Josefina's First Holy Communion

Josefina after the Mass, with her Daddy.

This is 8 years earlier, before she had another setback
in the NICU. She was there the first 7 months of her
life. Many prayers brought her from then to today!

During this past year, Jojo was well prepared by John XXIII Montessori Center's Catechesis of the Good Shepherd program. Here is a picture of her working on the Last Supper and using the materials to see its relationship to the Mass of the present time.

Materials used in the Last Supper work.

She's perhaps the smallest in size of today's CGS first communion kids. Afterwards, we celebrated by having a lovely family dinner out.

Speaking of food, mine included this salmon and asparagus salad, and a beer that deserved (and got) a picture all it's own.

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UPDATE: from May 10... Josefina wore her First Communion dress again on Sunday, so we were able to take a few more pictures. Let me post a couple of them here also.

Now we got Jojo with Daddy and Mommy both. And below, we have Jojo in the bright sunlight, next to the wall of the old church. She's less than twice as tall as the bushes! :-)

Josefina Talks About "Older People"

Josefina: "So it's mostly older people who live in this house."

Me: (Surprised by this unprovoked declaration) "Huh? What do you mean?"

Her: "Oh you know, John Paul, Agnese, Lucia...."

Me: "Haha, okay, I see what you mean. Older people, yes indeed, this house is full of really old people.... But what about Teresa?"

Her: "Well, sometimes she's older."

Me: "And of course your mommy and daddy don't even enter into consideration for this category. Mommy and Daddy are like beyond the horizon of any kind of oldness that you can possibly conceive!"

Her: Looks at me like 'I-don't-understand-what-you're-talking-about-but-I-know-you're-being-silly.'

     ...I thought about this for a moment and then I continued...

Me: "But wait, what about Daddy? Daddy is a grownup but he acts like a kid sometimes, right?"

Her: "Yes. You're the only grownup I've ever seen who acts like a kid!"

Me: "Well, I'm sure other little girls think their daddies act like kids sometimes, too."

I hope they do!

"Josefina-in-a-Box" - THE MOVIE!

Yesterday we got Christmas package that came in a pretty small box. We unpacked the box and looked at the stuff. Soon after that, Josefina found her way into the box; some readers may have seen this picture yesterday on social media:

I thought it was really funny. But I didn't expect her to be quite so creative in playing with the box. She turned it into her "bedroom" and made herself comfortable. I could never be comfortable in a position like this, but little kids are flexible.

She fixed up the environment quite nicely, and pretended to be asleep:

Then she started trying to hide, read books, or just act goofy:

Taking advantage of the hammy atmosphere, I attempted to make a video. I turned out to be the bigger ham, but the video is still cute.

With that assurance, I bring you Josefina-in-a-Box: THE MOVIE! This is a "short" -- only about a minute, but it features a special guest appearance by James the Purple Unicorn. Lots of fun! 

Summer is Beginning, and It Won't be Dull

She spies something BIG!

It is good for one's health to have a small person such as this dashing about, chirping, bending one's ear, and asking questions all day long. Now that the school year is over, I can look forward to a summer full of such invigorating company. Yes, the school year for our family is rapping up as Chelsea prepares for its graduation this weekend. John Paul is about to turn 17 and to become a rising senior; at this time next year he will be graduating.

I'm sure we'll have good times together as a family this summer. But the older kids will do their own things, and Teresa (even though she's still my little girl) will no doubt have her usual whirlwind social life. There will be visitors and excursions. Some of the family might travel. The horizons of our children continue to expand.

Meanwhile Eileen will get a bit of a break from the teaching grind, and we will be able to sit at the table and drink coffee together in the morning, slowly. How splendid. And Josefina will bounce through the whole of my day and I will not be able to keep from laughing.

Sometimes she sees my face and knows I'm gritting my teeth. She comes over and grabs my head and holds it, and then starts patting my head (even bopping it a bit) and says, "C'mon Daddy, c'mon Daddy...."

And I feel like I'm going to be okay.

There is this mysterious level of maturity in her, but even as I say that I feel that it sounds like an exaggeration. She is just a little kid, with all of a kid's fragility and a kid's personality taking shape. She needs my strength. They all do. O Lord, please give me the strength that they need from me.

Really, Josefina is an energetic, sometimes exasperating, always engaging child with an abundant and creative sense of humor.

In other words, she's an absolute hoot.

Thank God for her!

Of course, when we saw these cookies we just had to buy them!

Christ is Risen, but I'm Exhausted!

"Dear Lord, may I borrow my future resurrected body, in advance (as in, like, now), just so I can keep up with everybody else for a few days?"

I love Easter Week. Divine Mercy novena, flowers, warm spring air, a fridge full of fun food, kids off school and relaxing and just being around one another. Eileen has a little time to breathe (but still plenty to do -- she'll get more breathing time in the summer, God willing).

We are going to take a family field trip on Thursday to Washington, D.C. Everyone is excited about it. I'm excited too... on the inside. But my body doesn't want to go anywhere.

I'm going on this field trip with my family. I don't care what it takes! John Paul is turning 17 in a little over a month. He will be a senior in high school in the fall. From there we know not yet where he will go. And Agnese won't be long in going her way. The family is growing, and this is beautiful. I want them to spread their wings and fly.

I also want to be available for the time we have together.

But I'm so tired. I've had some pain in the past few months, and I'm spending more time in bed during the day (although at least I have a tablet to keep me connected to the world, and even to write a bit). I also read as much as I can.

Physical books are lovely things. Tactile with pages that turn. And they are gentle to the eye. For me, it's hard to rest with an ebook. The light from the inside jacks up my brain, somehow. On the other hand, they're good on days when it's hard to hold open the pages of a physical book.

Josefina having adventures with her dolls.

Then there's Josefina, who comes bounding in to jump on the bed and visit me. I read to her, or we watch a video. Sometimes we just "talk" -- she says, "Daddy, can we talk?" So we talk about things, like her dolls and their adventures, or school things, or cooking, or questions about the body and the soul and death (she's been asking those questions since way back). Sometimes I just say, "Why don't you get a book to read yourself, and I'll read my book?" Heh, it's worth a try....

Well, if I'm going to make that trip, I need to budget my limited energy, so I shall put aside for now the particularly tiring work of writing. I also need to save up some energy in case Josefina wants to "talk" some more!


Wishing everyone a very happy Easter Week!

Josefinology

We're hanging around the table after breakfast, just her and me.

Josefina: "Jesus is powerful!"

Me: "Yes indeed."

Her: "He's like...a wizard!"

Thanks a lot, Gandalf. My little girl thinks Jesus is a wizard. At first that sounds creepy, but of course it has nothing to do with the occult. As far as the imagination is concerned, Middle Earth and Narnia pretty much rule around this house.

She's talking about a "Tolkien wizard" which is a very particular kind of entity.

All our other kids have read the books, and thanks to Peter Jackson, Gandalf is everywhere, on screen, but also on calendars and coloring books and coffee mugs and cereal boxes.

Tolkien's "wizards" play an open role in his imaginative world and its cosmic laws. Their "powers" are part of their "office" within the overall (and mysteriously providential) government of middle earth and its unfolding "history;" they belong to the ordinary structure of Tolkien's imaginary universe. And there's much more that I could say about this, but lets go back to the conversation.

So is Jesus "like" Gandalf? That's a pretty smart question, actually. Imagination and intelligence are working together.

Me: "No, its not the same, honey. The wizards in the story have some powers, but Jesus is God. Jesus can do anything, because He is God. The wizards can't create things, but Jesus is the Creator of everything."

Her: "So Jesus can't die!"

Me: [Hmmmmm....] "Well, God can't die. But God became a man, and He died for us. He died for each one of us, because He loves us; He died and He rose from the dead, so that we could live with Him forever in heaven. Remember there is only one God, but He is three Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, like when you make the sign of the cross, three Persons, one God. Jesus is God the Son, and He took our human nature to be with us. Jesus is God and man."

Yes, I really said something like that. Children are not dumb. We have to tell them who Jesus is, because they're already trying to work it out. Experience, imagination, and understanding need to be integrated in everyone's life. It starts in childhood, and the Montessori Catechesis of the Good Shepherd follows an integrated method from the beginning. We started Josefina in CGS when she was not yet 3 years old.

Not long after that, she started asking questions. Once she asked me, "How does Jesus come into you and take your soul outside of your body when you die?" Gosh. I don't remember what I said then. She was 4 years old, maybe.

Sometimes when we finish grace, Josefina keeps her head down and her hands folded. She wants to say some special prayers (and she won't tell anybody what they are). The Lord must love these prayers. Another thing about the Montessori Catechesis: the children learn to pray. They learn the beauty of silence.

But let me return to this conversation. I concluded by saying...

Me: "These are mysteries we believe. We can't understand them."

Her: "Jesus is more powerful than a lion!"

Me: *puzzled* "aaah...yes!"

And we moved on to other things. It was a few minutes before I realized <facepalm> that she was talking about Aslan!

Josefina Turns Six! Happy Birthday!

Once a child is born, it is difficult to imagine how the universe could have existed without them. A person, who once was not, appears in all of his or her radiant uniqueness. We have before us something ineradicable.

There is something about the human person that proclaims, loudly: FOREVER!

Josefina is six years old today. Each of our children has changed our lives simply by being themselves. What words can I use to describe it?

Gratitude. Amazement. Craziness!

They are the daily reminder in our lives that God exists, and that we have been invested with an awesome responsibility. We are called to love each of these persons in a way that somehow helps them to discover and experience the particular love that God has for them.

We a preparing our children to discover and respond to their vocations--to the plan that God has for each of them--and then to continue to support them with an abiding love.

I hope and pray that I will live long enough to be everything God wants me to be for these kids.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOJO! We love you!!!

Why Are We Always So Frustrated?

Everything is grace,

Everything is the direct effect of our Father's love. 

Everything is grace, because everything is God's gift....

--St. Therese of Lisieux

Everything? Really??

Okay, I can do the theology here, but when it comes to actual stuff that happens ... its very hard to see everything as a gift. Sometimes "everything" is a train wreck. Where is the "gift"?

At such times, it seems easier to understand that proverb of contemporary worldly wisdom, which might be paraphrased as: "Life stinks and then you die!"

But no. Those are always words of profound dissatisfaction. The human person knows they are wrong. If there is any "resignation" in them, its only in the attempt to make a cynical peace with the idea that the universe is one big scam.

But I can't say "I've been cheated by life" except from the expectation that life is supposed to give me something, that at the heart of life there is a promise.

Thus, people go on hoping for something, and if they say things like this its because they are trying to cope with a sense of frustration that seems to renew itself over and over again.

I usually don't go so far as to say that "life stinks..." (well, not lately anyway). But I do feel that "life is often frustrating."

How can my frustration be a gift? Why do I have to live with frustration, day after day; dull, throbbing frustration aching through the day; frustration like a prison that seems to build walls in every direction? What's the "gift" in that?

Well, frustration provokes me; it challenges my freedom, and my sense of who I am.

In the face of frustration, I can choose to give up. I can say "life stinks" and wallow in pity for my isolated self.

Or I can remember that my very self is a gift, and that this moment of frustration (with all of its bitterness, pain, and incomprehensibility) is a gift because it deepens my awareness of who I really am. It reminds me in a concrete way that I am made for something greater, something beyond my control, something I don't make or measure or manage, something that I can't find anywhere in this world.

Nevertheless, this "something" is real. It is at the root of me, it sustains me, and it carves itself into my heart in the form of a promise.

What does my five year old daughter do when she's frustrated by something?

"Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy! Help! Please help!" She asks for help. She asks Daddy to come.

What do I do if I see Josefina crying, helpless, frustrated by something because she's just too small to understand it?

I go to her and pick her up and hold her. She still cries. Sometimes she cries even more. It seems like she doesn't even notice I'm there.

But I am there, and I keep holding on to her.

Guest Blogger: A Five Year Old!

Josefina keeps trying to get me to play, so I said, "Do you want to write the blog tonight?"

And she said, "Yes" and started for the keyboard. I said, "No typing. You can tell me what to write." So Josefina spoke and I wrote down what she said. I also asked her a few questions. This is a transcription of our conversation, with a few parenthetical explanations added. She also selected these pictures. Remember, she is speaking to you, dear readers! :-)

What would you like to say to everyone, Josefina?

"I'm Josefina Janaro. Don't forget that I live in Virginia. I'll tell you about Nana and Grampa's house. We went swimming. I'll tell you about school: I love painting and clay. I love working a lot. We have a garden to pray in. Do you know that I am a little kid? I cut paper a lot."

What do you like to wear?

"I like to wear dresses, pants, and shorts. My favorite kind of dresses are long dresses cause they make me warm."

What are your favorite colors?

"Purple, pink, and yellow, green, red, and that's all."

What is your favorite thing to do?

"Painting. I like mixing colors cause they turn different things. I like to draw with colored pencils. I'll tell you what I like to draw, I like to draw persons, animals, and books [?] and pigs, cows, dogs, cats."

What do you like to read? [by this I mean "what do Josefina and Daddy read together?"]

"I like to read ...um...um... I'll get the books... [she brings over "Corderoy and Company"]

Oh there's more! What else? What do we read?

Ummm...Mr. Putter, Henry and  Mudge, Bread and Jam for Francis. [And many other books that she just can't remember right now.]

Thank you Josefina for talking to us. Any final words?

"Hello. Do you work on computers? Do you do a lot of work?"

Josefina wants to know if you are like her Daddy, i.e. Do you work on computers a lot? Daddy works on computers a lot. But she's been very patient. Daddy is going to stop working and go play with her. Goodbye!