My dear readers,
Forgive the incoherence that follows; hopefully it explains itself.
We celebrated Epiphany a day early for various reasons. I botched the early part of the Liturgy; all the changeables threw me off and I grew more and more flustered and kicked a stack of offering plates accidentally and also knocked over a stool by [...]
Archive for the ‘Parenting’ Category
Exhaustion, Grace, Sons, and Chanting…Not Necessarily In That Order
Posted in Music, Orthodox Christianity, Parenting, tagged Babies, Being, Blue Eyes, Chant, Chanting the Psalms, Children, Choir, Choir Director, Church, Churches, Directing Choir, Exhaustion, Existential Questions, Feeling, Grace, Leading Choir, Musical Theory, Orthodox Church, Portrait, Portraits, Psalm 23, Psalmnody, Psalms, Reading the Psalms, Singing the Psalms, Sons, Tired on January 18, 2009 | 10 Comments »
First Trip to the Library
Posted in Parenting, tagged Books, Future, Letters, Libraries, Numbers, Parental Pride, Phonics, Plans, Plans for the Future, Pride, Reading, Toddlers on January 5, 2009 | 3 Comments »
I have just discovered that by hitting ‘Enter’ while holding down the shift key I can start a line directly below my present line
like this instead of double-spacing my paragraphs
like WordPress normally does.
This will be
nice the next time I write
a poem.
***
“Libraries are just civilized. They are just a part of civilized society, and we need [...]
A Rather Heckish Day
Posted in Life, Parenting, tagged Bubbles, Food, Frustration, Hunger, Mom's Night Out, Mommy Brain, Nourishment, Photography, Portrait Studios, Portraits, Soup, Taking Pictures on January 2, 2009 | 4 Comments »
I must be brief. I feel I’m starving, and none of this fare my husband likes to call “rabbit food” seems tolerable at the moment. After wrestling with Johnny for hours on end I’ve been overtaken by the urge to replenish my emotional welbeing by eating something warm and savory and very, very lonely. But [...]
“Johnny” Turns Two
Posted in Life, Parenting, tagged Art, Blond Curls, Boys and Curls, Children, Curly Hair, Family Pictures, Family Portraits, Kids, Photographs, Photography, Second Birthday on September 10, 2008 | 6 Comments »
Our son, whom I call Johnny on this blog, just turned two. His dad, tired of elderly ladies mistaking Johnny for a little girl because of his glorious blond curls, extracted from his mom a promise to cut said curls after the birthday. All right, says Mom. But how are curls logically feminine?
Oh well. A man’s [...]
An Untried Theory
Posted in Parenting, tagged Children, Kids, Childrearing, Civilization, Potty-Training, Societal Constructs, Societal Norms, Sanitation, Babies, Bathrooms, Toilets on May 16, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Ah, yes. Potty training, toils and travails of. A subject that has no interest whatever for most, but which parents of young children can’t seem to stop talking about.
I’m in quite the situation, myself. My boy is not even two years old yet – not till September – but in certain ways he is very [...]
Love of Child
Posted in Orthodox Christianity, Parenting, tagged Childbearing, Children, Christianity, Creation, Freedom, Giving, God, God's Love, Law and Grace, Love, Obligation, Offspring, Parental Love, Procreation, Stewardship on April 20, 2008 | 3 Comments »
I suppose that all natural human loves can be images of and partakers in Divine Love. It’s only just come to me how a parents’ love really does so.
In a happy marriage there is no need of a child to bring any completion or fulfil any lack within the relationship. The the man and the woman [...]
Google Searches that Brought Me Readers II: Getting Kids to Eat Eggs
Posted in Parenting, tagged Blogging, Children, Christianity, Eating, Eggs, Food, Friends, Getting Kids to Eat, Google, Kids, Nutrition, Orthodoxy, Recipes, Search Engines, Searches, Toddlers on February 1, 2008 | 5 Comments »
For kid-friendly egg recipe scroll to the bottom of the post.
I continue to be amazed by the search phrases that bring people to my blog. Just to reassure everyone, there’s no indication who made the search or where they were coming from, at least not that I know how to or care how to find.
Last [...]
Getting Kids to Eat, Lesson Two: Using Water
Posted in Orthodox Christianity, Parenting, tagged Childrearing, Children, Christian Parenting, Discipline, Eating, Food, Getting Kids to Eat, Johnny, Kids on January 18, 2008 | 6 Comments »
Johnny has been eating eggs a lot lately but I’ve been worried he hasn’t been getting enough carbs. Apparently Cheerios are now too boring to eat. And I know well that trying to force a kid to eat something is the surest way to make him loathe that thing forever.
This morning I tried a trick [...]
Feeding Vegetables to a One-Year Old: My Two Favorite Methods
Posted in Parenting, tagged Balanced Diet, Children, Eating, Feeding Children, Feeding Kids, Healthy Eating, Kid's Meals, Kids, Meals, Vegetables on December 12, 2007 | 6 Comments »
My first favorite method is to buy frozen peas and diced carrots and store them in a clear freezer bag so that Johnny can see what I’m pulling out of the freezer. “OOOO, Does Johnny want Blocks and Balls?” I ask with the veggie-light in my eyes.
He clacks his tongue – every time – in that [...]
The Heartbreak of Parenting
Posted in Orthodox Christianity, Parenting, tagged Chatecumens, Children, Salvation, Sin on December 4, 2007 | 2 Comments »
Today my baby displayed his first evidence of shame. He bit my neck and I scolded him, rather mildly. But another woman was present, and little Johnny surprised me by bursting into tears, burying his nose in my neck, and covering his cheeks and eyes with his hands.
Am I proud? No. I think it’s so [...]
The Efforts of Children Superior to Today’s Adult
Posted in Parenting, tagged Children, Education, Parenting, Wasteland on December 3, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Children come into this world serious beings. I know this is true because I watch Johnny, and once watched younger siblings, in their serious endeavors. Always the very young are seeking to acquire skills and accomplish feats. No one blames them that their goals are meaningless in the wider scheme of things. We know they are trying instinctually [...]
Shall We Sin That Grace May Abound?
Posted in Parenting, tagged Children, Humor, Life on November 27, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Do wrong so that we can have the pleasure of fixing the wrong we’ve done? Johnny votes ‘Yes!’
Our CD Tower is this lovely wooden piano-themed fixture. It undulates rather than rising straight up, and its sides are covered in carved, painted, and polished piano keys, almost lifesize. It’s one of my favorite pieces, and like most [...]
Beware the Doo-mious Mama-snatch…
Posted in Language, Parenting, tagged Children, Humor, Language, Parenting on November 26, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Forget the experts for a moment - the truly wonderful thing about baby talk is that my baby loves it! No, he doesn’t seem to know it’s silly. And in fact I’m not sure it is. Like everything Johnny and I do together, it’s quite serious. Not glum, dull, drudgish, or somber. Serious as in meaningful.
I recently read [...]
What to Do When an Adoring Adult Swoops You Away From Your Toys and Suspends You Six Feet Above the Floor While Squishing and Kissing You
Posted in Parenting, tagged Children, Yellow Duckies on November 24, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
“From his viewpoint it must be akin to alien abduction.”
Johnny’s current stage is to practice “putting” things.
Earlier it was “unputting” them. I would build a castle of blocks; his delight was to knock them down. I would put a pen away in the drawer, he would labor away at the drawer to open it and [...]
A Merry Little Soul
Posted in Parenting, tagged Children, Discipline, Humor, Parenting on November 21, 2007 | 1 Comment »
My one-year-old son, Johnny, is a merry little soul. I read a sentence somewhere about “the solid, unkillable children of the poor” and that reminds me of him. We are not destitute but Scottie and I both come from lower-middle-class families and Johnny has not exactly had all the advantages. He gets plenty to eat, people [...]