Mason 365: Day 10

Runnin' Against The Clock

I recently took upon myself the fun, though arduous, task of creating two custom pages of "memories" (mostly pictures) from this past year to be printed in Logan's school yearbook. Most likely for the benefit of the creatively challenged parent (i.e. yours truly), the yearbook website suggested some fill-in-the-blanks type options for memories he might want to include. Since I had absolutely no idea how I wanted to set the page up, I recorded a number of age-appropriate suggestions in a Word document and asked him for the answers a few at a time over the course of a day.

As we all know, one of the paramount components of the 4-year-old kindergarten curriculum is the importance of sharing - second only to the importance of parental modeling. So as to uphold my civic duty in helping provide my son a quality education both at school and in the home... I thought I'd share.

Before we begin, every good post needs a Color Key.
Or maybe that's maps...
Or nuclear reactor manuals...
Well, at any rate, my post has one.
It's just more entertaining that way.
Since the post is about Logan, I've chosen his favorite colors: blue and green.
Excellent Coincidence: They happen to be my favorites as well.

Fun Color Key!
Question
Such A Sweetie
Come Again?
Maternal Commentary

Oh yeah, one last thing before we begin.
Some of the questions have more than one answer.
I'll refer to these as my attempts.
If the first answer seemed not-so-yearbook-friendly and/or completely insane, I repeated the question in hopes of eventually arriving at something I could use.
Sometimes the answers improved.
...sometimes they didn't.

4K Yearbook Sucesses and Fails

A talent that I have is... drying off after the shower.

Julianne has been known to start drying off before she gets into the shower, so I suppose, at our house at least, waiting until you're actually soggy to begin the drying process could be considered a talent; 

He has also managed to avoid adopting the Corinne Method of vigorous drip-drying combined with racing furiously around the house, moaning mournfully, "Cwothes, Cwo-o-othes," then screeching and running off again when anyone tries to put some one you. 

So that's a plus.

My hero is... Mason because I love him. <3

This year I feel most grateful for... my mom because I love her. <3

My favorite thing to do is... nothing.

To be fair, although this answer appears to be lacking in ambition at the surface level, we have so much stuff going on around here that, every so often, 'nothing' is my favorite thing to do as well.

My favorite subject at school is... recess.

I kind of thought that didn't start until they were a little older...

My proudest moment this year was... starting Highland school. <3

Who has two thumbs and made the right call about schooling?
THIS Mom!
Every little win counts :)

The thing I love most about my mom is... she makes me waffles in the morning.

(from the Eggo box...)

The thing I like most about my dad is...

first attempt: ...he takes a shower.

There is something to be said for good hygiene...
By the way, I also shower. Just not in the morning. I'm too busy "making" waffles... and putting out fires.

second attempt: he farms a goat

yeah...except he doesn't!

Needless to say, that one didn't make the yearbook.

A time I felt really great this year was... when I ate corn dogs.

Some people just really appreciate the little things in life.

The word that best describes me is...

first attempt: goat  (hmm... petting zoo as a babysitting alternative?)

second attempt: Logan  (true - if a bit obvious)

My favorite place in the world is... America.

(shakes head) Ethnocentrism at such an early age.
Still, at least he know where he lives.

My favorite thing to wear is...

first attempt: an afro  (Blame Madagascar. He's only seen it once.)

second attempt: khaki pants  (infinitely better)

(Now would be an excellent time to tell you that after Julianne got home from school, she began stepping in from time to time to offer her input. (You won't be surprised to learn that she wants to do everything Logan does...)
I've added her in to the key as pink. That's her current favorite color. She passed purple down to Corinne when she changed her default setting to pink.
Too bad if I ever get around to painting their room it is still going to be all purple... because I already bought the paint... and I prefer purple.
Sometimes it's good to be the mom :) Anyhow...
Julianne's answer is "dress shirt," which isn't exactly what you're expecting. 
According to the New Julianne Dictionary Preschool Edition, "dress shirt (n.) is defined as "any dress worn as a shirt, over jeans - as shown: 

One of Julianne's more interesting clothing combos.
It's kind of my fault.
She insisted on wearing dresses in the winter,
so I insisted she wear pants underneath.
Maybe it'll catch on...
or not.
They're playing "doggie" here.
The dog talks.

If I were an animal I would be a...

Julianne said "goat", probably because her brother thinks he already is one.

Logan said "cheetah because they run fast and eat people."

Me: Because they eat people?! Do you want to eat people?

Logan (shrugs): Sure.

I took a few steps back and slipped over the baby gate unnoticed. Close one.

A memory from this year that makes me smile is... Mrs. Parker. <3
That's his 4K teacher. She's such a sweetheart. 
He got the most beautiful, spontaneous little guy grin the moment he thought of her. Love it.
Julianne's going to have her next year, and I have to admit I'm a little glad for both of us.
Now I don't have to give her up just yet :)

My favorite memory from vacation this year was... the sunken submarine at the hotel pool.

It was pretty fantastic.

The Polynesian Water Park
Wisconsin Dells
Kids 12 and under stay free!

One of my favorite foods is... apples.

An apple (or 15) a day...
No joke. I can hardly keep apples in the house.
I'm seriously considering buying a tree.

For Halloween this year I was... Chester from The Kissing Hand.

Front View

Back View
His bag has a copy of the book cover on it.

Something big that happened to my family this year was... Baby Mason was born. <3
...and we have a winner!

My favorite toy is...
Julianne says Counting Pal.
Logan says "my humongous puppy dog from Aunt Karla."
Thanks Aunt Karla!

My favorite thing to do is... dance!

I want to fill this space with a video of Corinne dancing, because she does the most adorable baby dance.
But I haven't been able to get a video of it yet that does it justice.
Stay tuned...

My favorite book character of all time is... Frog & Toad.
They really should have considered multiple-character titles when drafting this question.
Also, I love Frog & Toad too.

My favorite author is... Arnold Lobel.
He wrote Frog & Toad.
Owl At Home is another winner.

I love to spend time with... Mom because I love her.
aww

My favorite game to play is... Star Wars Monopoly.
Quality time spent with Dad on the weekends.
I don't do Monopoly.

And finally.... (desktop drumroll please):

When I grow up, I want to be... 
first attempt: a snowman. (that's just cold)
second attempt: a king. (dream big...)
third attempt: a papa and a Charter worker.
...just like his dad. 
I can live with that.

The Finished Product!

(Sort of...)

Technology has really  been fighting me every step of the way on this one and,
although I was certainly the underdog,
I called on my last-ditch secret weapon, Deputy Print Screen, to save the day.
Just as the final seconds were ticking down, we pulled off the unlikely win
and got the image to you safe and sound...
until the copyright enforcement folks arrive anyway.
(But that's an element of technology that I have no knowledge of for another day.)

The custom page background is a photo we took of the Wisconsin River last summer when we were on vacation in the Dells. Some certain naysayers said that doesn't really matter because you can hardly see any of it and no one would know what it is.
But I know it's special, and now so do you :)
So that makes several of us.

I finally marked the custom pages 'Print Ready,' with little to no time to spare,

the night before it was due...

...really took me back to every deadline I've ever been given

ever.

Can't wait to see the officially finished project when the yearbooks arrive.
You've been good to us 4K.
We'll Miss You!

Mason 365: Day 9

 The Face on the Pampers Box

Ever read The Face on the Milk Carton?

Next time Zach goes to the store, I'm going to tell him to try to find some diaper boxes with
pictures of other people's kids on them.

I have enough pictures of our kids already.

The little guys are even both eyeing up the same part of Mom.
Hmm...

If I've said it once, I've said it a hundred times:

Don't go out modeling without telling someone first!
Some babies will just never learn.

Mason 365: Day 8

Chi-Baba Chi-Baba Chihuahua

Anyone besides me familiar with Chi-Baba, one of the best, cutest, most entertaining baby songs ever?

If not, either take your pick or *sigh* miss out and skip to the bottom:

Perry Como

Mini History Lesson: In 1947, this is what was considered "pop" music. It spent 12 weeks on the Billboard Chart and was #1 for a couple of them. In other semi-relevant news, Perry Como grew up in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania which is under an hour from where I grew up and a little under half an hour from our first house in Bethel Park. There's a big statue of him there and I remember them having at least one big parade in his honor.The "video" is just a picture of a pretty cool, ancient record player as, unfortunately (perhaps) Perry didn't quite make it to the age of MTV.

The Wiggles

Love The Wiggles. I can see myself "jamming" to them in the car long after my kids are grown up and listening to... well I'd rather not even think about what. Maybe I'll get lucky and pop music will have turned the old 180 back to 1947 by then, but somehow I doubt it. At any rate, some 60 years later, they seem to have also missed the MTV boat as the only Chi-Baba "video" I could find is an audio recording with a picture of the album cover. (Which could be helpful if you're in the market for a cute album for the kiddos. "Murray Had A Turtle" is equally close to our hearts.) 

So... looks like it's a listening day here at Cereal Mom Blog. Enjoy!

Having absolutely no knowledge of the Italian culture apart from what can be learned at Pizza Hut, I had originally assumed that the song was written in Italian. However, following some strenuous Internet research, I've become somewhat convinced that the song's official dialect is, in fact, complete and total Gibberish made up, to some degree, to emulate traditional Italian.
After all, Chi-Baba is supposed to be an Italian lullaby. And what more appropriate language to sing to a baby in than their native Gibberish?
Interesting Side Note: I once read that before babies start to specialize, their 'babble' actually comprises every sound from every known language spoken on earth. Almost makes me wish they didn't have to choose...
So the long and short moral here is: don't think about it too hard.
It's a weird but sweet song and my little ones love it.




Julianne was a bit later for school this morning than I had planned because just as we were about to head out the door, Logan decided that Mason was in desperate need of a driving buddy. His buddy of choice was this pet chihuahua that he can't sleep without.
Logan's previous nighttime companion was this adorable duck baby blankie that I got at Babies 'R Us on clearance when he was a couple of months old.

Duck had a good run, but last May we were garage saling (don't question my terminology - "garage saling" is clearly beyond reproach) at one of the neighbor's houses when he was displaced by "Doggie" the beanie chihuahua.
Shameful Admission: When Logan talked me into purchasing Doggie at the garage sale, I was definitely convinced he was a kangaroo.
He looks nothing like one.
Zach had to straighten me out.

I wanted to find a picture of Logan with his duck blankie, but sadly,
I couldn't, so I uploaded the two next best things:
A picture of Logan with a  duck...
June 2, 2009
18 months old

And a picture of the actual duck blankie
that I found on Google Images -
minus the name Jacob embroidered on it.
They don't offer those kinds of
services in the BRU Clearance section.

Now here's where the photography finally comes in to my "photography" project...

I didn't have a lot of time to take this shot and the flash didn't go off,

so I wasn't sure whether or not it would turn out to be out of focus.

It is, but just a little, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to try my hand at some actual photo editing technique.

Anyone have a favorite?

This is the original.

Cropped.

Black and White.

Logan was so excited to share his prized pet chihuahua with his baby brother.
When we returned from the preschool run, Logan actually got him to truly hold it in one hand, facing forward, so you could tell it was a chihuahua... or a kangaroo.
That's the first time I've seen him really grip on to something like he actually wanted it, rather than it just having been placed there between his two hands.
Logan's even been working on a sleep schedule so that Mason can have some sleepovers with Doggie and some of Logan's less acclaimed bed buddies as well. I tried to explain to him why that wasn't really necessary at Mason's age, but he insisted.
Logan doesn't give up bedtime with Doggie for anyone.
It's impossible to foresee what kind of relationship my boys will have with one another in the future,
but I hope that one day, Mason, you'll have a chance to read this and see just how much your big brother adored you :)
At 5, giving up your bed buddy is the ultimate sacrifice.



Oh, and in case anyone's interested, the "real" (if you consider Gibberish real) - maybe I should say 'correct.'
A-hem. Starting again. The correct spelling of the Chi-Baba lyrics is: "Chi-Baba Chi-Baba Chi-Wawa."
Ahhh. "Clever Girl..."

Mason 365: Day 7!

And On The Seventh Day...

Back when we had only one kid and a few extra dollars and we lived within reasonable proximity to other mammals that didn't moo, I used to take various baby socialization classes with Logan.
When he was right around the one year mark, we took a class at The Little Gym in McMurray.
I was pregnant with Julianne and one of the other moms who was there with her second child shared my love of super-amateur photography.
She had dedicated herself to taking at least one photograph a day of each of her two children.
She called them their "dailies."

My best habit is more of simultaneous than of daily photography. I'm pretty sure I don't take pictures of the kids every single day, but when I take a picture of one, I take a picture of the others as well. All at the same time. So at the end of the day (literally and figuratively) everyone has roughly the same amount of pictures. I observe this ritual in the hopes that one day when I'm 90 years old and nearly too tired to move, I'll hopefully not have to spend any of my remaining days getting dragged into my grandchild's therapy sessions to discuss how my youngest child (whomever that may turn out to be) felt ignored and neglected due to the extreme lack of photographic evidence of his/her childhood and subsequently went on to psychologically damage the next generation as well.
My fault entirely.
smh. I have too much guilt already.
(Witness my first ever use of smh! I am just too cool for words...
Get it? 'Cause I used letters instead? Too funny too :) )

But anyway, forget about that therapy stuff. Clearly I made it all up.
The truth is that basically I am just completely in love with any and all pictures of my kids.
(Aren't we all?)

So... since it is the proverbial "seventh day" of my "photography" project,
despite the fact that what I'm creating falls pretty far short of the great majesty
that is the creation of the universe,
I thought I'd go a little easy on myself and simply present to you - today's dailies.

Yes Sensei.
In reality, she's wearing the scarf of a very small plastic snowman on her head.
I like this one because it reminds me of one time when Logan was little and he put on one of my elastic headbands.
I told him it made him look just like Rambo.
When Zach walked in a few minutes later he announced excitedly, "Look Dad! I look just like Rainbow."
She's actually slightly closer to living up to the name of "Rainbow.".
His headband was black.

Today was a pajama party day at the Washa House.
Not enough clean laundry :)

The Star of Our Show: Baby Mason!
Is this kid adorable or what?

Looks like Corinne takes the loss in today's therapeutic lottery.
She's in a mood and so is my camera.

Mason 365: Day 6

i cosleep

I follow this guy, Michael Wurm, on Pinterest.

He has a B&B in my home state of Pennsylvania
and  he writes a really popular blog called Inspired by Charm.
His pinboards have a signature style that I really like: they all start with a lowercase i, as in ipad.
He has 52 boards (so far) and at least 50 of them follow the lowercase i pattern:
i blog, i decorate, i bake, i garden, i love dachshunds, etc.
Okay, 'i love dachshunds' isn't one of them. I just made that one up. It's me that loves dachshunds. We saw this one - two trick or treats ago - that was dressed up like a hotdog with a bun on either side and mustard on the top. Sort of like this:

Too adorable.
I took a picture of the one I saw, but it came out lousy.

Anyhow, I love the i theme for a couple of reasons.
First of all, it gives his profile a unifying theme which is nothing short of awe-inspiring to yours truly and the other pinboard challenged of the universe, and second of all because they're just clearly uniquely him.
You may have noticed that I'm not especially hung up on grammar (if you haven't, I won't get into it right now because I could write a whole separate blog on that topic alone) so his freewheeling use of capitalization appeals to that side of me as well.

But here's the point: That explanation just siphoned away about five minutes of your life for the sole and probably unnecessary purpose of divining an explanation for the title of my post.
Thanks Michael Wurm, Jr! Keep up the good blogging!

 Now, moving on to my actual topic: Parenting Advice!
Want some?
Sorry Charlie, you've come to wrong place.
I'm not giving it.
I'm complaining about it.
So now that we're rid of a good half of you... to those remaining, I present:

List of Things I've Been Told By Relatives and Strangers Will Unquestionably Cause Permanent Harm to My Children Since I Was Pregnant With Logan
(and this isn't even all of them)

• Overfeeding
• Underfeeding

• Sunshine:

• Too Much? Sunburn... Heatstroke... Flaming Retinas...

• Not Enough? No Vitamin D...Depression... (a HUGE concern involving the infant subculture)... Poor social skills brought on my extreme isolation from other sunbathers... 

• Swimming:

• "If you start swimming lessons too early, your kids will be frightened of the water." ('Cause they didn't just get through swimming in my uterus for 9 months!)

• "Plus if you accidentally drop them in, they might drown."  

• "Your baby will be too afraid of the water to swim if you don't get him into a pool as young as possible. You need to just dunk his head down in the water while he's still a baby so he'll be used to it." -Three Time Parent of the Year who has inexplicably asked to remain anonymous...

• I've also heard my share (and then some) about the real or imagined dangers of chlorine and of course, once again, *sigh* burnt skin. They make a lotion for that, but there's a chance it could be toxic as well.

• Don't feed peanut butter, nuts, or berries to babies under 4 years. This may cause anaphylactic shock with limited reaction time.

• Do feed known allergens to babies between 4 and 6 months. This will make them less likely to develop allergies.

• I compromise at a year. I see the concern, but there's no history of food allergies in our family. Although I have considered this other worthwhile alternative: Offer the potential allergen to a child under one year as a snack while you just happen to be, you know, just hangin' out in the ER waiting room - for a few hours - for no apparent reason. I'm just saying...

• Don't breastfeed in the car. "You're all going to suffocate from the exhaust."  A lady who was a complete stranger to me once tapped on my window in the Home Depot parking lot to lecture me on this topic for roughly five minutes while I sat there with a baby attached to my exposed breast. Think about all the exhaust that must have come in through the open window while she was talking. Not to mention the hot air...

• Don't Breastfeed in Public. It's "disgusting" and "weird" and my legal right :)  Who knew?

• Don't Eat Too Much When You're Pregnant

• You'll be sorry later when your baby's trim and healthy and you're huge and fat.

• "I can't tell you how many calories to eat; Just eat as many as you need.. but not too many."

• "Only eat when you're hungry."

• "Only eat 300 more calories than you normally do."  -Like I know how many calories I "normally" eat. That is a complex equation involving how many activities the kids and I are involved in on any specific day and how many bags of cheetos and/or cookies are readily available. And on what kind of clothes I'm wearing. And I only do ba-sic math once a year - when a reward in the form of a sizable refund may be involved.

• "Eat the same amount of calories you normally would. Pregnant women don't actually need any extra food."  -Umm, once again... "normally?!"

• Eat Everything In Sight When You're Pregnant

• If you don't, your baby will have "birth defects, generally poor health, underweight, prematurity, bad eating habits when he's older... " stop me when I get to something the baby is  likely to have that would actually realistically be related to prenatal food consumption...

• Keep Fit While Pregnant

• Like I'm not fit all the time...  2 years postpartum I still "fit" right in to all of my maternity clothing...

• Don't Lift Heavy Things or "Exert Yourself" While Pregnant

• The 'exerting' one is especially doable when you have three kids under 5 already.

• Kids Need to Be In School

• Otherwise they'll have poor social skills and grow up to be technological and social pariahs... or write a famous transcendentalist novel.

• Kids Pick Up Bad Habits from Other Kids. Keep them home as long as you can.

• Right. Because I'm such a rocket scientist... My kids need to go to school just so they can learn something from someone who has a solid grip on long division.

• Vaccines.  Don't even ask.

• You know it...

• Grandparent Offender #1: "Be sweet to your kids. Let everything go. They're only young once. Let them have fun. Enjoy life. Boys will be boys."

• The Following Day; Same Grandparent: "Kids need discipline. People are staring! Why doesn't he listen to you? You have got to get him under control. Have you tried time out? Back in my day, we'd put soap in a mouth like that. What's so wrong with spanking. Why, when I was young, if we even thought about talking back to our parents...

And of course: Public Enemy Number One.
Ever see this one?

 Repulsive.
I'm ashamed to say it originated in my state.

Pay close attention new and expecting moms - At our house it looks a lot more like this:

(You know, if I was a bit younger and better looking, and had floral sheets.)

Here's my actual baby in the bed this morning:

Looks suspiciously alive, doesn't he?
Read this if you have some time:
http://www.askdrsears.com/topics/sleep-problems/co-sleeping-yes-no-sometimes
It's awesome.
Or this:
http://www.askdrsears.com/news/latest-news/dr-sears-addresses-recent-co-sleeping-concerns
It's basically the same, just a little more recent.



(extended eyeroll)
...and then there's this:
I saw it online the other day. A 'discourse' among young women with zero to one child apiece (roughly paraphrased):
"Have you ever approached a mom in the grocery store to tell her that the improper use of her infant car seat in the shopping cart could be endangering her child?"
Most hadn't had the audacity to actually approach someone, but nonetheless weighed in with appropriate amounts of contempt for these careless and irresponsible excuses for parents.
Those who had attempted the approach described the reactions they got as "rude" or "hostile." In other words, maternal.
You just approached what was most likely a stretched, exhausted, busy, diligent if not overly protective supermom to accuse her of laziness and neglect in the case of death by shopping cart.
Think she hasn't done the risk/benefit analysis already? That she's going to respond, "Oh thank you! Thank you so very, very much. I never would have associated the words 'hematoma' and 'concussion' with my shopping experience had it not been for you. How enlightened I am now by your all-seeing presence."
Think again. She might say something along those lines. We're polite like that.
But my advice? Don't go back to the store at that same time next week or you might have to see something like this:

Horrifying, isn't it? Julianne secures one side of the car seat. I keep my eye on the other.
I've heard a lot of "Boy you sure have your hands full," and "How ya fit any groceries in that cart?" and the occasional, "What aisle do they keep those in? Stocking up?"
Once a woman approached me at Walmart and gave me twenty dollars.
She said with all the kids I have to feed, I needed it more than she did.
I donated it to the Children's Miracle Network.
Pay it forward.
But I appreciated the sentiment.
And that it didn't come with any unsolicited advice.

Take Home Lesson?
Ever see those free sample booths at the end of the aisles on weekends?
They're giving away enough freebies at the grocery store.
Leave your folk wisdom in the Clearance section.

Charge:
Risk of drowning in a public pool
while wearing potentially toxic sunscreen.

Additional Evidence For When They Finally Come To Cart Me Away For Neglect & Child Endangerment:

Trapped indoors while the sun is shining.
Forced to play with non-educational toys.

Overfed?

Eating berries unsupervised under the age of 4.

Not in the ER waiting room.

Ambiguous Pregnancy Photos

Guess my "normal" caloric intake.
Over/Under Set At 2000.
And... Go!

Exerting Myself.
For Shame!
Even Logan is Embarrassed.

Not long division. I swear!

Picking up bad habits at school.

Mason 365: Day 5

Sunday's Here!

Two days ago, on Good Friday, a visiting deacon was invited to give the homily at our church.

It was a really good one.

I even stayed awake for most of it.

He read a sermon that was delivered some years ago by a pastor in Philadelphia to his Baptist congregation

entitled, It's Friday, But Sunday's Coming:

"It was a simple sermon, starting softly, building in volume and intensity until the entire congregation was completely involved, repeating the phrases in unison. The sermon went something like this.

It’s Friday. Jesus is arrested in the garden where He was praying. But Sunday’s coming.

It’s Friday. The disciples are hiding and Peter’s denying that he knows the Lord. But Sunday’s coming.

It’s Friday. Jesus is standing before the high priest of Israel, silent as a lamb before the slaughter. But Sunday’s coming.

It’s Friday. Jesus is beaten, mocked, and spit upon. But Sunday’s coming.

It’s Friday. Those Roman soldiers are flogging our Lord with a leather scourge that has bits of bones and glass and metal, tearing at his flesh. But Sunday’s coming.

It’s Friday. The Son of man stands firm as they press the crown of thorns down into his brow. But Sunday’s coming.

It’s Friday. See Him walking to Calvary, the blood dripping from His body. See the cross crashing down on His back as He stumbles beneath the load. It’s Friday; but Sunday’s a coming.

It’s Friday. See those Roman soldiers driving the nails into the feet and hands of my Lord. Hear my Jesus cry, “Father, forgive them.” It’s Friday; but Sunday’s coming.

It’s Friday. Jesus is hanging on the cross, bloody and dying. But Sunday’s coming.

It’s Friday. The sky grows dark, the earth begins to tremble, and He who knew no sin became sin for us. Holy God who will not abide with sin pours out His wrath on that perfect sacrificial lamb who cries out, “My God, My God. Why hast thou forsaken me?” What a horrible cry. But Sunday’s coming.

It’s Friday. And at the moment of Jesus’ death, the veil of the Temple that separates sinful man from Holy God was torn from the top to the bottom because Sunday’s coming.

It’s Friday. Jesus is hanging on the cross, heaven is weeping and hell is partying. But that’s because it’s Friday, and they don’t know it, but Sunday’s a coming.

And on that horrible day 2000 years ago, Jesus the Christ, the Lord of glory, the only begotten Son of God, the only perfect man died on the cross of Calvary. Satan thought that he had won the victory. Surely he had destroyed the Son of God. Finally he had disproved the prophecy God had uttered in the Garden and the one who was to crush his head had been destroyed. But that was Friday.

Now it’s Sunday. And just about dawn on that first day of the week, there was a great earthquake. But that wasn’t the only thing that was shaking because now it’s Sunday. And the angel of the Lord is coming down out of heaven and rolling the stone away from the door of the tomb. Yes, it’s Sunday, and the angel of the Lord is sitting on that stone and the guards posted at the tomb to keep the body from disappearing were shaking in their boots because it’s Sunday, and the lamb that was silent before the slaughter is now the resurrected lion from the tribe of Judah, for He is not here, the angel says. He is risen indeed.

It’s Sunday, and the crucified and resurrected Christ has defeated death, hell, sin and the grave. It’s Sunday. And now everything has changed. It’s the age of grace, God’s grace poured out on all who would look to that crucified lamb of Calvary. Grace freely given to all who would believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross of Calvary was buried and rose again. All because it’s Sunday.

At the end of the message the pastor shouts out:

It’s Friiidaaaay!

And the whole congregation responds:

But Sunday’s Coming!"

I was planning to just link to the page where I found the sermon, but I was afraid if I did that you wouldn't read it. And you should. You really should. It's worth your time, I promise.

I've always associated the Baptist faith with their known exuberance during the church service.

This is not a trait that I would ever, ever associate with us Roman Catholic types.

They don't call it the weekly "obligation" for nothin'.

We like to show up late, leave early, recite stuff, and sing if we feel like it.

That being said, we also help one another, pray earnestly, 

value charity, and practice tolerance and compassion.

What we do not do (those of us over the age of 5 or so anyway) is yell out during mass.

But darned if this guest preacher did not get a Catholic congregation to do just that!

I didn't do it. I was scared. I learned it young and I learned it well: 

Keep your fat trap shut when the priest is talking.

But I kind of wish I'd forgotten that on Friday, 

because I think it would have been nice to be a little Baptist for 15 minutes or so.

They have a passion that Catholics have but don't share in the same way.

I've been blessed to have so few Fridays in my life.

Maybe not even any in comparison to the struggles of others.

Maybe more like Thursday evenings...

But hearing that sermon made me so excited about the one long ongoing Sunday that is my life.

And particularly about this Easter Sunday.

If you think (possibly a little too hard) about it, you could pretty easily fit childbirth into the 'Sunday's Coming' metaphor. It's not easy, it's not fun, it can seem like it's never going to end... but Sunday's Coming.

We have so many fun and exciting things planned for later today and I can't wait to celebrate for the first time with all four of my sweet little Sundays.

Happy Easter Everyone!

Sunday's Here!

Sneak Preview of what my kids will be seeing when they get up this morning:

We're trying a super fun Puzzle Hunt this year!

Each of the kids has a little basket or something similar stuck on the "Easter Tree" (don't ask.)

Each basket contains a couple of the pieces to the almost-finished puzzles.

Logan's is the Madagascar, Julianne's is the Franklin, and Corinne's is the Little People.

Wish us luck!

The hunt for the egg-stra-special egg begins.
This is the only egg on the tree that actually has something in it.
I'll probably just have the kids point to different eggs and try to guess which one it is.
Otherwise I'll be cleaning egg shrapnel out of my carpet for a week.

Some shoes and "crowns" and stuff ready and waiting for church in the morning.

Decorated eggs chillin' on the kiddie table.

Kiddie Table: Aerial View

And now... the egg-citing conclusion of...
The Broken Egg Mystery!
The kids were doing egg-tremely well with
handling the fragile eggs properly until...
they finished decorating and I told them it was time to
put them away in the refrigerator until tomorrow.
Corinne did not handle the announcement well,
responding by flying into a fit of fury and pounding
the helpless egg against the table.
To be fair though, she is only 1 and clearly what she thought
she was doing was just pounding her fist in anger
because I'm pretty sure she was the only person
at the table who was surprised to see that the shell was broken.
Oh well, there's always n-eggxt year :)

Mason 365: Day 4

Let's Just Pretend It's Still Saturday.

Holy Week is always both truly inspiring and entirely draining for me.

Today's going pretty well so far (I say so far even though it's almost midnight and I'm probably the only person I know who is still awake) because before I can go to bed I still have to: finish this post, clean, prepare Easter baskets, decorate the "Easter Tree" (oh it's happening Tracie; I'll take the pictures when it's all done,) get dress clothes washed and laid out, and possibly build some puzzles (long story; Easter-related though.))

• I took the kids grocery shopping this morning for the first time in who knows how long - and despite the $270 cart-full I came out with I, of course, still forgot my average of at least 6 items. I can't even seem to leave the store with what I need when it's on the list! I start looking at it and talking to the kids and getting all confused and before I know it - home - with no waffles, no maple syrup, no cat food, no frozen veggies, no chicken, no milk, no nothin'. But that's okay. It took me long enough just to put away the stuff I actually did buy.

• Other than the food shopping we pretty much spent the day just cleaning and arguing ...and dying Easter Eggs! They don't look all that awesome, but we had a fun and surprisingly stress-free time making them. I found this recipe where you use just food coloring and water and a little white vinegar to dye the eggs. I was really egg-cited about how well it worked out - until I went into the Easter decoration bin and found about 15 of those little color tablets left over from last year. I'm always kind of frustrated with them, though, because you can never tell what color they really are until you get them in the water. At least this way the kids got the egg-act colors they wanted. (Yeah I know that's annoying, but I'm pretty egg-hausted, so I'm probably not going to stop.) Logan and Julianne both wanted blue and Logan wanted blue for Mason as well. When I asked Corinne what color she wanted she said, "purple." Another egg-citing development! I really expected her to say 'blue' because she tends to just repeat what other people say, but she made the decision all by herself (!) and she even pronounced the word 'purple' with surprising clarity.

• One of today's many and varied highlights occurred at the end of the Easter Vigil, when Fr. Ken wished us all a "very blessed Christmas." It was nice to be in the company of another person who is noticeably feeling the effects of the Holy Week Frazzle (and, as Zach's aunt pointed out, we do still have our tree up (another story for another day.)) 

Fr. Ken blamed the weather for his confusion.
For mine... I blame the kids.

I let the kids put their own eggs in the bowl and scoop them back out again.
This was a pretty big gamble since we only boiled four - one for each kid.
(Nobody much likes to eat them at our house.)

I thought they were going to break them all right out of the gate,
but they waited until slightly later...
to be continued...

(Julianne's in this pouty won't-smile-for-pictures stage.
They all go through this at least once or twice prior to age 5 and she couldn't have timed hers better.
After all, who wants to look at pictures of happy kids on Easter anyway.)

This was supposed to be a picture of Mason "dying Easter Eggs"
(i.e. fast asleep in the monkey bouncer)
but the kids woke him up before I could snap it.

Three of the finished eggs (Logan was still working on his)
while Corinne's was still intact...
another  mysterious clue...

Mason 365: Day 3

It's a Nice Day for a Good Friday

Since she climbed out of her crib and came downstairs all by herself this morning for only the second time ever (the first time being naptime yesterday when she decided it definitely was not nap time after all) and since she just so happened to have picked up a crown somewhere along the way (my little princesses refer to all headbands as crowns,) I thought for a little change of pace, Good Friday might be just the day to feature my precious baby girl, Corinne.
She's getting so big so fast and she has so much coming up behind her that I sometimes struggle with the fact that she's not even two yet. I want to make her older than she is. I want her to know what the older kids know and do what the older kids do and behave like she's two or four years ahead of herself.
But she can't. And if I turn on my fool brain and think about it for just half a second, I realize that I really don't want her to anyway.

I snapped this photo of her right after she surprised us this morning, doing two of her favorite baby things:
sucking her two fingers (the nurses first caught her doing this in the hospital nursery right after she was born; they said it probably started in the womb) and holding her pink elephant blankie. It has Mommy Loves Me embroidered on the front and it's absolutely filthy, but I can hardly ever slip it away from her long enough to get it through the endless wash cycle. She can't sleep without it and, even though it's supposed to "nap" in the crib during her waking hours (she sets it down so sweetly on her pillow when I come to get her and says "Elphunt. Nap," she brought along during the Great Crib Escape this morning. She was calling it "Elle" for a while, but she's recently upgraded to "Elphunt."
She's wearing her sister's Dora pajamas. We can't exactly figure out why, but the two of them wear almost the exact same size and we swap out their clothes so frequently I've seriously been considering just combining them into one big giant girly dresser. Another thing I love about this picture is that you can see they're still a tad too long.
*sniff* I can remember when they were a tad too long on Julianne.

Reflecting on Good Friday, this year in particular, has caused me to focus a little more on Jesus' mother, Mary, and on how quickly our children grow and start to follow their own paths. They may not all teach scholars in the temple at the age of 12, but they start to go their own ways, expand their own networks, show their talents and follow through with their passions so young.
She knew which two fingers were her favorite even before Day 1 of her post-uterine lifetime. What important decisions will she make in two more years? Or 10? Where will she be when she's my age?
I can't wait to hear the stories she'll tell about my grandchildren...
But for now, it's a good day. It's a good Friday.
Every day with my babies is a blessing.

Lord, help me to love every one of them in the way that they need,
To appreciate them in the way they deserve,
and to know when and how to let go with grace.
Amen.

Mason 365: Day 2

It's 3 AM and I Must Be Hungry

...and Teething

To be honest, it was probably closer to 5:15 when I took these. But I couldn't say for sure because I refuse to put in my contacts any earlier than I absolutely have to and there is not one clock on the first floor that I can read bare-eyed without standing on furniture or jamming my face into some radioactive green glare.

Let's just split the difference and call it about 4:07 & 1/2.

Baby Mason is truly an awesome sleeper, but pre-teething he slept 11 or 12 hours at night and occasionally added a two or three hour nap right in on top of that.
This gave me time to get whatever kids were off to school that morning up, ready and out the door without skipping any z's or sweet baby fun!
I got spoiled...
and along came teething, which snuck up from behind and turned my sometimes 10-noon sleeper into a semi-solid 9-5 with an all-expenses-paid trip downstairs every morning to avoid a tumultuous mass-waking of the rest of the family.
'So what's to complain about, you sorry wimpy excuse for a newborn mom?'
In Short: Nothing
Not One Thing
The first couple of nights were pretty rough. I've never really had a problem teether before.
I didn't even know most of the other kids were getting teeth until they broke through and bit me with one and most of my kids have slept through the night almost immediately, so having to get up 2, 3, 4 times with a 3-month-old and then care for four of them all day long was a pretty big shock to my system.
But, as with all big adjustments, we're starting to develop a rhythm and I'm loving the bright side:
For a mommy of four, private quiet time with baby is a massive luxury and if I have to steal mine by starting the day at 3 AM... or 4:07 1/2... or 5:15... or what have you, then so be it.
Sign me up and count me in for a lifetime supply of this:

I couldn't decide which one I liked best so I decided on a montage.

Fast asleep after breastfeeding on the sofa.

The angle was a little awkward (that's my blue shirt to the left of him), but the shots came out great!

*sigh... but for that darned camera strap shadow in the last one.

He's so precious when he's sleeping...

and when he's awake.

Mason 365: Day 1

A friend from high school does this 365 Photo a Day Challenge where she takes a picture of something fun or beautiful or sweet or just an average part of life every single day for an entire year! She does a beautiful job for many reasons, not the least of which are that she has an awesome perspective on life and that she's a professional photographer. Although I know nothing about Instagram or Flickr or any other programs that is known to help photog-types enhance their craft and although I maintain a somewhat hopeless love/hate relationship with my cheap Samsung pocket camera from Walmart, I've decided to give it a try!

Her most recent 365 project focuses on the newest addition to her family, who is just a couple of months younger than ours, so I thought it would be fun to embrace that theme as well; following the little guy through his first year of development. Since I'm much more a writer than a photographer, I figured on utilizing the blogosphere for this project, allowing me to document my wee one's development through both language and visuals.

And so, without further ado, Cereal Mom Blog proudly presents:

Mason 365

And away we go...

The minute I snapped this one, I knew we had a winner!
I absolutely love it when the kids try to give Mason a kiss and he tries to kiss them back.
He usually misses (as evidenced by the photo) and ends up either kissing someone's nose or trying to suck on it.
The monkey in the foreground is Julianne waving the bouncer toy to try to get Mason's attention so I can take a good picture. Originally I was trying to get kind of an artsy photo of Mason behind the veil of the monkey toy, but I definitely prefer this one; nothing beats the love between new brothers. Julianne wasn't notified of the change.

Oh, and I have no idea what that silvery thing on the right is. Mason's guardian angel caught on film?
Or maybe just another example of my poor photography skills. Hold on tight folks. This could be a long, long year.