Easter at home

We had a nice Easter weekend. The weather was beautiful and we really enjoyed having Kim here. Laura and Adam each got one small Easter basket and Laura only had received 4 M&Ms, so no major sugar rush! And she doesn't know any better yet, so she was really excited to see that candy. We've had a few egg hunts, although they were all inside because Laura didn't want to take off her dress to play outside. All in all, a great time!

We went to my cousin's house for Easter dinner and Laura had a great time on the trampoline. I never would have expected her to be this brave, but she had no hesitation. 
Love this picture, even though you can't see her face.
I would have had some great pictures of the girls jumping if I had thought to put the lens through a hole in the net. Oh well, next time!

Easter movie

fluff

We've been taking family walks around the neighborhood every night. Laura in the wagon, Adam in the wrap. And I've been keeping track of my calories and finally starting to lose weight. 

Adam sat in the high chair for lunch and dinner today. He looks so big! He was pretty content to just chew on the side of the chair. Pretty content to just chew on anything within reach. He's a drool machine. 

Eggs!

Kim spent a long weekend with us and we had a great time. She and Laura took and adventure on Friday, we watched some movies, dyed Easter eggs, grilled out on the deck, and went to our cousin's house for Easter dinner. Thanks for coming Kim! We had lots of fun! Here are some pictures of the eggs.

We colored them with crayons first. It was a family affair. I think Kim wins for the prettiest and Jim wins for the most creative. 
Laura wins for the cutest!

We used natural dyes, and I wouldn't recommend blueberries. It doesn't exactly turn out blue, more like dark gray. But the turmeric turned a nice yellow and the beets made an OK pink. I hope I remember to check this next year so I will remember what worked and didn't. We had about the same results last year, but I forgot and repeated the beets for barely acceptable results. The ones pictured are the eggs we had remaining after playing a game at our cousin's house. Everyone gets an egg. You tap the pointy end of your egg with someone else's and only one will break. Then you find someone else to tap with. The last unbroken egg wins. We played this last year too, so I guess its becoming our tradition. 

happy morning

I spent about 30 minutes laying in bed this morning listening to my happy kids make happy sounds. Laura was singing and Adam was cooing. What a nice way to wake up.

help me

ok, any moms with more than one kid, I need some advice. What to do with the older one while putting the baby down for a nap? One solution is to put the baby down awake, but I'm pretty sure I missed the boat on that one and we usually nurse until he falls asleep. After that, he's really very easy to lay down in his crib. The trouble is that Laura really wants to be around us. She tries to be quiet, but she's 3! I've tried getting her set up with TV, a book, a snack, playdough, etc. but she inevitably ends up crying for me to come back or coming up to find us while I'm nursing him.  I end up mad at her and yelling, she cries more, and he wakes up, never to sleep again. He will fall asleep in a carrier on me, but I can't do that all the time and he won't sleep for nearly as long as in his crib. The other day, Jim took Laura on an adventure and Adam slept for 4 hours in his crib, so I know he can do it and wants to do it. But what to do with Laura? Should I just relax and let him sleep when or where he gets it? Or set some serious ground rules for her while I'm putting him down? I feel like I'm constantly worried about his sleep. This is definitely our biggest source of stress during the day. Any advice would be great.

dreams

A sad commentary on the next generation...

Laura woke up with a bad dream. When Jim went in her room, she said she had dreamed that rays (i.e. stingrays) were eating her. Then she said she wanted to have her own ray to scare away the bad rays. And it should have a button on it to change it into a shark or a tiger to scare away the sharks and tigers too. Jim said "OK" and came back to bed. About an hour later, she woke up again and told Jim that the batteries in her ray were dead and would he help her change them?

Sunday musings

This says C A T if you look really closely. Actually A C T, but you get the idea.
We took out the summer stuff last night and woke up to this.
Doesn't she look OLD!!!

The "whys" are reaching a dangerous point. Not sure if I can take it much longer

It recently occurred to me that my mom doesn't live here and nobody else is going to pick that ____ up, so I had better stop being lazy and pick it up, wash it, fold it...

egg update

The momma bird laid another egg in the nest, so I guess we didn't scare her off. Or maybe it's the Easter Bunny?

just a few

Adam's found a new toy and he loves it.
He can sit pretty well now. You have to keep an eye on him to avoid the inevitable face plant, though.
Don't forget to look at who's peeking out at the bottom. And check out the Adam drool on Jim's shirt.
I went to remove the winter wreath from the porch and found that we had a little surprise! A tiny white egg. Guess we'll keep the winter wreath for a while longer. I hope we didn't scare off the momma. Laura is pretty excited to keep an eye out for the baby to hatch.