"Eatin' fishies!!"

Joe and I took different cars to work this morning. I had to go to work early so Joe dropped Scarlett off at daycare. We ended up passing each other while driving on the highway. Seeing mommy is pretty amazing enough, but seeing mommy driving next to daddy's car waving like a maniac is apparently just about the most amazing thing to a toddler. The most amazing thing ever. Joe and I drove side by side for a few miles. I could see that Scarlett was ecstatically saying something, but I obviously couldn't make it out. After a few minutes, the cars had to go their separate ways.

Joe called me after he had dropped Scarlett off, and he was in hysterics. Scarlett had been eating a bag of Goldfish crackers while they were driving and, turns out, she had been saying something to me in passing. Apparently while we were driving side by side Scarlett was actually yelling at the top of her lungs to me as if I could hear her. What was she screaming, might you ask?

"MOMMY I'M EATIN' FISHIES! MOMMY! MOM! SCARLETT'S EATIN' FISHIES!! MOMMY FISHIES, FISHIES!!!"

That's my Bubsy.

Dinner and ice cream

Sunday night we went out to dinner, outside dinner might I add, with Carson and his family. It was so nice to be sitting outside. Like...so incredibly nice. We ate dinner, and then got ice cream, and then we just continued to sit there for a little while longer because that's just how nice it was. Scarlett and Carson both had ice cream cones. Though...you might not be able to tell that Scarlett was eating ice cream from these adorable pictures that Val took. If you look very closely, you can see a smear of vanilla ice cream on her chin. I'm not kidding. It's there. And if you look very closely at Carson, you can see a smear of vanilla ice cream...umm, just about everywhere. Seriously folks. Is he all boy, or what?Scarlett obviously doesn't hold the messy eating thing against Carson. At all. She jumped at the opportunity to share some of Carson's ice cream when he so sweetly offered it to her.

And, of course, she copied him and offered some right back.

Val and I have taken a liking to the term "Scarson" when referring to our kids. They've been dating for about a year and a half now, so they deserve a celebrity nickname, right? Brangelina got one after about 2 months. And honestly, we see so much of Carson that dropping two syllables will make my life quite a bit easier. So that's that. They're Scarson. And, honestly, it's scary how well it works.

Josie turns 3!

Sunday we went to Josie's third birthday party. (To see last year's party, click here.) It was so much fun! Scarlett gets the whole "party" thing now. In fact, after Josie's party, Scarlett has talked almost non-stop about her party which is coming up in about 2 weeks. When I told her that Joe had school last night she started crying because she wanted to play with him at "her party." I reassured her that his class was not 13 days long and that he'd be out in plenty of time to attend the party. What a relief.
Here are some photos from Josie's big day. Scarlett waits patiently for the cake.

And sings "happy birthday happy birthday happy birthday."Miss Josie blowing out the candles.

Good stuff!

Scarlett putting on her "pretty" all by herself. I couldn't have done it any better.

Then came the presents. We got Josie a Play-Doh kitchen set. It sat wrapped on our table for about 3 hours and I'm seriously surprised that the present was still wrapped when we got it to Josie's. Scarlett likes presents. She kept pointing to it and reminding me that it was Josie's present from Scarlett. Scarlett wanted to help Josie open her presents which got to be a little troublesome. We actually witnessed Scarlett throw herself on the floor for the first time while having a fit. I was so proud. She had really good form. Josie got a big girl bike. She very kindly let Scarlett sit on it. Scarlett made sure that she put on Josie's new helmet too before getting on.

I told Scarlett that she should say thank you to Josie for letting her sit on the brand new bike, to which Scarlett replied "thank you for my bike Josie!" Sigh.

We had a lot of fun! Same time next year Josie!

A beautiful day

Saturday was such a beautiful day. The only time we were indoors was for nap time. We started the day at the Beardsley Zoo. Scarlett rode the carousel with Joe. She is quite possibly the only child I know who gets excited about riding the bench on the carousel. Scarlett and Joe also got a close look at some prairie dogs. They had to go back into the tunnel about 4 times because Scarlett fell in love with the little critters.

After the zoo we went to the playground at Beardsley Park and played. Then we fed ducks. There are no pictures of the ducks because, quite frankly, the ducks could have cared less about the bread we brought for them. It was very unexciting. We gave up and let Scarlett eat the leftover roll on the way home. It was actually far more entertaining, and was definitely done in a desperate attempt to keep her awake for the car ride home. Whenever she falls asleep in the car around nap time she never falls back asleep once she gets into the house. She lost interest in the roll, so Joe gave her his phone. Check out the look on her face. Tired?
Quite possibly.Ummm...definitely.

After Scarlett woke up we brought her to the beach. She was in heaven. In fact, we couldn't get her to leave. She loved the "wa-dee" (water).And the sand.
After the beach we went to a burger joint on the water and actually ate dinner outside. Can you believe it?! It was great. In fact, the whole day was great. As we were finishing dinner and getting ready to go home, Joe and I came to the realization that this might be one of the last few family days we spend as a family of three instead of four. One day I'll be showing Scarlett these very pictures explaining to her that her baby brother was born about 3 weeks later. If even possible, it made me enjoy the day just that much more.

Some new activities

Scarlett got some fun stuff in her Easter basket last week. She got some magic finger paints from Nan. They're magic because they only show up on the special paper, and not on everything else. This "magic" aspect is far more impressive to me than it is to Scarlett. The clean-up is wonderful. Mainly because it's almost non-existent. Needless to say, Scarlett loves painting with them. We've hung the pictures on the fridge and she keeps pointing at them saying "I made that." Yes, Bubsy. Yes you did.

Now be warned. This is a boring video. Every once in a while I will post something that is far more impressive to Joe and I than I'm sure it is to all of you. But humor me. We got Scarlett this bead threading kit and she is doing very well with it. Now don't take your bead threading skills for granted. It is actually a pretty complex task. Of course, Scarlett has gotten to the point where our excitement and encouragement embarrasses her. If you listen in the beginning of the video, she asks us to "stop it mama and dada."

The difference between moms and dads

I came across an article recently that discussed how children with nasal allergies have a tendency to incessantly play with their nose. They lift it up, or push it down, or shift it side to side. I mentioned this to Joe. I brought up the scientific reasoning behind the fact. I showed valid concern that maybe it was time to have Scarlett re-evaluated for allergies/asthma because she has been playing around with her nose a lot lately. This is what he said.
"Lauren, the kid likes to pick her nose. Leave her and her 'boogie-nose' alone. Let her pick it."
And there it is, folks. That is the difference between moms and dads - at least in our house. Complete and total paranoia on one end perfectly balanced with the belief that nothing is ever wrong. Ever. And you know what? It works. And you know what else? We've got a nose picker on our hands.

A weekend FULL of Easter egg hunts

Oh man did we have fun this weekend. Every time we turned around there was an Easter egg hunt there waiting for us. Scarlett and Carson were pro hunters by Sunday.
Saturday morning, we went to an egg hunt on the New Haven Green. Well...I guess it was more of a candy hunt since there were no eggs involved. Actually, it was more of a candy scramble because there was no hunting involved. Who am I kidding - it was a roped off patch of grass strewn with candy...but Scarlett loved it. Here's a picture of Scarlett and Joe right before the scramble started. Scarlett's making her "game face."She was quite proud of her "Pinker Bell" bucket. And was, for the moment, very excited that Mr. and Mrs. Easter Bunny showed up on a fire truck.She got the hang of grabbing candy pretty quickly.I thought she might get trampled, but as it turns out 2-4 year olds are not as vicious as I thought. Scarlett was on a roll, until...

The second I saw that Easter Bunny walk into the candy pit I knew there was going to be trouble. In fact, you can hear me say in the background "uh oh...the bunny's in here." Little did I know they would have such an encounter. Poor kid. After the trauma had subsided, I took a peek in Scarlett's bucket and saw this...

Seriously. There were candy eggs of every color spread out in the grass. There were Twizzlers and Tootsie Rolls and Snickers and this is what she decided she wanted. I guess Scarlett has a favorite color. And it happens to be pink. Tinker Bell, dress-up, doll houses, and now pink - I have to admit - I didn't see this whole girly thing coming. If you'd asked me 6 months ago, I'd have called her a toddler tomboy.
After the New Haven Green hunt we went to Scarlett's friend Pippi's house for another egg hunt. Pippi knows the deal. She had REAL eggs (and by real I mean the plastic real kind). It was at Pippi's that Scarlett realized just how awesome these eggs really were. They open...and there's stuff inside. And the stuff is edible. And delicious. (Except for yellow and black jelly beans. Scarlett does not like those. At all. I caught about 5 black and/or yellow jelly beans in my hands as Scarlett was trying to spit them out...on the living room floor.) On Sunday, Scarlett and Carson went to the Easter egg hunt at our church. (To see last year's church egg hunt, click here. It's amazing how much changes in a year.)Much to my dismay, Scarlett did not want to participate in this adorable photo op with the other kids from the church. In fact, she screamed when I put her next to the other kids. I took the photo anyway even though she's not in it...in spite? Maybe.There were about 15 kids and 400 eggs so Scarlett did particularly well at this hunt. With a little help from mommy. After the hunt Scarlett was very excited to play on the playground. She seriously went down this slide about 30 times.

At around the 27th time she went down the slide, she started to get a little more bold. See me on the side of the slide in mid-step with my hand extending out? I actually had to catch her ankle to prevent her from shooting right off the end of the slide.

Then it was story and snack time. I guess Scarlett must be accustomed to the words "snack time" from daycare because we never refer to it as "snack time" at home. She was playing on the slide and heard "snack time" and just as I was thinking "oh yeah...like she's gonna leave the playground for snack time" she took off and left the playground for snack time. Very quickly in fact. Carson and Scarlett sat and listened to the story.

Then (after a brief moment of utter confusion as we tried to determine who was going to hold who's hand) we walked over to church for the service.

Yay Easter egg hunts!!