Conquering fear

Apparently a healthy fear of the water develops sometime between the age of 3 and 4...or at least for Allia it does. She was a crazy little fish as of last summer...trying to run past us to the deep end of the pool when jumping in from the side. Then we had our first really hot beautiful day yesterday, so we decided to make our first pool trip of the year. After she finally got in the chilly water, with floaties, she clung to me with the death grip of someone truly afraid. She said, "I don't want to die." This is supposed to be fun!!! After taking her out in the water several times and gently coaxing her to stop choking me, she finally let me only hold her hands while she kicked her feet. I was really proud! Then we switched. I got the little 1 year old dare devil, and as soon as I turned around Austin had her off in the water kicking away by herself. :-o How did he do that? Anyway, I am glad she conquered her fear of the water, at least for the time being. I would show pictures, but since we are still not in the digital camera world, it will be a few weeks. :-)

Yum!

"Mocos 'N Cheese" as Mariana now calls it. Pretty funny if you know any Spanish! The girls of course enjoy maccaroni and cheese, like any good American kid. But Mariana has us all laughing when it appears on her high chair tray. Mmmm...

(Spanish lesson: Mocos = Boogers or snot!)

Watch out for pedestrians!

This is why they wait to issue drivers' licenses until 16! Practice, practice.

What every girl needs

A snuggly Pawpaw lap to rest in and a great pair of boots(compliments of Mahna - my mom). What more could you ask for?

Pat-a-Cake

Allia and Mariana were SO cute playing pat-a-cake together. Allia would hold Mariana's hands and sing the song while Mariana glowed and giggled. Then as soon as she finished Mariana would say, "Gin" (again). Allia just kept going and going. What a great big sister. She is a sucker for Mariana's boisterous laughter...and so are the rest of us!

Bravery prevails

Well, after being bitten by the kitty last week and then having much fuss over it, Allia still is not the least bit scared of cats. She was even hissed at while trying to pet the neighbor friends' cat today and just giggled saying, "That kitty wanted to bite me too!" I told her that he was saying, "No thanks, leave me alone."

Mariana, on the other hand, is pretty timid around cats now. If they even so much as think about coming near her she runs for me and says, "Cared, kitty" (aka scared). Apparently witnessing a bite is more traumatic than being bitten.

One, two

three, four, five, six, seven. Mariana just started counting to seven today. She learns so much from Allia it is amazing. Hopefully it makes up for where I am lacking in working with her. She is falling through the cracks a bit in the puzzle department(and probably others too). By this age, Allia was working 5 and 7 piece cardboard puzzles. Mariana is still on the basic shape puzzles where the circle goes in the big circle hole. :-( Poor second child! They sure do enjoy each other, though...well, most of the time.

Only Mariana

would ask for another "Eggie" with a huge chocolate cookie sitting on her tray at breakfast. I was off teaching last night, and Austin made his favorite dark chocolate "domino" cookies with the girls. So they each had to eat an egg for breakfast to get a cookie. Allia gobbled down the cookie, but Mariana took one bite and asked for more eggie...eating two more eggs before developing an interest in the cookie. Amazing...what can I say? The girl loves eggs!

Just so you know...

if your child gets bitten by a very tempermental neighborhood cat when she innocently tries to pet him...
you are supposed to have Animal Control come out, catch the animal, and contain it for 10 days to make sure it does not have rabies (at least in the state of Texas). Yes, Allia seems fine, but what we thought was not a big deal sure turned out to be!!!

A Familiar Conversation

Me: What is your baby doll's name?

Mariana: "Mayiana"

So it goes no matter which doll or how many times I ask. I remember a similar conversation many times with a certain Allia. I often wondered if it was vanity, but now I know it must simply be a phase, and a rather sweet one. I happen to like the name very much. :-)

Mariana's Prayer

"Mana, Pawpaw" (My parents)
They visited two weekends in a row, and now they are sincerely missed by Mariana. Every time we pray...at bedtime, before meals, in our morning prayers, she adds her prayer in for them. It is really sweet!

Thoughts of Heaven

Allia: Someday we will go to Heaven, but we won't fly because we don't have any angel wings
Me: I think our angels will carry us there since we cannot fly ourselves.
Allia: Oh, good.

What to do

if your large collection of plastic Easter Eggs keep littering your house and driving you nuts. Wait until the children are in the other room playing contentedly with the grandparents. Then, quickly and quietly fetch a large plastic bag and shovel at least half of the eggs in as fast as you can. Pile the remaining eggs up so it looks like there are still lots of them. Toss the bagged eggs into the laudry room or some other place where you might not find them until next year. Ahhh...much better. Now sit, relax and enjoy the lack of clutter until the kids come running back in for their buckets and eggs and pretend like nothing happened. Success!

"It was a breezy spring day,

the kind of day in which all of God's creatures feel especially loved by him." This is the first line in one of Allia's books, and that is exactly what yesterday was like here. The sun was shining, the breeze blowing just enough to keep things cool. It was absolutely beautiful. I just love being a stay-at-home mom on days like that. I remember several years ago sitting at a computer, staring out the window on a day like that, daydreaming about how if I were a mom at home with my kids we would be out at the park having a picnic. And that is what we did. We picked up a few friends on our way, went to the park and played, had a picnic, and played some more. It was so much fun for all of us! Praise God for his wonderful creation and for the vocation of motherhood! I love it!

Chocolate

is incredibly delicious, especially when you have been 6 weeks without it. Yum! We are all enjoying the Octave of Easter and the celebrating that goes along with it. Next week we will have to regain some self control. But for now...more chocolate please!

Just in time for Easter

Mariana must have missed the "Alleluia" during lent because today in daily mass, she actually sang it with us, in her own childlike, slightly-after-the-congregation kind of way. It was so sweet! She and Allia did some encores during dinner,and we all really enjoyed it.

Little accomplishments

Mariana has made several little milestones in her speech in the last few days. She is now saying big sister's name with L's in it. Instead of "Ayya" she now actually says "Allia." Also, she finally started saying her own name, all 4 syllables, very clearly! It is so beautiful. She points to her belly when she says it. She used to have a game where Allia or myself would ask her what her name was, and she would answer some gibberish and giggle (she knew it was not her name). But now she answers back with the sweetest "Mariana" I have ever heard! Sweet mommy moments.

I also figured out how Allia knew Jesus didn't sleep Holy Thursday night. When we prayed the stations for children on Friday, I realized it was in there. At least now I know she was really listening and internalizing it! So, no child genius here, just good old comprehension which is great to me!

Easter Fun

Here are some sweet moments from our Easter celebration this weekend.


Allia makes her crown of jewels for Jesus on Holy Saturday. She really enjoyed it!


The weather may have been too icky for Easter Egg hunts, but we still tried to fly Allia's new kite. She did really well.


Mariana was so sweet giving our resurrection cross big hugs and kisses.



Happy Easter!

Jesus Didn't Sleep

We had lamb for dinner tonight and read the readings from the Mass of the Lord's Supper, did the foot washing, etc. As I was talking with Allia about the Last Supper and how Jesus ate lamb with his diciples and we were doing the same just as the Israelites had done, she said, "And Mommy, we aren't going to sleep tonight because Jesus didn't sleep that night." Wow...how does she know that? I cannot recall any particular story, especially one we have read recently, that says that. We have done stations, etc. But somehow she realized that dreadful night when he was betrayed, he didn't ever get to sleep. Interesting. So I told her that while Jesus did not sleep that night, we would sleep tonight because he would want us to (especially being sick and all!), but we can pray fervently beforehand just like he did in the garden. Staying up all night probably sounded exciting to her, but I don't get the nickname "sleep Nazi" for nothing! So good night all! Sleep tight.

Sick again?

Whiny. Tired. Irritable. Runny-nosed. Coughing. Feverish.
These are all adjectives desribing our household this week. Again.
I don't usually consider my self superstitious at all, but when my husband marveled out loud a couple of months ago how we had not been sick all fall, I went, "SHHHHHHH." Now there is no marveling. Just whining and coughing. We seem to be catching some awful bug every few weeks. Ick. At least we haven't gotten the stomach bug yet (should I even say that?!?). Come on, summertime. Praise God, though, that 1. I am not sick this time with them and 2. That there is still time to get well before Easter! :-) Yay! I guess it is pretty fitting for Holy Week after all. We wish all of you out there a very Happy, Holy and Healthy Easter celebration!!!

Pink

It's Allia's favorite color. We have a lot of it around here with two girls. However, lately it has become quite an obsession. She mentions to me several times a day that, yes, it is her favorite color. Sometimes she lists off the colors that are not her favorite. Often if anyone in earshot is having a conversation and the name of a particular color comes up (not pink), such as us commenting on the beautiful green springtime grass and trees, she immediately runs into a discourse of how the mentioned color is not her favorite. Her favorite is pink. She received a blue swimsuit, and we had to exchange it for a pink one. (we did talk to her about being thankful, etc.) The other day, she even accused Austin and I of wanting to do away with her color when we innocently mentioned something blue. "But my favorite color is pink, and I like it, and I don't want you to make it go away because it is my favorite color!" Strange but interesting...at least she has her own opinions, right? And it is a nice feminine color. I wonder what color her next birthday cake will have to be...