Happy Easter, happy spring!

Oh, Eden, we miss you!

We were lucky enough to have my niece here for most of her spring break last week. Cece was crushed when we dropped Eden back off at the aiport for her flight home. Fortunately, we'll get to see her again in just two months when we head to Yosemite together. But I suppose to a 4-year-old, those two months will pass a lot slower than they will for an old fogey like me. ;)



Poor Eden was unlucky enough to catch a miserable cold from Marino during her visit (and then Nico caught it, too) -- so her vacation ended up being a lot more low-key than we'd anticipated. Most days she and I would stay up far too late (except for those nights when I accidentally fell asleep while putting Cece to bed!) and since she was sick and is free from parental responsibilities, she had the luxury of sleeping in until well into the afternoon ... usually just as Nico was going down for a lengthy nap. None of this was very conducive to getting out & doing much of anything. But we DID manage to get some scrapbooking done like we'd hoped, had some good talks, and took plenty of pictures. :)



We also had an early Easter egg hunt last Thursday after staying up till after midnight coloring the eggs the night before. Can someone please explain to me why every last one of the 36 we dyed ended up with two horizontal white rings around them? I seriously need to google that. I've never had that happen before. Nico is still too young to help "shoot the eggs" but Eden and Cece had a great (though intensely competitive) time scouting them out.



"Shoot the eggs" is our little inside joke. Back when I was about Cece's age, I went to my first Easter egg hunt at my grandmother's house. All week leading up to Easter my mom had been telling me how much fun I'd have at the hunt -- but apparently didn't give too many specifics. So Easter day we were all over at Grandma's, eating & visiting, and I piped up with, "So when are we gonna shoot the eggs?" :)



Guess who's eight months old today? Yep. The sick little boy in our house. The poor baby's got SUCH a cough & his nose just won't stop running. Benadryl and the cool-mist humidifier seemed to help him sleep much better last night -- but we'll all be glad when this bug moves on.



For such a little boy, he's amazingly daring & brave. He'll try to climb anything, and doesn't flinch if he takes a fall or bonks the crap out of his forehead (which he does several times a day). We keep joking that we should've named him George -- as in Curious George. But if you wanna scare the crud outta him, turn on the vacuum. The kid is terrified of them. Most every parenting book I've ever read has touted the calming effect of the white noise of a vacuum; but my kids are not your typical kids. (Yes, Cece was vacuum-phobic, too.) Poor Nico literally trembles with fear and emits the most ear-piercing, plaintive screams whenever I turn on the Hoover. Unless he outgrows this fear soon, I can see it working to my advantage during the terrible twos ... "Nicolas, stop hitting your sister. Don't make me get the vacuum!" (Before anyone calls CPS, I'm only kidding!)



The Easter bunny mercifully brought only candy, books, and gardening tools for the kids -- no vacuums. Not even a Dirt Devil. (Phew!) Cece was excited to find her basket this morning, and spent time counting the precise number of bags of Jelly Bellys, chocolate robin eggs, and whopper eggs she received, while Nico was happy just to chew on his plastic garden trowel. :)



Oddly enough, it SNOWED here the night before last. It's already melted, but today was a very cold Easter. I knew it was bound to turn cold again as soon as I saw Marino putting all our winter coats away for the season. What was he thinking? He'd better not even THINK about setting up the hammock! ;)

Happy Easter, happy spring -- cold as it may be today.

Just pics

My two sweeties

Cece Grace


Nico & Daddy


Swinging on a spring-like day

Chillin'

I'm a big boy. I'll get my own toys.

Come HERE, dump truck!

Proud of (and pretty in) her new dress

Playin' dump truck

Hey, you have some hair that needs pullin'

More Cheerios, please!

Why do you make me wear these, Mom?

Our little bear all bundled up

Sitting pretty

Look what I made on my Lite Brite!

Look close & you'll see my 1st tooth!

Whatchya doin', Mom?

Days of Our Kids' Lives

Sheesh, six months since I last posted ALREADY?

It's late, I'm tired, but I desperately want to let everyone know I haven't been intentionally neglecting this blog. It's just hard finding time. But now that I've got my new laptop (happy birthday to me from Marino), I'm hoping it'll be easier. (Case in point: I'm typing this from the comfort of the "chair and a half" in the living room while everyone else is sound asleep.)

Cece is officially four and a half now, which, as we've learned, is old enough to fall in love. Yes, you read that right. Our conversation went a little something like this:

Mom, when I get married, can I wear your wedding dress?

Sure, honey. I would love that.

And can I break the law and throw rose petals like you did, too?

You betchya.

I want to wear my hair up like this (pulling her hair up on top of her head with a few strands hanging down).

Don't worry, you've got plenty of time to grow up, meet a nice man, fall in love and plan your wedding.

But Mom, I'm already in love!

Oh, really? With who?

Jack P.!

And how do you know you're in love?

Because of his cute little laugh!

Which, I gotta say, is about the best reason I can think of to love someone.

Cece and Jack P. recently had a playdate together at our house. Here's a pic of the momentous day:
Jack P., by the way, has been the only Jack at her school ever since Jack A. moved away last summer -- but to every kid there, he's still Jack P. ;)

But it doesn't end there. Just the other night at the dinner table Marino and I were talking to Cece about the importance of being polite to people -- especially people you care about. She chimed in with, "Yeah, I know. Jack P. and I almost broke up the other day because I was being rude to him. But thank goodness later that afternoon we got back together."

Um, yeah. She's 4 1/2! Since when did watching Days of Our Lives become part of the accepted Montessori teaching method? I don't even think they have a television at the school ... I seriously need to check on this. ;) But honestly, I guess I shouldn't be surprised that my daughter is boy-crazy already. My cousin Brandy and I used to organize throngs of girls in our preschool class to tackle and hold down the object of our 4-year-old desire, Danny, every recess so we could cover him in kisses. So yeah, she comes by this stuff naturally.

Meanwhile, the littlest boy in our household isn't so little anymore. Nico is 7 months old today! He's now eating baby food, crawling, beginning to pull up and cruise, and just two days ago his lower-left front tooth broke through the gums. (The lower-right should be through any time now, too.) He babbles and laughs all day long -- especially at his big sister -- and is still our easy-going, happy boy.

Ah, but he has such determination and persistence! He often grunts and growls at his toys, and gets visibly (and audibly) pissed if he's unable to master something on the first try. When Cece was a baby, I remember it being easier to distract her. If she wanted to play with a forbidden object, you could show her another toy and she'd forget about the other. Not Nico. In a room full of toys, he wants the remote control, the telephone, our shoes and socks (the dirtier the better), the CDs, Dad's can of Coke Zero, the laptop, and the electrical cord. I've told Cece that we don't need a puppy -- we have Nico. He wrestles our shoes while rolling on the floor with them and growling, just like a puppy would. Fortunately, since he's virtually toothless (for now), our shoes make out better than they would with a puppy, though.

He crawls or leaps head-on into furniture like a pigeon flying into a window. He's currently got two bruises on his forehead and a scrape beneath his nose. I have a feeling he's going to be one of those kids who's always sporting a cast ...

He discovered the stairs tonight. I'll be VERY surprised if they aren't the first thing he crawls over to tomorrow morning.