Our view from locked behind the baby gate

So we're officially at THAT PLACE in parenting again. Traversing from one of the upstairs bedrooms downstairs goes as follows:

Down the stairs. Into the living room, wait. Baby gate there, to prevent Anne from getting into (a) the stairs, (b) the radiator, (c) the bathroom where she particularly enjoys the trash can, and (d) the guest room/office where Hank often spreads itty bitty Legos out everywhere as he builds and rebuilds various emergency vehicles and an alien spacecraft with a human holding bin.

We move into the kitchen, to access the other doorway into the dining room/living room space. That's unblocked, and for whatever reason, Anne is far less interested in getting into the kitchen, although she occasionally tries to venture in there on her own to grab at the empty beer bottles and other recyclables. The dining room is an Anne-safe zone, with all electrical outlets covered and no small pieces lying to and fro. She likes to crawl around under the table and generally do victory laps around the room since there's a lot of space in there.

Moving into the living room proper, you're likely to step on a squeaky infant toy or twenty, and accessing the front door is a bit of a chore. The neighboring fireplace and a DVD case holder are blocked off with a strategically placed dining room chair, and new keep out devices are in the works for a nearby bookcase. Her exersaucer (Godsend that it is) blocks another DVD case holder, plus some electrical wires.

Such is our state of baby wrangling these days. Not only is she standing AND cruising, she's now babbling, and I have to say it's totally adorable.

"A ba ba ba, la la la."

It's like having a little Smurf in residence at all times. And it's wonderful, but also exhausting. So Mike and I were thrilled to go out to dinner by ourselves Saturday night to celebrate our 7th wedding anniversary. He even volunteered to go to Mass with me beforehand at a parish down the road from our chosen restaurant, which pleased me greatly. He loves vigils for some reason, while I prefer Sunday mornings. But hey, whatever. If he wants to go to Mass, I'll go when he wants to go. :) The only time I *have* to go Sunday mornings is when I'm the catechist for Children's Liturgy of the Word, which is only once per month.

Anyway, it was a much more modern church than either of us usually prefers, but I have to say, for a modern design it was quite pretty. Which I hope doesn't sound disparaging, I just prefer a more traditional look. But this church used natural light very beautifully, and still had a high ceiling, with wood beams, and although it mostly lacked traditional stained glass, it looked lovely. The Christmas decorations were still up and were gorgeous, and it was one of my very favorite feasts, the Epiphany.

It was a good, good weekend.

Unfortunately, I just discovered that I forgot my breast pump ice pack AGAIN and have to put my milk into the common work refrigerator. WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?!

St. Anne Novena, Day 6

DAILY PRAYER TO SAINT ANN

O glorious St. Ann, you are filled with compassion for those who invoke you and with love for those who suffer! Heavily burdened with the weight of my troubles, I cast myself at your feet and humbly beg of you to take the present intention which I recommend to you in your special care.

Please recommend it to your daughter, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and place it before the throne of Jesus, so that He may bring it to a happy issue. Continue to intercede for me until my request is granted. But, above all, obtain for me the grace one day to see my God face to face, and with you and Mary and all the saints to praise and bless Him for all eternity. Amen.

Our Father, . . . Hail Mary . . .

O Jesus, Holy Mary, St. Ann, help me now and at the hour of my death.

Good St. Ann, intercede for me.

SIXTH DAY

Good St. Ann, do not allow my soul, a masterpiece of God’s creative power, to be lost forever. Free my heart of pride, vanity, self-love. May I know myself as I really am and learn meekness and simplicity of heart.

God’s great love for me leaves me cold and unresponsive. I must reflect this love through works of mercy and charity toward my neighbor.

In your boundless charity, good St. Ann, help me to merit the glorious crown which is given to those who have fought the good fight against the world, the devil and the flesh. Assist me to preserve purity of heart and body. With Mary and her divine Son, protect me always.

St. Anne Novena, Day 5

DAILY PRAYER TO SAINT ANN

O glorious St. Ann, you are filled with compassion for those who invoke you and with love for those who suffer! Heavily burdened with the weight of my troubles, I cast myself at your feet and humbly beg of you to take the present intention which I recommend to you in your special care.Please recommend it to your daughter, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and place it before the throne of Jesus, so that He may bring it to a happy issue. Continue to intercede for me until my request is granted. But, above all, obtain for me the grace one day to see my God face to face, and with you and Mary and all the saints to praise and bless Him for all eternity. Amen.

Our Father, . . . Hail Mary . . .

O Jesus, Holy Mary, St. Ann, help me now and at the hour of my death.
Good St. Ann, intercede for me.

FIFTH DAY

Hail, all-powerful Lady. By God’s special favor, grant consolation to those who invoke you. Procure for them the eternal riches of heaven, and like a good mother, success in their temporal affairs as well.

Good St. Ann, obtain my deliverance from the punishment which my sins deserve. Obtain for me success in my temporal affairs; especially see to the salvation of my soul.

St. Ann, by your influence with Mary’s son Jesus, you have won the gift of conversion for many sinners. Will you then abandon me, who have chosen you as my mother? No, St. Ann. Your name alone, which signifies grace, assures me of the help of your prayers, and these prayers will surely procure pardon and mercy from Jesus. You will pray for me now and at the hour of my death.

St. Anne Novena, Day 4

DAILY PRAYER TO SAINT ANN

O glorious St. Ann, you are filled with compassion for those who invoke you and with love for those who suffer! Heavily burdened with the weight of my troubles, I cast myself at your feet and humbly beg of you to take the present intention which I recommend to you in your special care.Please recommend it to your daughter, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and place it before the throne of Jesus, so that He may bring it to a happy issue. Continue to intercede for me until my request is granted. But, above all, obtain for me the grace one day to see my God face to face, and with you and Mary and all the saints to praise and bless Him for all eternity. Amen.

Our Father, . . . Hail Mary . . .

O Jesus, Holy Mary, St. Ann, help me now and at the hour of my death.
Good St. Ann, intercede for me.

FOURTH DAY

Good St. Ann, you offered your pure and holy daughter Mary in the temple with faith, piety and love. By the happiness which then filled your heart, I beg you to present me to your Grandson Jesus. Offered by you, I will be agreeable in His sight.
Kind St. Ann, take me forever under your protection. Deliver me from the temptations which continually assail me. Above all, attend me in my last hour. As I lie on my deathbed, be present with your daughter to console and strengthen me.
Holy Mary and good St. Ann, show yourselves to be mothers indeed by obtaining for me the grace of a good death. When my soul goes forth, lead it to God’s tribunal so that, by your powerful help and intercession, it may obtain a favorable judgment.

And "one of those days" continues...

So yesterday, after the indignity of storing my breast milk in the common work refrigerator, I was real paranoid about forgetting it in there. I pumped again shortly before I left, and I wanted to leave just a hair early since Mike had another one of those orientation sessions and had to leave early into the evening. I wanted us to be able to all eat together.

Thus, in my paranoia, I retrieved the milk from its place behind the yogurt and placed it with the new milk into my little cooler in my pump bag since I knew I would be leaving shortly. I then continued going through a ton of emails that had compiled while I was attending an in-house seminar all day, including an email relating to our requirement to take some evening and weekend hours for the upcoming spring semester. We all have to volunteer for a small number of undesirable shifts each semester, and we get compensatory time in exchange that we can use during the week. Usually, it's one or two shifts. This semester, it's suddenly four.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I thought I had read that wrong. Oh sigh. We have less and less librarians all the time due to retirement and people leaving for any number of reasons. And we haven't replaced anybody. I don't like working evenings, because then I can't see my kids before they go to bed. So I usually take a Sunday afternoon shift or two. Four seemed a lot more onerous, but what can one do? I quickly responded with one Sunday written in for me per month, to space them out a bit. The Sundays aren't bad because I still have all morning and then dinner home with my family. Our wonderful assistant wrote right back to me to say that 3 of those Sundays had already been spoken for.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Inside, I said a bad word. This happens EVERY semester. I'm super compulsive with my email, and yet the evening and weekend sheet goes around inevitably at a time when I'm not right on top of it for a few hours. So I called her right up and managed to finagle three Sundays (less desirable ones due to other weekend commitments) and one Saturday. I'm feeling pouty, but there's nothing I can do. It's part of my job, and this way I will at least get to take some Friday afternoons off to be with Mike and the kids in exchange.

So I was feeling flustered as 4 pm rolled around. I finished up a few more things, found that all the hot tea I'd drank meant that I had to make yet another run to the ladies room, and then bundled up and shut my computer down. I listened to a Catholic podcast as I made the trek out to the car, which at this university, is no small walk. Parking is a huge issue here, and although I have a staff parking tag and can generally get a spot (unless it's between 10 am and 3 pm; this is in contrast to the students who have a MUCH rougher go of it) it's not phenomenally close to the library. And when it's cold out, I walk through the indoor walkways which takes even longer but that way I'm not out in the wind. And that's another story; who on earth designed these walkways? There's no heat in them. They do cut the wind nicely, but in the heart of winter I have to actually brace myself to walk through them. THEY HAVE ICE ON THE INSIDE OF THE WINDOWS. This just seems like a bad plan to me.

So, finally, I arrive at my car. I have an automatic starter and got it going from the far side of the lot so that it could warm up for me. I grabbed my pump to get it into the passenger seat first, and wait. What's that?

My pump. Or rather, my lack of a pump. I had forgotten it, all the way back in my office.

Now I said a REALLY bad word, and I said it right out loud. Crankily, I spun around to find our assistant behind me looking concerned that something was really wrong with me. I assured her I was fine and hurried back to the library, where sure enough, my pump sat innocently next to my desk. I grabbed it and walked all the way back to my car and sped home, where Anne was sobbing for me to nurse her. I popped her into her high chair since we wanted to eat, but she was having none of it. She ate her bananas and squash, but squawked the whole time causing me to eat much more quickly than I would have liked.

After that, Mike left, so I nursed Anne and watched Tom & Jerry's Nutcracker with Hank. At 7 pm, both children were ready for bed, so I tucked them both in. Hank has been coughing, so I got out his penguin cool mist humidifier and set it all up for him. He coughed only a few times before going to sleep.

Until an hour or so later. Then, he coughed for an hour and a half. Around 10 pm, he finally fell asleep. Mike and I fell asleep shortly thereafter. Around 11 pm, Anne was up. I nursed her and got her back into her crib. She refused to go back to sleep, so we did another nursing session. Finally, she went to sleep in her crib, but by this time it was close to 1. Exhausted, I fell into bed.

By 5 am, I could hear Hank coughing again. And he coughed until 6:30, when we all got up. I found him curled under a blanket when I went to check on him.

"Honey, what hurts?"

"MY WHOLE BODY."

Thus, he's home from school today, and Anne is cranky and miserable. And poor Mike is home with both of them. I'm taking a half sick day to go home and relieve him after lunch.

Oh sigh.

St. Anne Novena, Day 3

DAILY PRAYER TO SAINT ANN

O glorious St. Ann, you are filled with compassion for those who invoke you and with love for those who suffer! Heavily burdened with the weight of my troubles, I cast myself at your feet and humbly beg of you to take the present intention which I recommend to you in your special care.

Please recommend it to your daughter, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and place it before the throne of Jesus, so that He may bring it to a happy issue. Continue to intercede for me until my request is granted. But, above all, obtain for me the grace one day to see my God face to face, and with you and Mary and all the saints to praise and bless Him for all eternity. Amen.

Our Father, . . . Hail Mary . . .

O Jesus, Holy Mary, St. Ann, help me now and at the hour of my death.

Good St. Ann, intercede for me.

THIRD DAY

Hail, good St. Ann, who first responded to the needs of Mary, Mother of our Savior and Queen of Angels. Hail to you and to your husband St. Joachim, who watched over her infancy, presented her to the Lord in the temple and, according to your promise, consecrated her to the service of God.

Hail St. Ann, good mother! I rejoice in the marvels you continually perform, because they encourage all to seek your intercession.

Good St. Ann, by the great power that God has given you, show yourself my mother, my consoler, my advocate. Reconcile me to the God I have so deeply offended. Console me in my trials; strengthen me in my struggles. Deliver me from danger in my time of need. Help me at the hour of death and open to me the gates of paradise.

Crazy day

I'm pretty exhausted. We've been having some long nights with a teething Anne, who decided the other night (when I set her down to change my *sodden* sleep shirt from her drool) that she'd like to play with her toys at 2 am rather than sleep. Mike has had some orientation sessions that he's had to go to at the college he'll be adjuncting at in the spring, and so I've had both (often cranky) children by myself in the evenings. And today I forgot to re-freeze the special ice pack that I have for my pump cooler, so I have reduced myself to chilling the milk I pumped today in the *work refrigerator out in the common break room*. I tucked it as far back as I could, but it's right behind someone's yogurt, I feel really bad.

Some days are just like this, I suppose.

St. Anne Novena, Day 2

DAILY PRAYER TO SAINT ANN

O glorious St. Ann, you are filled with compassion for those who invoke you and with love for those who suffer! Heavily burdened with the weight of my troubles, I cast myself at your feet and humbly beg of you to take the present intention which I recommend to you in your special care.

Please recommend it to your daughter, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and place it before the throne of Jesus, so that He may bring it to a happy issue. Continue to intercede for me until my request is granted. But, above all, obtain for me the grace one day to see my God face to face, and with you and Mary and all the saints to praise and bless Him for all eternity. Amen.

Our Father, . . . Hail Mary . . .

O Jesus, Holy Mary, St. Ann, help me now and at the hour of my death.

Good St. Ann, intercede for me.

SECOND DAY

From the depths of my heart, good St. Ann, I offer you my homage this day and ask you to shelter me under the mantle of your motherly care. You know, good mother, how much I love you, how gladly I serve you, how happy I am to praise you, how eager I am to call on you in time of distress.

Good St. Ann, be pleased to extend your helping hand in all my wants. Listen to my prayers, for I place my trust in your gracious bounty. Make all my thoughts and desires worthy and righteous.

Jesus, I thank You for all the graces which in Your infinite goodness You have lavished upon St. Ann; for having chosen her, among all women, to be Your grandmother on earth and exalted her in heaven with such great and miraculous powers. In the name of her merits, I humbly recommend myself to Your infinite mercy.

St. Anne Novena, Day 1

Right before Christmas, my sister and I started a novena to St. Anne, but once Christmas Eve came around, I completely forgot to continue on with it. So I thought I'd post the novena here for the next 9 days in addition to my regular posts, so that anyone who would like to can pray along with us. :)

St. Anne holds a special place in my heart, and not only because my daughter shares her name. Right before Mike and I started dating, some friends and I took a wintertime trip to Quebec that remains a very fond memory. (We still joke about the sheer volume of churches we visited while on vacation). While there, we visited the shrine to St. Anne north of Quebec City, and I prayed for God's will in my life, and that if he desired for me to be married he send the right man. I was in my late 20's and felt very "old" and "spinsterish" although that's laughable to me now. And just a few weeks later, Mike called me. :) Until very recently, Mike's parents lived in central Florida, and I found out soon after we started dating that his mom attended a parish there named in honor of St. Anne. And she later told me that she had prayed for Mike to find someone, and to be happy. So I have a definite St. Anne theme in my life.

So, for anyone that would like to, please join in.

DAILY PRAYER TO SAINT ANN

O glorious St. Ann, you are filled with compassion for those who invoke you and with love for those who suffer! Heavily burdened with the weight of my troubles, I cast myself at your feet and humbly beg of you to take the present intention which I recommend to you in your special care.

Please recommend it to your daughter, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and place it before the throne of Jesus, so that He may bring it to a happy issue. Continue to intercede for me until my request is granted. But, above all, obtain for me the grace one day to see my God face to face, and with you and Mary and all the saints to praise and bless Him for all eternity. Amen.

Our Father, . . . Hail Mary . . .

O Jesus, Holy Mary, St. Ann, help me now and at the hour of my death.

Good St. Ann, intercede for me.

FIRST DAY

Dear St. Ann, though I am but a prodigal child, I appeal to you and place myself under your great motherly care. Please listen to my prayers and grant my requests. See my contrite heart, and show me your unfailing goodness.

Deign to be my advocate and recommend me to God’s infinite mercy. Obtain for me forgiveness of my sins and the strength to begin a new life that will last forever.

Blessed St. Ann, I also beg of you the grace to love, to serve, and to honor your daughter, the most holy Virgin Mary. Please recommend me to her and pray to her for me. She refuses none your requests but welcomes with loving kindness all those for whom you intercede.

Good Jesus, be merciful to the faithful servants of Your grandmother St. Ann.

Here's to a happy 2012...

Well, I'm back. And I keep typing the year wrong. I'm a good typer, I took a typing class back in high school (do they even do that anymore? *feels old*) and yet I notice that in my head, I type "2012," yet what comes out is "2010." Apparently I want it to be 2 years ago. Well, it'd be nice to be 2 years younger, but other than that, I'm happy it's today and not two years ago. But I digress.

I had a very nice holiday, and most of all I LOVED just being home with my family. So, quick updates on everybody:

Anne - Thriving. Is now slowly cruising around furniture when she pulls herself up. *heavy sigh* She has also discovered the entertainment center and now attempts to push buttons when she pulls herself up over there. I think this has been genetically bred into modern babies. She can now crawl at the speed of sound and is extremely happy all of the time. Except when she's teething, which consumed a good amount of last week. During which time, our days consisted of (1) carry Anne around, (2) arms get tired, so set Anne down, (3) Anne bursts into tears, (4) repeat steps (1) through (3) for approximately 12 hours, with short breaks in between for one decent nap and one crappy one. Pretty typical for her age. But overall, she's doing very well. She loves her new Christmas toys and has been playing very cutely with them. Her favorite is a Fisher Price tea set, and she carries one cup around with her even when she crawls so that she can bite on it when she reaches her destination at the other side of the room.

Henry - Very cute and happy. He loves being home with us and being on break from school. He got lots of Legos for Christmas, and has been a very good boy playing with them, taking everything apart and putting them back together. He also loves board games, and he got a bunch of new ones for Christmas this year. We also took both kids to the our local botanical garden over the break, and Hank just loves it there. One thing that I really enjoy about him is his appreciation of beautiful things. He really has an eye for aesthetics in nature, and he loves showing his finds to others. It's really precious. He also memorized his assigned prayers from the Advent chain he brought home from school and learned to read them himself. He's such a good boy.

Mike - Thriving at home with the kids. And we couldn't stop talking about how much we loved all being together as a family all week. Although I work full time outside of the home, I feel lucky to have a job in which I get lots of vacation and holiday time, plus normal hours. So I'm home a lot. We enjoyed every moment of last week, and I have plans to take some additional time off in the coming months when Henry is off for his winter break and for Easter. The only mar in Mike's week was a bout that he had with some sort of throat infection. And we've been married long enough (7 years this coming Sunday) for me to know one thing about my darling husband: he is SUPER easygoing and easy to live with, aside from one thing, but hey, nobody's perfect, right? And that one thing would be that he is a terrible sick person, and he would be the first to admit this. He gets actually mad when he gets sick, because it incapacitates him and keeps him from doing things he wants to do or feels he should be doing. And hence, he's miserable to be around. He grumps around the house until I tell him to go to bed. Translation: "you're driving me crazy, so please go get some rest before I say something that will hurt your feelings." The next morning, the antibiotics had kicked in and he looked sheepish and back to normal. Thank God. He's really adorable, and I'm lucky to have him.

Me - I knit, and knit and knit. I finished socks, I crocheted myself a cardigan, I knit a scarf and I felted slippers. I was Super Compulsive Knitter. And I loved every minute of it, being inside on a chilly winters day with a cup of tea by my side. I played with the kids, and I snuggled lots with Mike. Life is very, very good.

And I need to keep that in mind when my birthday approaches next month and I move even closer to 40. But we'll return to obsess about that another day...