Happy Easter!

We spent the long Easter weekend in NH visiting my parents.

MiniM.E. loved being at my parents house.  She thrives on the extra attention and loves the playing with things she hasn't been around in a while.  There's a mini wagon, a rocking horse, a bird feeder with lots of birds to watch, my parents' cat Honey Bunches (the tail is a favorite) and of course, tubes of wrapping paper.

she picked all these up on her own.

The best part of my parents house is the backyard.  And the fact that there are THREE people (four when Bob got there on Sunday) to take her outside to play- which roughly equaled four times the outside time.

MiniM.E. Mommy even got brave and went let her go down the big slide in the backyard all by herself!

Too fun!  Swinging with Grumpy was a close second.

And "jumping off" the deck was definitely up there on the list.

If the swingset in the backyard didn't offer MiniM.E. enough outside time, we also visited a playground to play with MiniM.E.'s "boyfriend" H.

It was so much fun, we went back again on Easter.

Bob had been visiting his parents in NC for his dad's birthday (Happy Birthday Grandpa!) and arrived late Saturday night.

MiniM.E. got a tea set (which she thinks makes coffee) for Easter and it was love at first sight.

And when it came time to hunt eggs, MiniM.E. was a pro!

Happy Easter!

An Early Egg Hunt

Easter isn't here yet but MiniM.E. is ready.  We've been practicing.

Practicing Easter?!?! Well, practicing the egg part.  Opening them.  To get the treats inside.  Like at an Easter Egg Hunt.

Why? Well... it all started with the fuzzy in the bath... 

A couple weeks ago MiniM.E. was in the bath.  She LOVES the bath.  So much that she asks for it in the morning and all through the day until it actually is bath time.  At least, she used to... She would stay in so long that her fingers would get all pruny and she would beg me to "wash it off," which, of course, I couldn't, but laughed at anyway.

So she was in the bath.  With lots of toys.  And bubbles.  And she looks into the water and sees a fuzzy (for those of you not versed in the vocabulary of all things small, dark, and potentially dirty, fuzzy is a piece of lint or cloth, usually the remnants of wearing socks) float by her foot.  I saw her do a double take, but the fuzzy must have floated along under some bubbles.  

Moments later, the fuzzy returned.  MiniM.E. saw it, looked alarmed.  JUMPED up, reached for me stamping and hyperventilating and screamed, "BUG!"

I collected her from the tub, comforted her and said, "Baby, it's just a fuzzy!"  "FUZZY?!?!" She screamed, as though I'd told her it was a baby-eating monster.  "No, it doesn't hurt, it isn't scary, it's just a piece of sock!"  I even took it out to show it to her. 

The damage was done.

The fuzzy incident resulted in almost a week of not bathing followed by a week of bathing in which Mommy had to "get in too".  

I think we're over it now.  Though the occasional, "just fuzzy, piece of sock," can be heard in the midst of some of MiniM.E.'s rambles.

So, to connect fuzzies with Easter, I bought a ton of Easter eggs to put in the bath thinking it would encourage MiniM.E. to jump in (it didn't).  But she did like to play with them OUT of the bath, and is now extremely good at opening them.

Which is why we are so prepared for Easter (Egg Hunting).

Earlier this week we met with some friends for an Easter Egg Hunt at the Spa Park.

ready to hunt!

The girls are still months apart and at this age, you can really tell the difference.

MiniM.E. just wanted to open the eggs.

A. wanted to eat things (eggs, pinecones, but mostly the treats in the eggs)

H. just wanted to collect them.

 They all seemed to have a good time, though with the exception of H., they were more excited to be outside that to actually search for eggs.

the slinky was a big hit

 MiniM.E.'s favorite part of the afternoon was eating snow.

And walking down the hills.

"Come on A.! It's easy!!"

Happy Early Easter!

"Snow Melting!"

Every day since our last snowstorm MiniM.E. looks out the window excitedly and exclaims, "snow melting!"  She might be even more excited about spring than I am...

It has been warm enough to see the snow melting.  But NOT warm enough to play outside ALL day.  So we've been keeping busy...

Practicing our coloring:

wearing the crayon box as a hat

scribble, scribble, scribble!

just a few more... 

checking out the fish outside the Library play room (and taking all the children's books off the shelf):

and having coffee dates with friends:

When it has been nice out, MiniM.E. is putting her rain boots to good use pulling the wagon

stamping the snow

and jumping in puddles!

A Birthday Party!

Last week MiniM.E.'s friend turned one.  Of all birthdays, at least for 15 or so years, the first one is pretty much IT.  So I helped to make it a Dinosaur-tastic day for the birthday boy.

Using the handprints of his friends, I made this to commemorate the day:

**This is primarily a blog about my awesome kid... but just as an advertisement for my kid's awesome mom (i.e., me) I recently updated my website, krisdunhamillustration.com.  Check it out.  And let me know if you need custom childrens' illustration!

And made some cupcakes to go along with it.

This is the birthday boy in his new dinosaur chair.

The birthday boy wasn't feeling so hot (hence the lack of smile).  But the other kids had a great time.  Some weren't into eating cupcakes as much as ribbons...

MiniM.E. had a great time playing with toys and eating the sprinkles off a cupcake.  And wearing her "birthday party outfit" complete with tutu.

(we didn't wear the owl hat at the party)

Happy 1st Birthday S.!

Rainbow Boots

A couple weeks ago during a pre-spring thaw we took a walk at SPAC and MiniM.E. discovered her love of jumping in puddles.

And I discovered that having a change of clothes (including socks) is definitely worth the space it takes up.

Since that day, I made it my mission to find rain boots for MiniM.E. that weren't more expensive than shoes I would buy myself.  Easier said than done.  I finally found some online at the Children's Place and they were on clearance.  Plus a 20% coupon and I was only out $12.

MiniM.E. kept asking to jump in the puddles.  I told her I ordered her some rain boots and they were coming in the mail.  So all weekend she kept saying "rainbow boots comin mail!" "jump puddles!".  So cute.

She was more than a little excited when they finally arrived.  Since she hated wearing winter boots, I assumed she would be excited to see them but I'd never get them on her (part of the reason I couldn't see spending more than $15 or so on a pair), but as soon as we got them out of the box she insisted on wearing them around the house.  Even with a few nasty spills (they're a bit big and not very flexible) she was still so "'cited!".  I made her a puddle to jump in the backyard.  Not exactly puddle jumping weather, but she didn't seem to mind.

MiniM.E. said "hearing airplane"

"done puddles"

can't go outside with out a ride on the swing!

Just when I thought we were heading for spring and I put the winter coats away and bought rain boots, we got pelted with a huge snowstorm.  When I woke up on Tuesday to a foot of snow, I was a little upset that it wasn't 50 and sunny.  But at least we got one more day to play in the snow.

yum!

huh, that's pretty tasty

too cold!

Just waiting on spring...