Advent Plans and Preparations

Advent is here, which means four weeks of waiting for Christmas. We are given four weeks to prepare our hearts and minds to celebrate the coming of Christ into the world. It is to be a peaceful, waiting time, although you wouldn't believe it going into any stores, which want you to celebrate Christmas NOW by buying all kinds of stuff. I guess we know we've done a good job explaining this to Caroline when we hear her say as we walk into a store on November 1st, "A Christmas tree! They're WAY too early!"

So, we got our our nativity figures and stable on Sunday. Why is the stable so bare, with only some sheep and a cow? Because we are waiting... so we are going to recreate the scene with our own figures. We did this in my childhood to a certain extent as well: the baby Jesus was hidden until Christmas Eve or Day, and the wise men were placed at the other end of the table from the stable. Here we have Mary, Joseph, and "Gabriel" (said loosely because it is just a random angel; our nativity did not come with one, or shepherds either, for that matter), who are on our antigue radio midway across the room from the stable. They aren't at the stable yet... Gabriel is announcing to Mary that she will be the Mother of God, as well as appearing to Joseph in a dream. We'll move them into the stable probably in the third week of Advent.

Here are our wise men. They are on our china cabinet, which is on the other end of the living/dining room from the stable. They'll slowly make their way across the room and end up at the stable just in time for Epiphany, on January 6th.

Another important part of our waiting is the Advent wreath. Ours isn't the traditional evergreen ring, although sometimes I wish it was... we thought this one was so pretty back when we first bought it for one of our first Advents together. We plan to light the candles nightly before dinner and say these prayers. As you can see, our pink candle is left over from last year. I always feel badly about wasting it... I rotate the purple candles throughout Advent so they burn down evenly, but you cannot do that with the pink candle. So, it is always left much longer than the stubby purple ones by Christmas. Maybe I should just give it up and use the new pink one as well. They only cost $5 for the set of four, after all.

I like that the Advent wreath is such a visible way for younger children to see the passage of time - as a new candle is lit each week of Advent, the anticipation grows. As the wreath gets brighter with each additional candle, we get closer to the birth of the Light of the World. On Christmas Eve after Mass, we will place a white Christ candle in the center of the wreath. Some families replace the Advent candles with white tapers as well. As you probably gathered, I am too cheap to do that ;)


I recently found this neat idea on another blog and thought I'd use it this year. After all, it had free clip art and everything already done for me! We made a poster for the four weeks of Advent with a focus on a different person for each week. The first week is the prophet Isaiah, who foretold of Christ's coming. Then we have St. John the Baptist for the second week, Joseph for the third week, and Mary for the final week. Caroline helped me put it together this morning. She's getting pretty good with the glue stick. And that is her baby doll, Ensa, tied to her back, in case you are wondering. Cecilia was sleeping on my back, and Caroline wanted us to match.As the girls get older, I hope that we can use this poster as a way to study each of these people and their role in the coming of Jesus as we focus on them during Advent. There is a verse listed for each, and I have a list of more relevant verses which can be used throughout the years. What I really like about it for now is that each week, I can add a flame to a candle. This is a great visual for Caroline, who asks every night if it is time to light the second candle, or the pink candle... I have told her that each Sunday we'll light another one, but even though she has a surprisingly good grasp of the days of the week, she still forgets about when the next candle will be lit. The poster is in our dining room on the wall next to our table, so when we sit down to dinner and light the candles, she can refer to the poster. If I'm on the ball, there will be a flame on the second candle on Sunday before dinner.

The Advent calender is a simple way to count down the days of waiting. As a kid, I liked the ones with chocolate behind the doors! The youth group at our church was selling some last week after Mass, so for only $1, I thought, why not add this to our Advent plans? It doesn't take any time or effort really to open the door each day and read the brief verse inside. Caroline chose this Advent calendar from three that were available. You can see at the bottom that the first door has already been opened, revealing a star and a verse from Isaiah.

Here's something we started last year that I read about somewhere (online, most likely!): I made this manger out of craft sticks using a glue gun. We put it our at the beginning of Advent and as the days go by, we fill it with straw to make a soft place for baby Jesus to rest. I let Caroline put straw in it for doing "good deeds." We talk about good deeds making Jesus happy. Caroline actually remembered this well from last year and was concerned about the baby Jesus doll I'd made - "Where is he? Is he just laying alone in the bottom of the window seat (where we store some decorations)?"

I got out some of our Christmas books too, just the religious ones so far. Among our favorites are The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey, My First Christmas magnetic book, and The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree. I will add a new St. Nicholas book to the basket on Friday. Because of a book-grabbing ten month old, the basket is pretty much in the fireplace, but I envision it a little closer to the edge in future non-baby years.

Other plans for Advent include:
* Shopping for our three year old Angel Tree girl (caroline already chose a baby doll for her!)
* Caroline making her own Christmas cards to add to mine; putting the stamps on together
* Celebrating St. Nicholas Day by putting out a shoe on Dec. 5th and baking German Spice cookies in the shape of the saint on the 6th and having a special feast day dinner
* Singing Advent songs and doing a Mary pantomime (which Caroline just loves... I have video of it from last year that I need to figure out how to post)
* Turning on our lights on the Feast of St. Lucy, perhaps on our tree as well as our house, and maybe going for a drive to look at lights (this will be more enjoyable as the girls get older!)
* Baking goodies to give away and to enjoy after Mass on Christmas Eve
* Caroline will help me choose some old toys to donate as a way to make room for new things she will recieve and to brighten someone else's Christmas!
* We may read the O Antiphons this year, but may hold off until we have older kids (I'd like to do a Jesse Tree in the future as well)
* This also looks like a great reflection to do during Advent - thanks, Denise!

I am praying that we will have a peaceful Advent and can focus on waiting for the real meaning of Christmas rather than getting overwhelmed in the hectic-ness of the season. I'd love to hear any other ideas anyone has for observing Advent in your homes!

Scientific Experiments and Other Milestones

Cecilia conducted an experiment the other day focusing on sound and matter. Her intention was to find out what different sounds could be made by striking various materials against each other. Her primary focus was hard plastic, particularly, this yellow spoon. It was concluded that plastic makes a dull thud against carpet, a slight dinging sound against metal vents, and, most pleasing to the ten-month old ear, a sharp whacking sound against glass (less so against wood).

It was also concluded that the spoon was lightweight enough to be transported both via hand and mouth while crawling. The spoon traveled an approximate distance of 25 feet during the duration of this experiment. Ease of travel was slightly more favorable on kitchen flooring than carpet.

Stay tuned for more scientific processes with our little engineer.

In other news, Cecilia has suddenly hit a bunch of interesting milestones. She has begun to wave now when waved at (thanks for teaching me, cousin Andrew!). She carries things around in her mouth while crawling, as she has found this is less cumbersome overall than holding items while trying to crawl.

Over Thanksgiving, she learned to crawl up stairs. We don't have stairs, except for one step down into our sunroom which she's already mastered (going up, not down - down is still a potential recipe for disaster). So the stairs at her grandparents' house presented her with a new learning opportunity. At first she had no interest - she would pull up on a stair and then try to sit back down - not good. On about the third or fourth time we sat her down on a lower step, she crawled all the way up! She seemed quite pleased with herself, and once I even caught her on the fourth step up when I thought she was just behind the couch - oops. Glad she had the momentum and had not stopped to sit down and topple backwards down the stairs.


And yesterday, she climbed to new heights - quite literally. She was found on hands and knees in a small chair. Then she stood up in the chair, holding on. Then she fell out of the chair immediately following this picture. Tears were shed, nursing was had, and all was well again. She tried again today to climb into another small chair, although it was slightly higher and she could not do it. This won't be a skill I plan to be particularly encouraging of at this time. Maybe when she's walking we will work on getting into and out of chairs. Oh, and we think she is saying "baby" ("bababababa") about caroline's baby dolls. It's hard to be sure at this point, though.

It's such fun to watch them achieve new feats!!

Thanksgiving

We had four Thanksgiving feasts this year - I am not kidding. First, we went to Chris's office potluck the week before Thanksgiving. Then we had a Thanksgiving potluck at our moms' group. The Monday before Thanksgiving was the feast at caroline's Mothers' Morning Out program. then we had the real deal on Thursday.

Caroline is wearing her Indian vest while waiting to be served at the feast in her classroom. She wanted to wear her vest agaion on the real day too, so we packed it and brought it with us to her grandparents' house. Then neither of us remembered it and currently it's in a bag of Christmas gifts in a closet that we left in Tennessee. Whoops.

One of Caroline's teachers took this picture of us together at the feast... while she was holding Cecilia. Very talented. At this particular feast, some of the foods we had were turkey sandwiches, grapes, carrot sticks, cookies, and this really yummy cream cheese chocoltae chip ball that we could spread on crackers.

Thanksgiving Day was in Tennessee at Gran and Grandad's house. They wore turkey clothes - a turkey shirt for Caroline and a turkey bib for Cecilia. Caroline and Cecilia enjoyed turkey - Cecilia had a tiny bit as her first taste of meat ever. Caroline preferred the ham, I think, and she loved Gran's chocolate pecan pie, of course!

Win an Ergo baby carrier!

Follow this link to enter for a chance to win an Ergo baby carrier!! Caroline and Cecilia have loved our old one!

Caroline talks to Father

Our church has coffee and doughnuts downstairs after Mass each week. That is where these photos were taken, with my husband's phone (hence the poor quality). After Mass today, Father Paul said hello to us and wished us a happy Thanksgiving. Chris shook his hand. Caroline said she wanted to shake his hand too, but by that time we were already on the stairs and Father had moved across the vestibule. Now, this is Caroline we're talking about... shy Caroline who doesn't even like to say some of the names of members of her extended family (she accidentally said "Andrew" the other day while we were buying him a Christmas present!), and who is terrified of Speedy and Keenan who work with Chris... she hides whenever she sees them, she holds Cecilia's hand in an effort to protect her when they get too close for her comfort.

But apparently there's something about Father Paul that she likes. Maybe kids can sense holiness or something. When he came downstairs, she said she wanted to go talk to him, so I said, "Okay," and scooted her chair out so she could get up. And, to our surprise, she got up and immediately went over to him and they had a conversation for several minutes. Apparently he asked her if she was having turkey for Thanksgiving, because she came over to Chris and asked, "Daddy, is your mom making turkey for Thanksgiving?" Father Paul isn't even our parish priest... but he says Mass often at our church, probably once a month or more. Our regular pastor has joked that Father Paul is our associate pastor.

And a funny note: Chris was talking to her after this and mentioned that Father Paul squatted down to talk to kids since he's so much taller than them, and Caroline said, "Yes, I got down on my knees too to talk to him because I am very tall." She *is* quite tall for her age, actually!

What a good mommy she'll be...

Caroline's bear became baby Jesus yesterday. She wrapped it close to her in a blue playsilk and said she was Mary with her baby Jesus. She was quite serene as she carried the 'baby' around the house - swaying with him and nursing him. She asked me to make a pouch with the playsilk so the baby wouldn't fall out.

And here she tucks in Ensa with Piglet. This was two days ago. I think Piglet was Ensa's stuffed animal at this particular moment. Piglet used to be Caroline's favorite that she slept with every night... she called him "Me" back then. Now Ensa is the favorite that gets tucked in next to Caroline each night.

I love to watch how nurturing she is... stay sweet, my Caroline!!

Fall Definitions with Caroline

Caroline, while throwing leaves in the air and watching them flutter to the ground: "Look at those leaves swiveling and swoveling and swooing!"

She also found a dandelion fluff and picked it and blew on it, calling it a "dandy-smell."

Today, Caroline played in the leaves while Daddy used the leaf blower. She made beds of leaves for the squirrels. :) A few more pictures from our fall afternoon out in our yard a couple days ago... it was almost sunset, and the view of the mountain behind our house was clear...

Baby Love

I am totally in love with my nine month old baby. She is such a precious gift, my little angel baby. Lately, I have been lamenting the fact that she is growing up. She's not a tiny baby anymore. She is an almost 20 pound, mobile baby who will soon be a toddler.

I have really enjoyed this baby. I enjoyed my first a lot too, but I was also a high-strung first-time mom, and that prevented me from completely losing myself in love to the point that I could relax and just enjoy parenthood most of the time. I love that the second time around, I feel so less hung up over details and everything being "just-so." I don't watch the minutes tick by on the clock as I put her to sleep, thinking, "Why is this taking soooo long?" as often as I did with my first.

Lately, Cecilia has been quite the squirmer as I have tried to nurse her to sleep, our typical nightly routine. It is anything but relaxing and sleep-inducing! I love that nurse-to-sleep tool that I have, and I know that if she's dead-tired, it can help knock her out. I know it will come back to serve me well in her toddlerhood on days where she has missed a nap. So, after nursing her on the bed, I have been standing up and swaying back and forth with her, letting her gradually relax into me, her soft little perfectly round head against my chest. She rubs her tired eyes against my shoulder, then relaxes again, until finally, her eyes begin to droop. This process might take a half hour of swaying, but that time passes quickly as I breathe her in - the clean smell of her hair - if it's been washed that evening - or her irresistible baby smell, slightly sweaty but very sweet. She's going to outgrow the desire to be held this way... and she's going to get heavier too! So I am trying to cherish this while it lasts... I have the privilege this time around of looking back over Caroline's babyhood up until now. It really does go fast - they really do "grow up so fast," as the cliche goes. What a privilege I have been given to be able to hold this sweet baby close to my heart. It is bittersweet to me that she doesn't nurse to sleep at bedtime any more... but I am still enjoying mothering her to sleep each evening. And I am so blessed that she will still nurse to sleep for some naps and in the middle of the night... I am getting a reminder now to enjoy these things as well, because they aren't going to last long in the grand scheme of things.

I love you, my precious baby Cecilia!

The Holy Box

This is Caroline's holy box. It used to contain car washing supplies, oddly enough. It's a nice, solid box, so we kept it, and it found its purpose as the holy box. I take it out for Caroline during our afternoon prayer time (which I am trying to get better at doing daily). After rest time each day, we say the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. Sometimes Caroline says it too, or just listens as she follows along on her rosary as best a three year old can... but most of the time, she chooses to look through her holy box.

Here is where we always sit to say the Chaplet. It's the window seat in our den, which is a cozy, quiet spot. It is also high out of the reach of Cecilia, so Caroline's stuff is safe from grabbing hands. Cecilia either plays around on the floor or sits in my lap (trying to grab my rosary) while we pray.

So, here's a look inside the box:

First is Catholic Baby's First Bible. Caroline got it for her first Christmas. The only thing that's really Catholic about it is that it has the Our Father (as in, it doesn't say "The Lord's Prayer" for the title) and Hail Mary in it... and the guardian angel prayer - is that said by Protestants as well? I'm not sure. It has some basic Bible stories in it, from Adam and Eve to the Resurrection.

Next, we have a box of Mary paper dolls. Mary can be dressed up to become Our Lady of Lourdes, Mt. Carmel, Guadalupe, and a few others. We got these at Illuminated Ink, which has some great craft stuff that I have my eye on for when my girls are olde! I decided to go ahead and get these and color them myself for Caroline, because she enjoyed the paper dolls thoroughly when she played with some at Heritage Holidays, a local festival in which they had some "old-fashioned children's games" set up.

Here is one of Caroline's rosaries. We also keep a big wooden one in the box too, which has been great for Cecilia lately. This one was given to Caroline by her Uncle Tim - I can't remember where he said he got it. It's pretty, huh?

Here is a Mass book that goes through all the parts of the Mass and explains them to kids. It is still a little mature for Caroline, but sometimes she asks me to read it to her after we pray, and she looks through it some while I say the Chaplet.

We have these two pins, the Precious Hands and Precious Feet, which show exactly how a baby's real hands and feet look at 10 weeks gestation.

Then we have a pouch full of holy cards. Many of these are mine from childhood - attending Catholic schools, teachers were always handing them out to us for various reasons. These are probably the most interesting part of the holy box for Caroline... she can look through them for several minutes straight. She especially likes the one with an unborn baby on it, the ones of Mary and baby Jesus, and the one of St. Michael the Archangel (she is fascinated with the illustration of him stepping on the devil).

These are some particularly neat holy cards, again from Uncle Tim. They are laminated and have medals inside them. I'm pretty sure he got them at Mount Saint Mary's in Baltimore (he can comment and correct me if I'm wrong). Caroline likes these a lot. There are Divine mercy Jesus, Sacred Heart of Jesus, Immaculate Heart of Mary, Our Lady of Guadalupe, and St. Jude.

And there are a few random things in there as well... a pamphlet that has this year's intentions of the Holy Father, and an illustration of Our Lady of Guadalupe from the front of our church bulletin.

I think these would make a wonderful addition to the box. I would love to get Caroline the ones of Jesus and St. Anne in particular. I wish I knew how tall they were, though.

And this crucifix hangs above the window seat. It was given to me by my godmother. Caroline sometimes takes it down and examines it while we pray. Chris told me that yesterday she got it randomly and broke the hook off the back - oops. He fixed it, though, and it's back between the windows now.

I like to use the holy box because it involves Caroline in prayer time while not forcing her to sit perfectly still and say the prayers, which is hard for a preschool-aged child to do. Once she is older, I will expect actual participation, but for now, her participation by looking through the holy objects is a prayer in itself, in her own special way.

"Should we get her a halo?"

This is what Chris asked me about Caroline last night.

We have been trying to pray a decade of the rosary as a family in the evenings after dinner and before bedtime. Last night, we were running short on time, so when Caroline asked if we were going to have out family prayer time, Chris told her that she could choose to have either a bedtime story as usual, or they could pray the decade of the rosary together while I put Cecilia to sleep.

Guess which one she chose??

Tonight though, she chose a bedtime story!