Superbowl Sunday

It looks like Seth is going to have someone to watch football games with now.

Tantrums!

Elena is quickly approaching her terrible twos. Most of the time she's still a sweetie, but these past few weeks have been rough between teething, being sick and endlessly being cooped up inside. She has quite the temper and by far the biggest "lip" I have ever seen in a child. A bird's not just going to poop on it, it's going to build a nest! Her tantrums get so wild that it's difficult to keep her from hurting herself sometimes.....but Seth and I were much the same as children so I guess we deserve this.

I've been getting a lot of these looks lately:


In the midst of a particularly tantrum-y day, I grabbed a nearby book to read while I was lying down with Elena. It was a book I hadn't read in over 10 years called The Story of a Soul. I only read a page or two of the introduction and I happened to read the following, which was written about the author by her mother:

"She flings herself into the most dreadful rages when things don't go as she wants them. She rolls on the ground as if she's given up hope of anything ever being right again. Sometimes she's so overcome that she chokes."

Who, you might ask, did this stubborn child become? None other than St. Therese of Lisieux - one of the most humble and widely-known saints of our time. So there's still hope. Thank you, St. Therese!

Baptism Day

"Now they were bringing even infants to Him that He might touch them; and when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them to Him, saying, ‘Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them; for to such belongs the kingdom of God’" (Luke 18:15–16).

Like those in this Bible passage, we too brought our little infant to Jesus last Sunday so that He would touch our child through the sacrament of baptism - and Sammy loved it! I was anticipating some screams since he has not once let us pour water on his head without crying. It was a beautiful ceremony (thank you, Fr. Jeremy).

Here's our handsome little devil awaiting his baptism :)

And here he is right afterwards. "Aaaaaah....that feels better."

Now comes the real work for us: guiding this new little member of the kingdom so that he will come to know and understand God's love. We pray that he will one day renew this commitment himself at his Confirmation. We hope his proud godparents Ryan (below) and Rachana will help us with this!