Elmo's Coloring Book

As a final hurrah for Erin & Jeff's Birthday celebrations we went to Sesame Street Live. We kept it all a secret and surprised them both yesterday. Erin had a small idea of what to expect, but Jeffrey was clueless. When we got there, Erin picked out a spinny light-up toy for them both. We had floor seats - not seats on a floor but on the floor level. They were perfectly center with the stage about 30 yards back. Erin first though we were going to see a movie there and kept insisting that we get her popcorn. Luckily they were selling popcorn, but we convinced her to wait until the intermission. Once the show got started she'd pretty much forgotten about the popcorn. When Elmo came out on stage, both kids screamed "ELMO!!!!!". Erin pointed and waved. Jeffrey was mesmerized the first 20 minutes or so.

The show was entertaining with lots of music and crowd participation. The rows were far enough apart that the kids could dance in the aisles. Jeffrey eventually wanted to get down and dance. Erin pointed out all her favorite characters and got really excited any time some of them came down into the audience. At one point one of them came far enough up the aisle that Erin and Jeff could go over and say hello. I thought Jeffrey might be a little afraid but he wasn't at all. Actually I had to hold him back from running down the aisle after her. Erin spent the rest of the show waving at all the characters trying to get their attention so she could say hello (Jeff and Rob...think the last few says at Disney World all over again).

I'm so glad they had fun and it was a great way to end our week of birthday celebrations.

A Super Party at the Park

We held a birthday gathering at Erin's favorite park on Saturday. We invited some special friends to join us, hang out at the park and eat some cookie cake. All week it looked as if it was going to rain on Saturday. The forecast showed sunny days for every day except Saturday. Erin had her heart set on playing at the park though. So we woke up Saturday to overcast skies but warm weather and decided to risk it. We lucked out and the rain held off until late afternoon.

Everyone had a super time playing at the park. The playground wasn't too crowded and we could just let them run around. Erin thought that having her friends there to play at the park was the best thing in the world. They ran around, climbed, played on the swings, slid down the slides, climbed up the slides, played ball in the fields...had a generally exhausting time. Jeffrey played so hard he barely took time out to eat cake or drink his juice box.

One of the highlights of the afternoon was Tom's juggling "show". He'd brought some juggling balls and put on a little show for all the kids. They thought it was the greatest thing. Tom included them in the games and tossed them the balls or showed them how to toss them back to him. Of course it all ended with a game of pile-on-Tom...but that's what daddy's are for right?

We arrived at the park around 1 PM and were finally packing up about 3:45. Both Erin and Jeff had missed their early afternoon naps and played soo hard. Before we were 10 minutes away from the playground they were both asleep in the car. By the time we got home Erin was rousing a little. Jeffrey was knocked out though. I got him into his room, plopped him in the middle of his McQueen bed and that was it for him. We didn't see him again until 7:30 Sunday morning. He slept right through (except for a short visit to mommy and daddy about 1 AM, but a gentle guide back to him room and he was back asleep).

Our afternoon at the park turned out to be just the perfect day to spend with friends. Thanks to all who came out and played with us.

And Now She's 4

And I just can't believe it. Today is Erin's 4th Birthday, officially at 11:50 AM. She's getting to be so big and grown up. She love to sing and dance. Gymnastics is still the highlight of her week. This spring she's been in a more structured class and loved every second of it.

She's set to go to a small pre-school in the fall. Right now she LOVES working on her numbers and reading books. Once you read it one time she'll have it pretty well memorized. Three or four times and it's ingrained in her mind. She can sit and read stories for quite a long time.

So here's her Birthday montage. Those who tend towards the "sappy" might want to have a Kleenex available. I really can't believe that it's been 4 years since she was snuggling against my chest with a little knitted hat in the hospital.


Happy Birthday Special Girl

I'm updating this post to add some pictures of her on her special day. We had a great time on her birthday. She opened her presents around noon then spent the afternoon playing with all of them - especially her pet hospital from Aunt Katie. She had picked out a special place for dinner. We went to Red Robin - a local burger joint that's VERY kid friendly. She ordered Mac & Cheese with a Freckled Lemonade (lemonade with strawberries in it). She even got the special birthday song and sundae from the wait staff. It was exactly what a 4-year old little girl wanted.


Birthday Morning


Decorating Her Cake


Opening Some Presents

Jeff's Birthday Update

Here's a few pictures from Jeff's Birthday. His Dr's appointment went well...weighed in at 27 lbs and I'm not sure on the height but it was 90th percentile. We had a cute afternoon with him on his birthday. He ran around all day telling people it was his "Bootday". I got him a small cake with 2 candles and Erin helped him open his presents - largely Cars themed. He also LOVES his new train set. We've still got it all set up in the living room. All he wants to do it play Choo-choo. He knows how to turn the engines on, put them on the track, and sometimes even knows how to switch the path on the track circles. He came in to Erin's play Saturday night and called out for Mommy or Sister any time they were on stage. Then we headed to Applebees where he got a special Ice Cream dessert. Our in-town party will be on Saturday at a local playground.

She's the Willy Wonka Candy Chorus

Erin (and mommy) just finished our run of Willy Wonka shows. Erin had the time of her life. She really just had a blast. She was in the Candy Chorus - specifically a caramel. She even had a couple of lines this time that we practiced over and over and over. Her favorite was "We never get any smaller" (while dressed as an Everlasting Gobstopper). She learned all her songs (they had little parts in 3 different songs) and even the movements to go with them. Best of all she seemed to make some friends with the group of kids in her cast - especially the girl dressed as the nuts. On Sunday when I gave her the option of coming and playing with me backstage or going to watch the rest of the play with her friends...she ran into the auditorium with her friends before I could blink. Here's a couple of pictures from the show. She's the one second from the right in the group picture.

Here's a little Video of her singing 2 of her songs...Erin Singing as a Caramel and a Gobstopper

Happy Birthday Jeffrey

I can't believe he's 2 years old today. It seems like the days last forever and the years just fly by. He's getting to be such a big boy. Does everything his sister does. Claims everything as his own "Mine!!" is one of his favorite words.

He's a big chatterbox talking about all kinds of things. He LOVES to read stories - Big Red Barn, Mr. Brown Can Moo, and Elmo's Neighborhood are his favorites at the moment.

I'm guessing he weighs about 27 pounds and might be about 36" tall. Here's a little movie so you can see how much Jeffrey's grown over the past year.

Happy Birthday Little Man

Patince Update.....

Well we are still with it. Jeffrey and I are continuing our work on the potty training. We are certainly making progress but still using Pull-Ups rather than big boy undies. I think next week we'll make the jump to the undies. He differs from Erin's training in several ways (and I expected this). Things I've learned about training Jeffrey....

1 - He MUST be in control. He chooses the story. He decides how long he's going to sit. He shows me where to sit (or when to leave).

2 - Advance notice MUST be given. I can't just say, Jeffrey let's go sit on the potty. I need to warn him 5-10 minutes in advance and get permission.

3 - Bribery certainly helps. He prefers to sit with a beverage and snack. Usually he gets a sippy and a piece of bread, sometimes a cookie.

4 - If he's not in the mood, he's not gonna sit. End of story.

So...we're taking it slower. But each day we generally have at least 1-2 successes. He still likes to play the "I'll sit here for 45 minutes then get up and go in my pants" trick. We talk about where pee and poop go (In the potty). He's had 2 or 3 successful poopies.

Erin's a big help. At first she was somewhat in the way, but she's getting better. Sometimes he'll sit and go for her when he won't sit for me. She'll sing him songs, read stories to him and perform general acts of entertainment.

Long story short, we're making some progress and not ready to give up yet. Next week we might take the big step into undies (have Cars and Diego ones all ready here). Wish us luck.

Picture Time

We got some pictures done of the kids today. They came out kinda cute. Jeff participated fairly well. He was pretty good with the pictures of them together, but lost it after the first one she took of him alone. I think the ones of Erin came out really really well though. Here's my favorites. Sorry for the grainy quality, that's the way they are from the website.

Garden Time

Finally it seems like it's going to stay warm here. We took advantage of the weather this weekend to get the garden going. With both kids getting older it was more fun for them. Erin helped to pick out flowers at the Garden Center. Then she and Jeffrey carried leaves (that we had used a mulch over the winter) away from the garden. Watching them try to walk up the hill with armfuls of leaves was hilarious. They were tripping and falling and trying desperately to hold onto all the leaves. Inevitably more leaves ended up on the ground just outside of the garden area than actually in the woods 30 feet away.


Both kids liked helping to plant the beans. Tom made rows and gave Erin and Jeff seeds to plant in them. Erin gently took hers and put them in the row. Jeffrey preferred the "sowing" method of throwing all his bean seeds around the garden. We eventually got him to understand where they were supposed to go and he put a few into the rows.

After lunch Tom and I put the flowers and herbs into the planters. When Erin woke up we were just beginning to work on Tom's hop plants - yes that's hops as in beer making hops. Erin helped to dig the holes and stir up the dirt inside. She even planted one of the rhizomes. Then she and Tom went down to the rock pile and picked out some nice stones to surround the hops.

Erin's favorite part of the day was yet to come though. Watering time. We have acquired a new hose that actually reaches the garden this year....with a cool sprayer on it. Erin helped to water all the plants in the garden and then got to run through the sprayer. Now all she wants to do every day is water the plants so she can run in the water.

So we'll see what the summer brings for the garden, but the fun of putting it all in was completely worth it.

A test of patience..

Both Jeffrey's and mine. Since our little man has been showing interest in the potty for several months now, we decided maybe it was time to bring out the pull-ups and little potty. Last Thursday was day one of the experiment. I got him up, set him down on the potty. He fussed and wiggled quite a bit. Sat for 1 Lightning McQueen story and that was it. Then he saw the Pull-Ups....with Lightning McQueen on them. He went nuts. All he wanted was to put them on. I told him we had to try to keep them dry etc, and I'm sure he processed about 1 word of what I was saying - "McQueen".

So Thursday provided 2 successes both mostly accidental. Friday included 1 poop but no pees. Saturday got a little rough, Sunday morning was hard, but by the afternoon he had a pee after his nap. This morning he went first thing - Yay!!! I'm going a little slower than I was with Erin, but I'm still there with him quite a lot. We read Lightning McQueen stories, blow bubbles, snuggle with blankie and read more Lightning McQueen stories.



I'm giving myself a week. If we're making more progress and having fewer struggles with staying on the potty we'll even try some big boy undies. I've got some Cars ones waiting here for him. So who knows how long this little experiment will continue.

Art Class

The kids did some pictures for Grandma yesterday. I wanted to share a couple of them because I finally figured out how, and they came out Very cute - as Jeffrey says -- boooiful. We used the Crayola Slick Sticks to get the bright colors. They are really cool. I don't get them out a lot, but when we do both kids love using them.

Erin's Drawing of a Rainbow, A Lake and a Sea Turtle (with her name at the bottom)



Jeffrey's Boooiful Colors

Happy Easter

Happy Easter Everyone!!!



We had a nice Easter day - even if daddy wasn't able to be here. Noni, Oma and "Papa" (Jeffrey's new word for grandpa) came down on Saturday night. They stayed through Sunday evening. We all just had a great time relaxing, playing and of course eating chocolate.

I tried not to go too nuts on the kids Easter baskets. I bought three or four bags of candy, put most of it into our eggs for egg hunting, and scattered the rest throughout their baskets. They each got a couple of books, a new bouncy ball and some bubbles. Erin got some new pets to add to her Pet House and Jeffrey got a Lightning McQueen T-shirt and Cars book. Noni added a few little nick-knacks too. They came out looking really cute.

Sunday morning Jeffrey woke me up at his regularly early time. But I didn't mind so much since I needed to get a shower, get the kids dressed, watch them with their baskets and get dinner started. They looked so cute in their outfits from Grandma W. They quickly dug into their baskets. Jeffrey went straight for the candy. Before I knew it he had 4 chocolate eggs in his mouth and was trying to shove in more.

At church Erin went to do Easter activities downstairs and then went out for another egg hunt. She returned with a HUGE bag of more candy. Jeffrey got to play in the nursery. Noni and Papa headed home early so Papa could hide the 30 eggs I had gotten ready. He put them all over the main floor. When we got home Erin and Jeff were ready for one last hunt. They found them in the plants, on the chairs, on windowsills, even hiding in the Little People ark. It took them less than 5 minutes to find 29 eggs (there's still one that I've found and they haven't yet). More candy hooray!!! Again Jeff stuffed himself silly.

The afternoon was spent playing with their new toys while mommy pot roast cooked. We even got out the Thomas train Jeffrey got for Christmas. Both kids were fascinated with it and had the best time playing together with it. By the time dinner was ready, Jeffrey was so full of candy he didn't touch it. Erin devoured 3 helpings of meat, several veggies and a few bites of potato. After dinner, Oma, Noni and Papa had to head home. It was very nice though to have them visiting and spending a special day with us.

Easter Activities

We had a week full of Easter activities here. Several egg hunts, and some other programs going on. The kids LOVED each of the hunts and had a blast filling their baskets with eggs. Jeffrey was able to get into it much more this year than last year.

Our first hunt was at the local community park and soccer field. It was a warm but cloudy day. Jeffrey was a little unsure of what was going on, but he quickly got into it. They set it up more as an "egg rush" than a hunt. All the little kids went at one time. They took a circle on a field, dumped two HUGE boxes of eggs into it. The leaders took a step back and the herd was released. Kids rushed into the circle and filled their baskets with as many eggs as they could. Erin was a little more careful. And she wanted to show me each egg as she picked it up. So rather than put it into her basket she'd scan the area, pick one out and run back to me to show me. They found eggs filled with lots of little toys which Erin has had a blast playing with....and are scattered around my house now.

On Thursday we had Story Time at the library. Each year they set up an egg hunt to follow the stories. This is probably my favorite of the hunts. Our library shares a facility with a senior day care center. Often the seniors come and sit for the story time. Mostly they just love being around the children. At Easter, they prepare the egg hunt in their wing of the building. The kids run around the senior center hunting eggs in every little corner. And the looks on the seniors faces as the children squeal at every found egg is enough to brighten my week. Both the kids quickly found their allotment of 5 eggs. Erin ended up with a few pieces of candy, a snap bracelet and an additional bouncy ball. Jeffrey found much the same.

On Saturday morning we were supposed to go to another hunt. Erin went to bed all excited about going into town to "find more eggs". When I went to bed Friday night I could hear it raining.....when I woke up we found this......



...so we decided to bail on that hunt.

With one more hunt scheduled for Church and eggs to find at home, the kids ended the week all egged out.

My Little Girl, Her Flowers and....

. . . her Football. That's right. I wanted to get some pictures of the kids with my daffodils today since they are all in bloom. They both love checking on the flowers every time we go outside. Jeffrey wasn't really up for having his picture taken today, but I got a couple. Erin's hair is doing some funky wild thing and she insisted on having her football in the pictures too. Still they came out kinda cute, and I just wanted to show them off. It's been gorgeous here again...warm enough today for shorts -- Yay!!!

Pretty Smile - at the Flower not Me


Deeply Inspecting Her Flower


Jeffrey Giving it a Try


Some Wild Hair Here, But Sweet as Can Be

Twins?

Tuesday morning we had some stuff to do and Tom had to work at the office. I dressed the kids in simple play clothes, jeans and a white T-shirt for Erin, cords and a blue striped shirt for Jeff. When we got to our meeting, Erin was being a little shy and not talking much. A gentleman we had never met before looked at them and asked,

"Are they twins?"

First thing that went through my mind was "huh?" I responded that she is 2 years older than he is and chalked it up to this younger guy not knowing much about kids.

So from the meeting I took the kids to the Discovery Museum in town. We haven't been there a lot and thought it would be a special trip. It's a great little place. The kids really seemed to have a good time, even though Jeffrey did his best "My mommy's the worst mommy ever" routine. The place was pretty busy but we ended up staying for about 90 minutes. After we were done, we headed to the sandwich shop next door for lunch.

Inside was a woman, with her two children, who had also been at the museum. She had seen the kids playing, seen Jeff's tantrums and Erin playing with a "ball elevator" machine. She looked at me walking the kids in and said,

"Are they twins?"

I literally burst out laughing. Then had to explain that Erin is 2 years older and that he's not even 2 yet. I also proceeded to fill her in on why I was laughing, "no one has ever asked that before, and we've been asked that twice today."

So while I was ordering 1 grilled cheese sandwich, 1 Caesar salad with grilled chicken (dressing on the side), 2 lemonades and 1 Diet Coke I looked back at the kids. I really wish I'd had a camera on me, because honestly...they looked like twins. Their hair is about the same color right now, their faces are very similar, and both have that "lean" build from their daddy. Erin's still taller but not by much. Jeffrey's stronger certainly. But when you see them interact with others Erin's maturity is blatant (I feel), and certainly her language skills.

So, sadly I didn't get a picture of the kids that day. I really wish I had. But what is clear is that Jeffrey's certainly growing up a bit more every day.

A Bright Bright....Sunshiny Day

The bright sunshine brought some warm weather this afternoon. We took advantage and went out to play. After lunch we went for a walk around the neighborhood block. We looked for all the animals and found dogs, cats, birds, ducks and geese. After a failed attempt at nap time we went back out to play. The kids wanted to go look at the stream that runs behind the house so we went over to the bridge to take a look. Erin picked up little stones to toss into the stream. She thought all the different sounds the stones made in the water were very cool. Jeffrey was really good about holding mommy's hand and even got to toss in a few himself.

Then we just played around the yard. Erin got the red ball and brought it out to play. They swang on the swing, slid on the slide, played in the dirt, climbed up the hill and rolled in the grass. It was really a wonderful day outside.

And best of all....everyone's exhausted and ready for a good night's sleep.

Windy Hair


Chilling Out


Digging in the Dirt