Catechesis and the Water Cycle

Me: Your teacher sent a video about the water cycle.

Sleeping Dragon: What's the water cycle?
Me: Water goes from water to ---

Sleeping Dragon: Wine?

Me: No.  Water goes from water to ---

Sleeping Dragon: Blood?

Well, we have succeeded in catechesis.  

FTW

Today, I made a child do chores because she was complaining of boredom.  Friends, I have arrived.

Dilemmas

Preschooler: I have to blow my nose, but then I will have to wash my hands! I don't know what to do.

She is learning something from the times.  But also, why is washing hands so terrible?  #PandemicProblems #5yearolddilemmas

Seven Things with Names

In some cultures, names are thought to give one great insight into the one being named.  While many in our culture want their names to express their selves (have you seen that Facebook “quiz” that splits names into blatantly false root words), I would argue that our names say more about the namer than the named.

And so, I thought, for today's quick takes, I would share seven of the names in our household, for your insight into my mind and the Captain’s:

1. Elefantiles (Eh-lih-FAHN-tih-leez) the Elephant
   

It's Never Too Early

This morning, the Sleeping Dragon grabbed my bookmark (pictured above), which contains an image of the Divine Mercy on one side and Our Lady of Guadalupe on the other.  I enjoyed watching her play with it, telling her, "That's Jesus; that's Mary," as she flipped it back and forth.

I let her play until she went from putting it to her mouth to actually chewing on it.  "No, babe, we don't eat --" I started, and then changed the end of my sentence -- "Jesus, when He's in that form.  We eat Him in another form."

Because it's never too early to teach about the Eucharist, and I don't want to be spouting heresy to my child!

Once More, On Babycation and Maternity Leave

At the moment, I am a kept woman, and Babycation Part II is harder than Part I.  I start classes in a week and a half (eek!), so this week we are starting the Sleeping Dragon's daycare routine.  Part of this involves double-babying with a couple from our parish and part of it involves my mother -- so we are very blessed.

Thus, for several days over these two weeks, I am once more at home without work or childcare responsibilities.  The whole prospect is relieving, terrifying, exhilarating, and heartbreaking all at once.

In honor of Babycation Part II, I wanted to share some more happy news regarding maternity leave.  Netflix and Microsoft have recently implemented sensible parental leave policies.  Basically, both offer months of paid leave for new mother and fathers.  Yay for people who appreciate that employees who can meet their family needs are better, more productive employees who will stick around and do great things for the company!

While Feeding the Sleeping Dragon This Morning

While feeding the Sleeping Dragon this morning, I discovered this picture on Hallmark's humor blog:

A Happy Nursing Story

I often, too often, encounter up-in-arms, negative stories about women's experiences nursing in public.  I want to share a happy story, because those exist too.