--1--

Can we just appreciate how absolutely adorable a toddler is, even from behind?  The chunky legs, the poofy skirt (puffed up more by a cloth diaper), wispy hair...  I'm so spoiled to have two of them at once!

--2--

And it's a good thing, because Cecilia is distinctly NOT a toddler anymore... 

She wanted me to take pictures of her dancing, and I'm just really confused by the hands behind the head...

She was trying so hard to do her "ballet" but it just doesn't work up on a bookshelf...  And makes it look like the hip pop is a little too purposeful!

Of course, this one was pretty impressive, if I do say so myself!

--3--

And no, those shorts in the picture above are not shorts that can be classified as "clothing" - they're intended to be layered under a skirt or dress so that she can flip or somersault to her heart's content without flashing everyone...  But she's convinced that if she pairs them with a similar t-shirt, it makes the outfit into a romper.  As long as she doesn't leave the house, I'm not arguing - I pick my battles.

And I really pick my battles these days, because this girl for whom 2 was a breeze is making up for it in spades now that she's 3...

"YOU CAN'T HOLD ME!  I'M NUFFIN' AND YOU CAN'T HOLD NUFFIN!!!"

"I WANT ALL DA DOORS IN DA HOUSE TO BWEAK SO DAT SQUIRRELS CAN GET IN!!!"

"DAT WOULD NEVER HELP!"

"I'LL KEEP DA POTTY CLOSED FOREVEEEEEEEEEEEEER!!!"

"DAD, YOU DIMWIT!!!"

"NO DON'T CALL ME CECILIA!  I'M NOBODY!!!"

"NOBODY SAY ANYFING!!!  STOP TALKING!!!"

Not once has she thrown one of her epic tantrums over something that matters - she just seems to arbitrarily choose to be the grumpiest child on the planet and take it out on everybody...  But oh, her threats are so hilarious that I can't help but enjoy the tantrums, which I probably shouldn't do!

--4--

Despite the tantrums, most of the time she's lovely - we're getting close to the end of our Lenten prayer chain and she and John Paul have started leading the prayers which is adooooooorable!  They're still pretty formulaic, but last night she was praying, "God, please bless Father Andrew with...  Please help him be a good pwiest for his people, and...  Please help him be healthy and...  Please...  Help him be healthy...  And please bless him wif love.  And John Paul, what do you want God to bless him wif?"

Adorable.  I about died at that last line, where she just parroted what Andrew and I say during these prayers!

--5--

John Paul found Andrew's Jerome Biblical Commentary today (an old hardcover, not the edition in the Amazon link) and just about died of excitement...  A BIG book!  Maps!  All the facts!

He's just. So. Strange.  Whenever Kelly gets around to writing her list of:

Well, I can tell you one 4-year-old who will ABSOLUTELY choose those books over video games.

Nerd.

Big nerd.

But you knew that.

--6--

This week's posts:

Easter Basket Ideas 

Growing Up (my kids are weird...  REALLY weird...)

Is that it?  Well, I got the skirts on the Easter dresses sewn AND the bodices are halfway done...  Productivity and blogging don't exactly go hand-in-hand!

--7--

Not all the daffodils have been picked by the kids...  They've actually been doing a halfway decent job leaving them alone, and Cecilia knows she's allowed to pick any and all dandelions and wildflowers she sees growing, so she usually comes in every afternoon with a handful of wildflowers clutched in her chubby little grip so that she can give them to Mary whenever we go to church next.  Maybe this will be the year we get an outdoor statue and plant our own Mary garden?  I know Cecilia would love love LOVE it...  Any suggestions for statues?  

Today I let her pick ONE daffodil.  She took that to mean 4.  Close enough.

Check out more Quick Takes at Jen's (and convince her to make my house a stop on her DC tour)!

Growing up...

Too fast?

Me:  What did you guys do during nap?

Cecilia:  We played Mommy and Daddy and I was da Mommy and I was pwegnant!

John Paul:  Yeah, and the BOY sperm met the egg!

Cecilia:  And we had a baby!

Me:  And what did you name the baby?

Cecilia:  Jesus.

Of course.

Me:  And what did you do after the baby was born?

Cecilia:  We had a picnic!!!

Of course.

Me:  And what did the baby eat at the picnic?

Cecilia:  Oh, he just sat in my lap.

Me:  And did he eat anything?

Cecilia:  Just drank milk.  I nursed him a little bit.

Of course.

To add a cherry on top, I walked into their room to see that Cecilia had been reading "The Art of Natural Family Planning" while John Paul perused (his favorite for months now) "The Pregnancy Bible."

Methinks they're taking this game of pretend a little too seriously.

Easter Basket Ideas!

Easter baskets were not a huge thing in my house growing up - we got candy.  A LOT of candy, it seemed.  But getting *things* in Easter baskets didn't even occur to me until we started having kids and I realized, "If I give them all that candy, not only will they EAT it, but they will be eating candy that I COULD BE EATING INSTEAD!"

So yes, they will be getting candy.  And here's what else they'll be getting:



This etsy shop has several adorable saint dolls for sale for the super-reasonable price of $12/each, and it looks like they stand up on their own!  John Paul and Cecilia picked out St. Therese and Our Lady of Guadalupe and are SO excited to get them in their Easter baskets (yes, the twins are left out because they're not going to notice...).  I ordered them Saturday and they shipped Monday, so jump on it and order these now and they should reach your place before Easter!

I waited too long to order from Saintly Silver, but click over there and take a look at those for future Easter baskets, baptism presents, Christmas presents, etc...  How AWESOME are they?



One of these days we'll start collecting peg dolls, but considering how much the babies enjoy scraping the paint off all of our wooden toys with their teeth, I'm thinking it's not worth investing in any of those just yet...


The Story of Easter Sticker Book - John Paul is going to LOVE this one!


The Garden of the Good Shepherd: A Sticker Calendar to Count the Fifty Days of Easter - John Paul has been doing the Lent countdown from Catholic Icing and asked if we would do an Easter countdown too - then I remembered that I'd had this saved in my wishlist since last year!  I have a feeling he's going to love it.



My First Easter Sticker Book [With Full Color Stickers] - This kept them absolutely quiet during Easter Mass last year - it was a miracle!!!  I'm going to see if I can put the stickers back on the inner pages and get them to do it again...



The Story of Easter Activity Book - for Cecilia, but really John Paul will probably do the whole thing...

And everyone is getting a cheap stuffed bunny that will probably get given away in the next toy purge.

What made the cut for YOUR Easter baskets this year?

*These Amazon links are affiliate links, and I'll be completely shameless in saying that if I make enough money through affiliate links the next thing on my list to buy is Jennifer Fulwiler's memoir sooooo do me a favor and click through my links?  I want that book!

7 Quick Takes: All the Questions!

Ohhhh the Liebster Awards.  Not a thing.  But also a thing?  I blame Kendra for starting it up again...  And then lovely Kate tagged me buuuuut I only have to answer 4 questions so I'm going to answer my 4 and give up there because I'm too lazy to tag or come up with questions!

Okay fine, I'll add 3 more questions and answer them (and ask YOU to answer them, too!) and make this my Quick Takes this week...

First Kate's questions:

1.  Where are you from, where did you go to college and where are you now?

I'm from Northern Virginia, went to college (at Northwestern) just outside of Chicago, and am back in Northern Virginia (after a brief detour in Williamsburg, VA).  You should come hang out with us if you're in the DC area!

2.  What song has been getting stuck in your head lately or have you been listening to on repeat?

But not the actual song, just John Paul singing it.  Yup, in my head all. The. Time.  Shark CAR!!!

3.  If you could live anywhere and do anything, what would it be?

Ummm on some sort of Catholic hippy-ish commune where we all have a community garden and grow a ton of food and have chickens and homeschool our kids together while our husbands do...  something to make enough money for us all to live?  Anyone want to start one?

4.  What are you Easter plans?

Ham.  

Um, I don't know - we're still getting into actually celebrating it with the kids, so I'm sure there will be an Easter egg hunt of some sort buuuuut our plastic eggs have been in the toy rotation since last Easter because they get played with all the time, so I'm not anticipating that being hugely exciting!  We might also dye eggs this year because John Paul has figured out that that's a thing, so pressure's on...  Also I will be eating all the Starburst jelly beans, probably within the octave.

One year we did Resurrection Rolls and they were delicious but Marshmallow Jesus is a little too weird of an analogy for me...

Our Easter day celebrations are pretty low-key - for us it's more about continuing the celebration through the Octave and then throughout all 50 days of the season!

OH!  But I AM making matching Easter dresses for the girls (in blue, pink, and yellow seersucker) and *hopefully* will make a vest and bow tie for John Paul (blue seersucker) and Andrew will probably wear his seersucker suit as always sooooo I probably shouldn't wear seersucker myself for fear of looking overly-kitschy!  

ALL THE SEERSUCKER!!!

Here's last year's picture if you're curious:

Oh yes, and I will be wearing that hat.  Every year from now until the end of time.

And the year before, just for continuity!

Now here are my questions for YOU (answer in the comment box or add them into your own post!):

5.  What's your worst "mom" habit?  Or general "grown-up" habit if you're not a mom :)

I'm talking locking-yourself-in-the-bathroom-with-your-smartphone-for-some-uninterrupted-blog-reading, sneaking-cookies-while-the-kids-can-only-have-fruit, extending-quiet-time-for-an-hour-because-nobody-is-complaining habits...

Not that I'm guilty of any of these.  Nope.  Not speaking from personal experience.

6.  What's your fast food guilty pleasure?

McDonald's bacon, egg & cheese bagels.  I could have one every day for the rest of my life and die happy.  And really, all the protein sources!  So good for you!

7.  What is the craziest/weirdest thing you've ever eaten?

We went to a SUPER-fancy restaurant for our anniversary last year and the salad included "lettuce panna cotta" and I totally ate it.  Yes, that's basically lettuce-flavored pudding.  It tasted exactly like lettuce.  In pudding form.  So weird.  What about you?

OH!  Today's your last chance to enter the Flexi Clip giveaway!  Click here for your final chance to enter (up until 11:55 PM Eastern time, I think).

And click HERE for more Quick Takes!