It's official! Spring is here!!

We had another great week of playgrounds, playdates, and gardening!!

The kids have really been enjoying the kitchen set that Abby let us bring back to AL! Leo loves it more than Olivia, I think. He entertains himself for fives of minutes at a time in this thing! Sometimes I hear him laughing about something he is doing in there and check on him to find him putting his pink spoon in a jug or taking the lid off a pot. We haven't quite decided where to put it yet, so it is set up by the front door in the great room. I like it there for the kids to play with near me, but it is in the middle of everything!

I had a small pseudo-Kindermusik playdate here on Thursday, and I think it went pretty well! We made drums from canisters and then had 30 minutes of structured sing/dance/activity time. Here is where the kids were going on "hayrides" for one of your songs.

We hit our playground several times. Leo is getting adventurous and climbs onto the see-saw himself. He also gets into and out of the playground on his own, which he finds hilarious.

Olivia has been using the black barrier to the playground as a balance beam and did great, except when I wanted to take a picture. She saw a huge bee there the other day, though, and is afraid to go back. Ugh.

So, today, we made the trek to the Riverwalk playground, and it was great! Very age appropriate play equipment, shaded, beautiful scenery, and Daddy met us there after work! Wonderful! 

And here are some silly Leo photos:

Just hanging out reading a book before school with his spoon in his lap. I did not pose him.

He found his paci in the afternoon and decided to hold it like a cigarette. He cracks me up.

After dinner, Olivia had ice cream. I gave Leo a spoon with some on it for a taste. He walked over to my shoe and put it in there instead! Yuck!

This weekend, Nicholas started cleaning out the garage on Saturday, and I cleared a space in the garden for planting the zinnia seeds Olivia and I had bought a month ago. After Olivia's nap, she danced and sang, "I'm so excited to see if my zinnias have grown!" Then she was disappointed that they had not! So, we went to Lowes and bought some seedlings to plant, too. Here is our garden so far! And some playtime fun after the planting!

Bed time stories

On of my favorite parts of the day is bedtime for babies. I love the routine that Nicholas and I have gotten into with the kids: dinner, bubbles and dancing, bath, snacks, story time, brushing teeth, and bed time. All four of us are often on the couch together. Other times Nicholas reads to Olivia there while I read to Leo on the floor. Tonight, Leo shoved onto my lap while I was reading to Olivia. Nicholas took some pictures of us on the couch tonight.  I love my little family of four. I really am so grateful for them.

My child, too!

My mom sent me this photo of me when I was around Olivia's age. Even though I was fatter than Olivia is, I see the resemblance! Hooray! Nicholas's side of the family swears that she looks just like he did. It's good to have a little proof that she looks a bit like me, too!

Spring Break! Woo hoo!

We spent the first weekend of Spring break at home getting ready for our trip on Monday. Nicholas was sick, and I was on the verge, but we pressed on for our trip to Kentucky, Indiana, and Missouri. The trip up was a little rough since Olivia did not nap at all and Leo only got an hour nap for the entire day. But, we made it to Mom's house and were greeted by the smells of homemade bread (thanks, Mom!) and the sounds of cousins ready to play! Olivia and Leo LOVE Craig and Abby!

Unfortunately, I did not get any pictures of the trip from Monday through Saturday. I'll give a quick recap, which you can skip, but I will write down since this really is kind of my diary:

Tuesday: We visited Mutti's place for a while. She had lots of presents waiting for the kids--Easter baskets, a doll named Kissy for Olivia, a Lego set for Leo, stickers, candy, and other fun stuff! Leo took a good nap and then woke in a great mood for playing. Olivia played and enjoyed Mutti a lot! We left Nicholas there so that he could spend some time with his mom. The kids and I went back to Mom's house for naps, had dinner on the farm, and had play time with Steph and her kids.

Wednesday: We visited Mutti for a little while, I tried to get Leo to take a nap to no avail, and then we met up with Grandpa Bill at his new old house. The place looks awesome, and we are all excited for he and Tamara to move in so that we can visit and play there. We had lunch with Grandpa Bill at Cafe Lou Lou's, and then the kids had melt downs and we had to go back to the farm for naps. At this point, we realized that Olivia had pink eye. The kids played again that evening.

Thursday: Nicholas and I hung out at the farm with Mom, Steph, and Luke until the kids' nap times. Then Nicholas and I drove to St. Louis in Mom's big truck with a load of baby stuff for Heidi. The drive was a nice time for Nicholas and I to visit since we rarely get that much adult time to just talk. We met up with Heidi and Alex that evening, got a tour of the house, and went to a great pizza place for dinner. We celebrated Nicholas's tenure promotion with dessert!

Friday: I slept in late! Then Heidi and I ran some errands, took naps, and got my hair cut at her usual place that specializes in curly hair: Bouffant Daddy! It was great, and I even learned about my hair. That evening, we got ice cream and got a tour of their neighborhood: Webster Groves. We also returned the curtain rods for their baby's room and got the right size ones. Alex made dinner in that evening, and we relaxed and talked until my bedtime. What a great visit!

Back on the farm, the kids were playing! Stephanie kept Abby home from school to play. They put on caps, and Olivia said they looked like farmers! Then they went to Grandma Clara's to play with the baby ducks...they were bigger than babies, thankfully, since my two were a little rough with them! They even fed chickens, which Olivia loves to do! Later they played show horse on the trampoline and took turns telling each other what to do: gallop, trot, reverse, jump, etc. 

  

Saturday: Nicholas and I drove back to the farm a little later than we meant to. Olivia spent most of the time we were gone at Steph's house playing with Abby and my cousin Justin's daughter Lilly. Leo hung out with Mom. They all did great! Saturday they went to our little town's Easter Egg hunt, too. I don't think Olivia missed us. On the second night, Leo cried and Mom came in to check on him. She said that he looked at her like, "Oh. It's you again." Leo was happy to see us! We had dinner at Steph's that evening and played with the kids outside. 

Sunday: The Easter bunny came! I finally got some pictures. Steph set up an Easter egg hunt at Mom's house and the kids collected A LOT of eggs! Here are some pictures from that:

And later that day, on the way home, Leo took two naps. 

Nap one:

Nap two:

Which, thankfully, coincided with Olivia's nap:

And we found out that Leo loves milkshakes! He has his momma's sweet tooth!

"The best part of the whole year!"

Olivia declared that dying Easter eggs was the best part of the whole year when we did it two weekends ago. I boiled six eggs, thinking that I didn't care to have a bunch of boiled eggs to eat. We ended up doing it again the next day because Olivia loved it so much. I must say, she was more patient than I ever was! These eggs have some vibrant color because she allowed them to stay in the dye so long!

The first batch: We cut out some animal bodies off the back of an Easter cookie box. Olivia found a ribbon for the one leftover.

The second batch: After reading a Max and Ruby story, Olivia wanted to put macaroni faces on the eggs, but that was more difficult than it sounded. We made a queen (back left) and a princess (front right), a bunny (middle left) and a cat (front left), and two other random ones.

This is Olivia's silly face before we got started decorating the dyed eggs.

It's official!! Nicholas has tenure!!

Nicholas got word from the university today that he has been tenured!! He heard from the dean over a month ago, but the official letter came today. We had a cake a month ago. Today, since I had about twenty minutes notice, he got a banner, which you can hardly see in this picture. Olivia decorated it with random stickers, and she drew a 1 and a cross "like the mean men put Jesus on." Oh, my. But that is for another post.

Congratulations, Nicholas! You deserve it! It has been a labor of love!!

Just another afternoon at our house!

In Leo's Kindermusik class this term, there is a song about a hayride. The kids love to take (and give) hayrides while I have that song on repeat! Olivia was really only strong enough to pull Leo in circles (He is 24 lbs and she is 33 lbs as of Tuesday at the doctor.) Olivia later pulled her dolls around in the basket. On a side note, she has never been really into her baby dolls. She only has two. The other day she and I were playing while Leo was napping. I asked her what we should name her dolls. She looked at one and said, "Pork." I couldn't help but laugh. Then she named her other one, "Baker Pie." Then she decided that the first one should be named "Baker Pie Two." The names stuck and that is what we are calling these poor dolls! (I know why she is naming her dolls after food. A few weeks ago, we checked out a Strawberry Shortcake book from the library and all the characters had the names of food: Strawberry Shortcake, Blueberry Muffin, Plum Pudding, etc.)

Leo did a pretty good job with his first real finger painting experiment today. He didn't eat it, which was success in my book! A lot of it got on his tray, but since everything was washable, it was okay.

We didn't head to the playground this afternoon as we have most days lately because Leo has just not been feeling great. I took both kids to the doctor Tuesday because Olivia has had a cough that worsens at night for over a month. Leo just started a cough last week and his ears are draining some super nasty stuff. The doctor put Olivia on Zyrtec for possible allergies and Leo on ear drops. I have a script for antibiotics if his ears don't stop running tomorrow. She said that he would definitely have had another ear infection if he didn't have the tubes in, so I am (again) glad we went ahead with that.

In other news about the kids, Leo has lost five toddler spoons now. He carries them around with him like a security object. He takes a pink one to school, to the playground, and often to bed. I am going to have to buy more, which is easier said than done given that I can't seem to find three packs of the ones he likes, just the cutlery sets--he doesn't need a knife and fork to walk around with, too. He would be happy to do it, but I take those away. He has taken to going to the dishwasher and pulling out the spoon he likes. Monday he took a dirty spoon to school--it had Nutella on it and was gross, but I figured if it made him happy, I could endure the judgement.

Olivia has been going through a scared stage--she was afraid of the TV because a commercial (for paper towels) about a kids' science project spurting ketchup all over the kitchen got everything messy, she gets afraid of books--Berenstein Bears, Dr. Suess, etc. pretty easily if something is "not nice", and she was afraid of pooping on the potty because the water splashed her (so she would tell me when she had to go, we put her diaper on, she went, and then we changed it). I am happy to report that I think that we are starting to exit the scared stage!! Olivia is pooping on the potty with no problems for about three weeks now. She will watch our TV occasionally. And two nights in a row, she told me she had good dreams about me! Hooray!

Today I realized that I can finish this sentence of Olivia's every time: Let's go to my room, and ... "put on my fanciest gown!"