Hoppy Easter!

We had a full family kind of day! We were up early hunting out the eggs left by our bunny friend and destroying the Easter baskets before mom and dad got up.

We took some pictures, a few of us went to church, had a special lunch, played and played and played before having some Easter pizza with friends for dinner.

Mama squeezed in a run, daddy worked on the patio project and mowed the lawn....pretty perfect if you ask me!

Even the weather cooperated. It was sunny and about 80 degrees. Wonderful!

How to make your kid happy

(100% not guaranteed)


A few Fridays ago, I was out running errands with the girls.  While we were running around, I realized we were going to be arriving home at lunch time.  I also realized it had been awhile since I/we/someone had lunch with William at school.  In order for this to work, I was also going to have to feed the girls or I would have serious meltdowns on my hands.  The quick food options along the way were very limited and didn't include anything I would typically consider as it was almost all fast food (see backstory below).

However, the pull of seeing William at midday was now stuck in my head.  I was going to make a sacrifice and pick up some McDonalds.  As much as I dislike McDonalds and go out of my way to avoid going there, I knew that William would be overjoyed.   Overjoyed child won and I hit up the drive through window and got a Happy Meal (hey, if you're going to go all out, go all out).

As expected, William was super excited to see us (Gemma, Amelia, Mom), but he was beside himself about the McDonalds.

William: MCDONALDS?!?!?!  MCDONALDS?!!?!?!?  WOW!!! MCDONALDS?!?!?! (turns to kids on either side of him with an expression of disbelief) My MOM brought me MCDONALDS!  Can you BELIEVE IT?

Other kid: Huh.  Yeah. 

William: MCDONALDS!  I can't believe it is MCDONALDS!  This is the first time I've ever had MCDONALDS before.  YOU GUYS I'M SO HAPPY.

At this point people are starting to look at us funny.  There are two other kids at the table with McDonalds happy meals who aren't even blinking an eye at their meal.

Eventually, William ate his lunch and occupied himself with the toy inside the meal as well as the box it came in.  He is insisting on keeping the Happy Meal box itself in his box of special treasures...




Boring, but necessary backstory:  I have a thing about fast food.  I don't especially like it and it doesn't especially like me.  My stomach usually doesn't handle the fast food burgers and fries very well.  Sure, I will eat it from time to time, but I'd usually rather eat something else.  Slowly over the years, we have cut out most fast food.  I think the last time I ate at McDonald's, William was three years old*.  As a result, William has not ever had a Happy Meal.  Every few months it seems like we cycle through an increased interest of the fast food places that have a lot of conversations like this:

William: Mom? Why don't we eat at McDonald's today?
Mama: That isn't my favorite place to eat.  They don't have very many healthy choices for food.
William: But, they DO!  They have APPLES!
Mama: They do? How do you know?
William: My friends told me.  They also have vegetables.
Mama: They do?  Which vegetables?  Which vegetables that you would eat?
William: Ummmmmm.....
Mama: Hey look!  A bird!

--and the conversation is usually dropped for a short while--










* We eat at home most of the time and when we travel, I pack lunches whenever possible.  If we do end up stopping, we usually choose a sandwich shop.  If we are going out for dinner, we usually pick a kid friendly restaurant in our area.

Gemma

Tonight I gave the girls a bath. Despite my efforts, Gemma managed to drink a large portion of the bath water (as usual).

I pulled her out of the tub and wrapped her up in a fuzzy towel. As I jostled her around to snuggle her up, she let out a very extra large burp.

At first Gemma appeared startled by the noise. However, so seconds later, she was trying to repeat the noise. She wriggled this way and that way. She made a variety of noises with her mouth. None were what she was exactly looking for.

Mark that one down for the baby book: baby's first fake burp.

Sent from my iPhone

Amelia at the dentist

Amelia went to the dentist this past week for a check up. This is notable for a few reasons:

1. I had a tough time keeping Gemma out of the chair. She wanted very badly to be big like Amelia. They were awfully cute together in the big chair.

2. Amelia was lucky enough to accompany John to his dentist appointment last week. The dentist remembered her clearly as she apparently talked to him the whole time about everything under the sun. Most notably, she gave him mostly accurate directions to the park by our house. He was so impressed, he asked he for the directions again and she did.

3. Amelia is working on her 6 year molars. Which is awesome because she has been 5 for almost a week at the time of the appointment. The dentist was pretty excited about this fact. Unfortunately, you don't win anything or get rewarded for having those teeth early.

Do you know...

What happens when I try to go to the bathroom by myself? I was gone for 3 minutes or less. Amelia and Gemma teamed up to remove a styrofoam sheet from a box and the destroy it. Original, the sheet was roughly 3 ft by 3 ft.

The worst part was trying to clean it up. I tried to sweep it up and the process of it rolling across the carpet caused it to become charged with static electricity. Then it was able to stick to everything. My hands, the floor, my pants, arms and eventually Gemma after she came to roll around in it (no picture of that as I had lost my sense of humor by that point). I got out the vacuum and while it did clean up the tiny pieces, the exhaust from the cleaner blew the tiny particles around even further so they were able to stick in my hair and to the walls.

I have a feeling this story will be funny one day. Just not today.

Amelia conversations

Amelia has been particularly hilarious lately.  The things that come out of that girls' mouth.  One of the reasons is probably linked to the fact that she doesn't. ever. stop. talking.  Ever.  She always has something to say.  She chatted me up for the whole 30 minutes to a soccer game the other day without any interruption.  As in, I didn't say anything.

Today, we had the following conversation on the way home from preschool.

Amelia: Mom!  How long is a minute?  Is a minute 89 seconds?

Mom: What? (driving) No.  Why?

Amelia: Mom!  I KNOW a minute is 89 seconds.

Mom: It is?  I think a minute is 60 seconds.

Amelia: You are wrong.  I know it is 89 seconds.

Mom: Hmmmm....why do you think it is 89 seconds?

Amelia: (dramatically) Welllllll.... today at school Ms A was talking to Ms F.  Someone asked for help and Ms A said "Just a minute." She kept on talking and talking.  While she was talking I counted to 89.  When I got to 89, she was done counting.  THAT is how I know a minute is 89 seconds. 

Mom: Hmmm...

Amelia: See! You were wrong!  A minute is 89 seconds!


Oh my goodness, this girl.  You need to watch everything you say because she takes it so literally!

More Math

Amelia thought it was fun to find more math problems that Gemma would know the answer to....pretty impressive for our 5 year old!  That girl picks up on everything!