Conversing with Thea

Me: "Thea, you may not play with play dough again until further notice since you wouldn't help Zoe put it away."

Thea: "Well, Katherine played with it too!"

Me: "I'm talking to you right now dear, not Katherine."

Then Thea, completely serious mind you, says: "I forgot to tell you that Katherine and I changed names. I am now Katherine and she is now Thea."

Me: "Uh-huh. I see."

S Prazdnikom!

Today is our Patronal feast day at my church. St. Maximus the Confessor is our Patron Saint and what a glorious saint he is!

By an outpouring of the Holy Spirit

thou didst pour forth Christ's sacred teachings,

Thou didst expound with Divine authority

the self-emptying of God the Word

and wast radiant in thy confession of the True Faith.

O, Glorious Father Maximus

pray to Christ our God

to grant us His great mercy.

Troparion, tone 3

It also happens to be Miss. Katherine's 8th birthday!!! I'm telling you, this motherhood thing goes at breakneck speed. I can't believe that she is 8! My baby is growing up! Thank you Lord for this precious little girl. She truly is a Jewel (which happens to be her middle name, which was also my grandmother's name).

It's a real feast and celebration around here today! I'll post pictures later. For now there's ice cream to eat!

From the playroom:

Thea to Zoe: "Do you, Zoe, take this man to be your waffly wedded husband?"

Zoe: "NO!"

Wise choice Zoe.

Please pray

For the handmaiden of God Anna.  She is in ICU and needs prayers!

Pronouns

Mid conversation on pronouns:

Katherine:  "So, as I understand it mommy, there are two types of ours.  There are ours, as in "The cookies are ours", and there are hours, as in "We stand in church for hours and hours"."

Thea: "Mommy! Guess Who we are?!"

Me:  "Ummm, gosh, I don't know who are you?"

Thea:  "Oh, we don't know yet.  But we're really pious."

Love her

Yummmmm!

Who thinks that Zoe and Thea enjoyed eating papa's russian tea cookies on Christmas morning?  I think they need just a bit more powdered sugar.

An artist among us

One of the very best gifts the girl's received for Christmas were art supplies.  Grandma and Grandpa Ocean invested in very nice colored pencils, chalk and beeswax crayons for the girls.  While both Katherine and Thea were excited, Katherine has really enjoyed seeing the difference quality supplies make in her artwork.  

Grandma and Grandpa were kind enough to get them a set of regular colored pencils and a skin tone set.  Katherine's first words were "Finally!  I can draw people's skin colors!"  She has been obsessed with drawing people with different skin tones ever since.  

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Ocean!  

All I'm gonna say is that he is the best papa ever!

At least these three girls think so.  

Should I tell you that right before he was crowned, Thea braided his hair?  Nah, too much information.

Playroom conversation

Zoe, with voice elevated:  "Fea (Thea)!  I need a handkerchief!  Please get me one!"

Thea:  "OK, hold on!"  Thea runs by me announcing what her plan is.

Zoe: "I can't get it out!"

Thea:  "Just blow really hard!"

Zoe:  "Fea help!"

At this point I was already on my way to help Zoe with her obstinate obstruction.  

I put the handkerchief in front of her nose and say "blow!"  Zoe says "I can't, it won't come out!"

I take a moment to look in her nose to see exactly what the problem is and I'm faced with a black object that looks nothing like the stuff we normally blow out.  I squeeze from the top of her nose  and move forward and out pops part of a crayon, that had been shoved all the way up into her nose!  

Zoe:  Nonchalantly says, "Fanks mommy"

Me:  "Fanks mommy!?!?"  (Thea, on the other hand is horrified that we are: #1.  doing a nose extraction and #2. that it's not what normally comes out.  I kid you not she was backed away at least 3 feet so as not to get slimed in case it truly was as big as it seemed.)

Me:  "Zoe, honey, please do not put things in your nose ever again!!!"  

Zoe: "Sure mommy."

Yes, this one keeps me praying.  

S Prazdnikom! and a blessed 2010 to you all!

A joyous feast of the Circumcision of the Lord to you all!  

We had a lovely quiet time at home last night.  We were suppose to have an open house for our parish, but my little Zoe is sick.  

Fr. fixed us a yummy dinner of scrambled eggs, bacon and toast.  After that I surprised the girls with a new movie, "Up", and Fr. made us popcorn.  

We were all snoring peacefully before midnight.  I missed having everyone over last night, but it was also nice to have a fun night with the girls.  

A blessed 2010 to you all!  Many years to all the Basils!