more immediate evil.

On the immigration issue I'm much closer to Newt than Bachmann.  Maybe it's because I grew up in California and can picture the faces of some of illegal immigrants that I knew when I worked on a living-wage campaign at my "we're Catholic on social issues because that's all that matters... but we pay our workers so far below a living wage that most of them work three jobs to put food on the table" college and can still see the face of one of the school's management personal telling us "you know these 9 out of 10 of these workers are illegal and could get deported if you push the issue" or some combination of those words (they did end up getting a living wage).

I'm all for securing our borders. I'd love it if the drug... personnel... that are using the US Forest service land to produce cash crops in Northern California, weren't able to make it up each year.  But my stomach churns a bit when Bachmann says she's going to pour hundreds of billions of dollars into deporting every man, woman and child she can find that doesn't have the right papers.

So those are my main determining factors when I vote.  It's pretty much impossible to find a candidate who I agree with 100%.  It's even harder to find a candidate that doesn't have some sort of dubious record on the top issues, in their past.  Some I can live with (think Santorum and the Specter debacle... to which I say... why Rick?  why?).  Others I can't (Romney and his whatever-way-the-wind-blows-pro-whatever stance and voting record).  Mostly the ones I "can live with" I live with  because there are no better options.  Santorum's voting mistake is still better than the mistakes and issues that the other candidates support (when I sum up the factors I use) and so I make my decision accordingly.

I'm sure I've missed some issues here.  But these are the patchwork I use when I vote.  If you're interested in a great Voter's Guide with quite a bit more knowledge than what I've written here I'd suggest this.  It was suggested in the comment section yesterday (thank you!) and it will definitely give you some clear instructions on the importance of the issues!

My New Serger!

I'm super excited.  I've been dreaming about two sewing machines.  Because apparently I have delusions that four sewing machines would fit in our home.  The first was a serger and the second was an embroidery machine (because Costco has a embroidery machine for around $300 that seems to do the same things that machines that are usually 10 times more do, and that has great reviews).

With a big purchase like this, I waited and waited and finally, the waiting paid off.  A few days after Thanksgiving, one of the sales on Joann's was an online only serger deal, with a $300 serger on sale for $129.  Since it's a business expense it's tax deductible for my store.  Then I went through ebates (I know, I know, ebates!), which was offering double the percentage of cash back at that moment at 10% (I don't think I ever mentioned this, but my ebates rebate was over $120, so it really does work!  It will be far less this time without the moving expenses I'm sure!).  And I  thought I'd gotten a pretty good deal, with the serger being knocked down to around $117.  Yesterday I got an email from Mastercard, for a promotion I'd signed up for, saying that I'd gotten a $20 Mastercard gift card as a result of the purchase too!  Knocking down the final serger price to $97 (shipped).

So I'm pretty excited.  I just finished making up the rush that came in after Thanksgiving (yay!) so now I can take the time to try and figure the new machine out!  Hopefully it won't be too confusing!

Had Enough Yet?

I'm already feeling a tad bit annoyed about the elections.  It's kind of like the feeling I get when I hear Christmas music and see a store putting up decorations, next to the Halloween costumes for a October holiday that hasn't even passed by yet.  I mean, I love hearing Christmas music and seeing the decorations after Thanksgiving, and I can even tolerate the stores pushing it back before the last Thursday in November.  But October?  Really?  Do we really need an entire season (as in 3 months) of Christmas?

Still, even Christmas in October has one redeeming point.  It reminded me to start making my Jesse tree and getting ready for advent.  The intense election coverage doesn't even have that point in it's favor.

For the first five minutes it might have been interesting, if rather disgusting and dishonest, to see liberal media outlets turn their sights on whoever was the man or woman, of the moment in the GOP.  They'd show sound bites of them that taken out of context, which made each in turn look like a blathering idiot, while seeing if there was anything the candidate had done since kindergarten that might be used as ammunition against them.  I mean, at least it demonstrated the complete lack of journalistic ethics in much of our mainstream media.  One by one the leaders would fall off the top and begin to attempt to reclimb the heights from the single digit poll number section.

As a result, I attempt to get my information as to what the candidates believe directly from their own words and from their voting records.  Yet as I listen to the debates, and hear the candidates own beliefs, from their own mouths, I still have a hard time finding much that makes me excited to go to the voting booth anytime soon.

And let's face it, for me to really like a candidate they only really need one thing: to be solidly pro-life.  In other words, they must understand that once a life is formed it is a life and should be protected as such.  How hard should it be to meet that standard in a party that's supposed to be the pro-life party?  Apparently harder than one would imagine.

Let's start with the former front runner, who's seemed to be the most consistently towards the top of the polls.  The media just doesn't understand why pro-lifers are leery of Romney.  After all, they tell us, everyone flip flops on all sorts of issues.  Everyone.  And then they show various other candidates who've flip flopped on taxes and Medicare and social security.  And I sit there thinking, are you really that dense?  Do you really not see what the differences between voting for what's politically expedient when it's an issue of tax cuts and voting for what's expedient when it means the death of thousands of children?  The thing is, we've seen "solidly pro-life candidates" sell out when the stakes were high enough and it meant getting what they wanted.  So the idea that Mitt "I was pro-choice because that's what it took to get elected in Massachusetts, but now I'm pro-life because that's what the majority of Americans are" Romney will fight for the rights of the unborn isn't something that most of us can buy into.  So there's one candidate I can easily check of my list.

Next there's Newt.  I was trying to like him.  I was pretty young when he was the speaker of the house, so my memories of him are rather vague.  And then he came out with his "life begins at implantation" line and I wanted to throw something at the computer screen.  I'd actually never heard that particular argument until a facebook debate the week before, and I have to admit, I find it kind of baffling.  It buys into the pro-death line that whether life exists, is based on the mother's body, not on what's already forming when conception occurred, usually about a week earlier.  By Newt's logic, the abortion pills would all be a-okay.  So my support of Newt went out the window when he said those words.

Now if only we could get Santorum to do a bit better in the debates.  He just doesn't have the slimmy Washington quality that keeps him from losing his cool, maybe because he really cares about the unborn, and that passion can make him seem like a bit of a hot head when he's being questioned (Paul Zummo wrote a great article asking why more Catholic don't vote for him, here).

And, in the end, I'll be voting for him because he's the only candidate who I believe will honestly do his best to protect the unborn.  Isn't it sad that out of a large pool of supposed "pro-lifers" they all seem to hedge their bets in some way by limiting their definitions of life to make themselves more electable?  But I guess that's just politics as usual...  Either way, I'll throw my support entirely behind whoever the GOP choses, when the time comes.  Because no one that comes out of the convention could be more pro-death than our current, if they're born alive let them die in a closet, President.

"Do You Want to Hold Hands?!?!"

There's a little joke in our family that's been going around since Sadie's two year well baby checkup, when she cried when the doctor came in the room and he suggested that we put her in day care because she was clearly a shrinking violet.  He didn't believe that she could possibly remember the monthly appointments she'd had for ear infections for the first eighteen months of her life, which had pretty much convinced her that crossing the threshold of that office was the worst idea imaginable.  And so, whenever Sadie does something ridiculously extroverted, which is pretty frequent, there's often a comment from one family member or another about how it's a shame she's so shy.  It's not unusual for her to greet every preschooler we walk by, with an outgoing "Hi!" and she labels anyone who's about her size "friend!"  Occasionally, if she sees a little girl wearing pink she has to ask: "Are you a princess ballerina?"  

The latest event has had my mom and I laughing on and off for the last few days.  Nani and Grumpa were visiting this past week, and while they were here we took the girls to the zoo.  While walking by the alligators, Sadie, who was a little nervous despite the double fence, announced that she wouldn't be looking at the alligators because she "didn't want to worry about it."  The day before we'd gone for a drive down Alligator Alley and I think she may have realized that the 26 alligators I counted from the car as we drove, live rather close to our current home.

As she ignored the alligators, so she wouldn't "worry about it" a mom with three very cute little boys walked by.  I'd guess that they were 2, 4 and 6.  Sadie, instantly smiled and said "Hi Guys!"  The little boys eyed her nervously (with good reason apparently, our biggest challenge has been explaining boundaries and having the concept stick, since Sadie still thinks everyone wants a hug or to hold hands since she thinks those are two of the greatest things ever...).  The next thing I knew she walked over and reached for the hand of the oldest boy, while saying: "Do you want to hold hands?!?!" in a little sing song voice, while he looked horrified by the idea and all the adults present tried not to laugh.  We managed to wrangle Sadie back over by the alligators, so the family could escape.

Poor Daddy didn't quite think the story was as humorous as I did.  I think he's already beginning to imagine the teenage years and I think he may already be wishing she were a little less extroverted!

The Problem with Pedestals

Sometimes I think our expectations for bloggers can be a bit too high.  I mean, we don't agree on every single issue with our real life friends, do we?  Variety is a part of life.  Can we really expect a blogger, some person who's likely thousands of miles away, to meet some perfect standard?  

I'd hate to burst any bubbles, but as those of you who know me in real life and as those who have gotten to know me via my blog over the past few years have likely already figured out, I'm a pretty regular mom who likes to write, and I happen to share my thoughts here.  They reflect my journey as a Catholic convert, wife and mother, doing my best to live out my vocation. 

Because I write here every day you sometimes you get to read about my better moments and my not-so-spectacular moments.  Most of us who are down here who are members of the Church Militant haven't quite achieved the level of sainthood that bloggers are apparently expected to have before we begin sharing our thoughts in the blogging world.  It's pretty obvious that my posts aren't authoritative.  They're based on my experiences.  

Thus the subject matter here on the blog springs from my experiences.  I write about our faith, and our various choices, not to insult others who've made different decisions, but because I'm writing about our life.  And for the most part I know that I can describe a choice we've made, and you can make a different choice, and you don't have to feel insulted because we don't agree on what's best for our individual families.  So I can write about being a stay-at-home mom, without having to add that I know plenty of great working moms after every sentence I write, just in case someone imagines that my being a stay at home mom is an affront to all the women who've made different choices.  

I have to say that I have thought it was odd in the past when I've written a post about something that's happened in my life only to have it met with a response from some outraged reader somewhere, who's pretty certain that my post was an insult to women everywhere.  I was baffled when I posted something once about making it to the whatever-month-mark nursing only to receive a note from a friend about how not everyone could breastfeed.  Because that wasn't even close to the point of my post.  

Apparently at least one reader thinks that I spend a lot of time thinking that my lifestyle choices are the only ones that could possibly be right.  While I'm pretty absolute in terms of right and wrong on certain moral/religious issues, imagining that I think our way of sleeping, diapering, educating, and generally running our household is the only way to do it, is simply not true.  I do what works best for us.  I share it here because, well, this blog is about the things that I know.  I'm not going to judge your way of sleeping/diapering/educating/running your household because... well... I can't imagine having the energy to even think about doing that... and to be honest, those aren't the kind of differences I care about.  They aren't questions with a wrong or right answer.

Anyways... I hope everyone understands that this is the blog that I write, often late at night when I should be sleeping, or early in the morning when I should be washing dishes, so I really don't have the time to pour over every single word that I write, to see if someone, somewhere could possibly be offended by it.  I'm pretty sure quite a few people could (and likely are).  

Still, despite my blogging and real life short comings, I don't plan on throwing in the towel any time soon.  

So... if my blog is a near occasion of sin for you, if reading it makes you see red and if you'd like to read the worst possible intentions in every word I write, and click away to post a comment that you and I both know I won't publish, then maybe it'd be best to take a deep breath and click the "close" button.  Maybe you could say a prayer for me and for the flaws you've found here and we'll both be better off as a result.  After all, the last six months haven't been the easiest (you know, four trips to the hospital in three months, the loss of a child, that kind of thing) and carefully pouring over my words after being attacked on what I felt was a pretty mild blog post probably isn't the most important thing in my life at the moment (nor is responding to angry comments that knowingly flout the few combox rules I've asked you to respect).  

And for those of you who don't think my blog is the worst thing you've read all week, or who at least understand that I'm human, and don't need to be lectured and accused of being and insensitive, judgmental shrew, thanks for sticking around!  I've appreciate what I've learned from you over the past years and the friendships I've discovered!  

The Myth of Socialization

I’ll be the first one to admit that I’ve always been a little bit leery of the whole “socialization” objection to homeschooling.  But it’s always the first one that comes up, when someone, who’s likely never given homeschooling more than ten minutes of thought before, hears that you’re planning on going that route and decides that they must have an opinion/objection, even if they don’t know anything about the subject. 

The conversation goes something like this:

Random Person in a Store:  “Oh what a cute little girl!  You’re almost big enough to go to school!” (because when Sadie was two she was frequently mistaken for a kid that was getting ready to enter kindergarten…).

Me:  Nodding.

Paul:  “Actually we’re going to homeschool.” (He apparently hasn’t been discouraged enough by random acquaintances/hairdressers/ random people on the street to know that we don’t talk about this!).

Me:  Wincing.  Shooting Paul a “look”.

R.P.I.A.S: “Oh….  Well… Homeschooling.  Well what are you going to do about socialization?”

Me:  Still wincing as Paul begins to explain that there are plenty of opportunities for socialization….

That’s roughly a piece of the conversation that I feel like I’ve had 50 million times over the past three years (note: there may be some exaggeration going on in the actual number of times… but it sure doesn’t feel like it!). 

You see, I don’t launch into the whole “there are plenty of opportunities for socialization speech, because, while it’s true there are plenty of “opportunities for socialization” for homeschooled children, and I’m sure we’ll be taking advantage of some of them in a few years, the very reason I first considered homeschooling was the “socialization” that I’d witnessed.  As an aside, explaining that last sentence that I just typed is definitely not a valuable point to interject in the conversation above….  Unless you want the person you’re speaking with to act like you’re insane. 

Paul and I differ in our reasons for wanting to homeschool, and his reason appears to be infinitely more acceptable.  He tells stories about a drunken teacher dancing around the room in a young grade school class and people nod in horror and understanding.  But my experience was different.  I had awesome teachers.  But when I try to explain the sort of “socialization” I’ve seen and experienced and people tend to get defensive.  After all, the kid has got to “grow” a “thick skin.”

I really began considering homeschooling when I was a cheerleading coach at a local high school.  I certainly couldn’t have been considered “sheltered” before the job, but even the wildest college stories I’d heard didn’t compare with what these fourteen and fifteen year old girls were talking about doing.  It was truly horrifying.  That combined with my own high school experiences of pretty severe harassment (105-lb-girl-slammed-into-locker-by-a football-player-who-“likes”-her type experiences… my high school horror stories are heavily bruised to say the least, which may be an explanation for the black belt I got in college, in case you’ve ever wondered!) and Paul and I came to a quick agreement that we wouldn’t be taking the traditional route.

Still, I’ve been rethinking “socialization” even more lately.  I lay in bed, tired but unable to sleep, thinking about it.  Do I need to subject Sadie to the playgroup pack mentality when one kid decides she won’t be playing with them today, even though they were buddies last week, and when she skips up and says “Hi!  I’m so glad to see you!” they turn and give her a good hard shove and are later caught trying to shove her off the top of the play tower because she kept following them around asking to play? 

Two months ago Sadie was bubbly and thrilled to go to playgroup.  Yesterday she sat for most of the day, staring off into space with a little frown, despite the ice cream cake we’d got for Grumpa’s birthday visit, after being repeatedly shoved and yelled at (“No, Sadie, no!”) when she asked to play, despite multiple interventions.  I’m incredibly grateful Nani was at playgroup, because I’m afraid if she hadn’t been, Sadie would be in the hospital today after an six foot fall to the ground below (that Nani was able to prevent when Sadie was shoved at the top of the play structure stairs).  I felt a little sick all day too, as I watched her realize that people can be mean. 

So we’ll be doing play dates.  But I think we’ll be avoiding the large-group activities for a while.  My three year old doesn’t need a thicker skin.  She doesn’t need to “toughen up”.  I’d like to preserve her innocence and joy a tiny bit longer.  Even if that means we aren’t doing any heavy duty “socialization” on a daily basis.  Besides, if having to get along with her sister, and any future siblings that we may be blessed with, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, isn’t socialization, I don’t know what is!  

It's Raining, It's Pouring...

I was laying down with Sadie and Mae at the end of nap time on Tuesday, thinking of my upcoming goals for the afternoon.  Nani and Grumpa were on a plane from Chicago to Florida at that very moment and while my kitchen and dining room were spotless after a morning of working on them, the living room still looked like a toy store had exploded in the center of it, with train pieces strewn everywhere.  The girls were both waking up when the sound started and for a moment I lay and listened to it, confused.  Water was pouring down on the roof.

That sound has always been one of my favorites.  Growing up we had a metal roof and we lived in an area with four seasons.  I loved the pitter patter of rain, and the sound of snow sliding off and plunging to the ground to form a giant pile at the edge of the porch.  But I instantly suspected that something wasn't right when I heard it in the apartment.  After all, we live on the second floor of a four floor building.  Could it really be raining so hard that the rain would be that loud on the windows outside.

So I got the girls up and walked out to see if a giant storm had swept in, obscuring the blue sky I'd seen ten minutes earlier.  Instead the sound of pouring water was accompanied by a flawless blue sky.  This was troubling.  So I called Paul and asked him if he heard the water.  Standing on the opposite side of the apartment, he looked at me like I was crazy, so I motioned for him to walk over to the hallway and as he did he heard it too.  It sounded like a river pouring down the walls.  I stuck my head outside our apartment and the sound was muted.  Back inside it was still loud.  That's never a good sign.

Paul called the maintenance guys, but no one was there.  He sent an email to them and I headed out the front door, determined to find someone as a puddle began to form in our entry way.  Thankfully as I looked over the balcony outside our apartment I saw one of the school workers, checking his phone (he'd just gotten Paul's email).  His first words were: "It's already gotten down to you?"  He already knew (and wow!  They were very fast!).  It had apparently started two floors above us when a sink pipe broke.  He assured us that it was already stopped (which was my main concern).

I have to say, I'm amazed at how long it took for all of the water to pass by our floor.  Thirty minutes later the flow was still quite steady.  Around forty five minutes later, the water overcame the trickling down from the sprinkler as I prepared dinner.  It barely missed me (Unfortunately that didn't last.  It stopped for a few minutes and I forgot about it and stepped back over to the sink just as it started again!).  That was when I started laughing.  If Paul hadn't been in the office, studying for his second final, he probably would have thought I'd lost it.

Maybe the last few years have provided a bit of perspective.  From Paul losing his job a month after Sadie was born for being Catholic (his boss was refusing to let the predominantly Catholic kids in their care go to Mass... and they were begging to go to Mass... and legally the home was required to let them go... and he spoke up...), to rushing Sadie to the hospital when our neighbors pot smoke revealed her allergy, to the four hospital visits in three months after moving to Florida, things haven't really gone smoothly.  And so, in the grand scheme of things, a little bit of water (or quite a bit of water in this case)  doesn't feel like that big a deal.  Inconvenient, yes.  Worth getting upset over?  Not if I could help it.

In the end, the water stopped and nothing was ruined (one of the nice things about having tile floors).  I'm not sure if I would have been able to remain un-upset if the leak had opened up somewhere a little less convenient... like above my fabric in the office...  or in a packed full closet that would have required a lot of drying and work.  I'm pretty sure either of those mishaps would have made the entire scene into a very big deal.

I'm not sure I could keep my cool in a fabric related incident...