Easter Activities

Painting Easter Eggs - We didn't do much (because I was tired, not Liz) but it was fun. Lizzie insisted on leaving her eggs out on the table Easter Eve so the Bunny could see them (kind of mixing holidays there).Egg Hunt #1 (the ward) - Lizzie collected only pink and purple eggs and insisted on wearing last year's Easter dress (very similar to the one she picked this year) to the event.

Easter baskets - I'm all about practical gifts so the "baskets" are actually bins for Elizabeth's bookshelf. Laina got a toy, a swimsuit and hat, chocolate bunnies (really for Mommy & Daddy to eat), and baby fruit snacks (those melt-in-your mouth things). Naturally Liz got a bit more.

Alaina licked some of her loot, but mostly she was excited about playing with just one egg (more so than the toy we got her).

Egg Hunt #2 (at home) - Sometimes I miss those easy early days when I filled eggs with candy Drew and I liked then put my latest consignment sale finds in a basket (mostly for the photo), but Lizzie's innocent enthusiasm is certainly fun. I hid eggs around the apartment so she could do an egg hunt when she first woke up. I thought it would enable Drew and I to sleep in (after all they were filled with goldfish and teddy grahms--an okay breakfast), but Liz ran into our room after she found each egg to excitedly announce it's contents and location. No sleep.

The dresses - I wanted the girls in matching or at least coordinating outfits, but there aren't a lot of options when you need size 5 and 6 to 12 months. . . . Plus, Liz refused to wear certain colors, so no matchy matchy, but still super cute. I especially loved the hats which each girl dutifully wore through much of the day.

Easter dinner - We had Easter dinner and an egg hunt at our friends, the Lines', house. The food was wonderful (and plentiful). Quite a spread.

Egg Hunt #3 (after dinner) - Liz was very focused on finding eggs--too focused to pose for pictures. I only got blurry pictures of her running away from me, but I'm excited to eat the candy. Liz is crazy picky and usually passes the bulk of her candy to Drew and I.

Other fun - chasing bubbles and playing in the backyard, decorating sugar cookies, and coloring decorative bags.

What We Did Today:

PRACTICED SITTING:

PRACTICED BIKE RIDING:

SENT A PACKAGE TO NANA:

Hallelujah!

I got a microwave off Freecycle today! Love it!

Liz Bit

We just told Liz to go prep her bath (push the plug down and turn on the water).

Shortly after she went to the bathroom, we heard her singing and dancing around.

"Liz! Start the bath!"

Finally she turned on the water and ran out.

Andrew asked, "Liz did you put the plug in?"

"Oops!" She ran back in, turned off the water, and returned singing, "I put the plug in."

Andrew smiled and said, "Liz, did you forget to turn the water back on."

Oops. Back again.

I love 5-year-olds.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Other things I love about Liz right now:

She still mispronounces words (or just plain uses the wrong ones) like fridge-a-later (refrigerator), jenny-jolli-G (geneology), dangers (strangers), stilts (crutches), mines (mine).

She struggles with th = mudder (mother), fodder (father), teet (teeth), someping (something), healfy (healthy), noffing (nothing) fourf (forth), din (then), dem (them).

She struggles with v = balcano (volcano), laba (lava), boice (voice).

Is sweetly/painfully honest = to me " Mommy you are boring," to the soldier in the Costco bathroom "I like her hair. I like her eyes. She has pretty eyes," about a babysitter "I was going to come out of my room and ask for water, but I saw that she had crazy hair."

Surprises me with her questions = "What are the things the police do before they have to shoot someone?" "What are all the things that are against the law?" "Do you know the names of any girls that shoot guns?"

She is a daddy's girl = Whenever Laina has a dirty diaper she announces that it's for mommy, not daddy and she always plays guessing games so that Andrew wins not me (even when he is not with us).

She is way into animals (lately cheetahs) = she has always preferred to play with toy animals instead of dolls and whenever I tell her a made up story about a little girl she interrupts me and says "Um, mommy, can she be a cheetah?" Which is how I ended up telling her a story today about the rainbow birthday party of Clover, a green-colored Cheetah whose spots were shaped liked shamrocks.

Monday fun

Today Liz went to her friend Taryn's birthday party at Chuck E Cheese. Loads of fun. The girls are about 18 months apart. They get super excited to see each other, but inevitably they fight like sisters. Afterwards we went to Taryn's house for a visit. I had to get a couple shots of the little sisters (especially since they just happened to both be dressed in lavender). Meg and Alaina are only a few months apart and we are looking forward to many future playdates.

For their first official playdate the babies looked at each other, smiled a little, and Lainey tried to suck on Meg's hair bow.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In other news: Andrew is trucking along. Still resting and elevating that leg, still in some pain (but the pills help).

Forwards

My brother, Dave, sends me forwards. Yesterday's was a list of random thoughts. These were my favorites from the list:

Gardening Rule: When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it. If it comes out of the ground easily, it is a valuable plant. (My Mom can testify to this--at least when her kids and husband were "helping" her.)

The easiest way to find something lost around the house is to buy a replacement. (This is why I have so many tweezers and nail clippers.)

Health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.

Have you noticed since everyone has a camcorder these days no one talks about seeing UFOs like they used to?

How is it one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?

Who was the first person to look at a cow and say, 'I think I'll squeeze these dangly things here, and drink whatever comes out?'

Who was the first person to say, 'See that chicken there? I'm going to eat the next thing that comes out of its butt.'

Convalescence

So, day two of Drew's convalescence went well. He and Liz were kind enough to let me sleep in. Liz carried cereal and milk to Andrew and he turned on a movie for her while Lainey and I cuddled in bed. The other highlight was when we slipped off to Lea's house for a fondue dinner. Delicious.

I originally planned to go to my parent's house tomorrow but have decided to stay to help out Drew--mainly to drive him around since his right foot is out of order. Drew seems to think he can hobble two blocks to the bus stop to get to work each morning. I'm sure he can, but it seems pretty unnecessary when I can just as easily drive him (like I do most days anyway).

I broke the news to Liz yesterday. She was pretty upset. Not only did she have to leave the Cherry Blossom parade early (in order to pick up Drew), but I cancelled her trip to Nana's house. She cried most of the way to the hospital. And then of course she was slightly disturbed by Andrew's groggy state. After running to him excitedly she sidled up to me and said with concern, "Daddy's not talking good."

So, now we are here for spring break instead of South Carolina and we have already done some fun things like another walk around the Tidal Basin and a day at the Baltimore Aquarium.

I originally planned to get a year pass to the Aquarium, but by the end of it the day, I had changed my mind (actually it only took about an hour). It was fun, but exhausting (I had to carry Alaina b/c no strollers allowed) so I don't think I'll go back for a couple years.

One of the highlights: Liz got to be part of the Dophin show (waved a flag on the side of the stage at the end). I thought she wouldn't dare participate, but she happily volunteered. The only problem was that we had to sit in the "splash zone" and the "splashes" were HUGE. We were drenched. Twice.

I asked Liz if I could take her picture and this is how she posed. Hands clasped, slight smile with no teeth showing. It's one of her standard poses.