Confessions of a slacker parent

Peter is our first child to pick up the Elmo-like habit of referring to himself in the first person. It's not as drastic as the obnoxious furry monster who supposedly "teaches" our children, but it's still noticeable. The high point of his grammatical failure is that he often references himself with both his first and middle names. "Mommy, read to Peter Joseph, please." It is so. stinking. cute. that I'm actually a teensy bit glad we had this little slacker moment in parenting. And yes, it is OUR fault. We spent much more time teaching the girls proper speech. Happily, Peter understands when we correct him and is responsive, so I don't foresee a long term issue.

Photo courtesy of Sarah S.

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Ruth made her first confession this weekend. I failed to take a camera, so I'll just refer you to Marianne's first penance. Same adorable Sister handling preparation, same lovely church. Just picture Ruth there instead of Marianne. (How's THAT for slacker parenting?)

Ruth's attitude approaching her first penance was a complete 180 from Marianne's. Whereas Marianne was anxious and scrupulous, Ruth was relaxed and even a little excited. I wish we could all feel that way about confession. Her only complaint was the long line she had to wait in because she had to climb over all her little siblings to get out of the pew so several other students beat her to the priest she wanted.

Photo courtesy of Sarah S.

Similar to last year, we let Ruth choose a restaurant for lunch after the ceremony. She opted for Pizza Hut's lunch buffet. I wasn't very excited beforehand, but it was awesome and hilarious. First they had some salad, then pizza and breadsticks. Then they moved on to dessert pizza and breadsticks. Oh but wait, then back for some pickles and vanilla wafers from the salad bar. And oops, I missed the jello salad, Mom, can I get some of that? And then everyone else sees, and therefore must have, jello salad as well (despite them all proclaiming it "kind of hard" jello). Such good times, made all the better by the waitress complimenting how well-behaved our children were as we were leaving. Success! (Maybe the girls were afraid we'd make them go back to the confessional if they were naughty... or at least the confessional line.)

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Rachel is more strongly attached to her pacifier than any of her older siblings were. Or perhaps, as Nathaniel frequently insinuates, I rely more heavily on it to stop her fussing so I can get other things done than I did for her older siblings. (I'm sensing a "slacker" theme to this whole post. In case you're wondering, this is the point at which I determined the title of the post. It was not premeditated.)

I have mixed feelings about the paci, although I don't fear it the way I did thumb-sucking when Peter first went down that path. (He still sucks his thumbs when he's tired, but I'm not worrying myself about it just yet.) Rachel will go to sleep without her pacifier sometimes, but if she's fussy, it'll solve the problem. She's much better at keeping it in long enough to fall asleep now; having to jump out of bed every four minutes to reinsert the plug is one of the most miserable ways to spend half an hour in the middle of the night.

BUT! Just when I thought this kid might be an official pacifier baby, she has begun exploration of her fingers and seems really taken with sucking on her hand in general. Sometimes it's her balled up fist, sometimes her first two fingers, sometimes her ring and pinky. Once today I came upon her sucking on just her pinky finger. I've actually gone to the trouble of unrolling her thumb from her tightly fisted little hand and inserting it into her mouth just so she'd know it was there, but she was indifferent. Time will tell.

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I signed all three of the older girls up for a rec center ballet class this spring. It's for ages five to nine, but they agreed to take my four and a half year old as well. This means Meg will be little for the class, and Marianne will be on the big end. I'm curious to see how that dynamic will work out. They have a class for younger kids, but it's at a different time and heaven knows I don't want to be there waiting any longer than necessary.

Photo courtesy of Sarah S.

Marianne took ballet once, years ago, at the same rec center. It was adorable. Ruth has forever since felt neglected, so I decided it was time to give her her own chance. And Meg... I mean, can't you just picture her in ballet?! It's too perfect. As for Marianne, she said she'd like to join in, and it's only $21 per kid for the eight classes. Why not? I can't wait to fill you in on the sister-bonding, ballerina fun.