Easter 2011

We had a fantastic Easter! The kids woke up ready to hunt for eggs.  

Holden was super-psyched to collect the eggs.

And even more super-psyched to find out what was inside the eggs.

CANDYYYYYY!!

We got dressed for church...

Tried to pose for a picture - had mild success.

Then went to Nan's house for dinner.

And the highlight of the day was, of course, everyone getting to hold Blake.

And for the first time Holden really seemed to pay attention to Blake - which is awesome because I have some pretty high hopes that these kiddos will be best buds in the months to come.

They even played together. Maybe. Kind of.

 

Well...maybe "play" is a bit strong - but they acknowledged each other. And we all got a kick out of it.
So that was our Easter!

Red Sparkly Shoes

Reason #437 why I adore my husband. Joe doesn't cringe when Holden decides that, well, he really wants to wear Scarlett's red sparkly shoes.

In fact, not only does Joe not cringe - he runs and grabs the camera.

sneak peek

 Here is a sneak peek at Scarlett's dance recital costume. We got to try them on at the studio this morning. You have no idea how happy this made, well, BOTH of us. (I almost cried.)

"Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What do you Hear?"

"I hear a Flamingo fluting in my ear."

Scarlett's class put on a play tonight. They performed the book "Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What do you Hear?" Scarlett was cast as the Flamingo. She rocked it. Totally rocked it. Here she is practicing before we left for the show.   

Nan came with us which made Scarlett very happy!

Here is Scarlett's class walking into the dressing room (i.e. classroom) to get into their costumes.

And - here is the performance! 

Look at how focused she is! She kept still and kept in character the entire time she is up there. And she is the only kid that I could hear or understand. And she totally knew her line - "I hear a zebra braying in my ear." She didn't even need to look back to SEE the next animal to remind her of her line - she knew it! I am so proud of her!

Good job, Goose!!

Happy boy

Wait for it...

Wait for it...

ROOOOAAARRRR!!!

Hee hee hee.



Meet Puppy

Hello, folks. I would like to introduce you to Puppy.

See...Puppy is Holden's best bud. Holden seriously loves Puppy - he sleeps with him every single night. (Except for one night when Puppy was in the washing machine and, well, we'll just say it wasn't a good night for any of us. Except maybe Puppy....because he was no longer covered in vomit.) The story of how Puppy came to live with us is an interesting one - especially considering how much Holden adores him. It all started at IKEA about 3 years ago.

(fade into black. Scene opens on a mom and dad pushing 1-year old girl in an IKEA shopping cart.)

Joe and I had brought Scarlett to IKEA for a shopping trip. She must have been about 1. And we were pushing her in a shopping cart. We love IKEA - no question about it. And this trip was no different than any other. We ate. We let Scarlett play in the kid area. We gave her a stuffed toy to hold (Puppy), a toy that Joe would casually sneak out of the cart before we got up to the cash registers, and we went shopping.

Scarlett and Puppy really hit it off. So much so that when we did get up to the cash register, there was no sneaking Puppy out of the shopping cart casually. It was more like "pry the fingers of a screaming 1-year old off of Puppy and get the heck out of there quick before someone calls child services." Only that didn't quite happen. I caved. You see, Scarlett really seemed to love Puppy and I couldn't be the one to break up what would obviously be a lifelong friendship. She was thrilled when I bought Puppy. And when Scarlett got to the car she threw Puppy on the ground and never looked at him again. Ever. Puppy (who, actually, wasn't even CALLED Puppy yet - no one had taken the time to name him) stayed at the bottom of a toy chest for over a year.

And then came Holden. Holden scooped Puppy up and loved him more than he's ever been loved before. And it's so funny to me because there isn't this romantic story to go along with Puppy. He wasn't given to Holden when Holden was born. He wasn't some fancy stuffed animal from F.A.O. Schwartz. Puppy was some random stuffed animal we grabbed at IKEA to occupy our daughter while we were shopping and, quite frankly, Puppy almost went to Goodwill numerous times. But what is one child's trash is another child's treasure. And while I wish Joe and I had come up with a better and more original name than Puppy, I'm happy Puppy is in Holden's life. And so is Holden. And instead of staying at the bottom of the toy chest for years, Puppy is at the head of Holden's bed being loved every single day...and, only occasionally, thrown-up on.

Bubbles and Tattoos

All boy

Holden is big. Joe and I are okay with that (not like we have any choice in the matter).

For those of you who don't get to see him on a regular basis, he's is very proportionate...but he is proportionately massive. He is 95th percentile across the board for height, weight and head circumference. (And, to let you know, they stop measuring at 95th percentile.) Yesterday, I had three strangers tell me Holden was going to be a football player. (I'm not even kidding. It happened once at his swim class, once at the library and once at Ikea.) He's just flat out big. 

So, being the big beefcake bruiser that he is, it should come as no surprise that he is going to get hurt. What does come as a surprise is how well he handles it.

Exhibit A: Giant gash on cheek.

We aren't even sure how he got this one. We left him alone for about 5 minutes and when we walked back into the room he was playing with his toys with a massive and deep gash on his face (that may, unfortunately, have scarred because the remnants are still there). He never even made a peep when it happened. All smiles, this kid.

Exhibit B: Holden's first black eye.

This one was scary. Holden was standing on the couch (which, I know, sounds like a horrible idea but can be completely unpreventable with an almost 2 year old) and he fell forward and landed on the corner of coffee table. His eye did, anyway. He cried for no more than 10 seconds, and went right back to clambering all over everything while his eye almost swelled shut and turned an impressive shade of purple.

So, I guess this is all part of having a beefcake bruiser of a baby boy. Outside of a few minor incidents with his sister, Holden has yet to use his size in an aggressive manner. We're hoping it stays that way...until it's football time, anyway.

Field Trip to Maritime Aquarium

Scarlett's class took a field trip to The Maritime Aquarium recently. I signed up to be a chaperone. It was pretty adorable. Scarlett was very excited when her friend, Mia, was assigned to be her "field trip buddy." Can you tell? 

The kids all got their museum "licenses" which they wore around their necks and got stamped at all the learning stations the museum had set up.

And, of course, we saw fish.

And turtles.

And completely took over this fishing boat for about 15 minutes.

A fishing boat totally manned by 3 to 5 year olds? Very successful indeed.

See? Told ya. After about 5 minutes on the boat, Scarlett even managed to start to look like a fisherman.

Then we walked to the Penguins.

Which may have been everyone's favorite.

Just may have been.  

Yay Maritime Aquarium!