kit

We had Kit all to ourselves for five days. It was fabulous.

We didn't make it up to the mountains to search for spring flowers. We skipped ahead to summer and had a water fight and lots of lemonade.

easy to please

This is an easy way to make fruit salad even more exciting than it already is for a four year-old: serve it in a fruit "cup" by using the empty halves of an orange. Voila! Instant happiness.

zoning out while watching "Curious George"

there's a lot of soft kissable skin around here. If anyone's feeling an urge to squeeze a kiddo, just pop by sometime.

(i was just going to post one of these, but after seeing how L.'s expression was captured in this series, I couldn't resist.)

pure sweetness

In addition to the word "no," BR has a few other great loves.


Ba-ket-boh, of course. He has ba-ket-boh radar, apparently. He looked through all the books in the house and found every picture of one and will go around showing everyone who will pay attention. "Mommy, 'ook! A ba-ket-boh!" If you can't see it right away, he will point helpfully: "right hee-oh!"
I tried to recycle the newspaper a few days ago and he chased after me, "Mama! No! Ba-ket-bo!" Sure enough, there was a picture of some basketball players and their "Ba-ket-bo HOOP!"


And of course, between all the bickering, he remembers how much he loves his big sisters. Especially L. He just follows her around and will do pretty much anything she says. I was getting ready for a jog the other day and his bottom lip started to quiver. I said, "L., Riceball is sad that I'm going on a run, could you play with him and try to make him happy, please?"
"Ok. I guess I could draw him some pictures or something. Come on, BR, let's go!"
He immediately stopped crying and trotted after her. I found pictures later of...you guessed it! Ba-ket-bohs!

spring?

About ten days ago we went for a little "hike" (=very slow walk) in the mountains. I thought there would be wildflowers in bloom. We saw three, exactly three.


But the kids didn't mind, because we found a stream to get soaked in and also this "Eeyore house," as L. called it:

We'll try again to find spring this week. Kit will come along since she is visiting for five days. (woohoo!)

thinking of you, Grandpa

see our colorful dinner? don't you wish you could have enjoyed it with us?
see L.'s face? doesn't she wish she didn't have to eat this?

enjoying the tea set from Gramom

hey, it's finally legit for A. to wear this shirt! (hopefully...fingers crossed...)

enjoying the 4ft doll from Bill...

Our neighbor brought this by the other day for the kids. You can't really tell in this picture, but this monstrosity is bigger than L.

Now I'm rivaling JenF. Well, maybe that's an exaggeration, a 4ft-tall Easter bunny is pretty hard to beat...

warning: this one is about poo

Rejoice with us, for A. has finally gone poo on the potty.
At age 3 years and 2 months of age, A. was still making no progress toward becoming potty-trained (for #2). She was just terrified of the pot and I had run out of ideas. Finally, enough was enough and I decided it was better to give her fair warning that the night-time diapers were going away, forever. So we had a dramatic 10-day build-up and finally it was time.
Today marks Day 6 of poo-training and there had been zero progress (but a plenty of crying and wailing during which I wondered if my tactics qualified as torture--you would have thought so from her reaction). And then this evening: absolute victory! We were all ecstatic and her cheerleading crew (L & BR) were thrilled that we would get the promised ice-cream cones to celebrate this victory with proper fanfare. I also decided to reward her with a sticker. How about the letter "A", for her name?
L.: "And a P for poo!"

when I grow up...

What do you want to be when you grow up, L?
A cowgirl.

How about you, A.?
A unicorn-rider.

BR?
U-corn!

the naughty corner...

...for the boy who loves to yell/say/scream "no!"

correction: he says, "no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no NO NNNOOOO!!"

Ah, the twos.

family charades

ok, Gramom, this one is for you. Can you guess who they are? The first one is easy-peasy.

1.

2:

3:

4:

Ok, the funniest thing about this is that we were playing animal charades and Mommy was getting really really bored, and tired of coming up with new animals. So I just started whispering relatives' names into their ears and they came up with their own interpretation.

That last one is my favorite.

Although I must say that BR trying to stuff that doll into his shirt is pretty darn good.

a few days after said snowstorm...

...a sunny day at the zoo! (I got a sunburn.)

april snowstorm

i don't know the official numbers, but it looked like 6 to 8 inches to me. They had to close 40 miles of highway near the city because they got 3ft. crazy, huh?

ok, so it's a little late for this...

I meant to post this back around Easter. These are fabric bunnies made by my neighbor, Esther. She showed up at the door with them on Easter and her husband explained that she had "put them together" herself. Silly me, I thought he meant that she had put the "grass" and eggs in them. My mom and I spent the next few days trying to figure out if she had indeed sewn them herself, but we thought they were just too perfectly made for that to be possible, even though there are no tags. Turns out, we were wrong! She told me modestly that it's a hobby of hers. My mom and I are totally impressed.

The kids? Well, they enjoyed the candy.

2, 3, 4

(their ages for the next couple of months.)

while Mom and Dad were away...

i found photos on my computer that document what happened while we were out of town so I know what went down.

apparently, the kids got locked up in 'jail',

stuffed into small spaces,

wounded,

and tormented:

yup, it looked pretty torturous. But wait, I also found these...

and these...

the rest of it must have happened between all the outings to the park, the zoo, playdates the children's museum, Chuck E. Cheese and playland.
I hope they know how lucky they are!

Sure looks like this one does.

Happy Easter!

the girls have been looking forward to today for a long time. not only the Resurrection, but also the dresses, shoes, and---who are we kidding, it's all about the hats.

---------------

it rained so we had to do our egg hunt inside. it was still plenty of fun since it involved climbing, crawling under and over things, and the requisite freezes to humor mama and her camera (L. was stellar, as you can see).

and last but not least: look who was here! Gramom is visiting from the UK for almost a week. We had Easter dinner with her, and Kay and Bave and their baby, though in this photo he/she is hiding behind that wine Kay's not allowed to drink. The new cousin will arrive this summer, sometime in mid-August. We cannot wait to smother him or her with lots of drooly kisses and fashion tips.

come and see us again soon

Grammie & Papa stayed with the kids for 6 days while Mommy & Daddy went to Montreal for a romantic getaway.
They left today and about 30 minutes after saying goodbye...

L.: "But I miss them already!"

family

the girls idolize and adore Mommy's cousin A. She is 8 years old and SO fun and cool. She loves unicorns and mermaids, too. Wait, it's the other way around: L. loves unicorns and mermaids because A. does!

BR loves A., and her mommy, who he very appropriately calls "Aunt Sassy."

I think that's going to stick, so you better get used to it, Stacy.

joke

L.: "Hey, Mommy, I made up a joke! What color is a burp? Burple!"