Pickles

It's so interesting to hear Lizzie repeat (sorta) the things we try to teach to her. On the way home from school today she asked me what food I don't like. Pickles. She responded that pickles are "growing" food (I disagree--yuck) and that I need to eat them. Lizzie warned me that if I don't eat them I won't grow "old enough to see Jacob again." I'm assuming she came to this conclusion because I have told her that some day I will grow old and die, and also that she won't grow if she doesn't eat "growing" foods. So, maybe she thinks that I won't grow old enough to die if I don't eat "growing" foods. I don't know. Lizzie offered me a special surprise from her room if I ate a pickle. I told her I would give her one too, but she said "I don't need a surprise. I have lots of toys in my room. My toys are my surprises."

Hi Maeve!

Lizzie wanted to send a little message out to her friend in South Africa. . . .

Kite Festival & a little bit of the famed blossoms

To humor me, Andrew and Liz and I went downtown to see the kite festival. It was pretty draining. Lizzie threw a huge fit, then mercifully fell asleep on the metro. Getting out at the Smithsonian stop felt impossible. It took nearly half an hour to get from the subway platform to the street level due to the crowd. The result: Andrew is even less of a festival fan than he was before. (The above picture was taken at the Tidal Basin).

I thought it was nice to see the kites and cherry blossoms even with all the obstacles. I tried to get some shots of Drew and Lizzie before the camera battery died, but Elizabeth was NOT in the mood after just waking up. Andrew was able to cheer her up with some tickles (hence the pictures above and below). Oh well. Better luck next weekend. We have to go back since we were unable to do our annual trek around the basin (something else Drew could do without).

Peek-a-boo at the Cherry Blossoms

First blog film

I'm still trying to figure this blog stuff out so bear with me. This is one of the few videos from my digital camera that I can use. The others are either too long (nine minute interview with Liz about monsters and whatnot) or too short (often because I meant to take a picture not a video). Even more embarrassing, more than half of the videos I have were filmed vertically not horizontally--proof that I'm a huge goof. I just get in picture taking mode and forget to turn the camera. I thought I had only done it a few times, but if most of them are like that so I guess I have other issues.

Lizzie's issues

Lizzie cracks me up. Last night on the way home from a friends house she started freaking out because she noticed hair on her legs. She said, "Mommy! Mommy! My legs are all hairy!" and started to cry. Apparently Elizabeth only wants hair on her head. The whole thing reminded me of when she was a toddler and I found her crying in front of the bathroom mirror, trying to pull off her nipples because she didn't "want them anymore." Later on she became upset when she noticed her eyes were green not blue like we thought they'd be. Again, she was in the bathroom, yelling "Mommy! Mommy!" I thought she had hurt herself so I ran to her only to hear a hysterical: "My eyes are turning green!" She cried for days. She wanted "blue eyes like Daddy."

Easter 2008

This year Easter has pretty much been one continuous party for Lizzie. She enjoyed Easter egg hunts with her Monday playgroup, primary, and friends as well as a pony-filled Easter basket. Today we also went to the White House Easter Egg roll. I camped out overnight with my friend, Ryann, to get tickets. We arrived a little after 7 p.m. last Friday and weren't even on the Ellipse. After we set up our tent, we went on a walk and ran across Lizzie's preschool teacher, Miss Janice, near the front of the line (she got in line 8 a.m. Friday morning). She graciously invited us to join her and her friends. When the park service handed out tickets the following morning I was #108. The events at the White House were really fun event. We enjoyed complimentary breakfast, costumed cartoons characters, egg dying, egg hunt, magicians, and a painting station. Lizzie was excited about the egg roll, but when it was her turn she dissolved into tears. According to her, the best part was dying Easter eggs. She can't wait to do more tonight.

Ryann and I waiting for tickets at campsite #1.

Easter afternoon in her special dress.

Easter Egg Roll at the White House.

As it warmed up we had to keep removing layers.

This was part of the "Hippity Hop Bunny Trail" obstacle course.

Dying an Easter egg was Lizzie's "favorite" part of the day.