Little Kingdom

 

"Hiiiiii!"  Raffy yelled from the car as we passed a neighbor who happened to be in his yard. 

 

 

"Yep, I am.  But when I get bigger I won't be friendly anymore."

 

 

"People get old and they are not friendly. When I get old I won't be friendly. I'm a boy so I'm friendly now."

 

 

 

Yesterday, while at the farm, Raffy was petting the dog, "Bailey."  Some of Bailey's winter coat was still shedding and with each stroke a puff of dog hair would fly past Raffy.

 

Raffy decided that he needed to remove all the "extra" hair from Bailey.  He ran off to the back porch leaving the impression he was fetching the dog brush.

 

When he returned he had a lint roller. Upon inquiring why he did not get the brush, Raffy answered, "Grand-dad uses this to get off dog hair!"

 

 

Congrats to Ben and Monica on the arrival of baby Chiara on Father's Day!

 

 

 

Recently at Mass, as the recessional hymn was ending and the priest was walking out towards the parking lot to greet parishoners, Fr. Collin stopped to say hi to Aliceanna and Raffy. 

 

Raffy usually gives Fr. Collin a stinging high-five, but this day he asked Fr. to bend down towards him.  Raffy took his index finger and traced a cross on Fr's forehead. Thinking Raffy was going to tell him something quite profound as 4-yr-olds tend to do, Fr. was surprised when Raffy blessed him.

 

The following week, we were a little late to Mass so we stayed in the cry room vestibule. Well, the only thing Raffy and Aliceanna cried was, "NAVE!" What will we do with them?!

 

 

 

Yesterday, while at Granddad's farm, Raffy entered the kitchen with a tan sprig of something in his hand and declared, "Look! I found a piece of wheat. We can make bread!"

 

It was a single stalk of wheat, but not nearly enough to grind into flour to make bread.

 

 

Congrats to Kathleen and Rob on yesterday's arrival of #6, David John!

 

 

Congrats to Mike and Teresa on the arrival of #5, Louis Martin, who was born yesterday!

 

 

 

Congrats to Quinn and Lisa on the arrival of #3, Emma Grace, born this morning!

 

 

 

It's true. Both kids are riding bicycles.

 

Raffy has been a pro with pedalling since he was two years old.  By age three, Raffy was pedalling his little legs as far as they could go, and often it was nearly one mile at a time.  Around age 3.5, his legs were long enough to move off the tricycle and on to a bike with training wheels, although, we did not want a bike with training wheels. We really wanted a push/balance bike.

 

With a bit of luck, we found a push bike second-hand at an awesome discount, although it barely looked used.  Aliceanna now uses the push bike and she loves it.  Raffy lost his training wheels shortly after his 4th birthday, but due to cold temps and spring rain, it's been only in the past 2 weeks that he's had any fair amounts of time to ride. The only thing he needs to learn is how to coast with his feet on the pedals, but without pedalling.

 

We'll get photos soon! (Don't forget to click on the photos at right to enlarge them.)

 

Congrats to Kate and Matt on the arrival of #4, Xander Blaise!  Finally, a boy! 

 

 

 

At least once a month we join Wm for his lunch break at the hospital.  It's usually on a Sunday afternoon and the kids are itching to see their father after several days of being at work all day.

 

This past Sunday a co-worker peeked into the break room, spotted Aliceanna and Raffy and declared, "You're cute!"

 

Instantly, Raffy retorted, "I'm not cute. I'm a boy."

 

 

 

 

 

Is it already May?!

 

We've been incredibly busy in the past few weeks and we hardly find ourselves at home.  The weekend of Easter Week, the kids spent visiting their great-grandmother and playing in the warm spring temps. The weekend after that, they were visiting their great-grandmother, again, and anticipating a visit with their Florida grandparents.

 

We were able to spend some time with grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins that weekend.  Raffy just wanted to play baseball and more baseball. He thinks he's a "team." They were looking forward to seeing more of their relatives on that Monday, however, an unfortunate communication glitch prevented that.  Nonetheless, Raffy was begging to pack his suitcase to go to Florida!

 

During the past week, between errands and regular outings, we've been visiting friends in Virginia. Aliceanna just fawns over the babies; it's so adorable. Raffy was so excited to "fight" with the boys. And did those boys "fight"! Definitely some good times.  Then we also met up with some friends to go to a private play time at Pump It Up in Hagerstown (one of them owns the business). It hasn't even opened, yet, and the kids got a nice taste of just how exhausting bouncing around for one hour can be!

 

Now it's the weekend and we're back to planning for next week! 

 

 

Alleluia!  

 

Easter has been wonderful!

 

For Easter Sunday, the kids spent the day surrounded by over 30 cousins and played endlessly.  Raffy wrestled with the boys, played ball and climbed trees.  Aliceanna was entertained for hours by the girls. Aliceanna is the youngest girl cousin, so she gets lots of attention from the other girls.

 

This year, Aliceanna was able to participate in the egg hunt and she was thrilled by finding eggs. Raffy got help from Aunt Carol and managed to get a good number of eggs, too.  Raffy was so upset when he had to wait in line to claim his prize, only to find another boy chosen what he wanted before it was his turn to pick his prize. Both kids, however, ended up with more bubbles and that's fine, too. They spent about one hour playing with their cousins' new toys that bubbles have sufficed at home.

 

The food, as always, was amazing.  Before dessert, we had to sing "Happy Birthday" three times for the three birthdays that were on the 11th, 12th and 13th! Raffy could barely wait for the third rendition of "Happy Birthday." When James was not to be found in the house, everyone suddenly heard a four-year-old boy stampeding out the front door bellowing, "Jaaaaames! Come in so we can have caaaake!"

 

The kids' Easter baskets contained some small non-edible gifts.  Aliceanna's book was The First Easter Bunny and Raffy's book was Angel in the Waters. Both are such wonderful stories! The kids are thrilled.

 

Happy Easter!  Enjoy this beautiful week of Easter celebrating!

 

 

 

 

 

A few days ago, while washing dishes, Raffy approached with a band-aid on his forehead. 

 

"I was fightin' a bad guy! He shot an arrow at my forehead and I got a boo-boo."

"In there," he replied as he pointed towards the living room.

I took my sword and poked him in the belly! The bad guy died!"

"No, he went away."

 

 

We have this year's first batch of kittens on the farm!

 

We noticed that Bernadette was looking slimmer, so we checked the usual places.  Sure enough, under the cellar steps, her four fuzzy little babies were bobbing around sqeaking for her.  When we found them, their eyes were already open, so they had been born for a while. But they are still quite little and unsteady on their feet.

 

Raffy has decided to name three of them, "Betty," and to name the gray one, "Mac."  He is certain Macabees is the father (well, likely of the gray one at least) and since he's gray then the gray kitten must share the same name.  

 

We're not sure how Raffy decided on "Betty," though. 

 

Aliceanna loves the kittens. She cuddles them and examines their toes, eyes and whiskers. She is surprisingly gentle with them, too.  She certainly doesn't hesitate to kiss them, either.

 

 

 

 

Congrats to Theresa and Doug on the arrival of #4, Abigail Rose!

 

 

 

"It is not wrong to want to live better; what is wrong is a style of life which is presumed to be better when it is directed towards “having” rather than “being,” and which wants to have more, not in order to be more but in order to spend life in enjoyment as an end in itself."

~Pope John Paul II, Centesimus Annus

 

 

Sometime last night Wm placed a forbidden substance in a place he thought no one would discover.  Yet, how the desires of a 4-year-old boy can quickly put a snag in such plans.

 

This afternoon Raffy was hungry for a carrot. Upon opening the crisper drawer in the refrigerator he also found a 20-oz bottle of Pepsi. Any fears he'd want to imbibe the awful stuff were quickly assuaged when he momentarily stomped off to find his father.

 

Holding out the Pepsi to his father, Raffy scolded, "This is not for little boys. This does not go with the carrots. Don't do it again."

 

Smugly, Raffy returned to the kitchen, opened the refrigerator, fished out a crisp carrot, peeled the carrot and then munched on his snack. 

 

 

Congrats to Sebastien and Anne on this morning's arrival of #2, Madeleine-Marie!

 

 

 

Yesterday was the Solemnity of St. Joseph and the kids had a fun time making Sfinge di San Giuseppe, a traditional dessert for the feast day, and they especially enjoyed eating it!  We make this dessert every year, so it's becoming something to look forward to, especially with all the Lenten fasting from treats and sweets (except on Sundays, of course!).

 

The morning started with Mass and prayers to St. Joseph. Raffy was so cute as he would occasionally blurt, "Happy St. Joseph Day!" 

 

What was also a nice surprise was a find at the local Goodwill for just a few dollars: a statue of Sedes Sapientiae! The kids love it, too. It is obvious how important sacramentals are when children's reactions are noticed. Yesterday, Aliceanna walked around with a blanket on her head while carrying a baby doll saying "May-me. Jee-jush."  She certainly doesn't react that way to our OL of Fatima statue (she just points to the rosary)!

 

 

 

The past 24 hours have been laborious:

 

Congrats to:

Patricia and Matt on the arrival of #3, Joseph Patrick

Jamie and Craig on the arrival of #3, Henry Joseph

Emily and Mark on the arrival of #1, Finnian Bernard

Mary and Mike on the arrival of #4, Peter Joseph

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday was an eventful morning.  The kids have been out-of-whack since daylight savings time last week, which is the first time this has happpened and we can't quite get back on routine.

 

So, it was on Sunday morning when everyone slept too late for 8am Mass that chaos at Mass was inevitable. The kids simply only do well at 8am. Because we went a little later, Wm had to leave just a few minutes early to get to work.  Raffy was in tears, wailing and collapsing out of the pew, simply because his father had to leave.

 

To add to the spectacle, and his antics were definitely a head-turner, Raffy continued to demand quite loudly that he "need[ed] energy."  How did he plan to get that energy? Donuts. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This past week Wm had spring break from classes, so we spent quite a bit of time together as a family and have neglected to make updates here. 

 

Initially, we wanted to go to the DC zoo, particularly because it is free and Raffy thinks the ring-tailed lemur from Zoboomafoo lives there. After perusing the zoo website, Raffy mistook this lemur for Zoboo. 

 

The weather report was iffy and we didn't want to drive to DC just to get stuck in rain.  So we opted for a closer site that ended up being perfect for the short attention spans of little ones: we went to Dinosaur Land.

 

We have driven passed Dinosaur Land countless times in the past ten years, but with Raffy's current dino obsession, we decided to go and see it.

 

It was a little chilly on Tuesday, but that didn't bother Raffy one bit. He was thrilled by the dinosaurs!  Naturally, he wanted to see the T. Rex and he enjoyed all the other dinos, too.  He did ask, "Why aren't they moving?"  Yeah, he's already catching on.

 

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