Day 5 of Lent

It's not really Day 5 of Lent but there are really like 46 days of Lent and I am only doing 40 days of this so I am confident I can get it done.  I don't really know why the thing about the 40/46 days, although some people say that Sundays are not really days of Lent.  One Episcopalian priest I knew told me that technically, every Sunday is a feast day, so you shouldn't really not celebrate them, I don't know.  Mike and I have given up sweets for lent but we are not having sweets on Sundays, because Mike says and I agree, it's easier to give up sweets the longer you've given them up, so why mess with yourself every week?  Anyway.  What's So Great About Felicity?

• One thing that's really great about Felicity is that she is great about going to school.  She loves her preschool, which I think speaks to how great her preschool is but also how great and flexible she is.  She went last year to the Twos Class and she was good in there, took a nap every day, never one time cried when I left her, and now this year in the Young Threes she never cries, eats all of her lunch, has friends, and sometimes naps and sometimes doesn't, just like every other kid in there.  
• Later this year, she will go to St. Joan of Arc preschool, but she's going five days a week.  The hours are from 8-3 and now she goes 9-2, but only three days a week, so it will be a different.  I'm guessing she'll be fine, I think she'll love it, it's a great program.  Plus Veronica and Maria will be there too, and sometimes they go downstairs and they will just bump into each other in the hall and I think that will be super fun for them.  Everyone keeps asking me what will I do with my time while everyone is in school and I always answer the same way, I guess I'll get a job to pay for their damned school but honestly I don't know what I'll do.  
• Felicity is very good at trying to fit in and acting more like the older kids in a group.  This summer, she was all about keeping up with the older girls, Maria and Veronica and also Carlotta and Maddelena, she came to the pool with us, creek stomping, to get ice cream, to the movies, all kinds of things I wouldn't have taken any other 2.5 year old to do.  But it made her kind of bored with me this fall once the girls went back to school, so I think that it will be good for her to go to preschool every day.  BUT it doesn't mean that I'm not sad that we can't have time together like I did with the other kids, because I am, a little.  I'm not sad that she is growing up or getting older or whatever, but I feel kind of bad that she can't have the same kind of young childhood that Maria or Veronica did.  But I guess that's birth order, right?  She is definitely a little tougher than the other ones, I know she'll be fine, and I'm grateful that we can be so confident that she'll be happy.  

Day 1 of Lent

Today I was in church for Ash Wednesday, which, by the way, is NOT a holy day of obligation but which Mike was saying today he bets is the third most widely attended day in the Catholic church, after Easter and Christmas.  He's probably right but why?  Why do people go on Ash Wednesday and not another day all during Lent until Easter, or not on Sundays?  Is it to get ashes?  Or do people honestly think they are going to give it a go and try to get back to the Sacraments?  I don't know, I am trying to think better of people so I will reluctantly say yes, that's it.

Another thing I was thinking of doing for Lent is what I started to say up there, which is that I was in church today and I thought maybe I'll write a blog post about one of the kids every day.  I used to do a feature on their blogs called What's So Great About _________ and maybe I'll bring it back for Lent.  Because it's so easy to get bogged down in the awfulness of life, when, like today it is 14 degrees out and tomorrow the HIGH is ZERO degrees, and Anthony comes home and takes off his pants and poops on the floor, I thought maybe I should concentrate on how great they are, at least for Lent.  Who knows, maybe it will renew my faith in my vocation.

Anyway, I thought I would start with Felicity because she is the hardest to like all the time.  Today at preschool she fell asleep for naptime, but late, so she was still sleeping when Mike went to get her and she screamed like she was on FIRE when Mike brought her home without stopping at Dairy Queen.  So.  Without further adieu or talking MORE bad stuff about her, I present, What's So Great About Felicity.

• She is super cute.  Her hair is getting really long and she is the only one out of the four who has any kind of curl to her hair.  
• She loves to play games, especially hide and seek.  It's easy to play with her, you just have to count to 10 and yell here I come! and then she will bring herself to you.  
• She loves to sing songs and she has a great memory.  The other night she sang a "crying version" of Itsy Bitsy Spider where she cried all the way through it, kind of big boo-hooing, ig was hilarious.  She loves to make faces, sad, mad, funny, silly, happy.  
• Her preschool teachers love her, especially her main teacher.  She's always asking if she can do an extra day per week.  
• She is the only one who has ever slept in and even though she hardly does anymore, I know she is at least capable of it.  
• She loves to cuddle and 'take a hug' as she calls it.  
• She seems super smart, she has an excellent memory.
• She's polite, she is always about the thank you (fanks!) and please (puh-wease!)