First Penance

One last review before going to Confession

 Benjamin has been working so hard this year to prepare to receive two Sacraments.  The Sacrament of Penance/First Confession and the Sacrament of First Holy Communion.  He attended a CCD class with 4 other young boys from our parish and they all worked all year to have their catechism memorized. 

 Two weeks ago Benjamin had to sit down with our priest for an interview so that Father could be sure that Ben was ready intellectually and spiritually.  Father asked Ben many questions from the catechism.  Benjamin did a fantastic job and didn't seem at all scared.  Father was happy to let Ben know that he was indeed ready for these two big Sacraments..

Ben is quite small for his age so Claudio was making sure that Ben could kneel and still reach the screen in the Confessional.  It all turned out fine.

waiting for his turn with the other boys....all a bit nervous...all sweet and precious.

 Last Saturday Ben received his First Penance and had a quick rehearsal for First Holy Communion Day.

Ben is next!!  A quick pep talk from his CCD teacher..

Pentecost Sunday will be the big day!!  Ben has been very excited and counting down the days on his calendar!!  I feel nervous and just amazed at how quickly he is growing up!!  Prayers please for a holy reception of his First Communion.

The Dress Rehearsal That Was a Recital

Ohhh my little Annabella...She just finished up her first year of ballet/tap. She had a wonderful year and I think dance is great for her somewhat lacking coordination and grace.  Not to mention a lesson in listening and patience.  I was proud of her even before the recital...

Well, it wasn't really totally a recital.  It just happens that the recital was scheduled for the same day as Ben's First Holy Communion.  As important as we think dance is, and following through with commitments, of course the sacraments take priority.

We had already purchased the costume and Anna was so excited to perform. So after a chat with her dance teacher we decided she would take part in the dress rehearsal.  This being her first year of dance she had no clue what a recital was.  So we let her think the dress rehearsal was the recital and it all basically worked out.

The one snaffoo was that some of the choreography had to be changed to EXCLUDE Anna.  And of course that is how it had to be practiced at the dress rehearsal!  And since we didn't really want her to know that this wasn't the big show....she didn't really know what was going on.

If you watch the video (which is a bit long) you will see where she is sort of left there with no one to dance with  :(  It was so heartbreaking to watch.  But she has such character, as you will see.  She just dances all by herself.  So adorable and made me all the more proud of her.  She has guts and character and can truly perform.




And afterwards, the obligatory meal at McDonalds....or as Anna says:  Dunkin Donalds.

Family Tradition: Take 4!

Well, just like with the other Salvucci babies....when we reach the 4M mark, the start of the second quarter of their first year, we take the obligatory mixing bowl on the head pictures. It all started with Ben of course and I still think his expression is the best. So, here we have Lucy's pictures to add to the tradition.

Oh my, who turned the lights out??!

Thinking it is all pretty funny!

And here is the original that started it all.  Little Ben at 4M

 

And little Annabella..

And the Bug!!

First Fruits of the Garden

Benjamin Performs

Benjamin has been taking piano lessons for several months and seems to be really enjoying it.  He picks up the pieces quickly and the even the music theory end of it seems to make sense to him.  He practices daily with no prompting.  Many times a day you will find him sitting at the piano going over his pieces or just playing around.

This Sunday our church held a parish talent show and Ben decided he would like to participate.



I was so proud of Benjamin.  He has grown and matured by leaps and bounds this year.  He has always been painfully shy.  Often unable to even look a person in the eye let alone make polite responses to people.  Slowly but surely and with a year of lots of confidence building experiences he has really come out of his shell.  No longer does he cling to me when we are at social functions.  He is off forging his own friendships, having fun, taking chances.  I can't wait to see what another year will bring for Benjamin!

Fancy Buggy With Chilblains!

"The ideal couple said nothing in particular very beautifully all
the way to town.  Of course Gilbert was too profoundly stirred over
the prospect of seeing his old love to talk to his wife!  Anne
sneezed.  She began to be afraid she was taking a cold in the head.
How ghastly it would be to sniffle all through dinner under the
eyes of Mrs. Andrew Dawson, nee Christine Stuart!  A spot on her
lip stung . . . probably a horrible cold-sore was coming on it.
Did Juliet ever sneeze?  Fancy Portia with chilblains!  Or Argive
Helen hiccoughing!  Or Cleopatra with corns!"

Anne of Ingelside 

In late February Beatrice woke from a nap with an ugly looking welt on one of her fingers. We couldn't imagine what it could be from other than maybe a spider bite. Over the next week and a half it started looking uglier and uglier and on a Sunday afternoon I took her to an Urgent Care Clinic. The doctor took a quick look at her finger, told us it was a cellulitis infection, and prescribed an antibiotic. Within a few days the swollen welt had spread to all of her fingers and two of her toes. I took her in to see the pediatrician. He said it is not an infection, it is something vascular. Likely vasculitis. He wanted a few blood tests run. 

When all of her bloodwork came back normal the pediatrician recommended we take her to a rheumatologist.  We weren't able to get an appt until today.  Meanwhile her hands got no better and she started complaining about her hands and toes hurting her.  We of course scoured google searches of vasculitis to the point where we had worked ourselves up into a tizzy (ok well mostly I was in a tizzy, but Cla was definitely concerned...).  I had anxiety induced delusions of them immediately admitting her to the hospital to amputate her fingers....and that is only a slight exaggeration.

So, they studied her hands and feet, looked at her hands under a magnifier, asked heaps of questions, did some mild poking and prodding....The outcome?  She is chilblains.....CHILBLAINS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Everything I know about chilblains I learned from Victorian novels.  And specifically remembered Anne of Green Gables associating them with things utterly unromantic!

So, how does a 2yr old get chilblains, which is basically a cold injury???  With this very very cold and snowy winter we had she literally never went outside.  Not even to play in the snow.  It was simply TOO cold.  Their theory??  When you have a little crittter like Buggy who has no body fat (she is 22lbs and 2yrs old) and with heating oil being what it is....so you keep your house at a very brisk 63-64 degrees.  Well, apparently this is actually cold enough for an underweight child to be unable to regulate their temperature and therefore sustain a cold injury.....IN THE HOUSE!

Her case is pretty bad and will need to be treated medically with some medication after we jump through a few more medical hoops and we must always make sure that she is appropriately bundled (no more running around buck naked for Buggy!).

And this, my friends, is another example of the strange and unusual medical maladies that it seems ONLY my kids can suffer!!!!!  Poor Buggy!  

Lucy's Baptism February, 15th 2014

there is a car under there

rear view of the car...if you look at the side of our front porch.  The snow completely covers the cement steps...it was about three feet deep.

another good measure is the BBQ on the right and the door from our screened porch has a set of 4 or 5 steps down to the ground...completely covered.

and that lump in the middle of the lawn there is a table.  Snow comes up to the bottom of the table.

Lucy was received into the church by baptism on February 15th 2014.  The pictures aren't great because Benjamin, aged 6, was our photographer!  Two days before the baptism we had a rather large snowstorm that dropped a few feet of snow.  Not a huge deal as the streets are cleared pretty quickly around here.  But then the day of the baptism another snowstorm hit.  The forecast had originally called for just a flurry, maybe a dusting.  It turned out to be several more inches.  Our church is an hour away.....and our Godfather was over two hours away (on clear, weather free days!).  So the day was a bit of a crazy fiasco....getting up to the Church in one piece.  And then getting home, where there were guests waiting for us to celebrate the baptism and Ben and Beatrice's birthdays, was even crazier.

But, but the grace of God Lucy received her first sacrament and everyone got to where they need to be and celebrated the best we could!

For Unto Us a Child Is Born..

 

Little Lucy Elizabeth was born on January 25th, on a snowy day, in the wee smas.  Her labor was long.  Well it was long in that it took allllll day for labor to really get started.  But once it started it was quick and she was delivered in a few hours.  But she kept us wondering if she would ever come out!!  She was born at 11:53pm...So when I say ALLL day I mean it!

She was 7lbs7oz......probably my biggest baby (Anna was 7lbs15oz, but she was ten days late and Lucy was born the day before her due date.  She was born with a true knot in her cord and the cord around her neck.  The doc said this may have been why she was so stubborn to come down.  But all was well.  Like the others she was very quiet.  No wailing....just quietly taking things in.  Eyes wide open.  She made little sounds like a kitten.  Unfortunately, I have a new computer and the new new newborn pics are on my other computer.  They will eventually make it here...

She was quickly switched from regular formula to hypoallergenic.  She is not my most content baby, but not my fussiest.  She sleeps well at night.

At her one month well check she had gained a pound and a half and was 8lbs15oz and at her two month check she had gained another pound and was 9lbs15oz. 

I think that is all the relevant information!