Small Successes Volume 36

Not much to brag about this week. The baby is going through a phase I remember suffering with Sebastian. She can Power-Nap. Yesterday, and the two days previous, she didn't nap for more than 10 or 15 minutes at a time, then spent 30 minutes screaming while I waited for her to go back to sleep. Her longest nap was an hour around dinner time. That was it, outside of catnaps, until 11:30 p.m.

I recalled reading in a book about 8 years ago, when Sebastian did this, that you have to watch the baby carefully and wait for the second yawn. That is the ideal time to put the baby down. By the third yawn the baby is over-tired and may not go down well.

It worked most of the time with Sebastian, and this morning it is working with Gemma. Alleluia!

Anyway, back to the week's successes, small as they may be:

1) I managed to have a really nice feast-day for St. Pio yesterday. We had a wonderful dinner of my favorite quick pasta dish with penne, pesto, Italian sausage, sliced black olives, diced tomatoes and Parmesan cheese along with garlic bread, and I made cappuccino mousse for dessert. I spoke at length about Padre Pio to the kids and they found him pretty fascinating. And after our rosary, I anointed them with Padre Pio blessed oil given to us by a priest friend.

2) Still having fun with Geography. The kids have learned so much about Australia and have had a great time producing aboriginal style art on heavy brown paper. We rented a great documentary on Australia and although we couldn't afford a trip to Kentucky Down Under this year, the kids had fun learning about Australian animals with a number of other resources.

3) I've managed breakfast, lunch and dinner every day thus far this week.

(Just don't ask me about my bathrooms.)

Now visit Faith and Family Live to see some more Small Successes!