Another first

Faith had her first reconciliation tonight (first confession for the non-Catholics like me). She was pretty nervous about the whole thing, but there's nothing like practice, practice, practice. I have played the role of "priest" for a couple of weeks now...and yes, I know the irony is rife here.

Confession isn't really like you see on TV anymore. No going into a dark closet with a strange man (a situation in which we would normally tell our kids to run like hell). Instead, all the kids doing first confession sit in the church pews waiting their turn to go up to the front of the church where there are two chairs facing each other, one for the priest and one for the kid. The kid says her confession and then gets a penance from the priest, says a prayer, and that's it.

I took Faith as George had a speaking engagement in Toronto. Being Anglican, this was my first exposure to this particular sacrament, so I guess Faith and I were both in the same boat. But, when it was her turn to go up, she did great (at least from the body language I could decipher).

After she was done, she came back to our pew and I gave her a hug. Then, I asked her the penance. She gave me this look and then said, "I forgot."

In twenty steps she forgot her penance. "OK..." and I'm thinking what do we do now?!?

"Was it a 'Hail Mary'?"

"I don't think so. I think it was an 'Our Family'."

OK...this one I didn't recognize. We went with a Hail Mary. Hopefully she's covered.

Language arts

Faith: "I'm working on homoph.... at school."
Me: "What?"
Faith: "In languages, I'm working on homoph...."
Me: "Say that again."
Faith: "Homophones."
Me: "Homophones?"
Faith: "Homophones."
Me: "Homophobes?"
Faith: "Yeah. That's it."
Me: "In languages?"
Faith: "Yeah."
Me: "Do you mean 'homonyms'?
Faith: "Oh yeah. That's it. I get confused."
Me: "So do I."

A big milestone

Faith walked home on her own from school today for the first time! She was so proud of herself!

A guest post

I found this snippet that Faith typed out on our laptop:

Blake really wants mommy now he is playing ball with daddy. Now he wants mommy. now he is playing with daddy. Now he is peeing in the potty.

This pretty much sums up all our days.

Happy Valentine's Day

Here's the kids' attempt to make a human valentine. :) Lots of love to friends and family...and wishing you a little chocolate too!

My official two year old

Things that I want to remember about Blake being two:

As my friend said, "He's the politest two-year-old I know." This has nothing to do with us. Yes, his first word was "thank you", but it could just as easily have been "crap", "shit" or "beer". Now, whenever I do anything for him, he says, in the cutest toddler accent, "Thank you, Mummy." And, yes, he pretty much gets whatever he wants when he does this.

He kind of potty trained himself! (Also, thanks to the efforts of my fantastic babysitter.) He is now officially potty-trained. He is even dry at night! He does, however, like to "dump the pee", a delicate procedure that involves traveling from the living room to the bathroom with a potty seat of pee. This definitely requires adult supervision, something I discovered after a particularly messy attempt.

His favourite songs are Operator (by Shiloh) and Happy Birthday. He breaks into the chorus of Operator spontaneously at various points throughout the day... "Oprator! Oprator! Don call me i call woo later!" (Yes, Shiloh, ex-girlfriend of Joe Jonas. If you don't know who these people are, then you likely do not have tween girl in your household who has fallen prey to the Disney marketing machine.)

He's got moves. Dance moves. Lots of them. Yes, he looks like a little white boy when he dances, but he can pull this off at two. Not sure if it will get him too many women at 22 though.

He has seen the "Move it, move it" dance scene in Madascagar 2043 times in the last 6 weeks. (See the last point.) I was never so happy to have a sequel come out on DVD--"Move it, move it" in Madagascar 2 happens in the first few minutes instead of halfway through the movie.

His physical abilities have increased as his listening abilities have decreased. He climbs the stairs one foot per step, no hands on the rail! This gave me a heart attack the first time I saw it. He climbs, he jumps, he climbs again--on things he's not supposed to climb on, then falls...frequently.

He gives real kisses now. Not the open-mouthed, slobbery baby kisses but actual lip-smackers on the cheek. And, sometimes he'll grab both my cheeks and pull me in close to his face for a giggle fest, and a little kiss.

And, on really good days, he'll say "I love you."

Love you too, buddy!

Cute little animals

The kids and I spent some time watching this video that Papa sent them today. Faith lost interest after a bit, but Blake watched it out 5 times in a row. At that point, I clicked Replay and said, "Last time."

He promptly replied, "No last time, Mummy."

(Note to my brothers: This is not a training video for hunting practice)