The latter half of Lent, it seems, is not the time for blogging. Nor is Holy Week. But we had our great and glorious Paschal celebration (and the joy continues!) and life is finally slowing down a bit.
Except for Beatrice, that is. She’s getting faster. She only did the belly scoot for about a week and then decided it was small potatoes ’cause real women get up on all fours. And then she figured out the whole I-can-pull-myself-to-standing-almost-anywhere thing, so basically the entire apartment is her highway. And oh, the happiness that has resulted from this discovery. She went through a little stage where she wanted to be held all the time, but now that there is so much to do on the floor she’s a lot happier about being set down. Regular installments of mama are still needed, but there’s more playing by herself now. And that’s fine by me. Although I have already noticed that long silences are suspicious and ought to be investigated immediately. Currently, her forbidden favorite destinations are Camilla’s potty seat, the big toilet, and the kitchen pantry (mostly for intriguing underside of the ironing board).
Along with new types of locomotion, she’s also making lots of new noises. Da-da-da, buh-buh-buh, phttthhhh, but no ma-ma. Hrumph. The nursery worker at church coaxed her into saying Jesus twice on Holy Friday (pious child!), but she won’t repeat it for me. Camilla is very interested in her role as teacher, so she’s been trying to get Bea to say all sort of other things without much luck. It’s so sweet to hear her try, though.
Since we’re on the subject of Beatrice, I should also mention that she has two favorite foods at the moment. They are (1) kleenex and (2) anything on the carpet that can be quickly stuffed into your mouth. I don’t think she is ever happier than when she has the opportunity to shred a kleenex into little pieces. I’d let her do it more often, but those little pieces inevitable go in her mouth and she puts up the most ungrateful ruckus when I try to fish them out. Same with leaves, bits of thread, dirt, etc. If I ever suspect that she might be chewing on something, she is. Must remember to vacuum more often.
Camilla’s up to all sorts of stuff these days and is growing increasingly eloquent. She can give a very passable explanation of what we celebrated at Pascha, Good Friday, and Lazarus Saturday (with some minor confusion as to why exactly Lazarus was in the tomb) and stayed up for the entire Saturday night set of services (something like 11 pm – 2:30 am, with a meal afterward). That, combined with about two hours of jumping on a bouncy castle at the picnic the next afternoon, has jump-started the afternoon nap again. Praise God. I seem to spend the entire time cooking, but cooking by myself seems like such a luxury these days (especially festal cooking!).
I feel as though I should have lots of new news to report, but really our life has taken place at church so much recently that we haven’t done a lot at home. Husband somehow keeps finding little bits of time to write interesting things — I especially liked this post.
I’m turning 32 in a little over a week (yikes!) and, in the unlikely event that this suddenly adds a few more hours to my day, I have put together a reading wish list. I want to start with Catching Fire and Mockingjay (I managed to stop for a while after The Hunger Games), and then move on to Nourishing Traditions, An Everlasting Meal, and Babushka’s Beauty Secrets (hey! I am over 30). I do not — ahem — own the last three and they are not available in our library, so if anyone is looking to send me a birthday present, well, there ya go.
I’ll try to be back again soon.
