Easter time

So I had a very unfortunate thing happen to my CF card. Me. I dropped it and it no longer works. I did a bunch of research and apparently killing your CF card is not an easy thing to do. Of course I did it :) Needless to say, I have been a bit of a slacker downloading pictures off of my card (one of the downfalls of having an 8 gig card) and I lost a ton of fun Easter time events. So I will write about them and scrap this in my books in an effort to remember what we did since there will be a lack of visual reminders.

Easter time is a concept that Clara has been trying to understand. That a singular event can be lumped into a span or a season of celebration. Easter Sunday was on this past Sunday but it could not be labeled as Easter TIME but just as Easter. The questionings of a four year old are endless. Sometimes I swear that kid is smarter than I am!

We did many bunny related activities. It started off with an Easter Egg hunt at Hoosier Grove. They had all the kids grouped off by age. Ellis and his friends (Anthony, Mia, Gabriella and Bella) all got to "hunt" together in a mass of confused people and Clara and Morgan hunted in a more serious endeavor. Ellis had several false starts (apparently the yellow rope did not work as a barrier for him). Once we were allowed to go, he slowly gathered all the ones near him. He eventually decided that he only wanted yellow and blue ones and then ditched all the yellow and walked away proud with just a bunch of blue ones. These eggs were the chocolate foil wrapped variety. Undeterred by the foil and the lack of people helping him, Ellis started eating the eggs through the foil. Delicious! I don't even WANT to think about the amount of foil he ate that day. Very scary for a person like me. He loved them of course. In the end, he ate WAY too many of them, made himself sick to his stomach (many diapers were involved) and was so hopped up on caffeine and sugar, he could not nap. Clara had fun too but was not as discerning as her brother. She came home with a ton of them. Neither one of them noticed when I threw them out when we got home :) Some of the eggs were partially opened, stepped on and just in general grossing me out.

The next Easter related event we did was the Aqua Egg Hunt at the Bartlett Community Center. I was VERY nervous about this event. I was not sure how they were going to set it up and trying to keep two small kids from drowning while they were bobbing for Easter eggs just made me nervous. And on top of all that, I had to be in a bathing suit. Not what I was expecting to be a good time. It was fun though! The kids loved the water. Ellis declared he was scared only twice and realized it was a fun thing to do. He did not really enjoy the grabbing the Easter Egg part but afterwards he stood at the fountain of water coming from the alligator's ears and caught it in an Easter Egg so the water would be redirected on other children. Clara loved the slide and went down over and over again. The did the age groups at different times which was nice but the whole water and candy thing is still confusing to me. Who thought this was a good idea! After throwing away all the gum and hard candy, I let them each have one piece of chocolate and I threw the rest out. Once again, it was very gross to me. I know, I have a problem.

The day before Easter we dyed Eggs. Clara was really looking forward to it because she remembered how much fun she had last year. I was threatening to not include Ellis but in the end I caved. They both had a great time and only one egg was harmed in the process. Clara drew pictures with a white crayon and we dropped the eggs in. Ellis hurled them at his top speed into the dye and declared "Splash!" after each drop. He really had a good time! Clara just loves eating the eggs to which is a plus. I gave Ellis one. He put it in his mouth which is beyond remarkable but he did not eat it. Oh well, at least he tried it!

Easter was a Fr-Easter. A friend Easter! It was a good time. The Travers, Ogandos and Wingards made it to the event to celebrate in the sun. We ate a hug brunch and then headed outside for yet another Easter Egg Hunt. The older kids ran around gathering what they could and Addy was nice enough to throw more back for the kids. The guys stayed outside while we ate some fondue inside. It was just the most pleasent day. The kids had an amazing time playing together and the parents had a good time chatting! We are lucky to have such good friends in Bartlett.

So even though there are no pictures to go along with this tale, in the end it might not be the worst thing. I need to start writing more about what is going on with the kids because they are growing at a lightning pace. Ellis talks so much now and when he is not screaming and yelling is actually quite a funny little guy. Clara is so curious about the world, I can't even keep up with her questions! Her latest zinger was asking where babies come from. AHHH! I was not ready for that one. My answer was Daddy and I wished really really hard for a baby and we got one. For now that is appeasing her. She was asking more questions on that this morning and I successfully distracted her into something else. Let's see how many more times I can get away with that!

Kids say the darndest thing

Answers are by my darling four year old. It was an interesting experience that had to be spread out over two days because all of her answers were turning into "I don't know".

1) What is something mom always says to you?
I like you

2) What makes mom happy?
Me (no self-esteem issues here!!!)

3) What makes mom sad?
No kisses

4) What makes your mom laugh?
Ellis

5) What was your mom like as a child?
Like me

6) How old is your mom
21 (She cannot even fathom any number greater than 30)

7) How tall is your mom?
Like this tall (indicating about two inches taller than she is)

8) What is her favorite thing to do?
Work (Really??!?!?!?!?!)

9) What does your mom do when you're not around?
Go downstairs to do Animal Crossing sometimes

10) If your mom becomes famour what will it be for?
I don't know (I could not coax anything else out of her)

11) What is your mom good at?
Writing (She says this after she saw me make a list - something I do all the time!)

12) What is your mom not very good at?
Making real mermaid tails

13) What does your mom do for a job?
Wash dishes (Now if only I could get paid to do it, I would be rich!)

14) What is your mom's favorite food?
Sushi

15) What makes you proud of your mom?
Kitty Kitty (right about here is where I would say I started to lose her!)

***Second Day of answers***
16) If your mom were a cartoon character, who would your mom be?
Animal Crossing

17) What do you and your mom do together?
Help ourselves

18) How are you and your mom the same?
Hair

19) How are you and your mom different?
Her original answer was just "Because", I then got her to cough up - "My hair is lighter than your but not our skin"

20) How do you know your mom loves you?
I'm a sister for Ellis

21) What does your mom like most about your dad?
Because he's fun

22) What does your dad like most about your mom?
Because she is cute like me

23) Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
Atlanta

Happy party to you

Ellis sang Clara happy birthday today. "Happy party to you, Happy party to you. Happy party dear Clara. Happy party to you!"

Clara wants to know why do butts have cheeks.

Clara's first crush - One of the mom's from preschool told me that her son has a crush on Clara. I think his name is James but I don't have all the boys names yet. Cute little kid, his Mom likes Ed Hardy. She told me that her son talks about the flowers that Clara wears in her hair all the time. The boys seem to like here. There was a six year old following Clara around all over the playground about a month ago. He just kept following her and asking her a ton of questions and Clara was sort of walking away and answering them quietly to her shirt. He kept her interest for QUITE a long time. It was actually kind of funny (and also a little creepy!).

Boog-boogs - I think Ellis is getting a cold. It was not too long ago we were getting over one so it seems early for another one but if he were to get one, the timing is not too bad. I don't want him to have a cold when we are in Disney so we have just enough time to get a cold and get over a cold! His nose has been running and it definitely has been bothering him. He has been grabbing his nose and holding it closed as tight as he can and saying "Boog Boogs". I guess I find it so funny because of his little voice when he says it and when he takes his hand off, his nose is BRIGHT RED.

On the first day of snow on Dec 1st - a conversation between Ellis and Mommy as we are looking at the snow blanketing our whole backyard:

Is it snowing outside?
No?
Do you see the snow?
No? Where?

Everything is a question

Ellis is a little parrot right now. He can he say pretty much everything and is not afraid to try! He even knows multiple words for one thing and speaks in pretty much complete sentences. My favorite thing that he does right now is when everything is a question. It is hard to capture without the audio but it is him basically repeating any statement he hears and asking it in a high pitched lilting question. Mac and cheese = Mach and chEESE? Cereal = ceREAL? It is too funny and cracks me up every single time.

Ellis is quite a pistol. And you basically know when he is going to go off. Like when it is time to eat. Or he has to be woken up from a nap. Or if a toy does not work. Or if you look at him funny. It is torture for all around. I really hope this phase stops soon because it is really annoying. He is lucky he is damn cute!

Clara has become such a sponge lately. Asking questions about everything and the Whys? never end. She is really into writing right now. She can write her own name, Ellis' name, Mommy, Daddy and Lola taught her how to write Lola and Lolo now. She is asking about so many things it is hard to keep up and sometimes I don't even know the answers. And she is not even FOUR yet! For her birthday, I am going to get her some chapter books so at least we will have something more interesting to read to her!

She is becoming more interested in what other people are doing. How they are different than her or why they do what they do. Her hair has become quite an issue. She wants to wear her hair down a lot now because she notices a lot of other girls do and she wants to do the same. But ever since she saw that one of the mermaids in Ariel's New Beginning has her hair up, I can all of a sudden put her hair up again! A side note on this movie. She loves it and tells EVERYONE that she has a new Ariel movie.

They are beginning to play more together which is so nice. And Clara is always willing to help him out if he needs it. Before school, their favorite thing to do is run in circles around the kitchen to foyer to librarium to dining room and over and over again. It gets their energy out and I can clean up lunch! So far no one has lost an eyeball to running into a piece of furniture.

I dressed myself

Clara really has an opinion now on what she wants to wear. It is just too darn funny but sometimes there is a battle to compromise. For the most part, I let her wear whatever she wants. This could include necklaces, a flower barrette, a headband, butterfly wings, a purse, a feather boa and sparkly shoes. All together. At once. There are certain places where she can't wear these things and thankfully she does not battle me on those. School and Gymnastics are two places where she sort of has to wear the bare minimum. But if we are heading out to the store or basically anywhere at all, she likes to choose her accessories. We get comments. Often. "My, aren't we sparkly today?" or "I see someone dressed themselves!". I love the people that glance and get a chuckle. It makes me happy that my silly daughter can make there day just a little bit brighter. I sort of like it. She is of this awesome age where she is not really that concerned about what is "normal" or what other people think of her outfits. I certainly marvel at the combinations that she comes up with! Maybe she will start a fashion trend :)

Sleep! Please!

Ellis has been learning to talk so fast and so incrementally, it seems like it is not changing when in fact it is changing so fast, I barely even noticed! He understands so much (but his willingness to listen is very fickle). He has a bit of a cold. I ended up taking him to the doctor today to remove that nagging, remember-when-he-had-pneumonia feeling and of course it is just a boring old cold. Not that I am complaining, but it would be nice to get that piece of mind without the 20 dollar co-pay! He did not sleep well at all last night. The poor dear was coughing most the night and the other half of the time he was awake, for some unknown reason, was laughing hysterically at the antics of his pillow and his ducky. And they were deep belly laughs too. It must have been quite a good time! Needless to say, after his his party in the crib, he was tired tonight. We got up into his room before bathtime and he basically was screaming as he was trying to get his trio out of his crib (why, I don't know) of his sleeping loves: Ducky, Bwanky and the newly added, Piwwow. Matt threw him in to see what he would do and he readily accepted the blanket over him and cuddled into his too large for him pillow. He stayed for a little while, moving around, trying to find just the right spot and throwing his blanket over himself, something that I did not know that he did! Every now and then, his little head would pop up and say "Mommy?" just to make sure that I was in my resting spot... his floor. We ended up taking him out and giving him and bath. As soon as we were in his room (and snot suckered the poor kid) he was screaming "SWEEP! PLEASE!". Followed by an even more serious, "CRWIB, PLEASE!". The kid was tired! Now he lays in his crib, not making a peep. And I hope it stays that way until morning. Mid-morning.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEE ON!

Ellis is just really talking. A lot of things are clicking with him and are just flowing out of his mouth. It is funny how he is such a little parrot of Clara. One of his first complete sentences was "I don't like it" as he pushes food away. I know he has heard it from Clara and it is so funny to hear the sentence come out of his mouth. Whenever Clara says something, he often repeats it and says it more than once. Whenever you ask him if he wants to do something, he yells, "I DO!" and I know he got that from Clara.

I am fairly convinced he does not say anything once. Trains have become "Train train". He is good about being polite. He asks for "Help Please" though I am sure he is actually not being polite and he thinks the two words are actually one that gets him what he wants. My latest favorite is "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE ONNNNNNNNNN!" which has to do with his absolute favorite character. He just loves Buzz Lightyear. His tagline is "To infinity and beyond!" and that is how Ellis says it. It is so stinking cute. I know I'll be sad when he starts saying it for real, like when Ducky went from DuDu to Ducky but it is a sign that he is growing older and learning more each day! My boy is almost 2!!!!!