Cousins!

Some photos and a video of the boys with their cousin Matthew, MaMere, and Momo~

Tot School -- #2

Xavier, 21 months

I noticed this week that Xavier was eager to use his fork more and more at mealtime but was having difficulty. As his 3-year-old cousin noticed during a visit, "Xavier eats silly!" So we tried doing Montessori-styled spooning for the first time to help build his manual dexterity.

I was curious if he would be confused about using a spoon to play with non-food items. I set two bowls in front of him: one filled with popcorn kernels and the other empty. I demonstrated spooning. Then he took the spoon and started doing it himself with great concentration. This lasted about 20 minutes!

We also made and decorated Valentine's cookies with his little buddy, Ethan. Xavier was very interested in making the dough and cutting out the shapes while Ethan was more involved with the decoration. Both did a lot of eating!

Admittedly, the moms did most of the final work but I think the boys really enjoyed the process.

Farewell to Kitty

Yesterday we decided to euthenize our 20-year old cat, Edie. These last few weeks of her life, she's been living in our master suite. She was feeble and blind in one eye so having food, bed and litter closer together in a toddler-free space was a comfort to her. She was not a "sweet" cat like Gus. In her youger years she was proud and firey. She would demand to be petted and then nip or swat you if you didn't pet her properly or pet for too long or simply started to annoy her. Despite her temper, she never EVER was aggressive to kids. In that respect she was a feline Ghandi. She would tolerate the most rough handling or being poked in the eye while Xavier said "eyes, eyes!" with glee. As the photos from about 6 weeks ago show, she was even willing to let Xavier pretend that she was her "baby" and feed her from his sippy cup.

But despite our best attempts to accomodate Edie's ailing health, she continued to decline until she was no longer able to walk or clean herself. We will miss our sassy little cat.

A Mother's Rule of Live: Person

I mentioned last month how I'm working my way through Holly Pierlot's recommendations for creating a personal rule as outlined in her book A Mother's Rule of Life: How to Bring Order to Your Home and Peace to Your Soul. I've since settled into a pretty regular prayer routine. I say a quick prayer upon waking, either the Angelus or a rosary at noon, a rosary (if not done earlier) or a bible reading during Jack's nighttime nursing routine, an examination of conscience right before sleeping, and a quick mediation here and there duing, um, bathroom time. I'm certainly not perfect but I have noticed that it gets easier and easier to adhere to the routine each day I do it.

The next "P" in her rule development is "person" or taking care of one's own physical, psychological and spiritual need for refreshment...mostly through the use of personal time. I admit that this is absolutely the most difficult one for me to do. Even when I do carve out time for just myself, I'm apt to reliquish it should anything come up with my family. In her book, Holly writes about taking a "mother's Sabbath" every other Saturday. She spends the day going to museums, visiting friends, etc. while her husband takes care of their home and kids. There's absolutely no way that I'd feel comfortable doing that. I don't know why since I do recognize the need for personal time. I don't begrudge my husband his 1-hour gym trip most days of the week for instance.

I'm starting by taking very small baby steps towards this. Xavier still naps 1-3 hours each day now. I actively concentrate on spending at least one hour of that time doing something that is refreshing for me. No tasks, no cleaning, no drawing up shopping lists. The hard thing is that I actually enjoy doing homemaking types of activities and ticking things off my "to-do" list but they do not refresh me. I'm also incorporating things that refresh me in our daily activities. The best example of this is the 1/2 hour Xavier and I spend each day gardening in the back yard now. It is frustrating at times to have him dig up a bulb I just planted or step on the bed I just tilled, but I figure that once we both get the hang of it, this will be a nice activity we can share.

The other aspect of my "person" section of my rule is getting adequate sleep. I'm in bed by 10 p.m. sharp now. If I wake up in the night, I try to avoid TV or internet as that just ends up being too stimulating.

Tot School

Xavier, 21 months

Each day I try to devote a little time to making sure Xavier has a rich and diverse learning environment here at home. While I know at this age he is learning all the time (and his imaginative play surely indicates that he is watching us closely) I think that a little focus now and then is in keeping with the best of Charlotte Mason and Montessori teaching philosophies that I admire. The Tot School link above is one of the websites that I find particularly helpful in generating ideas.

This week we did a lot of reading. In the book basket for the week are:

Corduroy

My Big Green Pocketbook

The Baby Sister

My Big Boy Potty

Pop Worhol's Top

Xavier learned how to plant seeds and water them. We talked about how seedlings will poke up through the dirt but I'm not sure if he will truely understand until they show themselves in a few days.

For arts and crafts, we made a lifesized drawing of Xavier. I laid out some postal wrapping paper and traced his body. He didn't want to color at first so I just asked where certain body parts should go (nose, eyes, fingers) and filled them in where he pointed. Later he added some scribbles of his own. Then we used masking tape (the boy LOVES tape) to put the drawing on his bedroom door. I'm not sure if it is related to this project or not, but this was the first week that I recall Xavier saying his own name. The power of the self-portrait to provide self awareness I suppose!

Social Smiles and Outdoor Exploration

Here's some more photos for the grandmas and all the other folks who've been champing at the bit!