The sign of a good vacation, for kids anyway, is
four different playgrounds in three days. That’s our week! We
went down to the Franklin playground this morning to burn some
more energy and get lots of sunshine. The weather is beautiful
this week! Lex is getting really good at climbing things and
I’ve been impressed at the creativity of the climbing devices
at the various playgrounds. Lex wanted to go down the twisty
slide (in the background of this pic) but couldn’t find regular
stairs or a ladder to get up. The first few times he just
climbed up the slide and slid down, but then he got adventurous
and started climbing the twisty pole (in pic) and the other
strange and interesting pieces available to climb on. He’s a
good climber! I’ve also been encouraging Eve to walk on all the
different textures and surfaces the playgrounds have to offer.
She seems to be getting the hang of it and enjoying the
outdoors more and more.

Speaking of Eve, she cut another tooth today!
The top, right tooth came in today and the top, left will be
cutting through any second now. Then she’ll have matching top
and bottoms and really be able to put those teeth to use! You
can kind of see the tooth in this picture. She was laughing so
hard in the swing and I could see the tooth each time the swing
came near, but those buggers are hard to photograph :)

We went to visit Aunt Rosy today in Bingo.
We had lunch at a super yummy restaurant and then went to the
zoo! Lex was excited because “it has the double-o ooh sound!”
When we got there he was very content to play on the playground
outside of the zoo and seemed to think it was the zoo. He was
less impressed with the zoo itself, but liked the push cart
stroller we rented and the playground 1/2 way through the zoo.
Afterwards the kids slept in the car with Mema while I did a
little shopping at Old Navy :) A good day was had by all!

Rose
pays the bill with a tired Eve.

Grandpa
Tom and Lex wait outside. A few minute after this Lex
got down on his knees and tried to sit just like
dad.
Too cute, but I didn’t get a good
picture.

Walking
to the car. I love this picture!

Lex did
not want to get out of the stroller at the end of the zoo. He
was very happy to sit in the parked car :) (it was several
hours past nap time)

I’m heading out to Franklin tomorrow and
never seem to have time to post much, but here are a few
pictures. The weather has been really nice lately and we’ve
been getting out a lot. Eve is even starting to like the
outdoors. This afternoon we went out and she didn’t cry at all!
She even ventured away from me for a few minutes, but spent
most of the time holding her pinwheel and walking circles
around me as I stood talking to my neighbor. It was fun
:)

They
were so cute looking out the window together, but as soon
as
I lifted the camera they did this. Silly ducks!

Eve’s
new favorite place to hang out – on the stool! She pushes it
around to the counters and climbs up. She has so many more
opportunities for danger than he ever did!

Talking
on the phone

Little
boy blue, helping me clear out the gardens (yes, I know it
should
have been done in the fall, but who has
time??)

I love
the colors of Lex and the slide in this picture, and Eve kind
of looks like a doll.

One other thought, they are
getting so playful together. It’s great to see the sibling
relationship growing. Yesterday I asked Lex to get Eve’s shoes
out of the closet and he proceeded to get them, find Eve, take
her slippers off, and make a valiant effort at putting her
shoes on her feet. So helpful! He also talks to her in the car.
“Eve, I have no pants on Eve. My pants got wet and now we need
to get more pants at home. Eve, my pants got wet.” (we had a
pants incident at Panera Bread the other day) She babbles right
back at him, doing her best to hold up her end of the
conversation. She’s also getting very playful with him. It’s
really cool to see.

I have millions of thoughts swirling
around in my head that I want to blog about, but there never
seems to be the time. Today it is BEAUTIFUL weather and I’ve
got lawn and garden guilt (it sets in early!), one sleeping
child, and one on his way for a nap. I’m hoping to get outside
for a few minutes if I can get them both napping at the same
time for a bit. Which leads me to my newest dilemma. Now that
I’m a free woman there are so many things I want to do, but my
lovely children both nap happily now, but on different
schedules. She typically naps in the morning, him in the early
afternoon, then she’s ready again by mid afternoon. Last
summer, during our nap battles, I used to be out all morning
and then come home at lunch time, feed him and try to get him
napping around 1ish. Since the daycare thing, I’ve been putting
him down at 11:30-12:00 and he has been much happier.
Unfortunately all of the fun things to do around here usually
run from 10-12ish. So it will be interesting to see how this
plays out :) Someone once said (my mom, I think) that life is
just a series of problems to figure out and overcome and just
consider yourself fortunate if those problems are small and not
life threatening. I am definitely fortunate to have the
problems I do!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0oP8otQNqw]

I think Lex is officially over his cold,
which has been lingering for weeks now. His appetite has been
minimal for awhile now, but today all I heard all day was “I’m
huuunnggrry.” All day! We were even playing outside for awhile
and he left a crowd of kids to go in and eat. I realized the
other day that he’s only gained about 1lb since his 2yr
checkup. He was 29.5lbs then and weights 30-30.5lbs on our
scale these days. I’m curious to see what the doc has to say at
his 3yr check up in a few months. So when he was hungry all
day, I just kept feeding him. Now if only I could get him to
eat more than 3 different foods. Ya know, something closer to
the 5 different foods I eat ;)

We went
back to the dentist this morning for x-rays. Lex behaved
exactly as I expected, squirmy and screaming. I bear hugged him
and Alan held his head/jaw, while a friendly nurse entertained
Eve in another room. The dentist said that it didn’t look
broken and would probably be ok. He recommended keeping Lex on
soft foods for another day or two (which in his diet means lots
of yogurt!) and just keep an eye on things. Lex seems fine
though and the tooth is less wobbly today. He had some baby
Motrin yesterday, but nothing today and he’s been quite happy.
I’ve also given him some less than soft foods (bagels) in small
pieces that he doesn’t need to bite with the front teeth.

We have one more day with daycare kids
tomorrow and then we’re done. We might celebrate with a trip to
the Montshire. Or we might celebrate with another day home,
alone :) We shall see.

Here is a cute
picture of the kids today. Lex was sitting on the hearth
reading and Eve sat down with him. She’s a girl on the go
though, so it didn’t last long.

Here’s a picture from
this morning. We were eating breakfast and Lex started naming
things in the kitchen. Why not, right? He got to stove, sounded
out the word, then announced that he could spell stove. Over to
the fridge and a few seconds later he was done. No help from
me. He did tell me “the silent E makes the T say t-uh!” and I
said “silent E’s only work on vowels.” He thought for a second
then said, “oh, the silent E makes the O say oh!” I jumped up
and gave him big hugs and told him that he was smart, smart,
smart. He said, “smart, I can spell smart” and did! No help
from me.

And to brag about Eve
for a second, she’s getting really good at baby signs. She
added “bird” to her growing list of signs today and used it
properly several times. She also can do a passable “spider” and
uses it when she wants me to sing “Itsy bitsy spider,” her
favorite song. Not sure she’d recognize a real spider, but
that’s ok! We also graduated her to a booster seat, so she now
sits at the table with us and uses a plate and fork. Well, she
uses them until she’s done eating, then signs “all done” and
tosses them on the floor :)

The scene: Lex is sitting in the living
room in the big blue chair. Alan walks in holding a banana to
his ear.

Alan: “Hello? Yes, he’s here.
Just a moment.” puts the banana down and says to Lex, “It’s for
you. Do you want to talk or should I take a message?”

Lex: stares at Alan for a moment, then says,
“You should eat the banana.”

Imagination
is not his strong suit :)

Apparently Eve is not an outdoorsy sort of
girl. The few times I’ve been able to get her outside this
spring she has been less than pleased. God forbid I put her
feet (shoed feet, not bare) on the ground and she’ll start
SCREAMING! Today was beautiful and warm and we made it out late
this afternoon, Eve scowling the whole time. I put her down
once or twice, put her in the swing, tried to get her to walk,
and made every effort to show her how the yard could be fun —
but she wailed like she was walking on hot coals. She loves
walking and wearing her shoes inside, so it’s not a pain thing.
We’re going to have to work on this though, because I can’t get
much gardening and yard work done with her in my arms. Maybe
she needs a trip to the country :)

We are spending lots of money on medical
expenses this year! This morning we added to that with an
emergency visit to a pediatric dentist. Lex and our 3yr old
were playing happily then somehow his chin collided with her
head, resulting in a lot of blood from his mouth and a loose
tooth. Luckily she’s ok! Alan came home quickly to watch the
girls while I took Lex to a new dentist who was very nice and
said the tooth is probably just “bruised” (he had some fancy
medical term that I don’t remember) but may potentially be
broken. We will be going back tomorrow as a family so I can
hold his body while Alan holds his head and the dentist takes
x-rays. We tried today, but Lex was none too keen to sit still
for me. I hope it heals and doesn’t fall out! The 3yr old was
very excited that Lex has a loose tooth and was telling him
that the tooth fairy will come and give him a coin soon. We’ll
see!

Today feels like a new start on life. It’s
a beautiful, sunny day, and my first day with no extra kids
(though I still have some this T/TH). Lex and Eve are both
happier and more mellow than they have been in a very long
time. Eve is one now and walking everywhere! It just feels like
spring in many different ways. I’m happy.