Recently in kid's stuff Category

Two Quick Notes:

First - I wasn't able to do this week's book discussion of Style, Sex and Substance. I should have the next post on Wednesday, 5/16.

Second - Today is your last day to enter the RoL Birthday Care Package Contest! The winner will be announce tomorrow. Good luck!

Okay, now we return to our regularly scheduled post...

Today is Mother's Day in Mexico so Bella's Spanish class made cards for their madres. Here is the cover of Bella's card to me. (She didn't notice her "typo" until after I took the photo. ;-) Today was also the boys' preschool moms' party. Each made me a wooden flower frame with their photo in it. So cute!

The other day I invited my in-laws over for dinner. My mother-in-law brought over a cake she made for dessert. There was enough cake left over for Brian and I to share for dessert the following night after the kids went to sleep. Well, John Paul must have heard about our plan. The next day I was putting Matthew to sleep and after I put him in bed I went into the kitchen and found that JP dragged a chair over to the counter and helped himself to our dessert...

I told Brian that there were two large pieces of the cake left but this is all I found on the sink...

The guy didn't even have a stomach ache! I can't imagine what JP's bottomless pit appetite is going to be like when he is a teenager!

To celebrate the 9th Birthday of the RoL Blog, I am posting flashback posts from the first year of blogging. This was originally posted on June 6, 2003. I thought it was appropriate since we were discussing modesty on Tuesday's Book Discussion of Style, Sex, and Substance. (I updated some of the clothes links.)

I was browsing Two Sleepy Mommies blog and Pansy had an interesting commentary on Zoe Romanov's blog about Modesty in dress. The topic of swimwear was discussed and how some kids aren't allowed to swim at all because of lack of modest swimwear. I was thinking about this last week when I had to buy a bathing suit for Bella. I was disgusted. I went to the Kids r Us store and was offended by some of them that seemed more suitable for a Vegas showgirl. However I did find one that was decent looking that even came with a little bathing skirt to attach to it.

However, I think Pansy's little girl was older and didn't fit into her old modest suit. She was looking for non "Laura Ingalls" suits and posted a link for Wholesome Wear Suits and she said she liked the convenience of them (kids jumping in and out of the pool/lake/ocean) as well as the modesty of them.

Personally, I would not buy them but I found some modest swimwear (in my opinion) for girls at Land's End. They usually sell a bathing suit for girls with a built in skirt that is not too low cut.

You could also pair swim shorts like these

with a tankini top like this

or a rash guard/ water shirt.

Or you can forgo the bathing suit all together and get a hip looking surfboard suit (although maybe that's more normal here in California)

All this talk reminded me of growing up at both ends of the spectrum. When I was younger my parents were not practicing Catholics at the time so modesty was not much of an issue. After their conversion there was a period of "only skirts" type of thinking. Finally we found a happy medium of modesty without being too "extreme".

I think a lot also has to do with attitude. I know a number of home schooling families and one in particular dressed their girls in prairie skirts/dresses but the girls were really flirtatious and boy crazy. They tried to act "hot" regardless of what they were wearing. On the other hand, I see my younger sister who was homeschooled and who's a sweet, wholesome girl in college. She and her friends dress in today's fashions but they always look modest and wholesome without standing out like a sore thumb. Even beyond their clothes you can see their wholesomeness in their demeanor and attitude. They demand respect because they respect themselves.

It reminds me a lot of the interview I did with chastity speaker Crystalina Padilla a couple months ago. She talked about woman respecting themselves before expecting a man to. Hey, on a side note, did you know that she married Jason Evert of Catholic Answers on Saturday!! What an awesome couple! But I digress. Anyway, those are just some thoughts I had about the topic.

Back in July of 2008 I wrote this post about Andrew and baby proofing.

Brian and I have been baby proofing our house for months, now that Andrew has mastered walking and climbing low objects. However, we were still struggling with what to do about our brick fireplace hearth.

We considered buying one of those specialty gates that go around it, but they are pricey. In the meantime, we simply blocked off the sitting area by the fireplace with our dining room chairs entwined like a puzzle. (Yeah, that was real attractive.) But our incredibly small Hercules always figured out a way to move the chairs or wiggle his way through them. Finally, I saw a perfect solution in one of those parent magazines sitting in the doctor's office. A mom suggested using one of those connect-a-mat floor puzzles to cover the hearth. Brilliant. We tried it and I'm happy to say, it works! (At least until Andrew discovers how to disconnect it.)

That was almost four years ago, when Andrew looked like this.

Two years later, the baby proofing was done for John-Paul.

Now it is Matthew's turn.

We needed to replace the floor mat and I wanted to find something that looked a little less "day care center," trying to keep at least one room in the house free of toy overload.

I found this one in wood tones, which works so much better for us. The color matches the room and they don't have the letters that the boys can pop out. You can find them at Amazon.

I first heard about Roma Downey's (did you know she was Catholic?) new DVD Little Angels at CatholicMom.com. The site has background info and is also running a contest to win an autographed copy of the DVD. (I entered!)

Here is the introduction from LittleAngels.com.

Discover the joy of learning and friendship with a heavenly new collection! From Executive Producer Roma Downey ("Touched by an Angel") and Writer Phil Lollar ("Adventures in Odyssey") comes the much-anticipated faith-based educational series, LITTLE ANGELS, soaring onto DVD from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.

LITTLE ANGELS is an animated DVD series created exclusively for preschool-aged children to teach not only practical learning skills, like ABCs and 1,2,3s, but also to introduce them to the spiritual, moral and ethical principles of the Bible. Of course, we think it's terrific! (We might be biased...) But don't just take our word for it - for the first time in their organization's history, MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) has awarded a Seal-of-Approval to LITTLE ANGELS.

And here is a sneak peek. :-) It looks cute and educational!

(Sorry for the late post. I was having trouble with the blog but better late than never.)

My sister and my parents were visiting a few days ago and my sister took this photo of the ocean on her morning run. I am sure it was a nice break from the desert heat!

School has started - Andrew is in his first year of preschool and Bella starts 4th grade. They are growing too fast!

After a long first day of school Andrew wanted to unwind on the couch with my iphone. It cracked me up.

With my family visiting, I had ready and eager babysitters for the kids. My sister took this shot of Andrew and JP. She was watching them while I was getting my hair cut.

Brian and I even got to go out on a breakfast date over the weekend. Loved it! Special thanks to my familia. xoxo

Now that August is here I've been reading on the blogs about many homeschooling moms starting school or getting ready to start. A couple people have been asking about the Little Saints Catholic Preschool Program.

Although we aren't homeschooling (at least not at the moment) I have used the Little Saints program for the kids while they were younger. The lesson plan can be used for a classroom setting or for homeschooling.

Personally, I loved it. I also liked that it had everything written out - including all the materials I'd need for the projects and lessons. Since I was using it informally, there were sections I skipped and others that I implemented. I thought the program was worth having just for all the project ideas, book suggestions and learning material that I adapted to my own schedule.

Last year, some of the local homeschooling moms did a once a week co-op for their homeschooling children. One mom tutored the older kids in English. Another mom taught the preschoolers, including Andrew, while I watched the babies. Although it wasn't a formal preschool setting she used a number of the ideas and projects from the program.

Here is a partial sample chapter so you can see how it is organized. (This is for reference only. The pages have a copyright.) You can learn more and purchase the Little Saint's Catholic Program at CatholicPreschool.com.

Table of Contents - Page 1 View image

Table of Contents - Page 2 View image

Sample Chapter - Page 1 (Prep) View image Page 2 (Prep) View image Page 3 (Lesson) View image Page 4 (Lesson) View image

I haven't taken any pictures with my regular camera this week so instead, here are the photos I recently took with my iphone, hence the blurrier quality.

When I was going to Mass at the Carmel Mission I couldn't help snap a picture of these gorgeous flowers. Bella smiled and said, "Mom, you can use that as one of your pictures for pretty, happy...whatever it's called." She knows me well.

We finally bought Andrew a new bike helmet so he could stop using Bella's old pink one. Now John-Paul wants to use the pink helmet, not to ride a bike, mind you, but to walk around the house. He must be worried he'll trip over the many train sets on the floor.

I snapped this one of Matthew relaxing in his swing. I looove that thing! It makes me sing! (Wow, I'm reading too much Dr. Seuss.) Anyway, the funny aspect is the way he has his chubby little leg resting on the tray. California kick back.

From now on I am going to put a shower cap on John-Paul before he eats his yogurt. And why does he always do this after I just washed his hair??

My camera battery has been dead all week and I couldn't find my charger so this week I am posting photos from the last few years. I had so many to choose from that I picked two for each category.

Here is Bella when she was the flower girl for my brother and sister-in-law's wedding. She is holding the flowers to be given to Our Lady.

This is such a pretty cake! My mother-in-law bought this for my birthday a year or two ago. I think I was turning 35 (again...and again...and again...)

Here is Bella and Andrew enjoying a lollipop after a walk in downtown Carmel.

Here is one of the three kids playing on the floor. :-)

I was looking at old Halloween pictures and found these two favorite ones. Here is Andrew dressed as St. Francis for an All Saint's Day party.

Here is John-Paul as a mustached fireman. LOL!

Here is a photo of Andrew when he was playing with his Walle toy. He dumped out the remaining animal crackers and crushed them up to make a desert landscape. What a mess.

Here is John-Paul playing IN the dishwasher. And I just noticed that JP is wearing Andrew's old pajamas from the photo above. Maybe it's the pajamas that have a mischievous effect. :-)

One of the projects I am working on is sorting through all our photos and getting them organized and I came across this pic of Bella from a couple years back. I love this photo of my pretty, little girl. :-)

Here is a photo of Matthew on a "warm" summer day in Carmel. We actually don't get our warm weather until fall. Then we can go outside without a jacket. LOL!

John-Paul loves that he has graduated from the high chair to a booster chair at the big table. He is also proud of being able to eat his whole container of yogurt by himself and to get most of the yogurt in his mouth.

I went on a laundry washing spree yesterday. I got everything washed but I thnk it's time to fold and put it away!

Hosted by Jen at Conversion Diary.

Blessed Junipero Serra & the Carmel Mission: I can't believe that it is July 1st already! Time just goes too fast! On the plus side, today we celebrate two great feast days, the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Blessed Junipero Serra. Living in California, on summer vacations we would often visit the various missions when we were younger. It's funny that years later my parish church is the Mission San Carlos (Carmel Mission.) Brian and I were married here and our children were baptized here. It really is a beautiful Mission and it has the distinction of being where Blessed Serra is buried. If you are ever in the area, you should make a visit. In fact...





Founder's Day: ...if you'll be in the Monterey Bay area tomorrow (Saturday, July 2) stop by the Mission for the Founders Day celebration. There is music and live demonstrations of how things were made during the early days of the mission (ie. food and crafts) and a special Mass at 5:30 PM. (There is a dinner afterwords but you need tickets for that.) It's always interesting and a lot of fun.





Cars 2 is too scary for little kids!: We are big Pixar fans in our house with the favorite movies of the kids being Cars, Toy Story and Walle. Bella used to be obsessed with Cars and had all the toys for it. Now Andrew loves Cars (and inherited the toys) and was so excited to see the new movie for his birthday. Since I am the one who usually takes them to the movies, Andrew was excited to have a daddy date with Brian as his movie buddy. Bella had a treat and was movie buddies with my visiting sister. From what Brian told me, the movie started out okay but it was really violent and should have been rated PG not G. By the last third of the movie Andrew (who just turned 4) got too scared with all the shooting, cars dying and the bad guys trying to kill Lightning. He started crying so Brian had to take him out to the lobby. Bella finished the movie with my sister and she enjoyed it but she is 9 years old. So if you are taking your younger kids to see it, beware.





Is there such a thing as low cal food that's yummy?: I've been trying to eat healthier so I can get off the rest of the baby weight (and then some) so I tried a Weight Watchers recipe for macaroni salad. I'm a little leery of "light" recipes but this was really good. I used bow tie pasta, substituted half the celery with red bell pepper and added a bit more fresh Italian parsley, which gave it a nice touch. It was really tasty. Check it out at Weight Watchers.com Recipies: Macaroni Salad





Summer Reading: Brian purchased the book Poor Banished Children and I hope to start reading it next week. There is an interesting interview with the author Fiorella De Maria over at Ignatius Insight. If I like this book, I'll check out her other novels.

He can't possibly be teething??: How soon can a baby start teething? Matthew is not yet three months but he is drooling and gnawing as if he's teething. It just seems too early for that.

"JFT": My "just for today" goals: First, when things get hectic I'll recall today's gospel reading "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" and I will turn my heart to Christ for strength. Second, I'll get that overflowing basket of clean laundry folded!

That's it for today. Have a wonderful 4th of July holiday! God bless America and watch over our troops.

This list from Wired.com is perfect and I'm happy to say that we have all of them!

The 5 Best Toys of All Time

Carmen Marcoux, the amazing wife, mother and author of Arms of Love and Surrender has co-written a children's book with her husband James. The outstanding illustrations were hand-painted by their talented daughter Rebekah. This was truly a family project created with a lot of love and hard work! But it all paid off because the end result is a beautiful and heartwarming story of love and self-sacrifice through the eyes of a child.

You can read it online before you purchase it. I am hoping to start selling them here at RoL but in the meantime, you can order them directly from Carmen at One Way Publishing. Here are more details.

The Parish Picnic (Also Available in Spanish!)
By James and Carmen Marcoux and Family
Illustrated by Rebekah Marcoux
Book One of our New Illustrated Catholic Children's Series! A delightful little story about self-sacrifice that fosters a love for our Catholic heritage. Beautiful hand-painted illustrations.
Click to preview.

I never posted the kid's pics for Halloween so here's a quick peek in case you were curious. :-)

Wow, did the whole month of September pass without me making a single post? That's pretty bad, even for my sporadic posting schedule. Well, it was a big month and we had lots of things happening. I'll touch on the highlights.

Today Third Grade...Tomorrow College

School started once again. Bella is now in the 3rd grade. The other day she told me, "Just think, Mom, today I'm in 3rd and next year it will be in the 4th and soon it will be in 8th grade. Then high school. Then college. Then I'll be married with my own babies..." Egads. Let me make it through third grade first!

Bella also celebrated her 9th birthday. It's hard to believe it was just nine years ago that she was born one month early and on the day of our baby shower. It became a birthday party instead.

The Independent Three's

As for my next little student, Andrew is not in regular preschool yet but he is getting a taste for it with a co-op preschool with younger siblings of homeschoolers. He loves it. The rest of the days I teach him at home following the Little Saints Pre School Program. We are both enjoying it, particularly when I remind myself to be patient with Mr. I-Do-It and bite my tongue and keep my hands to myself.

Fire and Ice

Our resident toddler, John Paul, continues to be the little man of the house walking around like he owns the place. He is has a fire and ice temperament. He is either really mellow and kick back or all fired up and angry. Brian says he knows where he got his fire from...I don't know what the heck that is supposed to mean??

Falling in Love Again

Brian and I have been doing well. For awhile there I felt like we were drifting apart a bit - nothing major but just getting caught up in all the busyness of life. But these last few months we have been trying to spend more time together and stay more connected with each other. We reminded ourselves of why we fell in love with each other in the first place...

Well, all that second honeymooning didn't go unnoticed when I made a trip to Target for a pregnancy test. I seriously thought my cycle was just acting up again and going extra long like it used to in the past. I took the test and saw two lines. I said to myself, that's funny I don't remember two lines being negative. And then it hit me...omg. I'm actually pregnant???? I was not expecting that! I'll save my reaction and struggle for another post but right now I am happy to say that yes, I am preggers and officially in my second trimester. So say a prayer for me that all goes well!

(And at least now you know why I've been too preoccupied to post! Have a great week!)

The site has been getting a lot of search engine hits from people looking for All Saints Day costume ideas so here is the link to an old post at RoL for saint costume ideas and pics of Bella and Andrew in their costumes.