Ember Days

Today, Friday, and Saturday are the last of those days before the beginning of the next Church season, and they are called the "Ember Days."

From the Catholic Encyclopedia:

Ember days (corruption from Lat. Quatuor Tempora, four times) are the days at the beginning of the seasons ordered by the Church as days of fast and abstinence. They were definitely arranged and prescribed for the entire Church by Pope Gregory VII (1073-1085) ....

You can read the entire article here.

We first came across Ember Days from a cookbook called "A Continual Feast". In that book the author states that they are probably taken from a Jewish custom of 4 fasts each year, though the Catholic Encyclopedia pegs their origin to four yearly pagan feasts. The Ember Days are also a time to spiritually prepare for the next Church season, and Mrs. Pickles and I thought it was a great idea to end a season of feasting and partying with fasting--to remind us of our weakness, our need, and our earthly pilgrimmage.

Pray, and fast.

Peace of Christ,

The Pickles

My "Mothering Style"

Hat Tip to Theresa for this:

My type is: ISTP —The “Give 'Em Their Space” Mother

“My feelings are my own business. Not theirs. So I honor their privacy too.”

Non-intrusive and respectful of differences, the ISTP mother gives her children the personal space they need to develop as separate, self-sufficient individuals. As children grow and mature, she enjoys observing how each one becomes his or her own person. She seeks to accept and honor each child’s interests, opinions, and choices.
The ISTP mother does not believe in authority or control for its own sake. Instead, she favors a non-directive approach. Yet she has high expectations for each child’s self-discipline as a key to self sufficiency.
To these ends, the ISTP mother wants to “be there” for her children—to meet their basic needs and keep them safe. Her goal is to help her children think for themselves and take responsibility for their own actions.


It's interesting -- I first took this quiz a couple days ago and resented my results! I thought this kind of mother sounded so cold and distant at first -- I wanted to be one of those warm fuzzy caring mothers. But just now I realized how accurate the above description of me really is -- because I am such a private person, I prefer to give my kids their space to learn and play independently, being available when they need me. (would that make me an "unschooler"?) I want my children to grow up to be intelligent, virtuous, independent, responsible people, because that's the kind of person I want to be myself. This has actually been quite a revealing little quiz. I wonder if there is a fathering style personality quiz?

Regarding Katish

We finally made a breakthrough with regards to the language that Katie speaks. We finally figured out that she speaks Tazmanian Devilish now! Like all babies she started off with Old Solarian, the language of the Eldila and other angels, then progressed to either Entish or Sindarin Elvish -- hard to say which, exactly -- and now Tazmanian. We can tell because most of her words involve lots of juicy use of her tongue.

UPDATE: Actually, since I first drafted this post a couple weeks ago, her language has mutated to Welsh. At least, some of her consonants involve a complex arrangement of her tongue and cheeks which produces a sound I've only ever heard in Welsh -- sort of a cross between "th" and "l". (Go ahead, you try it!) She seems to speak very fluent Welsh, with lots of inflections and expression -- I only wish we could understand what the heck she's saying!

Some of her latest (see also the Katie-English dictionary in sidebar for updates):

oh no! (said whenever she hears a siren)
drogees -- stroller
dockees -- chocolate
wagees -- water
noogees -- noodles
(do you notice a pattern?) :)
oh my (she learned this from Miriam & Edy while we were visiting the ol' Alma Mater -- post coming soon!)
mickey/muck/moke -- milk (I thought that was an interesting progression)
bucky -- buckle (usually said after we remove her highchair tray, but she's still strapped in)
I -- any letter of the alphabet, referring especially to our ABC magnets

As you can see, like most children her age Katie needs some major translating to communicate with non-family members! :)

Katie Update

In the world of Katie:

Katie gets into her fair share of trouble, too -- the other day I caught her playing in a big box of laundry detergent. She was merrily scooping it out onto the floor and sifting it through her fingers just like sand. (The box is now on top of the dryer, where it's going to stay.) I never had this kind of trouble with Miriam -- there were so many things I didn't have to put away or hide. But Katie is just such a busy little bee and curious about everything that nothing at her level is safe!

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Katie loves water. And by "loves" I mean "is obsessed with". If there is a faucet on in the house, she will come running and INSIST upon playing too. When we turn the tap off, she cries. And by "cries" I mean "shrieks and then throws herself on the floor". She's just fascinated by the stuff. Bathtime is the highlight of her day. Even though Katie didn't need a bath I had to give her a joint one with Miriam, because I knew the hissy fit she would throw if she wasn't in the tub too. So the two of them had a contest to see how wet they could get Mom. I think they both won.

This is Katie throwing a tantrum. I tried to get the whole process on film (pixel?) but she's too quick. The first stage is actually her sitting with a fussy "rrraaaa!" and then flinging herself on her belly with another "rrrraaa!" followed by this:

Katie throwing tantrum

I tried to get her to stand up and start over, and this is how she responded:

Katie still mad

Once she finally realizes that we're not taking her seriously (I guess by our laughing at her), her displays of temper are always followed by this:


up!

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Big sis decided to decorate Katie one day.


all stickered up

The expression on her face is her mad face -- she didn't appreciate me asking her to pose.

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The Katie Who Wore a Pot on Her Head

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Katie love being outside. And whenever we go for walks, she insists on stopping to smell the roses -- preferably every single one. I let her pick clover and dandelions. She'll have a collection in her little hand, and every few steps she'll stop and smell them. When's the last time you smelled a clover flower or a dandelion?


CL "dousie"


I have a bucket!

(the bucket, incidentally, is full of dandelions she's picked)

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Tell me again why we ever spend money on toys, when our kids are happy to play with our broken furniture?


cheap toys

Miriam Update

(Two weeks ago, when I actually started this post, it was named "Kiddie Updates" and included tidbits from both the girls, but since then I've gathered so much material that I had to split it up!)

In the world of Miriam:

Miriam's lullaby requests have been an interesting journey. Ever since she was a wee bairn, at bedtime I would sing the Pater Noster, Ave Maria, Gloria, or the Salve Regina (or Regina Caeli during Easter). Then one day when she was two she told me she didn't WANT any of those. She wanted something ELSE. I forget what it was at the time -- maybe something Mr. Pickles sang to her (since he doesn't know all those Latin hymns and chants as yet). Ever since then she's refused to let me sing those to her. Her lullaby request usually varies every couple months or so -- for a while she went through a Mary Poppins phase. But lately she's taken a shine to "Jesus Christ is Risen Today." This has been her consistent request since, oh, about Christmas, I think? But because of all the "alleluia's" I refused to sing it during Lent (Mr. Pickles would just say "la la la la laaa lala laa laa laa" which amused Miriam greatly). As a second choice she would ask for "Holy God We Praise Thy Name." (Have we ever mentioned how pious she is?) :) Even so, she would still request the forbidden Easter hymn EVERY SINGLE NIGHT. You'd think that after a couple weeks or so she'd get the hint? Anyway, when Easter was finally here, she was very happy to have us sing "Jesus Christ is Risen Today" again, and so far hasn't requested anything else yet! Whenever I put both girls to bed at the same time, Miriam wants me to sing HER lullaby first before I sing Katie's. It's a good thing I'm in a choir and used to singing for 2 hours straight, otherwise naptime would be very trying on my voice! I've also noticed that since I've been spending so much time singing lullabies, my voice has dropped down into the alto range. I can comfortably sing a full two or three notes lower than I used to be able to -- thanks to all that crooning in lower registers!

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In other Miriam news, most of you know that she's going through A Phase -- the biggest one she's been through so far. It's like she skipped over the terrible twos and saved them all up for the terrible three-and-a-halfs-and-then-some. It seems that she fell apart last fall and hasn't been able to put herself back together again. Fortunately I was mentally prepared for some kind of insanity, since Mom B LOVES reminding anyone who will listen that I went through the terrible four-and-a-halfs (she'll be happy to regale you with horrific tales of my naughtiness, should you care to ask her). :) Miriam's symptoms are an inability to listen, concentrate, remember, or follow simple directions, completely irrational and disproportionate reactions to frustrations, whining, clinginess, being obnoxiously demanding, talking back, and just general crankiness. She has been so unlike her usual cheerful, helpful, loving self that we've been pulling our hair out trying to figure out what's going on. The worst of it is that she seems to save it all up for Daddy -- she's at her worst from about 5-8pm, with the height of the naughtiness when Daddy's trying to get her ready for bed. I've had lots of moms say their kids went through the same thing at that age, but so far no one's offered any suggestions for dealing with it, or at least telling us how long it will last!

Right now we're just trying to figure out what could be the underlying cause of the worst of the behavior -- primarily the sassing and disobedience. My best guess is that she's going through a very attached phase right now -- by which I mean that she seems to want to spend as much time as possible physically attached to one of us via snuggling, sitting on laps, reading stories, or playing with toys together -- and when she doesn't meet her attachment quota she reacts by doing things which certainly don't invite caring responses! (How can you give lovings to an hysterically screaming child?) Understanding this much has helped -- we've learned to melt away a lot of tension by offering a hug when Miriam's acting cranky and uncooperative. Still, I'd like to know what else is going on, and how long it's going to last! I haven't been able to find out anything specific to this age in any of the parenting books I've read. Any thoughts, anyone?...

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Thought Grandma B might enjoy this one:


calendar

Miriam loves this calendar! She put up all the clingies by herself, except the actual grid part. For a while she was asking every day if we could put up a new month. (May is up now.) That gray, wettish view out the window pretty much represents what April was like (hence the raincloud and raindrops decorating the window!).

Here are the girls ready for a walk during the month of April:


ready for rain

The weather has been gorgeous now, though -- spring is in full bloom. It's been heavenly. I hope it lasts!

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Thanks again to Grandma B for getting this chin-up bar -- it has provided many hours of exercise and amusement already!


swingin' princess

Sancta Mater Ecclesia

I had meant to post this a couple days ago, but time as usual ran away from me...

As you all know, The Da Vinci Code opened this weekend. A couple weeks ago one of our parish priests gave a great homily about it. One of the great quotes from his homily was from St. Augustine, something to the effect that every heresy is an opportunity to learn the truth. So too with this movie. Mixed up with some half-truths are many distortions and outright lies. The popularity of the book and movie is an opportunity for us Catholics to educate ourselves about the truth of our Church's history, in order to pass the truth on to those who would otherwise have no exposure to it. I'm sure that none of the readers of this blog will go to see this movie, but in case you talk to people who are thinking of going (if they haven't yet), here's a thought from Father's homily that you can pass along:

Imagine a sweet old lady, someone you love and admire. (Fr. used the example of our former pastor's mother.) Suppose that somebody wrote a biography of this woman, but filled it with horrific tales of totally invented depravities, painting her as a cruel, twisted, evil old woman, and in general dragging her name through the mud. Suppose that a movie were made out of that biography. Would YOU go to see it?

The Church is OUR mother.

Mr. Pickles is officially smarter

After having to remind the University to give me my final 2 credits, I have now officially graduated. Here's the official information from my online transcript.


DEGREE AWARDED:
MASTER OF SCIENCE
DEGREE DATE:
05/14/06
MAJOR:
STATISTICS
GRADUATING GPA:
3.97

Hooray for me!!! I'd like to thank my dear wife for supporting me for the last 3 1/2 years of study, and for encouraging me to continue when I talked about giving up. I'd also like to thank her for the last few weeks when I had to work on the project during the evenings. Since I work for the Federal Government who paid for the coursework, I'd also like to thank all you tax payers for paying your taxes which partially funded my education. :)

And thank you all for your prayers!!

Now that classes are finished, my next topics of study are Latin and hockey, and I hope to study Latin with my dear wife.

What Sibling Rivalry II

Okay, now we're starting to see some jealousy between the girls emerge, especially as Katie has begun to assert herself (and throw temper tantrums). I feel like my main job these days is referee! But in between the occasional shrieking fits are lots of sweet times. Just today I caught the two of them holding hands and dancing together, giggling hysterically whenever one of them fell down (which happened a lot). It was so cute.

Katie just loves her big sis and tries to imitate everything she does. This has its advantages and disadvantages! Katie will get really frustrated whenever she tries to do something that Miriam can do but she can't, like climb over the baby gate.


NOT a happy camper

But there are some good habits that Katie is picking up from Miriam's example.


toothbrushing


potty time!

Katie loves sitting on the little potty so much that we decided to take advantage of that and do some preliminary toilet training. I don't have the patience or energy to go gung-ho right now -- it's a little early anyway -- but mostly we're just trying to help Katie be aware of her bodily functions. She hates having her diaper changed, so if we could just help her realize that going in the potty would eliminate those annoying parts of her day...!

Miriam loves teaching Katie things. Yesterday Miriam was singing "If you're happy and you know it" and showing Katie how to clap and stomp and say hooray (Katie's favorite part of the song). Katie had a huge smile on her face the whole time. They really do play well together.


sisterly love

Miriam is so tickled whenever Katie shows her affection. They're very loving towards the other whenever one of them gets hurt -- they will offer kisses and toys to make the hurt party feel better. A couple times when Katie fell and got a bonk (which tends to happen a lot) Miriam would go over to comfort her until Mommy could come, and Katie would wrap her arms around Miriam for a feel-better hug! I hope this loving concern for each other continues -- it makes my job so much better! :)

Finally... Easter pictures!

The Easter Bunny visited our house and left a few surprises around the living room. He very cleverly left two sizes of eggs -- so the big ones were for Miriam and the small ones were for Katie (since Katie's eggs had to be very obvious).

Katie figured out the whole Easter candy thing right away.


an Easter chickie with her Peeps (one of which is headless)


Cool! I found one!

I tried to capture the look on her face when she actually found an egg, but she was too quick. You can get a good idea from Mr. Pickles' face, though. :)

I think I got the hang of this!


Big Easter Bunny


Little Easter Bunny


Easter finery

We asked Katie to stand next to big sis for a picture, but I guess we offended her because she ran into the living room and plunked down on the floor instead:

I don't want to pose for a picture!

After Easter Sunday Mass we went to some friends' for lunch and another Easter egg hunt. They have a great backyard. I'm so envious!

Miriam scoping out the territory


What am I supposed to do with this again?


...oh yeah, now I remember!


a-ha!


What do you want? I'm busy!


Miriam cleans up


Katie gets some help from Mama


...and figures out the rest!

By the end of the day, Katie knew ALL about Easter eggs and the treasures they contained! You should have seen her dress afterwards. I wish I had thought to take a picture!

"opee? opee?"


yummm!

What in the World???

So while we're all getting dressed this morning, Miriam runs into the bathroom and says,


"Mommy, look at my bumpies!"
(click on picture to zoom in, if you really feel you must)

It's ALL over her body -- although not as bad on her arms and legs. After extensive research in baby books and online, I have discovered that... it's probably a virus, and it will go away. The End.

Well, this might explain why she's been so cranky the last couple days...