7 Quick Takes (vol. 11)

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Confession: I started these quick takes last Friday... and meant to finish them Saturday... and thought about finishing them on Sunday... and pretty much gave up on them by Monday night.

Makes this week a bit easier though!

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Alex and I are just thrilled to death (and probably taking too much credit/feeling a bit too proud of our obviously awesome parenting skills) that Michael, at a scant 19 1/2 months old, makes the Sign of the Cross nearly perfectly (and by "nearly perfectly" I mean he remembers to start at his forehead almost half the time and only goes back and forth between "Son" and "Holy Spirit" four or five times--but it is definitely recognizeable!).  If I give him his lunch first and then sit down with him a few minutes later with mine, he will stop eating and start making the Sign of the Cross so we can pray together (obviously holier than I am, since I generally forget to pray with him before handing him his food).  And when we enter the church on Sundays he practically runs for the holy water font and waits impatiently to be lifted up so he can dip his hand (okay, plunge his hand as far in as possible) and bless himself.

Such a holy, well catecheized toddler.  We are so proud!

And then last week I found him in the bathroom.  Where I had inadvertently and unfortunately left the toilet lid up.  Dipping his hand in the toilet and--you guessed it, blessing himself.  With the not-at-all-holy-not-even-CLEAN toilet water.

So he really is a very normal toddler.  And I need to remember to put the toilet lid down.  Always.  And it probably wouldn't hurt to scrub the toilet a little more frequently, just in case.

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In further M-news, for several weeks now he's been saying the same word in reference to cars/trucks whenever he sees or hears them.  It sounded an awful lot like "Josh" and I couldn't figure out why he so strongly associated cars with his uncle.  I mean, even for a toddler "cars" and "josh" don't sound that similar.

And then it hit me.  He's not saying "Josh."  He's saying "crash!"  Because obviously that's what cars and trucks do (at least when he and Daddy are playing with them).  So on any given day when we're outside and hear (regular) traffic noise, M will point, look up at me, and say (oh so sweetly), "crash? crash?" 

No, sweetie, I don't think they crashed.  They're just driving.

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The weather has finally cooled down.  I was excited to wake up to cloudy grey skies and a cool breeze blowing through the window (the cloudy and cool part, not so much the waking up part), and even more excited to see that we're not expected to get above the mid-80s for the next week and a half.  In fact, I almost spit out my coffee when I saw that the high for today is supposed to be 71.  Of course, I never trust the forecast--it'll probably be 90 again in a couple days just to spite me.

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Do you love birth stories?  I'm absolutely obsessed with them.  I spent the entire 41 1/2 weeks of being pregnant with M reading everything I could get my hands on about pregnancy and birth.  Which, being my first, probably wasn't really surprising.  But my fascination with birth stories didn't go away after M was born.  I often have to resist the temptation to ask new acquaintances/practical strangers for their birth stories (and sometimes I don't bother to resist).

The closer I get to my due date (did I mention I'm 31 weeks?! only nine-ish to go... or maybe closer to 11, if he's anything like his brother... *sigh*) the more I feel the need to fuel my addiction...

So do you have a birth story you can share with me?  Pretty, pretty please?

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In case you are even as remotely in love with birth stories as I am, here's Michael's.  I shared--now it's your turn!

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My final take is a prayer request (I'm just needy today, aren't I? give me your birth stories! pray for me!).  I've been waiting all summer to find out if I'll really get to start my dream job as an adjunct instructor for the Catholic Biblical School.  Registrations for the first year classes have been rolling in very slowly, and I've been trying to prepare myself for the very good possibility that the two classes I'm scheduled to teach (starting next week!) will be cancelled due to low enrollment.  Well, I found out yesterday that they're doing better than I thought--each class only needs 5 or 6 more people to reach the magic minimum enrollment number.  So if you have a moment I'd dearly appreciate your prayers for anyone still considering registering. Thanks ever so much :)

Go see Jen for more quick takes!