When you're 3 years old and a little obsessed with saints, it's necessary to sit on the steps reading your dad's saints book before eating breakfast.

It's pretty hilarious hearing the excited squeals...  "St. WENCESLAUS!  The conversion of St. PAUL!  St. Thomas AQUINAS!!!"

Not to mention hearing him try to sound out some of these names...  You try sounding out St. Turibius of Mongrovejo with limited of the phonetics of a different language!

Some of these pictures aren't all that PG-rated, so eventually the book may have to be hidden, depending on how he handles nudity when he's older...  Thankfully there weren't any questions about the pincers being taken to St. Agatha (just google the picture, you'll find it...) when he found it during Mass!

PDA

The kids were eating lunch yesterday when Andrew hugged me in the kitchen.  Apparently this is John Paul's sign that Dad's leaving for work (I'm almost always making the kids breakfast when he leaves), so he immediately said, "Dad's going to work!  Bye Dad!  Have a good day!"  Cecilia threw in her two cents, too, "DAD A WORK!  DADDA WORK!!!"  We explained to them that Dad wasn't leaving for work, and sometimes Mom and Dad just like to hug.

John Paul was perplexed.

"Mom and Dad to hug again?"

We happily obliged, throwing in a kiss this time.

John Paul giggled wildly, "Mom and Dad to KISS???"

Sure!

"Mom and Dad to kiss AGAIN???"  This could have gone on for quite some time...

It reminded me of when I was a kid and we used to beg my parents to kiss each other, giggling wildly every time they did a "round-and-round" kiss.  I guess we need to remember that the kids actually LIKE seeing their parents being affectionate with one another!

A little "artist"

John Paul didn't know it, but we got him paints and paintbrushes for his birthday.  I saved them for a time when I felt like I had the energy to clean up afterwards...

He had a blast!  And it really wasn't very messy, particularly since he cleaned most of it up himself.  But it's still an activity that is limited to Cecilia's naptime, since there's no way I'm letting her at the paints!

The finished products (I drew the circle, he drew almost everything else in his exploration).

Bubbles!

What better way to spend a morning?

Cecilia's actually fairly successful, and these aren't the most rewarding bubbles.  BUT they don't spill, even when the kids completely tip them upside down!

Then the kids had to prance around pretending to be ants.  Because ants prance.  And because we found a dead hornet, which I kicked to the side for the ants to eat, so the ant chanting and prancing had to commence.

Guess whose idea it was?

A typical Sunday

Listening to "The Way of the Cross" and stamping "church" words with his letter stamps.  Both activities at his request.  And the best part?  I got him to clean up his toys because he wasn't allowed to play with stamps until everything was clean!

We DO exist!

We've just been doing a LOT of good playing/sleeping lately...  Cecilia told me here that she was napping on the table.  She's been showing off her imagination every day and her vocabulary is exploding.  She played by herself for long enough during John Paul's nap that I got a whole batch of mac & cheese made from scratch AND answered a couple of emails!  

Now if only she'd keep these hair ties in her hair...  She needs her bangs trimmed but it's going to be a lot more work than it has been, so I'm putting it off and hoping she just lets me put her hair up to hide the scraggliness!

She's showing off her VERY strong will, too.  She's currently refusing to put her underwear on because she wants Elmo to wear it.  Any idea where to find cheap doll-sized underwear?

We had an argument a few days ago because she wanted me to say she was a boy.  It went something like this:

Me:  "Cecilia, is squeaky cow a boy or a girl?"

C:  "Weeky dow a BOY!  DIWYA a boy!!!"

M:  "No, Cecilia is a girl." 

C:  "Diwya a BOY!  Diwya be a ADDAH BOY!"

M:  "No, Cecilia can't be an altar boy because Cecilia is a girl..."

C:  "DIWYA BE A ADDAH BOY NOW!!!"

Commence brief tantrum...  I think I distracted her with a Cheez-it.