A sneak peek of what's to come

"One of the things I love about you, Mom, is you're special quality to love."

"You're the most beautiful woman in the world."

Yes, my baby says those flattering, melt-your-heart words. He's good that way. You know- smothering the female gender with compliments. I think he learned early on that sweet talk gets positive responses. Plus, he has an outgoing and lovable personality. Together those qualities make for quite the ladies man, I'm afraid. Just look at this:

Nicholas struck a pose without any prompt from me. Partly because he loves his new suit, but mostly because he's my future movie star. And Saturday, my baby is growing up one more way: he's receiving his First Holy Communion.

I have to tell you that this year has been... hmmm... entertaining? Because with first communion comes first confession, and Nicholas tackled that one in his cute, precious way (which was to be first in line and tell only the things he's done three times). He barreled out the door like a sly fox, smiling and strutting with a gleam in his eyes. I'm sure he gave the priest a high-five.

The culminating activity happens Saturday. My youngest will dress the part with pride, eat the bread expressively and drink from the cup with joy. He also gets to participate in a reading on the altar. I couldn't have asked for a better Mother's Day present than witnessing this spectacular event.

Stay tuned. More to come...