This evening, after his six o’clock feeding, young Seventy-Six and I went over the Westminster Shorter Catechism, without going into all the proof-texts (except for those pertaining to the Lord’s-Name-In-Vain commandment because I need some extra help with that one). He is only about nine-weeks old, so I thought it’d be a good idea to get through it quickly, the first time. And I did skip that silly bit in the baptism Q & A calling for infant baptism. The boy seemed to pay attention during part of the recitation, managed to turn himself over for a little tummy-time, and then snoozed in arms during the final part dealing with the Lord’s Prayer.
After his evening bath, we played peek-a-boo, practiced waving our fists like Doctor Doom in the comic books (not the effete doofus in the Fantastic Four movies). Practiced some baby-talk. He’s saying this word, “Uh’Aayy,” pretty often today. I’m not sure what it means. For almost as long as we’ve known him, the baby’s been saying “Eh” to request the rubber nipples that give milk and that give comfort. “Eh, Eh,” depending on facial expression and context may mean, “Give me the milk!” or “Pacifier, now, please.”
Maybe tomorrow, we’ll go back over that last bit in the Catechism, then start on the Lord’s Prayer in Gothic:
Atta unsar þu in himinam,
weihnai namo þein.
qimai þiudinassus þeins.
wairþai wilja þeins,
swe in himina jah ana airþai.
hlaif unsarana þana sinteinan
gif uns himma daga.
jah aflet uns þatei skulans sijaima,
swaswe jah weis afletun
þaim skulam unsaraim.
jah ni briggais uns in fraistubnjai,
ak lausei uns af þamma ubilin;
unte þeine ist þiudangardi
jah mahts jah wulþus in aiwins.
amen.
This afternoon I got some sewing done on the red kayak’s back deck. Needed less work than I thought. Figured out why the keelstrips have wear toward the bow – there’s a strap on the inside hull-bottom that snaps either side to the keelson stringers holding the hull against the frame. The strap gets between the stringers and the hull, making slight bulges that scrape against rocks, concrete, grass when dragged or paddled in too shallow water. Maybe tomorrow with the PVC and the soldering iron.
Christov_Tenn 
We’ve been teaching our girls the catechism off and on. Plus Lord’s Prayer and Apostle’s Creed. Tonight the 5 year old and I prayed. My favorite lines:
“Halloweded be thy name. Thy kingdom come. I will be done.”
“Forgive us our debtors, as we forgive us our debts. And leave us not into temptation…”
Hey, just read your latest post and your comment below it. Glad you’re feeling better. I’ve been in a deep funk about my own work, lately (kayaking helps a lot).
I’ve been trying to read to our son pretty regularly, and, at this age it seems they don’t care what is read to them, so I’m reading chapters from Proverbs, Ezekiel, the Gospels, Acts, and yesterday Caution-Lady tidied up a drawer in the baby’s room, and deposited the Shorter Catechism on my side of our dresser. Seemed like something the little guy should begin thinking about. Anyway, I’m hoping we’ll get in the habit of reading through Scripture and other faith documents together. And Gothic, well, you’ve gotta love the sound and word-order of the now mostly dead old Germanic languages.
Why are your kids making those funny faces on the masthead of your blog? Are they playing sword-fighters?
C.
That was halloween two years ago. One was a Ninja and the other was a Ninja princess. I was trying to get pictures of them in their costumes. They just like to ham it up. Typical!
I highly recommend the Jesus Storybook Bible, FYI. My kids LOVE it! http://sallylloyd-jones.com/storybibles.html My kids like me to act it out while the older one reads.