Signs that a Baby Recently was Here

...either that, or a cat.

Nick Jr. discriminates against Christians, George Bush

What an odd title for a blog post, huh? On Nick Jr.'s website, there is a game called "Free Draw" in which you can type words. It blocks words that are deemed inappropriate for children, such as cuss words. But... it also blocks Christ, Christmas, Christian, Pope, God, Jew... and George Bush and Dick Cheney! And it gets worse... it allows the words Kwanzaa, Hannukah, Ramadan, Mohammed... and Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, and Al Gore. It even blocks the word "bush" (lowercase), yet it will not block the word "shrub."

I find it disturbing that some programmer at Nick Jr. wants to stick his personal bias in a game for kids. I could maybe believe that some of the religious words were accidental, but when proper names of some politicians are allowed while others are blocked... that shows a clear intent. How disturbing that somebody is doing this on a kids' game... uggh.

As a Catholic, I find it pretty offensive that Pope and Mass are blocked. I can understand Virgin Mary being blocked, as some would find the word "virgin" inappropriate for children. But Pope? Why?

If you want to complain or ask for an explanation, go to http://www.viacom.com/contact/Pages/default.aspx. If you want to try the game out on your own and see what other words it will block, you can find it on Nick Jr.'s website.

Second Week of Advent

It is the beginning of the third week in Advent, which means we will begin getting our Christmas decorations this week. I cleared off a few surfaces today and will hopefully dust them and then begin setting out some of our Christmas decorations. We'll get our tree this weekend, most likely.

Our preparations during the second week were numerous. Above is a (out of focus, sorry) photo of Caroline holding a gift by our church's Angel Tree. We selected a three year old girl from the tree, and Caroline helped pick out some clothes for her, as well as a baby doll - a really cute one we found at Tuesday Morning. We dropped it off when we went to Mass on Monday for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary.

Here's a very simple Advent activity... Caroline likes when we make biscuits into fun shapes using cookie cutters. So we used a wreath cookie cutter and then used the holes from the dough wreaths to use as candles - short, stubby candles. Caroline thought it was neat, anyway, and wanted to eat the "candles" off her biscuit at dinner.

The Knights of Columbus at our church usually have a family Christmas potluck sometime before Christmas each year. This year, they announced that families could make centerpieces with the theme "Keep Christ in Christmas" and bring them to the dinner for a contest. So Caroline and I made this nativity from craft supplies we had on hand (and some sticks from our yard). Caroline did the "grass" and the "hay" all by herself. She asked me if I had a smaller head for baby Jesus... nope, I just had a package of wooden heads that were all the same size. Oh well.Here's a view from the front.

You'll have to excuse the poor quality of this picture. In our rush to get to the potluck in time, I forgot to take a picture of the eggnog cake I had made, so my husband took this picture using his cell phone once we got to the church. The recipe suggests making some holly leaves and berries on top using colored frosting, but I decided to make an Advent wreath on it using green frosting and then sticking candles in it. Not having any purple candles, I just made some out of construction paper and then stuck yellow tissue paper on the tops for flames. I went ahead and "lit" the pink candle since it was Saturday evening, and the next day would be the third Sunday in Advent.

Caroline's nativity centerpiece won a prize! Only three people made centerpieces, and the Knights had three prizes, so we each won by default - but don't tell Caroline that! ;) She is holding the prize, a pretty hand-painted ornament picturing a nativity scene. The baby Jesus is not in this picture - he fell off in the car on the way home, oops!! I rescued him and he's now back with his parents!

Also this week, Caroline and I chose some of her old toys to donate so other children can enjoy them as Christmas gifts while we make room for some new things that she will recieve for Christmas. I put them all in a bag - I was realy surprised at how generous she was as she selected things, although now she's having some second thoughts... so we'll wait a few days before taking the bag to Salvation Army so she can think about it and be sure of what she wants to donate.

This week's goals: finish wrapping presents, mail out Christmas cards, clean the house somewhat and begin decorating, and begin baking on the weekend!

Celebrating the Feast of St. Lucy!

St. Lucy's feast day was this past Saturday. There is a Swedish custom of the oldest girl in the family wearing a wreath of candles on her head as she serves the family a breakfast of sweet rolls. Legend has it that St. Lucy wore a wreath of candles on her head to light her way while carrying supplies to Christians hiding in the catacombs. This recipe is from Family Fun, and we made it for lunch, as I didn't want to get up at 4am to give it time to rise! I suppose I could've done it the night before... maybe that is something to keep in mind for next year. It was really yummy, and it would make a great breakfast bread.

Here is Caroline's St. Lucy wreath that we made the day prior to St. Lucy's feast day. Caroline helped a little with the tracing, but mostly she glued the leaves and berries to the band while I did the cutting. We found the idea for this wreath in this post.

Caroline was being an uncooperative three year old and wouldn't look at the camera, so here's a side view. There is a better shot of her wearing it in my Advent week 2 post above. She wore it to the potluck at church, where the CYO leader immediately recognized it as a St. Lucy's crown.

This was a fun feast day to celebrate and will definitely become a tradition in our home!!

A Cecilia Potporri

What an amazing time of developmental strides for Cecilia! I posted a couple weeks ago about some new milestones she'd reached, but the list keeps growing. She is exploding with personality and new tricks in the last few weeks - what a delight she is!

She started playing peek-a-boo with us recently. She will hold a blanket in front of her face when we say "hide," and then when she pulls it back down and we shout, "Peek-a-boo!" she has the biggest grin! The funniest thing is when she tries to hide behind something small, like a washcloth, and ends up holding it up so high that her eyes are not actually hidden!

I really do think she is saying her first words - "baba" for baby and "mama" for Mommy. She may also be saying "dada" for Daddy, but it's hard to tell. We went into the Sears portrait studio to pick up our photos the other day, and she saw a picture of baby on the wall and got very excited, swinging her legs and squealing, and sying, "bababababa!" She says it about the baby pictures on our fridge, too.

She has little temper tantrums now, too... much earlier than I remember Caroline having them! If we go inside after being outside, she will cry and cry. The worst is when we go out, and then I realize we need warmer coats, or I need to get something like the key to unlock the storage room... when I go back in with her after such a short time out, she cries as if I have seriously hurt her feelings. And if she can't have Caroline's cup - major meltdown! I am trying to help Caroline learn not to tease her - not to give her the cup one minute but then not let her have it the next minute.

Cecilia's 7th tooth can now be felt with a finger. I could see it there, visible just at the surface of the gum, but now it is really coming through. Hard to believe that at this same age, I had a kid with no teeth at all! Speaking of Caroline's teeth, she had her first trip to the dentist at the beginning of this month, which went great! It was just a check and a bit of tartar removal, bot an actual cleaning yet.

Cecilia is also getting more daring about letting go - she will let go of the furniture and just rest against it, or stand for a split second before she sits down. I have to keep Caroline's cups off her little table, because Cecilia will let go to hold the cup with both hands, and then she will try to tilt it back and drink while standing - which will cause her to fall after a couple seconds!

And she's now crawling oddly... she is using her right leg normally, but often she uses her left foot instead of the knee to push off while crawling. It looks like she's limping (if one could limp while crawling, that is), but she doesn't appear to be having a problem... guess she's just experimenting.

I just realized recently that there are things we need for Cecilia that I hadn't even thought of... I added them to her wish list, which is something I hadn't even thought of doing. She's the second girl, so I always think, "Oh, she doesn't need anything." She's really pushing it on staying in these diapers much longer... and she can't just use Caroline's old diapers, because they have been literally worn to rags! Poor, forgotten second child!

I am sure we're going to encounter some big fun once we put the tree up... I am trying to decide if we'll need to gate it off or what. Obviously I will put soft ornaments on the lower branches. We put up our lights outside today, so the tree will come next. I am sure Cecilia won't know what to think!

Cecilia, I am going to have to stop calling you Bit-Bit soon, because you are not itty-bitty anymore! I noticed this last night as you fell asleep in my arms - you are so long and heavy now!!

ETA: I forgot to mention that she can find her tongue on command - when I ask, "Cecilia, where's your tongue?" she will stick it out and try to grab it. It's very cute. She also has been trying to give kisses... she just opens her mouth and puts it against my face sometimes after I kiss her, or when I say, "Can you give a kiss?" It's amazing how she suddenly seems to be understanding words - she definitely knows the meaning of the words Mommy, Daddy, Caroline (or sister), eat, nurse, bath, tongue... so neat to see how her little brain is picking up on things!

Definitions by Caroline

Tonight we went to Mass for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. We don't usually go into the church when it is dark outside. Partway through Mass, Caroline turned to Chris and whispered, "Look, Daddy, the stained glass windows are turned off!"

Our church's stained glass windows really do look magnificent with the sunlight shining through them...

Celebrating St. Nicholas Day!

Yesterday, December 6, was the feast of Saint Nicholas. There is an old tradition of putting out a shoe the evening before, and in the morning there will be treats left inside. We used to leave our shoes in the hall in my Catholic school, and St. Nicholas would come by and leave a candy cane, which is a symbol of his bishop's crozier.

So, we are continuing this fun tradition in our home. Caroline left her shoe out on the hearth - her favorite pink shoe - for St. Nicholas to fill. He did, as you can see - he left chocolate coins, a chocolate angel, and four holy cards - St. Nicholas, St. Lucy, St. Juan Diego/Our Lady of Guadalupe, and St. Stephen (all have feast days this month). The reason for the chocolate coins is this: it is said that St. Nicholas left money for a poor family whose daughters had no dowry. Different legends say that he left the money at the doorstep/in the girls' shoes/in stockings hung to dry by the fire/dropped it down the chimney/threw it through a window.

Look! St. Nicholas also made cookie dough and left it to chill overnight in our refrigerator!


And he put out some festive placemats and flowers! Gosh, he sure was busy!

Caroline colored these St. Nicholas pictures that I printed from St. Nicholas Center. She then wanted to put them up as decorations, so we did. I helped her color a little bit, but she did most of it on her own. She is really begin to get better fine motor control... and a longer attention span, which is also helpful! ;)

Here she is with her loot after waking up in the morning.

Later in the morning, we baked our St. Nicholas cookies using the dough that had appeared in the fridge overnight. Here's Caroline in her apron after helping me roll and cut dough. Surprisingly, she was more interested in doing this last year. Go figure.

The cookie dough recipe is a traditional German recipe for St. Nicholas Day. I use all butter instead of shortening, and this time I used Sucanat instead of brown sugar. They are basically a type of gingerbread or spice cookie. Once again, I freehanded a shape to trace rather than getting one of the nifty St. Nicholas cookie cutters. Maybe next year he'll bring me one!


I decorated them using royal icing once they were cool. Notice the one on the left and how it's funny looking? Well, when I (ahem, I mean St. Nicholas) made the dough, the sugar was initially left out. So it was kneaded in by hand at the end. And Sucanat doesn't mix in too well to begin with, so... Anyway, the more I rolled out the dough, the better incorporated the Sucanat became, and the cookies started to look a little more uniform and less splotchy!


For dinner, we had a stuffed pork roast. I don't know how to stuff a pork roast, so I just made it up. I cut some big slits in it and put the filling in (raisins, prunes, apple, and cranberries) and then tied it up. The filling burned a bit on the exposed parts, but what was inside turned out just fine. The idea for having this on St. Nicholas Day is that the fruits are hidden (well, maybe if you know how to properly stuff a roast!), just like how St. Nicholas did his good deeds in secret. We added a prayer to St. Nicholas to our nightly Advent wreath lighting and prayer.

I am trying to figure out how we'll handle the whole Santa thing. Obviously, St. Nicholas is a different being from Santa, as he was a real man who walked the earth and is now a saint in heaven, and Santa is a made up character with some basis coming from St. Nicholas. I don't want the focus of Christmas to be Santa (has anyone else noticed at this time of year how many strangers will ask your kids, "So, what are you asking Santa to bring you?" or "Have you seen Santa yet this year?"). I am thinking that reading the secular Santa stories is fine, and then my girls can pretend about Santa if they so choose. For me, the best part about Santa was that some presents appeared after we were in bed, and so they were total surprises to us in the morning. We can still put out gifts after the girls are asleep... especially this year, with a baby who loves paper - there may not be any gifts out until nighttime on the 24th this year! But I would love to hear how other families handle this, so leave a comment if you so choose.

Big Girl!

I was tucking Caroline in for a nap on Friday (some days she still naps, and she insisted this day that she needed one - and she slept for two and a half hours!!). When I came back out of her room, this is what sight greeted me.

That is Caroline's cup. We tried to make a switch from a sippy-type cup with a straw (as seen in these photos) t a regular water bottle, but she really hasn't been drinking the same amount of water since we switched. We decided to try the "straw cups" again, and lo and behold, she's suddenly drinking much more water each day.

Cecilia just looked like she was concentrating so hard on drinking from Big Sister's cup. She was quite successful at it, too! Not that she needs to drink from a cup yet... but now we know that she does know how. We had given her the sippy cup with a spout occasionally at dinner (more to keep her entertained than anything else), but a baby has to tilt it back and suck to get the water, which she couldn't figure out. I am hesitant to give her the straw cups frequently though, because the straw is a silicone type material that she will probably gnaw holes in and bite chunks from (which is one reason why we stopped giving them to Caroline... at age three, she was *still* chewing on the staws and ruining them!).

Such concentration... and one foot is stuck in the leg of her outfit while the other leg is pushed way up, showing off her Babylegs that I bought her for Christmas but have been putting on her anyway since she won't know the difference... and can you believe that outfit is labeled as a size 3-6 months? Ha ha... it fits like size 12 months!

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!!