Sunday Best

Joining Grace today for her brand new link up.

Let’s start with the bad.

This outfit.

It’s not the worst I’ve ever thrown on in the Sunday morning pre-mass dash, but it’s up there. The pants are the only thing I really like here. They are a recent purchase from Target and my attempt to hop on the cool, pastel-colored pants train (a train that left the station two years ago, I know). The problem is the shirt. I bought this online when I was pregnant (from Anthropologie, so it wasn’t cheap) and it looked kind of terrible when it arrived. I wanted to like it because it looked so good on their model, so I kept it and chalked up the terrible fit to my pregnant physique. Today, I realized that the shirt just doesn’t work for me, so it’s likely it will find a home on eBay soon. The sweater is my enormous, cozy, put on over everything staple, that I’m sure makes my husband swoon. Perhaps it’s a little big/sloppy to qualify as my “best?” Don’t answer that.

Now for the good.

The girls are wearing Nordstrom Rack courtesy of their Grandma and look adorable.

Plus, they were awesome at Mass today. They were so good that I kept looking around to see if they had left the building, but, no, there they were just sitting quietly in the pew.

Bea: A-  Would have been an A, but she swatted at the little girl in the pew in front of us a half a dozen times. She had the same book about numbers that we have and I’m fairly certain that Bea thought it was stolen directly from her inner sanctum. Also, during the Agnus Dei she sang (loudly), “You take away the sins of the baby” while pointing at her sister. Last week she did this to Sean, so I suppose I’m up next week.

Hazel: A  There was an man sitting behind us who seemed pretty grumpy when we arrived, but by the sign of peace he was putty in her hands. She’s irresistible.

I hope you all had a wonderful Sunday with your families! Go see Grace for more!

7 Quick Takes

1. Yesterday I found some sticky, gel letters for Bea to play with. She decided to stick them all over the windows by our front door. I would personally like to thank whoever invented these because they kept her busy for a whole 9 minutes while I cleaned the kitchen. However, as I was coming out of the kitchen I glanced at the windows, and saw she had clearly spelled out: RAT SH*T. Hmmm. I left the RAT but quickly rearranged SH*T in case the mailman thought I was trying to send him a message. He and I already have a bizarre relationship. When I told Sean about this he just smiled and said he always knew Bea was punk rock.

2. Bea had her first ballet class this week. She seemed less than impressed by the whole thing. While the other little girls danced and ran around “like butterflies,” she laid down on the floor and watched. When the teacher put on music she did her own little shimmy/shake in the corner while everyone else “galloped like horsies.” Also, she did her signature ballet move (shown to her by my Dad) which involves pumping her awkwardly bent leg  in the air. My Dad is many wonderful things, but a ballerina he is not.

Peeking in the studio before class.

3. We’re spending the day in St. Louis next weekend! Our plan is to meet up with some friends and take the kids to the zoo. If anyone has any recommendations for kid-friendly restaurants please let me know. Also, let’s hope there isn’t a tornado this time.

4. We spent Memorial Day weekend in Minnesota, visiting family. The day we left I drove to pick up Sean from work so we could get on the road at a decent time. As I was setting off, I turned the voice guidance on my GPS, which prompted Bea to ask: Mommy, is that St. Christopher?  

5. While in Minnesota we celebrated birthdays, my sister-in-law’s graduation (Congratulations, Eri!) and went to a family reunion. It was such a nice break for us all, especially for the girls who both decided to go on a no nap bender for most of the trip.  Now that we’re home they both have a cold which has prompted them each to have 200 meltdowns since waking up.  I put Bea in her bed at 11:00 and told her to rest which prompted her to start bawling because she told me I “said rest wrong.”

I call this one “Willpower”

6. We were also lucky enough to attend mass at The Cathedral of Saint Paul while in the twin cities. It’s one of my favorites and my husband was confirmed there. We let Bea stay with my parents, but brought Hazel where she practiced her signature move: being really cute, getting you to lean in, then promptly using her baby nails to rip half your face off. Here she is in action.

7. I would like to devote my last take to complaining about the weather, because it is my favorite thing to do. I’ve realized we only have two season in the midwest: Winter and Tornado season. Neither of these seasons impress me, and lately I’ve been spending allll day gazing at the greenish hue in the sky and trying to decide if we should just permanently move into our basement. I did get the Red Cross tornado app for my phone, which is free and is great for worry warts like me. It sends you a text when there are any watches/warnings in your county (or in whichever county you want to monitor). Let’s hope the tornado season ends soon (so we can get back to winter) and continue to pray and send donations to those so badly affected in Oklahoma.

Have a wonderful weekend, and go see Jen for more quick takes!

Growing Pains

I feel like every post I write should be named this, lately. Bea is going through a  rough patch at the moment. I’m sure this is due entirely to that fact that Sean and I were discussing, just last week, how sweet, compliant, and happy she has been recently. We even went so far as to make the stupidest of all stupid remarks that the “terrible-twos” seemed to be behind us. Then we patted ourselves on the back for being such good parents, being so firm in our discipline and weathering the storm together. Let’s just say there was a lot of speaking too soon going on around here.

Sunday rolled around and despite the beautiful weather (for once), I had a sense of doom when I awoke, which is probably that “mother’s intuition” I’ve heard so much about. Bea woke up screaming, and kicked me in the face, kind of on accident/mostly on purpose, which is the surest way to put me in a bad mood. The rest of the day was downhill from there with a lot of screaming during Mass and some more screaming after and then a lot of NOT napping to top it all off.

Every day this week has been in the same vein as the one above.  Even Monday, which consisted of a play date with her best friend, story-time, and a trip to the park, still managed to earn me a slap in the face, literally. Really, anything other than watching The Muppets or going on the swings at the park causes enormous meltdowns. In the past, I’ve noticed that these rough patches seem to precede some sort of growth spurt. We will have a few days of poor behavior, not eating and not napping and the result will be that her vocabulary has doubled or she’s grown 3 inches. By the time we come out of the current ditch we’re in, I’m expecting her to be doing long division, in her head, IN LATIN, or else it may not seem worth it.

Of course, it is worth it. There are even moments of sweetness between the slapping and kicking her sister (while pretending she was kicking something right next to her sister). Today, for instance, we made scones and while eating them she said, “Mommy, I wasn’t crying at all when we made these.”  Even she had to admit how remarkable it was for her to go a spell without crying/screaming/whining. This made me feel bad for all of my grumbling, because I forget that as hard as these growing pains are for me, they are much harder for the one doing the growing. She’s trying to figure out her place in this world and it’s (obviously) overwhelming. She needs her mother to provide firm boundaries, lots of love and more patience, always more patience. So, I’m working on that. But first, I have to go upstairs and lay down the law because the doggies and their towel (who were removed from her bed because they interfere with nap time) have been sprung from their jail (Mommy’s room) and are singing the song from The Muppets.