Happy Feast Day, Felicity!

Today is the Feast of St. Felicity
And the above pic is her martyrdom scene.

We aren't celebrating in a special way this year, that I have planned at least, but I'll have to think on a good way to do it in the future. Like, something other than having her brother re-enact her martyrdom!

Sweet Felicity moment of the day: as I was making dinner and Felicity was going through her assorted holy cards, she came up to me and said "Jesus loves you, Mama" (repeating it, as she does, until I understand her). Then she looked in the nearby garbage can, saw an empty snack bag, and said "the pretzel loves you, Mama"!

Dr. Kwam

Erol has a bit of a cold today, so Kwamai has shifted into doctor mode (as he says), probably more like nurse mode. He is completely absorbed into attending to Erol's every need, bringing him water, soup, making sure he is comfortable, entertained, fed, etc.

How very sweet.

Felicity is Quotable, Too

There is so much talking going on in our house. I often think of that Groucho Marx quip when Kwamai is around that goes "[he] talks so much I think he was vaccinated with a phonograph needle!" I don't know how many times a day I am asking him to please be quiet, if just for a moment or two. I guess it's not fair, entirely. Sometimes it seems he starts a sentence about 30 seconds before becoming fully awake and finally ends that sentence just before he drifts off to sleep for the night.

Kwamai and Felicity both talk in their sleep, too, by the way.

Felicity is coming out with some of the cutest phrases these days. Many of them have to do with nursing. At Mass last week during the Agnus Dei when she really wanted me to sit down and nurse her, she called out "Have mercy on the boo-boo!" Today we happened to see a girl at the University riding a unicycle. She said to me, "Look Mama, person riding on a wheel!"

Letters are her current fascination, and she is learning to sing the alphabet song. We have some foam letters that she plays with from time to time. This morning Kwamai was trying to show her how he could make his body into a Y, and noted how it looks like a person raising their hands, praising God. He started singing "Praise the Lord", and she held her arms like his and said "Praise Baby Jesus".

This afternoon we came across the foam letter X. I said to her "what letter is this?" And she responded "X!". Then I went in the other room, and I heard her repeat to herself over and over "What letter is this? It's X!"

The cute-topper was tonight, as I was heading out grocery shopping. I had said goodbye to Erol and Kwamai and given them kisses. Felicity was busy looking at a book. I was in the kitchen ready to leave when Felicity came dashing out saying "Hug me! Hug me!" Of course, my heart melting into a little puddle I reached down to hug her. She dashed back off just as quickly, calling "Bye-bye!"

Now I really understand why I stay up for a few hours after everyone else is in bed. And I also remember the days (years!) where I dreaded all the silence I lived with. It truly is all worth it. Maybe I'll just keep earplugs in my pocket for the times I really need a break ;)

Felicity in Action

I took this little video this morning before Kwamai got up. You can't really make out much of what Felicity is saying, but she was loading the creatures onto the bus for a morning drive. A little spontaneous dance, and then a dash for the bookshelf.

The Many Faces of Kwam

I need to make a movie montage of Kwamai's self-portraits, of which we have many. Here are some of his favorite poses.

The Cute, The Momentous

This week I gave Felicity her very first little hair trim. She hasn't been so fond of things in her hair to keep it out of her eyes, so I resorted to the bangs look. Now she will generally allow hair clips, but unfortunately they don't stay in long.

I saved her little blonde locks in the same little box as her umbilical cord stump. Baby girl grows up.

Kwamai the Entertainer

Kwamai was in all his glory tonight. We have a guest staying with us this evening from Arizona who is here to check out Franciscan University. So, we invited some students over for a nice turkey dinner (the one we didn't use at Thanksgiving time). Kwamai had everyone in stitches every time he opened his mouth. Seven college-aged girls, and our family. After dinner, Kwamai led everyone in a round of the Wiggle board game. It was actually very pleasant for me to wash dishes to the sound of belly laughter coming from the other room just about every minute.

He also managed to be the evening's photographer, and made others feel comfortable with wanting to capture the moment on .... not film, what does one say these days, anyway? Anyway, wanting to take pictures themselves. (As I sat listening to these girls talk about their cell phones I really started to feel old and "out of it" in terms of the latest technology.)

He's just Mr. Social.

Wicked Smart!

Ok, I have to say it. Felicity is amazingly smart. She is at 21 months now, and has a vocabulary of, I'd say, several hundred words. As I look around the house I'm hard pressed to see something that she doesn't know the name of. She really "gets" language. She has the concept of "one doll, two dolls", and is beginning to learn the alphabet. Today I was doing some ironing while she was around the corner watching a Wiggles video. I noted that as she sang along to the songs, she got out a good majority of the words. I thought it was really weird when she started speaking in sentences at 13 months. But she really hasn't stopped. And I'm finding it easier to believe that when I thought I heard her calling me "Mama, Mama" from about 12 weeks, she actually was.

Last weekend she spotted Erol's old Franciscan University student ID card laying upside down on our hutch. I turned it over and told her that the picture was of "little boy Papa", meaning the picture from 10 years ago made him look so much younger. Two days later, she saw my old Franciscan ID card upside down on the dresser in the bedroom. She pointed and said "little boy Papa!". Mind you, it is just a white card with a bar code on the back, not even a picture to identify it. So of course I told her, no, that's little girl Mama. (Don't ask me why we have these old things laying around the house!)

A Day In the Life

This video captures the essence of many of our days. Kwamai excitedly trying to entertain; Felicity calmly investigating her world.

Kwamai Reads

Kwamai has had some reluctance toward reading. I think it is part his desire to do things perfectly, part my tendency to be impatient with him and part him just not being ready.

But yesterday we set a goal of learning 16 new words by Saturday.

Today I picked up


The Foot Book. With my help along the way, Kwamai read the whole thing! He was extremely pleased with himself. He prefers to read pictures and guess what the word is. But I could tell how much he has learned since the last time we tried this type of "dive in and read" approach.

The moment he finished and we exchanged hoots and high fives, the doorbell rang. It was his neighbor friend who is also learning to read. I sang the praises of Kwamai's accomplishment, and of course he had to show her how much he had learned. He really persevered to read it through again without my help this time. The two of them egg each other on because they like to out-preform each other.

I know this felt really good to him today, and it felt good to Mom too. :)

Visiting the Sisters

We had the great joy to visit the TOR Sisters on Sunday. Kwamai and Felicity had everyone captivated, as usual. And we had a chance to pose for pictures.

The Bloggable Kwamai #2

Kwamai said of his sister: "She is more beautiful than the sea, more beautiful than the sun, she is more beautiful than roses!"

Awwwwww....

What Will the Morning Bring?

Tonight after Kwamai and Felicity were off in slumber land, I took down the Christmas tree. It is the official last day of the Christmas season today, being the feast of the Baptism of Jesus. But, they both loved the tree and the Christmas season. I wonder what the reaction will be?

Select Christmas Pix

Here is Kwamai trying to pick a wrestling fight with Uncle Denis at Grandma's house on Christmas Day.



Here are Felicity and myself getting ready to leave for Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve. For the record, a few minutes after this picture, she was asleep for the night.

What's New?

Felicity continues to be a little talker. She seems to be expanding her vocabulary at quite a clip. Today, on one of her routine inspections of my cooking, noted that I was making soup, and that I had put walnuts in my salad. Tonight when she was ready for bed and I was chatting away to Kwamai, she announced loudly "Up on the bed!"

She loves music. Besides The Wiggles, she also loves a CD called A Child's Celebration of the World, and she is beginning little by little to sing along. We have music on all day long, especially since she has learned to operate the CD player.

Kwamai and Felicity both like dumping salt on things. Kwamai is better about keeping his concoctions in dishes, while Felicity prefers the bench, floor, her toys, or her hair.

Kwamai is maturing daily. He spends hours doing imaginary play which is obviously deeply complex to him, with certain required clothing (or, sometimes, the lack thereof), and I find he frequently comes out of these play sessions with rather profound spiritual thoughts. He composed an email to Erol today all on his own, and read it back to me. It was brief, but it was all words that made sense. It is interesting that he seems to be learning to write faster than he is learning to read.