I have a very serious post brewing, but I can’t formulate “serious” on the heels of a Super Bowl party with eight children (ages toddler to tween) and four adults in the house. So instead, today you get Julianna stories. You don’t mind, do you?
It’s been birthday week for her, and what with phone calls and Skype sessions and cards and visitors, I truly mean birthday week. Saturday we wrapped things up by going ice skating as a family. When I got in the car, Kids #2 and 4 were singing “Santa Claus is Coming To Town.” #s 1 and 3, of course, were shouting loudly, “STOP THAT! IT’S NOT CHRISTMAS ANYMORE!”
I turned around and grinned at Julianna. “How about we sing Taylor Swift instead? ‘I knew you were trouble when you walked in!’”
Julianna didn’t miss a beat. She said, “Who, ME? NEVVAH!”
I swear. She said it EXACTLY like that.
This weekend was also Rite of Enrollment for kids receiving First Communion this year. The priest, who is a bit of a ham, said, “Oh, look how cute they all are!” One little girl (NOT mine) said loudly enough to be heard all over the church, “I’m not cute, I’m smart!”
“Well, this is a feisty bunch,” he said, and the entire assembly laughed. “Now all these cute-and-smart kids are going to put their names in the basket and go back to their seats!”
The kids swarmed the front of the altar. Julianna, of course, awkward and uncertain in motion, couldn’t penetrate the crowd, so she hung out beside an altar candle until everyone else was done. By the time she dropped her paper in the basket and started down the sanctuary steps, one hesitant foot at a time, everybody else was long gone…and the assembly had been invited to applaud. Which they were.
Julianna lit up like a thousand candles. You could just see it in her eyes: “For ME?”
Yes, honey. All for you.
Oh, how I love this girl.
Kathleen M. Basi 