Dying Easter Eggs

Anthony was a real pro when we dyed our Easter Eggs this year. In fact, he pretty much did it all by himself. (I mixed the dye.) He did require a little persuading to keep the eggs in the dye long enough to pick up brilliant color. He put the eggs in the dye with a spoon, then lifted them back out and into the egg carton. I was impressed at how superfluous my help was.

He got a pretty good lesson at preschool. The Thursday before Easter he came home with a homemade basket with a truly beloved blue egg inside. Bob took him to the airport to pick up Grandma and Grandpa and the egg came along for every bit of the adventure. In fact, Bob had to repeatedly get Anthony to stop cuddling his egg and put it back in the basket for safe-keeping. He happily ate it for breakfast the next morning!

Neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt

Clearly I'm getting caught up on pictures from Easter. Better late than never!

Anthony throughly enjoyed our block's Second Annual Easter Egg Hunt. Unlike last year he knew EXACTLY what it was all about. He collected a nice big bagful of eggs. He was a bit disappointed though that some of the bags had junky toys instead of candy. (I don't like the plastic toys either.) Really, if it wasn't candy, he didn't care.

You can see in the top picture that Anthony is finally learning to make an "A" for Anthony. He wrote some O's on the bag for good measure, too.

Three and a HALF

Yes, the half is important! I think its time for an update. Let's see:

1. Anthony is getting a LOT more capable and independent. He pours his own milk, puts on his own shoes and buckles his own carseat. Woe to the parental figure who accidentally does this for him.

2. He's a lot more mature. Its probably a mistake posting this, but he's generally stopped running away. When we were in Denver earlier this month, he did GREAT at staying with us. When we were unloading the rental car and repacking, he just sat on the bench and enjoyed a treat. In the airport security line (a nightmarish time to run) he just followed directions. Last Saturday it was just the two of us at the farmer's market and he didn't run once.

3. He claims he can pump by himself. He hasn't actually demonstrated that ability but we hope its in the future soon. The kid can swing for hours!

4. No more naps by parental decree. If he does take a nap, he's up until 9:30 or 10:00 easily! Occasionally we use this to our advantage, but generally naps are verboten.

5. His grandparents (who hadn't seen him in awhile) think he's a LOT more verbal. Basically he carries on much more sophisticated conversations than he used to.

6. He is WAY into pretend play. Easter Sunday we played "Wizard of Oz" for over 30 minutes, maybe closer to an hour. I've witnessed him twirling his space station around as caught in a tornado, too.

7. Physically he just LOOKS like an older kid now. His legs are long and skinny and he just has a more mature look to him. I don't know his height or weight, but 3T clothes fit him well, although he has a few that are on the short side. I have a mix of 3T and 4T for summer. The 4T are huge, but the 3T won't fit in August!

Easter Bunny

We're busy getting ready for Easter. We had our block Easter Egg hunt, Anthony carried his palm branch at church today and yesterday we visited the Easter Bunny. Anthony thought he was quite friendly.

(We have more photos to post, but are setting up a new computer so it may take a few days.)

Wizard of Oz

Background: Anthony has been SERIOUSLY obsessed with the Wizard of Oz for MONTHS now. When I saw that the American Family Theater had a production at Villa Montalvo, I knew we just had to go. I was a little nervous when the show started and I realized that the musical numbers were NOT the ones from the movie. It didn't matter, Anthony was enthralled. He was just enraptured through the whole show. Afterwards the cast came out for a meet and greet with the kids. Anthony had brought his "Wicked Witch of the East" action figure** and I'm positive he got extra time with the actors because of it. He was pretty nervous approaching the Wicked Witch, but eventually he came in for a hug. (Of course, I didn't manage to get the picture.) This evening he was asking to go see it again. Alas, it was a one day engagement. We might take him to see the Broadway touring production of Mary Poppins this summer. I think he'd enjoy it, though the show is MUCH longer. (This one was only an hour long.) **Dolls are cuddled and loved. Action figures get houses dropped on them. This one is an action figure.

Bounce Bounce Bounce

The last morning of our trip to Colorado we took the boys to a local bounce house/trampoline place.

Boy did they have fun. Anthony must have jumped for an hour and a half straight. Well, that's not completely true, after awhile he complained about his tummy hurting. (Can't imagine why!) We took a break and played air hockey for awhile. It was fun, though the kids did NOT understand the point.

(The bottom picture is Anthony doing summersaults on the trampoline.)

More snow pictures

These were taken in front of the condo the day we arrived in Colorado.

It was a warm day and the snow was lousy, but Anthony didn't seem to care.

The next day we got a foot of snow. The boys were having a great time playing until Anthony did a total face plant. Then he decided to be done for the day.

Snow Fun

I've got a bunch more snow pictures coming up, but this is a start. Saturday morning while everyone else skied we took Anthony and Joshua to the "Critterland" snow-play area. They had this great merry-go-round thing that moved the tubes in a circle, a small sledding hill (that operated under Daddy power), a playhouse and a jungle gym. The boys had a great time playing, then we had lunch with Grandma and Grandpa and back to some more snow play. It was a great day.

Spring Sing Pictures

Here are a few more pictures from the Spring Sing. In the first picture the kids are all making their little flowers, it was quite sweet. After the concerts parents go to the kids' classrooms for snack time. Today's special snack was "fishing" for goldfish using pretzel rods and blue frosting. They seemed to really enjoy it.

Spring Sing

Today was the Spring Sing at Anthony's preschool. This time he was actually trusted enough that he didn't have a teacher sitting directly next to him! Of course, he did plenty of waving (to Mama) when he was supposed to be paying attention to Mrs. Mead. Oh well. We were very proud.

In case you have a hard time finding him in the crowd, he's the one with the green shirt. (Second row, third from the left.)

(I'll have still photos coming soon, as well as the photos from our trip to Colorado.)

Playdate with Ciaran

Now that Anthony is getting a little better about sharing his toys, we've been able to host playdates. Well, that's not really true. Now that the weather is nice(er) and the kids can play outside we can have friends over. Ciaran came over yesterday and IMMEDIATELY asked to play in the bounce house. Oh, they had fun. The best part was this game Bob plays with them. Basically he makes claws and "roars" and they shriek and run.

An Evening with Robert

When Anthony was little(er) we got in the habit of going to Robert's house to play practically every evening after daycare. In the summer we'd play out front and in the winter we'd be inside. It was fun, I loved visiting with Sarah, but it made preparing dinner a bit of a pain. Friday night Robert came over to our house instead. The boys played with the airplanes/aircraft carrier briefly, then went outside. I was able to cook dinner and it was so much easier than having JUST Anthony home.

Eggslent Eggs

We've been having fun shopping at the Farmer's Market on Sundays. A week ago I spotted some quail eggs and somehow was persuaded to bring home two dozen. I hard-boiled them and Anthony eats them for breakfast. Its a lot more work than standard chicken eggs as I have to peel three of the tiny suckers for one meal.

Sunday Bob spotted emu eggs. I was so excited, I just had to have one. Since they were $10 each, one was about all the budget could handle. Anthony was *very* excited too and really wanted to carry the egg around. A big no to that one.

Bob made an omelet for dinner last night using the emu egg. First he drilled a hole in the shell and we used a bike pump with a needle valve to flush the egg out of the shell. (Obviously I could have cracked it like a chicken egg, but I spent $10 on this thing!) The omelet itself didn't taste appreciably different from those made from grocery store eggs in cardboard cartons, but I still enjoyed it. Ironically, Anthony refused to eat his, but he happily ate three hard-boiled quail eggs.


He hasn't quite made the connection between the eggs that hatch in "Make Way for Ducklings" or "Hedgies Surprise" are the same eggs that he likes to eat. We'll just keep that our little secret.

A thousand words

Happy St. Patrick's Day

My first thought when I picked up Anthony at daycare today was that I was surrounded by a herd of leprechauns. (Do they come in herds?) No one was over 40 inches tall and they were ALL wearing green. Anthony was excited to share the highlight of the day--while they were eating lunch a leprechaun came and scattered gold (chocolate) coins on the ground for the kids to find.

Fortunately preschool sent out a note reminding us to send the kids wearing green. I'm not sure I would have remembered otherwise. (Bad Mommy!) Anthony even had green underpants!

Edited to add: I figured it out, leprechauns come in colonies!

Playdates

I really enjoy playdates with Anthony's daycare friends. He spends all day with these kids yet I never really get a chance to watch them play together.

Saturday we had a playdate with his pal C. C is 2 months younger and they were near instant friends at Kathleen's house. When he took a particularly bad fall as a toddler (into the brick planter at the side of the yard) she was the first one there and tried to pick him up.

They were so cute together when they were tiny. We had them trained to hug on command and it was just precious.

The playdate went really well, much better than some of the ones we've hosted. C's mother thinks that since C has a sister, she's already used to sharing her toys. (C's sister had a really rough time having friends over at this age, too.)

Budding Artist

"Helping" Daddy get ready

Anthony's favorite part of the morning is watching Daddy shave. He doesn't like playing with the shaving cream, though. Just watching.

Friday Night Pajama Party

Bob and I are doing a great program through our church--10 Great Dates. The program itself is okay. We watch a 20 minute video and then get sent off with a list of questions to discuss. What makes it GREAT is that daycare is provided! Strangely enough, everyone in the class has children under 5 years old. The pajama-clad children play while their parents enjoy an evening out.

Anthony spent the evening playing with his pal Little L. They go to daycare together and evidently the 8 hours they spent together wasn't quite enough for one day.

This picture is Anthony with Nadine, she's his favorite Sunday School teacher, too!

Mardi Gras

This is old video, but it still cracks me up!

Fun with the phone

Grandma Donna called tonight to talk about plane tickets for their trip out at Easter. Anthony was in fine form, it was really quite funny. He held his bird umbrella up to the phone so she could "see" it, he talked ad nauseum about "The Wizard of Oz" complete with showing how the witch has long, sharp nails" and most importantly, asked when she's coming to his house.

The best part was watching him peer into the receiver and announce, "I can't see you!"

Ironically, Daddy spent a good part of the day working on video-phone technology.

"Neigh" says the cat

"Emily adored Mr. Pusskins. Each morning she would invent fun games for Mr. Pusskins to play."
--Mr. Pusskins, by Sam Lloyd

"Run Tigger. Run further."
--Bob

Needless to say, Mr. Pusskins doesn't like Emily. I find it hard to imagine why Tigger tolerates Anthony. Lately he likes to ride her like a horse, complete with rearing her up saying, "Neigh". Yes, he's grabbing her by the neck. And yes, I'm taking photos instead of rescuing my poor cat.

Commercials

A funny story...

The Wizard of Oz was on tv over the holidays so we picked it up on Tivo. We put it on for Anthony and he was most perplexed at how his movie kept stopping in the middle and this other "stuff" came on. Yes, those would be commercials, he hadn't seen them before and clearly had no clue what they were.

Its really quite funny when I stop to think about it, that he doesn't know what a commercial is, at almost 3 1/2. (Now, I do think its a good thing.)

Now, the kid does watch his share of tv. We keep Curious George on the DVR for him. He also has his favorite DVDs, Mary Poppins and The Wizard of Oz. I know on rainy days they often watch some videos at daycare.

Oh yeah, much to Bob's relief, Anthony has no idea who SpongeBob is. He saw a picture and thought it was a piece of cheese. I'm good with that.

Snow Day

Today was Snow Day at Anthony's preschool. They brought in a snow machine and filled up a playground with snow for the kids. I called to check in (his asthma is acting up) and the report was that he had a great time sledding. I'm looking forward to hearing all about it when I pick him up tonight. He was practicing snow angels this morning when I was trying to get him dressed.

On a slightly related note, it did NOT snow this weekend. What a bummer! The majority of the storm blew through early in the night, before it got cold enough to snow. I was very disappointed. Mom, you need to read this article about it!