Easter rolls

I found a new roll recipe that I wanted to make for our Easter lunch. It was kind of last-minute, so I had to do things while the kids were awake that I normally wouldn't do. I was able to find them some cheap entertainment, thankfully!

More dress-up

Two thrilled kids on Easter Sunday

Believe it or not, those are my ankle socks!

The bathing suit pose

I think she actually put the hat on correctly by herself!

A Big Move

Taking down the crib

Sweet boy!

About 2 weeks ago, Joshua slept in his crib for the very last time! I think I was the biggest advocate for this transition, partly because my twiggy arms and I had a hard time getting my big boy into his bed! The kids and I left town for a couple of days, and Daddy stayed to work faithfully and to build a Big Boy Bed! We have been talking about this for awhile with Joshua, and he has always been receptive to the idea. I don't know that he would ever have tried to climb out of his crib, which I think is a common reason some kids say good-bye to their cribs. Still, cribs are for babies, and he is certainly not a baby any more!

The transition has been pretty smooth. Joshua did fall out of bed one night, but I think he may have been partially awake to make it happen. It was scary for him, but it hasn't happened again. Being in a bed has been fun for Joshua, but it has inspired him to push boundaries like never before! We have replaced one set of mini-blinds, and we realized that a book that Joshua decided he needed during nap time is broken. Enter the next stage of discipline and growth. This concept of sitting in a room for hours at a time by himself and having to resist this very attainable temptations has proven difficult to grasp. To his credit, this morning we all cheered because Joshua didn't touch curtains, mini-blinds, or get out of his bed last night! I hope he remembers the cheering and the fact that it is so much more fun than the alternative!

Beach Weekend!

Ellie's participation in feeding the seagulls...obviously!

An evening stroll on the beach. Aaahhhh. Life is good!

Perhaps Joshua's favorite new thing... feeding seagulls!

First beach experience for Ellie!

Joshua also loved playing in the "dirt"

Last weekend, we had a wonderful family vacation. It was our first vacation since before Joshua was born! The week leading up to our vacation was pretty rough. Both kids were congested due to allergies, and they took turns waking up throughout the night. We were waking up more than we used to with a newborn around the house! Thankfully, everyone slept really well during our getaway, and it was so refreshing and fun!

And on to the knees...

Most of you know that Ellie has become a very talented "scooter." She has been scooting for months, and it works quite well for her! I have been happy for her to be mobile, but I still wanted her to crawl a little before she took off on her little feet. I wasn't sure it was going to happen. Well, last week, Ellie and I were baking and decorating Easter cookies with our close friends Amie and Landry. (Well, Ellie decorated the floor with the contents of the diaper bag while Landry took her morning nap, but you get the idea...) I went to check on Ellie who had scooted out of sight. She was giving me this funny look. Kind of like she had done something wrong, and kind of like she was trying to tell me something. I kept trying to figure it out, and I realized she was doing this funny thing with her hands. Ellie was picking them up alternately, reaching up pretty high, and than plopping them back on the floor. Can you see where this is going? Yep, my girl was crawling! The funniest part of the story is that it took me several moments of watching her to recgnize that she was doing it! Why on earth is she doing that with her hands? How strange! You are a funny one, Elle-girl! Oh! Oh my goodness... did she just crawl?! She was crawling! And thus commenced the celebration that would probably wake Landry... (sorry again, Amie!) Since then, Ellie still prefers to scoot, but she will crawl on command, and she will crawl to get over things since she can't scoot over a step! This also came in handy on the beach this past weekend. I think Ellie realized that crawling was a little more comfortable than filling her diaper with sand... but she still scooted a lot out there!

A few of their favorite things: Ellie

These days, Ellie especially loves her independence! She loves to:

• play with clothes. Sometimes she "wears" them, and other times she shakes them intensely.
  
• dance. Ellie waves her arms and bounces up and down when she is enjoying a song.
  
• play on the bed. She likes to let herself fall back or roll around on the soft blankets. Recently, she realized the carpet in our room has a similar appeal.
• play "water bottles and the ice chest." What, you don't know that game?
  
• "tickle" with Daddy. He tickles her, she laughs, and she asks him to do it again... and again!
• brush her teeth. Simply seeing the bathroom causes her to ask to do this wonderfully thrilling activity!
• read books
• see animals
  

A few of their favorite things: Joshua

It is so sweet to watch our kids develop and see their personalities more each day. I love seeing what interests them. It is also nice to have more of a glimpse into the way Joshua's mind works as he learns to express himself more. For example, the other evening we were sitting down to a lovely pizza dinner. It was fresh, hot pizza, so David warned Joshua to wait a minute before digging in. Joshua politely asked David to "pour a little bit of milk on it." He was very serious about this request, so I had to hide my amusement. Joshua was thinking of oatmeal, which is one of his favorite breakfast foods. We make it and then pour a little splash of milk on it to help it cool faster. (We did not fulfill his request!)

On to some favorite things. These days, Joshua is happiest doing the following:

• playing with plastic animals
• practicing "tessiss" ball (it is actually sort of baseball, but we lost the plastic baseballs for awhile, so we used tennis balls instead)
• reading books or having books read to him (Joshua has a few books memorized, and he likes to read to Ellie... but she doesn't usually behave for him. She either tries to take the book or wanders off to play with something else.)
  
• putting Mommy to sleep
  
• drinking milk out of an open cup
• going somewhere... anywhere... He simply likes to "go somewhere"
• building trains out of anything from toy train cars to regular cars to animals to people... you get the idea!