Out of the mouths of babes....and toddlers and adolescents

Sorry for being MIA . . . life is chaotic. Just a quick post about some of the cute moments in our house lately.

Kellyn has recently learned how to say "yeah" and "no". She is not shy about telling me "no" to diaper changes . . . and getting dressed . . . and eating breakfast . . .you get the picture. ;) I am not sure if I like the "no" phase. I have also come to realize she does not like transitions, which does makes our days pretty difficult as there are about 100 transitions each and every day. Why did I pray to grow in humility with her pregnancy?! ;)

Cavan is turning into such a delightful and adorable human being. ;) I am very excited to see how his vocabulary is growing each day as well. Two stories of note: 1) He and Kellyn were playing with their daddy in our living room the other night. Heath was pretending to be some sort of fierce animal, growling and grabbing for them as they ran out of arm's reach. At one point when Cavan was shrieking, he also exclaimed, "AAaahhh! Run for your lives!" Not sure what movie he heard that from, but it made me smile. 2) He has discovered what "tricks" or "kidding" is, so now he likes to hide things in his hands or his sleeves. He'll then say "come find it" and when the other party involved cannot, he proudly shows it off and says "I chyit'tcha!" (Translation: I tricked ya!)

My grandfather passed away last weekend. The memorial mass was this past Friday in Chicago. I will post more on the situation later, but as my younger sister Molly and I were driving back to Champaign, we had this interchange.
Molly: "Oh, look it's starting to rain."
Shan: "Yes, it is."
Molly: "That must be Papa cryin' . . . you know how they say the rain is when angels in heaven are crying?"
Shan: "Yeah, I've heard that."
Molly: "He must be soooo happy that he's finally there."

What I loved about this interchange is the image she conjured up for me of the sheer joy and utter happiness one will experience upon their arrival into heaven. I don't often stop to think of that aspect of it, but how beautiful . . . crying tears of joy when coming face to face with our Lord.

I didn't think that conversation was the appropriate time to start talking about Purgatory. So, I left it for what it was . . . a beautiful moment.