Lord, Grant Us Patience

My brother-in-law used to love to start prayer before a meal with, "Lord, grant us patience.........." (insert very long pause).  I've been finding myself repeating this prayer a lot lately.  Well, without the pause.  After weeks of broken sleep, piles of work and housework, loads of laundry that may never make it out of the basement, and lugging a baby-filled carseat everywhere I go, I'm exhausted and my patience is wearing thin.  And Reese can be great at testing it,  As I've mentioned before, she loves to ask questions.  This has gotten much worse lately so that during lunch, we had the following conversation:

R: What are those?

Me: Seeds.

R: Are they to eat?

Me: No.

R: Why?

Me: They are dirty,

R: Why are they dirty?

Me: Because people touched them.

R: Why did they touch them?

Me: It was for a prayer service. 

R: Who touched them?

Me: My students.

R: What are their names? 

(and yes, I did start listing names....) 

During this same lunch Reese managed to spill her milk. Twice.  And then she spilled her water. Twice. And then she spilled a bowl full of shredded cheese.  I'm not making this up - it's 100% true.  Reese also loves to repeat the same idea over and over, like everytime I drive her in my car she likes to tell me, "Mom, don't use your left foot when you drive because you don't have a clutch."  Yes, thanks Therese, I would have never noticed.  At least we've hit the "J-curve" of humor - you know, something's funny at first, but after hearing a few times it isn't funny anymore until (after more repetition) it becomes funny again because of the repetition.  Anyhow, Reese is as active and silly as ever and has so much fun.  She loves school and screams, "NOOOOO!" when she spots my arrival to pick her up.  Ok, she doesn't always do that - only 50% of the time.  Her teacher told me that Reese used one of the toys in the classroom to make an ABAB pattern and then proceded to tell all the teachers, "I am making an ABAB patt-er-en." Nice to hear that she's picking up the lingo :-).

As for Julie, she is now 12 weeks old. She's getting so much bigger and so much older.  I had to put away some of her newborn clothes already which made my heart break a little inside.  She's as smiley and talkative as ever. When she smiles, she shows off her gums and the smile reaches all the way to her eyes.  She now prefers being held upright instead of being cradled so she can see what is going on.  She's started really swatting at her toys so that the blue elephant dangling in front of her bouncy chair has seen quite a few flights across the room.  Julie also drools a lot and started sucking on her fist (not her thumb or her fingers, her fist), but I'm happy to say we've had a major breakthrough in this department.  Julie, as sweet as she is, has been incredibly picky with her binky.  There is only one that she would ever take.  Not one brand or one type - one binky.  And she doesn't even like that one very much.  Well last week I finally stumbled across a kind of pacifier that she likes.  Not only is she much more content, but so are we as we don't have to fear losing the ONE binky.  Life is good :-).           

Julie sitting up

 Even her eyes smile...

 Reese playing with Julie (well, Julie's toy anyway)

 Can you tell Todd dressed her?

Binky!

More smiles

First Game

This was a big weekend for our littlest girl. It was her first ever Notre Dame football game. It’s always an exciting time of the year for us. The weather was beautiful, the entire city was overflowing with people, and optimism was high. Todd played the fight song and showed Reese the marching band on YouTube and I taught her the typical Notre Dame cheer: “Gooooo Irish. Beeeeeeat Boilermakers.” Reese was convinced that Purdue was called the Buttermakers. Reese, Julie and I got ready for the game early in the day by putting on our green shirts. Therese kept telling Todd that he still had to get ready for the game because he was wearing yellow. He tried to explain to her that his shirt said Notre Dame on it so he was in fact ready for the game. She didn’t buy that. She kept telling him that he needed to put on his green shirt. I may have encouraged her a little. Of course, by game time Todd had convinced Therese that I was the one who thought that Purdue was the Buttermakers instead of the Boilermakers, which meant that she spent much of the afternoon concerned that I might say the wrong name and constantly reminded me that they are, in fact, the Boilermakers. Thanks Todd.

We had a few friends over for the game, made chicken wings, had a few drinks, and enjoyed the win. The rest of the weekend was rather fast. Notre Dame doesn’t take Labor Day off so it wasn’t the long weekend for us that it was for everyone else. Along with the Labor Day weekend came the end of summer, and boy have we felt it around here. It feels like fall and football out. Reese, Julie and I had what may be our last picnic lunch on our front porch for a while. It’s hard – Reese LOVES being outside, but I don’t like having Julie out in the cold air yet. Todd’s been compensating for me by walking endlessly up and down our street with Reese as she rides her tricycle. Good thing she’s easy to please.

On a very exciting note, Julie slept for 7 HOURS straight last night. YAY! I was actually in bed for the entire time, too. It was beautiful. Until she pooped all over my sheets when I fed her at 5:30am. But I’ll forgive her. She can dirty up my bed anytime if she gives me 7 hours of sleep. It’s amazing how much a little sleep can lighten your mood. Of course, Julie is sleeping on the ground next to me and has been for the past 45 minutes. Maybe I should go to bed

Julie in her green dress for the ND game
Reese in her green shirt

Reese and Julie playing together in the playgym

Todd teaching Reese how to play Qwirkle

Julie enjoys Qwirkle as well...
Julie enjoying our picnic

Reese on our front porch picnic

Understanding English

Our little Julie is 2 months old!

Julie turned two months old and celebrated with her first set of shots! Poor thing. Her faced turned as red as a tomato when the nurse stuck her. True to form, she has handled the whole thing well, only sleeping and crying (whimpering, really) a bit more than usual for the first day. Our little Julie, who was born weighing on 6 lbs 9 oz caught up to Therese's birth weight (9 lbs 4 oz) at 5 weeks and has gained a pound and a half since. She is in the 92% for height and only the 46% for weight - skinny little girl! She continues to talk a lot, stay awake for longer periods, and is getting better at holding up her little head. Reese also continues to talk a lot and stay awake for longer periods (she keeps fighting her nap :-)).

This week Reese has been working on her language skills. She's become a lot more interested in Spanish recently which is much better than German - I actually know a few words in Spanish! Today she counted to 32 in Spanish for Todd. It's sweet. Of course it's fun to watch her try to figure out English, too. It is a rather confusing language after all. After learning that red lights are called stoplights, she insisted that green lights are called "go lights." When we're driving in the car, she often asks if we are on the the highway or the "low way." One day we were listing different types of berries and I said, "Blackberries!" to which she responded, "Nooooo, that's Daddy's phone!"

Our life was further complicated this week when I was spelling bath outloud when discussing with Todd whether or not to start giving Julie one. Reese promptly figured out that B-A-T-H spells bath by sounding it out and has been reinforcing her knowledge by walking around calling her bath "B-A-T-H" (for example, she told me she wants to play in the B-A-T-H and that it is time for a B-A-T-H). Ugh. I guess I'll have to start spelling shower.

The real complication, however, has arisen from the endless questioning so typical at this age. Reese loves to ask "why?" particularly when I tell her not to do something. This week I've been called upon to explain why we don't put macaroni and cheese in our bellybuttons and why we don't eat books. Of course, Reese has moved beyond these questions and has started asking what different words mean. When I was putting her to bed the other night she asked me what it means to ask and what it means to tell. She keeps asking Todd what "need" means. While these were tough questions, they got much more difficult to answer throughout the week. On the way home from school Wednesday Reese asked me, "What does it mean to sing?" and then at dinner she asked us, "What does the word please mean?" Good question. I guess I shouldn't complain about lack of mental stimulation anymore :-).