Weeeeeeeeeeeeee!

C figured out how to climb the ladder on the slide this week!  He's so excited to be able to slide on his own.  Note Roscoe trying to get in on the picture in the background.

Look Ma, I made it to the top!

Slide train!  M was being nice, helping C on the ladder, and also helping to "stop" him at the bottom so he didnt fall off the end of the slide.  Sometimes it was a rough stop, but C didn't mind!  It's always nice to see some teamwork between the two of them!

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Adirondack Chairs

Daddy took M shopping yesterday, and she picked out new chairs for her and C.  Our Tuesday night cookout's start up next week, so we needed some extra seating for the deck.  M was so excited, she couldnt wait to show C his new chair:

M's chair has princesses, and C's has Buzz for Toy Story.  They love 'em!

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Photographers

M has been permitted to use the camera for a while now.  She apparently gave C a turn with it earlier this week.  Now he thinks it is his new toy and he wants to play with it all the time.  So, instead of smiling for pictures - he's doing this:

Will I ever be able to take a picture of my smiling boy again?

And when I give in and let him have the camera, here are the fruits of his photographic attempts:

Very abstract, C, I like that!

M has been honing her photography skills for quite some time.  We even got her own digital camera for Christmas.  She has her own album, you can view her best photography results here.   Here's one of my favorites that she took:

(C, September 2009)  He usually has a deer-in-headlights look when she takes pictures, plus, he is always dirty as can be!

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Little Sneak!

Lately C has been doing the cutest movements.  He "sneaks up" on you.  He crouches down and walks with this sort of knee-bent squat/walk.  It reminds me of how the cowboys would swagger in the wild west.

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Early Onset Hearing Loss

"It's a little loud, M" says Daddy as the Handy Manny soundtrack blares in the background.

"M - it's a little loud!" ...no response and the music plays on.

Finally, Daddy goes over to the CD player and turns down the volume stating, "That means please turn it down."

"But I couldn't hear you!"

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Bell Boy

We found these neat musical hand bells from Hobby Lobby for Easter:

The are really quite cool, and a couple of the Aunts even performed a concert for us! 

C ran around with a bell in his hand all weekend, of one color or another.  I need to get a picture!

My ears are still ringing...

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Kids at Krannert

We made the best of the rainy weekend, and found some fun indoor activities to participate in.

Kids at Krannert is an event at the Krannert Art Museum on campus.  We had a great time exploring a museum and trying our hands at several arts and crafts activities.

C sharpening his painting skills.  It took him a few tries to get the hang of it.  He tried to eat the paint several times (He either thought the brush was an eating utensil or a tooth brush, not sure which...)

M spent a long time painting and enjoying the process.

C's final product. Once he dipped his brush in the black, everything else was pretty much black from then on.

M's final product.  She enjoyed experimenting with mixing colors, and liked the effects of adding water to the paint to see how the diluted paint looked on the canvas.

Of course, even though there were all kinds of activities taking place upstairs, C's favorite part was climbing down the stairs and running up and down the spacious hallways.

All in all, it was a fun morning of action before settling in for lunch and naps at home, and it got us out of the house on a dreary day.

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Too Cool

While cleaning out the front hall closet, we found some sunglasses!

M took the "I'm too cool to smile" attitude.   ;-)

Now if only the sun would start shining so we could put them to use...

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Rain, Rain, Go Away

Its been raining since Friday...

Rain, rain, go away
Come again another day
The family wants to go out and play...

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Lovely Evening

Don't you just love when things go smoothly?  Tonight was so great.

C wasn't ready to go to sleep, so the three of us cuddled up on the couch to read some books.  C is usually in bed for our reading time, so it was great that he decided to join us - and what a pleasant boy he was!  Usually he grabs for the book, or insists on turning pages before we are ready, but he was very content to listen as mama read each page.  M picked the books, and we began with The Popcorn Book.  This of course prompted a craving for popcorn (butter lovers!), and so we popped up a bag and ate it while we read more books.

Everyone went down to sleep without a fuss, and it was the perfect end to a long day.  ♥

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Homeward Bound!

We arrived home at bedtime on Sunday evening.  The bathroom was not quite complete, but great progress was made.  We still couldn't use the shower since the caulking was not done, so we both left separately to shower elsewhere.  M asked where Daddy went and I explained that he was showering at his friend's house.  M was shocked and told me

"You don't just wander off and take a shower at other people's houses!"

The bathroom was complete enough by today to hang the shower curtain and give the kids a bath.  Yay!

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Fun with Cousins

We had lots of fun with cousins over the long weekend.  Friday we spent the day with Aunt E's family.

C, Baby A, and M at the primate house in Lincoln Park Zoo.  I think it is funny because C is almost exactly one year older than Baby A, but Baby A weights more than C already!  He's such a cutie pie.

Saturday we spent all day with Aunt K's family.  We watched a movie (Tinkerbell, of course). Later we ate pizza, and played in the bounce house!  It was very fun and relaxing, but wound up being a combination for disaster - ending the day with a huge disgusting barfing incident.

M with Cousin A - hair gone wild in the bounce house!

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Future Aspirations

At one of the parking garages, the attendant asked M the familiar question: "What do you want to be when you grow up?"  Aunt E tried to feed M the answer "The boss."  but M ignored her and proudly stated:

"Well, actually, I'm going to be the mom!"

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Lincoln Park Zoo Hippos!

On Friday we successfully ventured to Lincoln Park Zoo with Aunt E and Baby A.  We had a perfectly brief yet comprehensive visit to the zoo.  We stayed for just over an hour, yet we had the most fantastic time - just the right length of time for this age.  M's only request was to see the monkeys, and we sneaked out of the primate house right as the doors were locked behind us.

The highlight of this visit was the hippo and fish in the African exhibit - spectacular!

The hippo approached us, rubbed his nose back and forth on the glass, and stomped and dragged his foot on the ground repeatedly.  I've never seen a live hippo so closely before!

We took a similar trip to the zoo a couple of years ago, and thought it would be neat to do a photo comparison:

Mama and M on the bronze hippo, May 2008

Big Girl M on the bronze hippo, April 2010

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Chicago and Changes

We headed to Chicago this past weekend so that my husband could remodel our only full bathroom.  This way we could still have access to water at grandma's house.  The next several posts will be about the events surrounding our trip.  I took lots of pictures and sent them to Daddy throughout our trip, so that he wouldn't miss us too much.

Before hitting the road for Chicago, M's school was having a Spring Festival.  It was a great opportunity for the kids to run off some energy before hitting the road.  The festival featured various activity stations:  coloring book area, tattoos, balloons, crown and mask crafts, and ball toss games.

M at the coloring book station

C with his mask

C running the halls (I liked how this pic came out!)

The highlight of the night was getting to meet Wonder Red, one of the characters from the show Super Why!

M was so excited to hold Wonder Red's hand.  In this photo, she was trying to ask Wonder Red to skate around.

After an hour or so, we hit to road, crowns and balloons in tow:

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Expressions

In addition to "Yeah", C added two new expressions to his vocabulary this month:

"Whoa!"

and

"Ow."

He says the former any time he sees something he thinks is cool, including trucks, animals, bright lights and loud noises.  The latter he says constantly, any time something suprises him in the slightest - the smallest trips, slips, or bumps.  It is also important to note that his "ow" is a tiny utterance, not loud or exclaimed, just simply "ow" in a a non-extraordinary tone.

It's also getting quite fun to have conversations with him.  He answers "Yeah" to every question you ask.  Here is an example from this evening:

"Did you have fun at the park with Daddy?"

"Yeah!"

Did you go on the swings?"

"Yeah."

"Did you see some trees?"

"Yeah!"

I could go on.

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Pot O' Gold

M and I drew a rainbow earlier in the afternoon, and I happened upon this scene an hour or so later, and had to run in and get my camera.  It was just too perfect!

He truly is my pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. C - your Irish is showing.

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Tiptoe Through the Tulips

Can you spot the extra tulip?

 

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Super Twinkies

M decided she wanted to dress just like C today.


And then Dad decided to get on board too:

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Dyeing Easter Eggs - And Everything Else

Colored Eggs

Colored hands
(and arms, cheeks, forehead, and lips - "don't drink that!!")

Lots of fun dyeing Easter eggs!

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Easter Egg Hunt

My family's tradition for egg hunts is a bit different than most.  We always had egg hunts that were strategically placed eggs that you follow clues to find, usually leading to some sort of puzzle at the end that you had to unscramble to claim your big prize (Easter basket).  Why would it be any different for my kids?

This year, the egg hunt consisted of twelve nests.  Each nest had a big egg (for M) and a small egg (for C).

Also in each nest was a puzzle piece.  Since M enjoys puzzles, this was good for her current development abilities.  When I was growing up, our puzzles would be catered towards whatever we were learning in school - math equations, riddles, maps, or whatever challenged us at the time.  After piecing together the puzzle, they knew just where to look for the Easter baskets:

A special thanks to my good friend M ("Uncle M") for putting together another great egg hunt!

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Cheese!

"My favorite vegetable is cheese!"

"Cheese is called a 'dairy product', Love"

"I call it a vegetable"

If she had it her way, cheese would be its own food group!

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Make Way for Ducklings

I ran a race at Crystal Lake Park today (whoo! 28ish minutes for a 5k - personal best!).

Our friend M watched and entertained the kids while I was running, and snapped some great photos of their goose adventures:

And my favorite:

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Frame It Friday: Easter Art

Welcome to “Frame It Friday!” which was started by Loving This Mom Stuff who was proud of her children's artwork and wanted to share it with the world! Please join her in showing off your children’s artistic sides and see what other proud parents are showing off by heading on over to Loving This Mom Stuff to take a look at “Frame It Friday!”

The Easter Bunny brought M paint, brushes, and large coloring book.  Here are the results:

She was very careful to cover the entire paper, all the way to the edges.  The green is the grass, as defined by her.  The paints are Crayola washable kids paints, which are perfect.  And she's wearing one of our homemade recycled T-shirt smocks, similar to the one in this link, although the ties on our smocks are made from scraps from the T-shirt itself.

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Milestones: First *Real* Haircut

M went to get her haircut for the first time.  She has had just a handful of trims before now, but they were always speedy-fast, and just to rid the split ends.  She got her mama's fine hair, and slow-growing hair.  But its getting to the point that when the wind whips it up, it gets quite tangled.  It hurts her to comb it.  My threats of "if you don't let me comb your hair, we'll have to cut it all off," were eventually responded with "I want my hair cut off."  So, here we have it:

Before

During

After!  Its cute and summery, and will do her just fine.  Still long enough for me to do pig tails, headbands, and the like, but not so long as to be bothersome.

She sat very still and silent throughout the entire haircut, not uttering a word.  Until at the end she said "Thank You!"

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