A look at 11 months with Katie

I'm so late in posting about Katie at 11 months.  Especially when you consider that she'll be a year old tomorrow.

Katie's focus between 10 and 11 months was on standing independently.  She liked crouching on the floor and then standing on her own for a little bit at a time.

She began eating more table foods, too.  Her eyes just light up anytime you give her big people food.

Her tooth count by eleven months was five.  She had three bottoms and two tops.

Sleep could be hit or miss depending on those pesky teeth.  When they aren't bothering her she will sleep through the night, but more often than not she would wake up at night.

She really embraced the word Uh-oh this month.  Say it around her a few times and she'll start on a string of uh-oh's and she sounds way too adorable doing it.

Some of her favorite things to play with were books, the kitchen cabinets, and of course, the mouse and keyboard for the computer that's at just the right height for her.

How do you respond?

When faced with someone of very little to no faith how to you respond to them?  What do you say to someone who pointedly asks you what God has done for them lately or ever?  I get questions like that tossed at me from time to time and no answer I give is sufficient.  Often times, my response is scorned or ridiculed.  And these questions and barbed responses, because of who they are from, cut straight to my soul each and every time.

My faith in God is something that comes to me easily enough.  It's expressing that faith and trying to convey why it is important to one person in particular that is the great difficulty.  I simply cannot understand how someone who shares many of the same experiences in life that I do cannot see how God is working in and through our lives.

At times, I feel incredibly heartsick over the things I have been told.  I can't explain it, but I'm pretty sure it's a cross I have to bear.  I've wondered over the years why God has brought me to this place.  Maybe He's brought me here to plant seeds of faith which I need to water with fervent prayer and patience.  I try, but I don't know that I have the boundless patience of someone like St. Monica.  What I have is a restless soul that is eager for immediate results, results which I fear may never come to fruition.

Quick Takes Volume 47

~1~

Last week's quick takes were mostly done when I bailed on them.  I was needed elsewhere and so they were abandoned never to make it past the dreaded "draft" stage.

~2~

Katie seems to have a thing for rosaries lately.  After she tried going after my favorite one yesterday I handed her one of the plastic ones the older girls got at church a few weeks ago.  She had a good time playing with it while I prayed the rosary.

~3~

Katie is into everything today.  I feel like I'm living with a pint sized Godzilla.  She makes a huge mess, I go to clean it up and before I can finish she's gotten into a few more things.  I'm exhausted. Katie also showed us that she is tall enough to reach up onto the kitchen and dining room tables to help herself to what ever she wants.  I'm not ready for this at all.

~4~

I made a few more wooden saint dolls.  These ones are 3 1/2 inches tall so they're a bit more toddler friendly that the little ones I made last week.  Can you tell who I made?  Two of the five are the same saint, but I noticed the one doll had a crack so I made another.

~5~

I love watching babies and toddlers play under the dining room table.  It was something I loved doing as a little kid and it brings me such joy to watch my little ones delight in it.  

~6~

I haven't blogged about my kitchen cabinet make-over yet.  Two weeks ago I decided I was going to try out the Rustoleum Cabinet Transformations kit that my neighbors used to redo their cabinets.  It took me about five days from start to finish.  I'm happy with the results.  I wish I had a picture of a clean kitchen to show you but I think it may be a few more days before I can take one of those so you'll have to pardon my mess.

I don't have a before picture readily available so here's what the cabinets looked like before:

And here's what they look like now:

~7~

Katie will be one in four more days.  Maybe I'll write up my 11 months old post on her before Tuesday.  It's been a busy month.  The latest is that she now walks a few steps at a time and only when she really wants something, but it's progress.  

Little Rain Clouds of Negativity

I don't know why but I take it very personally when one of the girls comes home with a bad grade.  When I was in school my focus was always on getting the highest grade possible.  A 97 might just have well been an F if someone else scored higher than me on the same assignment.  It didn't matter that it was an A if there was a higher A out there.  I suppose you could say that I was driven to do the best that I could.  I saw/see academics as a competition.  Either you're beating the pants off the competition (your class mates) or you're not doing your job.

I've relaxed a bit over the years about the grades, but I still hate to see anything less than an A or an O or an E or whatever the top grade happens to be on the grading scale.  I can be content with B's coming home, but I literally feel sick and quite irritated when anything like a C or a D comes home.  I become downright livid when my child who is perfectly capable of A quality work happily tells me that she got a 40, 50 or 63.

The person responsible for the recent dismal grades has me in a total funk at the moment.  I had contacted the teacher to see if anything could be done to help said child improve her grade and I didn't like the response I got.  Even better, I was also informed that a major test in that subject was today.  OH  GOODY!  Can you guess who didn't study?  When I asked my child if she had a Math test coming up (I thought I had read there was a test this week on the online homework site) I was told there was nothing and the teacher didn't mention anything.  I suspect someone wasn't being completely honest.

So now I have sincere doubts that this child will have any hope of pulling her grade up to something respectable this marking period.  Nothing like torching your grades by not studying, rushing through your work and refusing to double check.  Maybe Bryan is right and I should just let her fail.  He thinks it's the only way she'll learn.

St. Joseph of Cupertino*, pray for the person I'm talking about.  You know who she is!

*St. Joseph of Cupertino instantly became a go to saint for us when it comes to test taking as soon as we were introduced to him by an Irish seminarian who took us on a tour of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. 

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life...

{pretty}

I decided to take another stab at making little saint peg dolls.  This time I took my time and I think St. Lucia and St. Therese came out pretty cute.  I have some bigger wooden peg dolls on the way so I can make a bunch of saint dolls for Katie.

{happy}

Aren't caterpillars just fascinating?  I found this little guy at Madeline's soccer tournament this past weekend.  One of the other soccer moms brushed him off her pants and I scooped him up.  I let this little guy scurry around on my arm for a little while and I showed him to a bunch of the kids.  Most of them agreed that he was pretty cool.

I think it's safe to say that Ellie is very happy with her new dress.  I think she'll be wearing this for Christmas and her First Reconciliation.  She loves how twirly it is.

{funny}

Watching Katie eat her Cheerios makes me laugh.  Look at all the funny faces this kid makes.

{real}

Madeline had a soccer tournament this weekend.  Katie, Ellie and I were able to see her first game, but we couldn't stay there all day for day one of the tournament and day two was cold and rainy so we stayed home.

Madeline and Katie just adore one another.

Visit Like Mother, Like Daughter for more pictures of contentment.

Arma Dei Review: Color Me Catholic

Let me start off by saying that Monica from Arma Dei must have the patience of a saint.  I've had Color Me Catholic New Roman Missal Edition in my possession for nearly a full year now (maybe longer) and I'm just now getting around to writing the review.

Color Me Catholic New Roman Missal Edition is a set of ten booklets grouped into five categories to familiarize children with the new translation of the Mass.  The booklets each cover a different portion of the Mass.  The each of these booklets have little check boxes next to the responses that children can check off once it has been done during mass.  In theory, this should help children follow along and be attentive.

Perhaps you're wondering about the "five categories" for the booklets.  Each of these booklets has eight pictures with the names of items you'll find in the church or hear mentioned during Mass.   These pictures include those you'll find in the Reverence and Awe collector cards and Catholic Lingo Bingo game.  Depending on the booklet you are using, the pictures will either focus on Vessels, Vestments and Symbols, Furnishings, Parts of the Mass or Sacraments.

If you follow directions carefully for printing the Color Me Catholic booklets you should have no difficulty assembling the booklets properly.  I, however, failed to read the directions first and took many frustrating attempts to get it right.  Then I read the directions and it all came together beautifully.  [Moral of the story: Read the directions first.  You'll be glad you did.]

I really like the concept of Color Me Catholic, but I had a few issues with it.  First, I would have liked it better if all of the "people's parts" of the Mass responses were in a single booklet since my middle daughter who was my tester for this product would lose focus during Mass instead of following along.  While I like the idea of familiarizing children with the different things found in the church, the idea of doing a scavenger hunt during Mass didn't sit well with me especially when my daughter was careening to get a better look around the church.  Of course, that is the point of these booklets to get her looking around and becoming familiar with what you'll find at church.

Since the booklets are in black and white children can color in the pictures and customize the booklets to suit their style.  My daughter enjoyed getting to color the booklets which is something she doesn't get to do with her weekly missal.

Overall, this is a nice way to help your child actively participate in the Mass and learn about the things found around the church.

I was provided with a review copy of Color Me Catholic New Roman Missal Edition printable download by the publisher, Arma Dei in exchange for my honest review.  Visit the Arma Dei Shoppe for more information on this product or to purchase.

Book Review: Holding Jesus

An absolutely beautiful book that you'll want to have on hand this Advent [and beyond] is Fr. Alfred McBride's Holding JesusReflections on Mary the Mother of God.  As with many books written by Fr. McBride, this book is very well-written and offers much to ponder.

Holding Jesus takes a look at our Blessed Mother's relationship with Jesus in three parts: Mary as the mother of the child Jesus, Mary's relationship with Jesus during his public ministry, and her participation in Christ's Passion, Death, Resurrection and sending of the Holy Spirit.

Part one of this book offers a daily reflection for every day in Advent.  For each entry you'll find three readings, an inspirational quote, a thoughtful reflection, a question to ponder and finally a prayer.  The reflections for each of these entries are  well done and very thought provoking.   The questions will challenge you to dig deeper spiritually.   The prayers are all quite beautiful.  After reading though the Advent reflections I knew that this would be one of the books I'd be reading this upcoming Advent.

Part two of this book offers eight reflections on Mary's relationship with Jesus during his public ministry.  These reflections are done in the same manner as part one.  Part three of this book is ideal for Lenten reflections.

In total Holding Jesus contain forty-two beautiful reflections on our Blessed Mother's relationship with Jesus.  It truly is a beautifully done book and I don't hesitate to recommend it.

I was provided with a review copy of Holding Jesusby the publisher, Franciscan Media, in exchange for my honest review.  You can take a peek inside this book at Amazon.com.