As For Me and My House...

Sean and Jamesie have been very prayerful lately.  We all know that Sean wants to be a Pope when he grows up, (actually, the other day he told me he wanted to be "a altar-surfer, a priest, and a pope, and all of those things"), so he's been practicing his traditional Catholic prayer life:

So sweet-- Seannie and Daddy saying prayers at night. The picture over his night stand is actually a Pope Calendar.  And, well, the other decorations complete our shrine to our most beloved Catholic University.

Even very holy men sometimes have to sneak a peak at mommy. 

Practicing Lexio Divino-- meditating on holy scripture.  This is Sean's "story about Jesus" which he requests every night before bed.  His favorites are "The Cured Man," "When Jesus helps the Little Girl," and "Jesus and His Guys on the Boat." And, yes, sucking his thumb helps him meditate on the Sacred Word. 

And even very holy men need to give their Daddys some love before night night. 

Meanwhile--Jamesie's prayer life has been a bit more "Eastern" lately:

Jamesie practicing Baby Yoga.  If you say "Jamesie do a Baby Yoga?" he will assume this position and giggle.  He does it by himself several times throughout the day and it is just adorable.

Our baby-Yogi practicing sans shirt while Daddy and Seannie read poetry in the background.  Its been a very peaceful home lately. 

Not to worry, Jamesie also says "Jesus" for about 80% of his spoken words these days.  Just this afternoon Sean said to me, "Mommy, why does Jamesie sometimes call me Jesus?"  In a voice that connotated just how hard it is to be confused with Our Savior sometimes.  Jamesie also brings a small statue of Mary to his high chair tray during every meal lately.  He could choose worse lunch-guests. 

Dancing in the Park

 

I've been having fun with action sequences lately.  We laughed pretty hard at this one:

Thank You, Miss Austen

Jamesie turned 15 months last week (and no, he's still not walking-- but he seems to at least be more interested in it these days).  This coincided with my finishing the last Jane Austen novel on my reading list.  While I originally started reading all of Miss Austen's works --6 novels in all (plus Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte) --as something to do during breastfeeding sessions with Jamesie, he finished his nursing tenure before I finished reading.  But, I loved it so much I just kept reading, determined to round out the works.  I didn't win any prizes for speed-- I kept a slow and steady pace (in fact, I really tried to slow down even more on the last one b/c I didn't want it to be over!), but I haven't enjoyed reading like this since probably 11th grade British Literature with Mrs. Volpe. 

I know Jane Austen is super pop-culture lately, but I highly recommend all of her novels for anyone looking for some good literature, good instruction on manners and propriety, and a little intellectual boost to your day. So, with that said, I will offer my very brief run-down of thoughts on her works as a whole: 

Best story: Persuasion: I also thought this was her most "mature" novel-- delving more into the feelings and internal struggles of the characters, rather than merely tracking the social expectations of them.  Who can resist a story of separated love that never dies, and reunites even stronger after years of torment?  Plus, the "old maid" who had "lost her bloom" at the old age of seven-and-twenty is classic.  Maybe it seemed like more "mature" writing because this is her oldest heroine.

Best writing: Pride and Prejudice - there is literally not one place in the entire book where you can "put it down."  I read it in HS and have seen the movies a million times, but reading it again now made me appreciate how masterful the writing is, and how funny it is! I think a lot of the humor and irony is lost in film productions.

Best Characters: Emma: Jane Austen is often praised for her ability to create memorable characters.  I thought Mr. Woodhouse, Emma's father, was the most hilarious character I've read in a long time. Every time he had dialogue I just giggled.  Plus, in case you didn't know, one of the most iconic characters of my adolescence-- Cher from "Clueless"-- is based on Emma Woodhouse (the movie is based on the novel).  Miss Austen gave mid-90's Beverly Hills a lot to work with in her characters.  Brilliant. 

I hate to do this, but just in case you want to skip any, or want to know if you can avoid any of the books--

Worst Novel: Northanger Abby.  It was really immature, focused almost exclusively on the social scene of Bath, and the misunderstandings of the characters amongst themselves, while the reader can figure out said misunderstanding almost instantly.  It was still pretty good, just not my favorite. 

Favorite Movie Character: Edward Ferrars in Sense and Sensibility: I know I'm supposed to say Colin Firth in the BBC production of Pride and Prejudice, but every time I think about Sense and Sensibility I think of young Hugh Grant playing the charmingly bashful Edward Ferrars.  I think it was a perfect role for Hugh Grant, and his role in Bridget Jones' Diary as the modern-day Wyckham (the scoundral from P and P) is way off.  Edward Ferrars is unasuming, honest, shy and kind of bumbling where Wyckham is deceitful, slick, selfish, flirtatious and conniving.  Couldn't these two different casting directors coordinate their Austen men?  2 thumbs up to Hugh Grant in the first role. 

The only novel I have failed to mention is Mansfield Park.  It was just fine.  My sister says the movie is nothing like the book though, so I forwent watching the movie.  This is a good novel on the subject of propriety in young relationships, modesty and humility, and it has a pretty good story line too. 

I also read the Jane Austen Book Club and watched the recent movie Becomming Jane starring Anne Hathaway as Miss Austen (I thought she was good enough for the role, but I questioned whether she really appreciated Jane Austen enough to play her-- did she deserve to have this role? I don't know...), along with the movie versions of Pride and Prejudice (the newer one, with Kiera Knightley--I'm waiting to watch my sister's copy of the BBC version again), Sense and Sensibility, Emma and Persuasion.  All very good, but they don't hold a candle to the books.  Now that my year with Miss Austen is complete I feel sad, like I'm saying goodbye to a good friend.  I've sort of been moping around at night unwilling to start another author, but upset I have no more Austen to read-- I think Cody's ready for me to move on from my imaginary friendships with Jane Austen's characters as he actually picked out a new book for me to read the other night.  I suppose I'll have to start it soon.  In the meantime, please feel free to chime in on any of the above judgments--I'd love to hear another perspective!

Humble Parenting Pie

Sean never went through the Terrible Twos.  Now that he's 3 though, he's severely testing our limits.  In one of my poor-er moments as a parent (I was seriously at the end of my rope after being bossed around all day and I thought I might lose my mind if I heard the word N-O one more time), I said to Sean, "Sean, your backtalk is giving me gray hairs." 

About three days later, while Jamesie was having his morning nap and Sean and I were sharing some peaceful one-on-one time, Sean disappeared into the family room while I finished cleaning the kitchen from breakfast.  I could hear him whispering to himself, which he often does when he hears a new word or phrase, to practice it.  Then, calm as can be, he came back in the kitchen and declared, "Mommy, all of the words that you say to me (waving his hand around in a circle to indicate the fullness of ALLLL the words) give me gray hairs." He also showed me a "gray hair" he had taken out of his head, which was apparently invisible to the rest of the world. 

A good lesson to treat my three-year-old (and speak to him) as I would like to be treated.

Romper Room

Cody and I have been noticing a certain trend cropping up among young women lately-- the Romper (a one-piece shorts/tank suit).  My apologies to our more trendy friends, but we've decided rompers should really be confined to a baby's wardrobe.  Maybe I'm just not bold enough to try it myself.  Or, maybe our little baby boy just looks so cute in a Baby-romper I can't imagine the transition to grown woman.   If you are pro-grown up-romper, read on-- you might find a friend in Sean. 








First, the catalogue of Baby-Rompers on Jamesie:

And, a bonus feature below-- Sean inherited a size 3T "Romper" from generous friends of ours at church.  I'm pretty sure it still had tags on it.  Cody is completely anti-romper on anyone big enough to walk, talk and go potty by themselves (including the population of young women in Charleston).  Cody has strickly forbidden the inherited romper on Sean, now that he is a self-proclaimed Big Boy.  Therefore, I was graciously retiring the size 3T romper to Jamesie's closet the other day so to minimize Cody's irritation when he saw it in Sean's closet, when Sean caught sight of it and declared (1) it is NOT baby clothes, (2) he likes it, and (3) he still wears it ("stil"-- he has never worn it).  So, he ended up wearing it all day, including accompanying me to a chiropractor appointment where everyone commented.  He's just so tall and thin it really does look sort of funny and out of place.  Here you go:

 Happy rompering!

Holy Cereal, Batman!

I have no further insight into this morning's conversation about breakfast than you might have, so here it is:

Cody: Sean, what do you want for breakfast?
Sean: The cereal the Bishop gave me.
Cody: (confused, thinking), hmm... ok.
Erin (in other room): Did you say you want cereal the Bishop gave you?
Sean: Yep.
Erin: When did he give you cereal?
Sean: At church.
Erin: What kind of cereal?
Sean: Its very colorful.
Erin: What kind is it?
Sean: The kind the Bishop gave me. 
Erin: Was it a big box or a little box of cereal?
Sean: A big box of colorful cereal.
Erin: Where did he give it to you?
Sean (impatiently): at church.
Erin: inside the church or outside on the grass?
Sean: Inside the church.
Erin: So the Bishop gave you a big box of colorful cereal inside church one day, and that's what you want for breakfast?
Sean: Yep. 

He was also asked if this was a dream, to which he promptly and tersely answered "no." He ended up having oatmeal because none of our actual cereal choices were colorful enough.

Baseball! (Well, Law-League Softball)

With summer comes 100+ degree days and Law-League Softball around here.  We have played on the Public Defender Softball team for 4 years now-- I went to the first game 9 months prego and sat on a lawn chair--and now we tote our two little sluggers with us (nearly) every week.  Last year we decided to cut our losses and only have one of us play at a time while the other stayed with the babies, so we switched off games last year, but this year its just easier for Cody to play and me to hang with the boys, which I don't mind at all. 

Cheering for the PDs-- James and Sean with No. 1 fans Ms. Martha and Mr. Rhett.  Sean loves Ms. Martha because she gives him things like stickers and markers and Chinese-language work books. 

"Go Daddy!"  Sean is studious watching Cody play. 

Sean is actually using his binoculars looking for Cody, who is coaching first base.  Also pictured is the dugout, or as Sean calls it, "the baseball cave."

Modern dad on the go.

Keeping score and parenting at the same time.

And again the next week.

Watching Dad at bat... serious business.

Sean inventing some sort of baseball-related game with a golf ball while James gets ready to eat dirt.

And yes, if at all possible, I try to dress them alike for every game.