Yes you can...

Tonight as I was putting the kids to bed, David made yet another request for something. Usually it's a drink of water, his other soother, a flashlight, a book, or another pillow. Tonight it was for a flashlight.

I tried looking for it in all the usual places and couldn't find it.

Out of frustration I said, "David, I can't find the flashlight"

"Yes you can Mom" he replied. "Just use your hands"

No, I'm DAVID

David has been asserting his sense of self lately.

Every time I call him "Honey", or "Pumpkin" or when I give him a compliment (David - you are so creative...or funny...etc), he retorts,

"No I'm NOT. I'm DAVID"

So true.

Playing CDs on the Tape Record

Our dear friend Grandma Elly let Claire and David borrow her 35 year old Fisher Price record player. They have been playing with it nonstop.

Yesterday, as I was feeding Jacob in the living room and Claire and David were playing with it on the front porch, I heard Claire yell across the street to our neighbor Valerie.

"Miss Valerie! We have a tape record. I put a CD on it and it's a tape record"

Yes. She is a child of her day and age.

I have such fond memories of sitting in front of the huge speakers (on the floor in our living room and about the same height as me) and gazing at Raffi records as I listened to his music (yes, this is where the obsession started).

CDs, MP3 players, ipods, and podcasts are what my kids will remember.

Sin Boldly

Here's what I've been chewing on lately...

It's from a book that my friend Jane recommended I read. The book's called Sin Boldly. It’s written by Cathleen Falsani, a religion columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times.

Here’s what she writes in one chapter:

A friend of mine, who lost his mother when he was a young teen, believes that the love of a mother for her child, that unconditional love that the Greeks called agape is, in fact, the first experience humankind has with grace. Mothers, and women in general, he argues, are special vessels of grace, both for their own children and for others. The disposition of the soul of a woman who is a mother is open to the flow of grace in a special way because of the powerful selflessness mothering engenders in creators for their creation. (p. 171)

Falsani then goes on to describe how a group of women in Kenya…mothered her “in a way that forever changed the way I think about motherhood and grace.”

Though I don't feel particularly "grace-full" this evening (I wasn't very patient with the melt-downs that all 3 kids had), I do feel refreshed and renewed with this quote - ready to lavish them with my small attempts at grace.