Quotable Quotes

Bella, upon waking in the morning and hearing her baby sister crying downstairs: "I need to go see Anastasia. I need to make Anastasia happy."

She has been gaining a lot of confidence lately with regards to climbing and going down slides, largely in part to her fearless cousin Rachael, and at the park last weekend Bella climbed right up to the tallest slide and sits down without a second thought. I raced to the bottom, knowing full-well that she was not going to be as enthusiastic after the fact. She lands at the bottom on her back, looks up at me and very seriously says "not again."

Bella fell in love with the "merry-round-and-round" at the park, saying "I dizzy", laughing, and then "again round and round again!"

On a happy Saturday morning, Patrick took both girls to Mass and let Mama sleep. I vaguely remember him telling Bella "ssshhh, Mama's sleeping." When they returned Bella looked at me and asked "have good nap, Mama?"

Stooped down with her hand just 6 inches from her furry crawling friend, "come, pateciller!" You can imagine how well that worked.

Bella successfully used the potty yesterday after bath, and received 3 M&Ms, which I placed back on the counter and returned upstairs to bathe Anastasia. I turned a few moments later to the sound of a gentle thump coming up the stairs, and the proceeding sight of Bella with the whole 3 lb bag! "I can reach counter!" When Daddy asked her about her special treat, she echoed the same response as her reason for receiving M&Ms.

Best Laid Plans...

On my "to-do" list for today:

change sheets
put away girls' laundry
clean bathroom
water plants
clean my side of the dresser
trip to thrift store to donate large piles
change Isabella's sheet

Actually accomplished:

slept in beside intermittently-nursing Anastasia
watched old "7th Heaven" episode
updated blog
read blogs and facebook
changed sheets due to absolute necessity after sick baby last night
went to Mass with Patrick and girls
took a nap
updated Baby books

The roaming GI bug hit our house last night; Mama and Anastasia were the casualties. Of course that means Patrick did not get a whole lot of sleep, either. He took a sick day to take care of us today, and my plans were shot. On the other hand, when else do I have an excuse to sit in bed alone and write in the girls' baby books?

Maybe once a month I could have a sick day... just without the sick.

Morning Prayer

Dear God,

So far today I've done alright. I haven't gossiped, lost my temper, been greedy or grumpy, been nasty, selfish, or over-indulgent. I'm very thankful for that.

But in a few minutes, God, I'm going to get out of this bed, and from then on I'm probably going to need a lot more help.


Amen.

~ Author Unknown

Vacuum Salesman

On Good Friday I was treated to a free vacuum and shampooing of my carpet. At least that's what they told me. The door-to-door salespeople struck, yet another glorious perk to living in suburbia. *note sarcasm* I was assured that the only reason was because these hard-working, 9-month-employees (hey, I can make a baby in that amount of time; beat that!) were competing for a prize based on how many carpets they cleaned. blah blah blah. Sure, fine, you can clean my living room but I'm not buying anything and you have 45 minutes to get the heck outta here so I can fix dinner and make it to church.

They have a scripted sales pitch from which to work. I have a healthy store of sarcasm and no shame.

college-aged salesboy: Why, I see you have a Dyson. You paid a good $800 for that, didn't you?

Me: "My kid is outside playing in a cardboard box and feeding the infant dandelions, do we look like a family that pays that kind of ridiculous money for a vacuum? It's a rebuilt internet special."

Naive Kid: "You learned of it through a commercial, or..."

Me: "My brother says it cleans up after his big shedding monster of a dog, so we figured it might work alright for kids."

Smiling salesboy, changing direction: "Let me ask you, when you vacuum do you clean to get all the dirt up, most of the dirt up, or just some of the dirt up?" (what the heck kind of question is that?)

Me: "I'm usually pretty happy if I can't see anymore ground-up goldfish and cheerios."

Him, still trying: "Now when your vacuum breaks what do you plan to do?"

Me: "Stop cleaning altogether and teach the kids to eat the crumbs off the floor."

The poor guy gave up, did his little 5 minute demo, and then shampooed half of my carpet. My sister-in-law looked at the price and declared that if it did dishes and played with kids she'd buy 3. I would have been happy if it came with someone once a week to work it. As it was, my carpet was very thoroughly vacuumed and the kids were happily entertained while I made dinner. Not too bad, I say.

Happy Easter!

Alleluia! Indeed He Is Risen!

In this blog of old news, I'm glad that some things, no matter how tardy I am in posting, are never old news. Thanks be to God for the glory of the Resurrection!

Although I approached Easter Vigil Mass with some trepidation, as Bella is not, per say, the quietest toddler out there and a 2.5 hour Mass will push anyone's patience, grace was overflowing that night; not only did my brother and his girlfriend join us, but Isabella was absolutely wonderful. No, there is no other way to put it; she was pleasant ad patient and playful, and chatty. Note, I did not say she was quiet, I simply said she was exceptionally well-behaved for the time frame with which we were working.






Easter morning was cozy, as Bella was still tired enough from the late night to sleep in... in
between Mama and Daddy! She snuggled right up and went back to sleep; Anastasia was also fast asleep beside me. It was a “snuggle bed” as Bella calls it.






The post-slumber haze was shook quickly when she discovered the contents of her Easter basket! Nothing says "Happy Easter Morning" like jelly beans and Smarties!


After nap we headed to my folks' for more festivities. Bella turned out to love the Easter egg hunt, especially once she discovered they opened to reveal chocolate!








Itried to get get cute posed pics, but to no avail. Seems they simply wanted to keep playing; imagine that.

Happy Easter!