7 Quick Takes, Vol. 113

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It’s been quite a while since I reflected on the gift of speech, and that is because we have been in a locked-horn fight with both our younger children. Specifically: we want them to talk; they don’t. Julianna thinks signs work quite well enough, thank you very much, and Nicholas follows wherever Big Sis goes. (I have this great video to illustrate it, but I’m too techno-dumb to figure out how to upload it to YouTube.) But in the last two weeks, Nicholas has finally leap-frogged toward speaking. He will now almost always imitate on command: g, b, m, n, d, y, and even “ee.” And he has ONE word. “Bye-bye,” which sounds more like “Buh-buh,” but at almost 22 months…I’ll take it!

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The other day I was reading a space alphabet book to Nicholas, and I decided to show him a space shuttle launch video. What I stumbled upon was this: a high-def compilation of an Atlantis mission, including the most stirring images of Earth from space that I have ever seen. How can you look at these images without weeping? Without wanting to protect it?

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I am really coming up blank this morning on things to say.

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I suppose I can say that for the last two weeks, I have truly believed I was pregnant. Convinced, as a matter of fact. And to discover yesterday that I was wrong was very depressing.

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I have 8+ inches of snow in my yard, which is deep enough that it’s hard for me to walk through, let alone the kids. One of the toughest thing about small children is that I want to share the experiences with them all (namely sledding), but it’s so hard to get them all dressed and ready that generally I don’t. Poor Julianna and Nicholas will have to wait another year. Maybe.

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However, last weekend, I did take Alex out to the city’s premiere sledding hill. (See here for a photojournalist’s pictures; I wasn’t sure I had any business lifting a picture to share with you.) What makes this hill so special, aside from the fact that it’s actually two hills that form an L, is that one half of the L is the dam of a lake. You do the math. It’s also got a nice wide flat area at the bottom for slowing down. We’ve never gone over there before, and it was truly worth the hype.

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Well, I’ve managed to come up with six. Five, I mean. 😉 I guess I’ll just finish by saying that I’ve spent this week attempting to work on my novel, and that’s pretty much it. I’m used to having a writing log full of multiple projects, and it’s disconcerting to have such a short list of weekly accomplishments. But I have a Lent book to finish in the next 5 weeks for Liguori, so I’m sure I’ll be detouring again shortly.

Have a great weekend! Tune in next week for a series on infertility.