Aurora Borealis

Okay, now that I’ve been able to post about our anniversary and Thanksgiving, I think we’re caught up.  And we’re caught up on our various errands and tasks today.  Several of the normal, pesky ones.  And we turned Agent Murphy’s car seat around so now he rides forward-facing, like a big boy.  Then we made a trip to an independent toy store we haven’t visited before.  It was pretty neat.  We were successful in procuring gifts for Foster Mulan - for Christmas, and for her February birthday so we don’t have to make a second excursion for that.

In the last few days, Agent Murphy has made great strides with his cup.  We’ve been offering him only the cup at second breakfast and tea time for a week or so.  He started to drink from it a little bit, with a noticable increase in the last few days; but he would only drink from it if one of us held it.  In the last couple of days he’s finally started drinking from it some while holding it himself.  So I think this week we’ll switch from bottle to cup at lunch time.

Our second anniversary didn’t pass without notice, we just haven’t had time to write about it.

Last Saturday we planned a big night out, since our first anniversary was necessarily understated, what with an 8-day-old at home.  This time Miss L. came over to stay with Agent Murphy and we went to one of our favorite Italian restaurants, Nino’s.  Had a lovely multi-course meal, and then stopped by a local coffee shop to top off the evening.

On Tuesday, our actual anniversary, we exchanged our gifts.  No surprise for the Tldz household — all were food preparation related.  Grill pan and griddle pan for me, yogurt maker for Mr. Tldz to replace the one that broke a while ago that he has been sorely missing.  We will get good use out of all of them.  Then we took the opportunity to watch our wedding video.  That Mass really was special.  Almost doesn’t seem like it can be two years already.

We made our first turkey, and it was a success.  Quite tasty, really.  My carving leaves something to be desired, though.  I didn’t really have any success getting the legs off as all the carving tips seemed to suggest they were “supposed” to come off.  Has me thinking we might just do a turkey breast for Christmas.  Except Mr. Tldz thinks he may prefer the dark meat, so I don’t know.

Agent Murphy had a little bit of all of the Thanksgiving food - just like a big boy!  We gave him just a bite of the cranberry chutney, thinking it’d be fun just to see his face.  But he really liked it and ate a bunch of it.  He really liked our yummy but very garlic mashed potatoes, too.

It was a good day and we’ve been enjoying our leftovers.

Agent Murphy saw his doctor today.  Once again, he went apoplectic at the crinkle paper.  Then getting 5 needle sticks didn’t help.  Poor guy sounded like he was being tortured.  Even getting him dressed to come home was an adventure.  But our boy is healthy.  His iron count is good, his growth is proportionate all around.  (And yesterday he saw the Emory orthopaedic folks for a surgery follow-up.  They say his toe is healing just fine and they don’t need to see him anymore.)  He’s 24 pounds even (75th percentile) and 32.5″ (still off the charts, above 97th percentile).  It’s hard to believe he’s almost a whole ruler length longer than he was when he was born!

Besides working on his walking case, we really have to step up efforts on his sippy cup case.  His doc wants him off bottles completely by 15 months, and at the moment he has no interest in drinking from anything but a bottle.  So we shall see.

Agent Murphy has officially been promoted from the BIB (Baby Investigative Bureau) to the TBI (Toddler Bureau of Investigations).  We’re so proud of our big boy!  We’ll miss having SuperBaby visit, though; but we hear SuperToddler is fun, too.  We expect the walking case will be one of the first big ones the Agent cracks for the TBI.

He’s really enjoying his new shape-sorter mail box that used to be Mommy’s.  One of its wooden blocks is the same color and basic shape as the letter from his name puzzle bench that is currently missing.  He very excitedly carried the block from the living room to the bench in his room.  What a smart boy!  I really wish we’d find that letter!

But don’t tell Mommy and Daddy, or I’m afraid they won’t let me have it very much.  Cake is sweet.  I like sweet!  They said I was “wired” from eating my cake, but I don’t know what that means.  Mommy made me a fudge cake with buttercream frosting for my birthday party yesterday.  There were lots of people here, and they sang a song at me but it wasn’t one of my regular songs.  I don’t know why they did that.  But I got cake.  And Wacky Willy.  And a bunch of other stuff Mommy and Daddy still have to help me open.  I think birthdays are good.  Mommy and Daddy said we’re going to get my picture taken today.  But Mommy takes my picture all the time without going anywhere.  I don’t know what they’re talking about.  But I’m supposed to be napping now.

Agent Murphy was duly feted yesterday for his first birthday by a wonderful group of our friends, including four boys ages 4, 3, 2, and 1.  The Agent was initially perplexed by his piece of birthday cake.  I’m not sure how my boy became a dainty eater, but he carefully picked at persistently until he’d eaten most of the piece.  His Uncle R. says it’s because the Agent didn’t want to let on to us how much he likes cake.  The sugar high after everyone left was a sight to behold.

We have a pile of presents to make our way through opening over the course of the day today.  We got started on one last night because A. didn’t believe the party could be over if Agent Murphy didn’t open any presents.  He’d helped his mommy pick out a really good one for the Agent - Wacky Willy, a vibrating hectapus with shapes of various colors to play with.  He’s a big hit!

We learned the good news that A. (the other one) and E.’s daddy got a new job - but they have to move away.  It’s sad to see Agent Murphy’s only friend his own age have to leave, but we’ll get in another play date or two before they go.

Mommy took away some of my hair!  She said it was getting long in the back (because I’ve had hair back there since I was born and didn’t lose it even thought I went bald in the front) so she trimmed it.  I didn’t know she could just take away some of my hair like that.  Won’t it get lonely?  But Mommy says I’ll look even more handsome for my birthday party.  I guess that’s good.  E.’s birthday party was at a pool.  We don’t have a pool.  I wonder how we’re having a birthday party?

… as shared with our pastor.

November 6, 2008

Dear Father Schillinger:

It is with sadness but resolve that we write this letter to inform you that we are modifying our 2009 offertory pledge. We turned in our completed pledge form as Mass last weekend indicating an annual pledge of $____, but in light of the recent election we will be reducing our 2009 offertory contribution from $___ per month to $___ per month. [We halved our pledge.]

With a radical pro-abortion, even pro-infanticide (he voted 3 times to deny any care to infants in Illinois born alive after abortion) president and pro-abortion liberals in control of Congress, we know that what rather meager resources we have must be directed to pro-life causes. As pro-abortion forces now in control work to expand the “right” to abortion and force taxpayers to fund abortion, organizations who speak clearly and forcefully for the unborn must be strengthened. Their work - Birthright, PATH, Priests for Life, and similar organizations - must be supported as much as possible.

Unfortunately, as a parish, IHM does not make the list of organizations that speak clearly and forcefully for the unborn. With [Mrs. Tldz] heading up the pro-life committee for several years, we wish that were not so; but that involvement has proven to us that it is. Our committee received criticism for our prayer vigil sign which said “say NO to abortion mill on Cliff Valley Way,” being told that the term “abortion mill” lacked “Christian charity.” But what about the Christian charity lacking in intentionally and brutally ending the life of a completely defenseless unborn baby? In your years as IHM’s pastor, we have heard you publicly mention the word “abortion” perhaps three or four times - a paltry number considering that abortions are routinely being performed within walking distance of the parish. When we made a submission for the prayers of the faithful around the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, we were questioned by a member of the parish staff about the use of the word “abortion” several times in the prayer. We had to explain that given the presence of a facility performing abortions so close to our parish, and the fact that Our Lady of Guadalupe is patroness of the unborn, it was an appropriate prayer. It seems that at IHM, those of us who defend the right to life of the unborn are called upon to explain ourselves more than those who remain silent, or even support, this slaughter. We are often told that abortion is not the only life issue, which is true; but those who say we should address other life issues really seem to believe that we should talk about other issues and NOT talk about abortion. This is not what we know our Church to teach.

Archbishop Gregory, in his pre-election column, wrote:

“According to the principles of Faithful Citizenship, Catholics must support the just care of the poor, the rights of workers, the dignity of people who immigrate to a new nation, the conservation of the environment; we must assess the very complex economic issues, seek to provide affordable health care for people who do not enjoy that security, and foster the more humane treatment of those who are imprisoned, to list only some of the issues that we now face. However, before and prior to all of those vitally important concerns, Faithful Citizenship places the issue of Life itself. All of those other matters are of immense and lasting significance, yet they remain of no consequence for those who are not granted the first right—the right to be born. For this reason, I want to remind all of you, my brothers and sisters, to remember those famous Jeffersonian words borrowed from Locke—and especially remember the order that he gave them.”

So we were taken aback to hear you say on the Sunday before election day that a Catholic could “in good conscience” vote for Barack Obama - one of the most pro-abortion politicians ever elected. If all those other “vitally important concerns” are of “no consequence” to those not allowed to be born, how can we “in good conscience” vote for someone who would deny the right to be born to so many because we may like his stance on other issues?

While we would have been disappointed by your words no matter the outcome of the election, if pro-abortion forces had not won, we would have maintained our pledged support of IHM. Now, however, the need for pro-life work and post-abortion work will sadly be so great that we must redirect some of our limited resources to it. Note, though, that we are not eliminating our support of the parish. It is where we worship and we know we have an obligation to support its operation; and we happily fulfill that obligation.

Please know that IHM, you, your brother, and your family remain in our prayers.

Sincerely,

Mr. and Mrs. Tldz

Now I just hope the action plan we parish pro-life leaders are awaiting to formally address President-elect Obama’s stated intention to promote abortion among his earliest actions will be coming quickly - and will be a strong one.  I fear, though, that our bishops often fail to recognize the necessary time frames/time constraints to address legislation, etc. effectively.  Lord, give them courage.

It saddens me that we have elected a man who is pro-infanticide as the next president of this great country.  Thinking of the millions more babies who will continue to be slaughtered by abortion as a result makes me cry.  The thought that my tax dollars will likely be taken to fund these murders sickens me.  And that’s before we get to issues of our national security, taxation, etc.  (On that more mundane note, it looks like we’ll be postponing any move for a while until we see how much of our income the liberal Democrats deign to let us keep so we know whether we can afford a different house.)

So we’ll be reevaluating where our charitable dollars go so we do as much as we can to build a Culture of Life in this onslaught of the Culture of Death.  And we’ll be praying for our country and our president-elect.  Maybe if enough of us pray, his heart can be changed.

I know, we are called to be faithful, not successful.  But some success every now and again would be an encouragement.