Sneezing syphillis

Now that is an interesting Google search..... I am the #6 result!

Wisdom of the ages (1)

Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.

St. Augustine

Apology advice

If Agent 002 does anything to harm another human being, even accidentally, we require that he apologize. The apology must be given directly to the injured party, and the apology modeled for him is specific to the crime as well. For example, "Sorry for hitting you, Agent 004." Apologizing has become automatic for him -- when he bumped into another child at the playground, Agent 002 immediately stopped and apologized. It takes him longer to apologize for acts of anger, and this is probably a good thing. In a four-year old kind of way, he waits until he means it.

Now that Agent 004 is beginning to speak, we ask the same of her as well. In fact, her first two-word sentence was "Sorry, F," delivered spontaneously after bopping Cousin F on the head. She then promptly bopped F again. I fear that instead of teaching her to be penitent, we have taught Agent 004 how to be a hypocrite.

Rationally, I am convinced that my fear is unfounded. I know that the words sometimes come long before the feelings. I understand that she is only two. I KNOW that she is a very good girl (and a cute one too). But values like kindness and penitence are the most important things that we can teach our children.

I make no promise to follow your advice, but out of curiosity I'd like to know -- what do other parents of preschoolers do?

Welcome Baby D!

Our children have a new cousin -- Baby D was born on Wednesday morning. He is his parents' first child, but joins a flock of warillever cousins - Agents 002 and 004 as well as Cousins E, C, T, B, A and Mm. Best wishes to him and his parents!

Note: Our children also have three reprehriestless cousins -- Cousins Aa, Mag, and F. That makes 10 first cousins. Quite a few, but not quite the 44 that I have........

No dessert for you buddy boy

Agent 002 serenaded us at dinner last night:

Happy burpday fart kaka
Happy burpday fart kaka
Happy burpday fart kaka
Happy burpday to you

At least he's creative..........

Update: Agent 002 did not miss dessert because he sang this song, but rather because he continued singing it after he was asked to stop. We are not wanton dessert-stealers. Although I will admit that Mr. warillever did eat said dessert after the agents went to bed. I am told that it was very good, at least as far as instant puddings go.

Wow!

Did I say that there would be fewer football posts? I wrote that when ND was down 31-14.........

I'll admit it, I had given up on this game. A 19-point 4th quarter secured the Irish win. Wow!

Hello again

Inspired by a recent conversation with the Library Despot, I started reading blogs again. I logged into Bloglines and Live Journal for the first time in months. It has been great fun catching up on old friends' lives and travails. I learned about pregnancies, new jobs, and new worries. I also paged through my own archives, and realized that it is an incredible record of what I was thinking and doing at some pivotal points in my life.

I've decided to make another go of blogging. My goal is to post one "Daily Magic" per week, as well as an ocassional reflective piece. There will probably be less commentary on news and football, and more snapshots of our daily lives.