Ice cream treats

One rainy day, we went to Greater's Ice Cream to have a treat and play at Shoots and Scoops, the indoor play area at the ice cream store.  Eliana was so sweet and wanted to share her ice cream with William.  He took a few bites but wasn't that interested in it.  Both kids however, had a great time playing.  William really enjoyed the balls bouncing around.  He would hit the ball and then laugh so loud (see- Bam Bam appears again).  Eliana kept bringing all the balls to him, he would hit them away, and then Eliana would chase them and bring them back.  It was a great way to spend a rainy afternoon.

I went to get napkins and came back to find this.

Hmmm... thinking about it...

No thanks

 

Eliana's ice cream had eyes and a tongue!

Enjoying her ice cream.

Time to play.  Eliana was wearing her princess tutu.

Eliana really wanted William to play with her.

Balls are so fun!

Standing up to play with the baby toys.  Look, William's a doggie.

Clean kids

Somebody loves bathtime

screaming for joy watching water fill the tub

he was having a blast!

I love the smell of my clean boy all lotioned up.

Eliana took a bath too and was cracking me up with her choice of pajama attire.

Messy Children

I was downstairs doing something on the computer while William was napping when I noticed that Eliana was being unusually quiet.  That means trouble.  I came upstairs and found this:

She used fingernail polish to paint her ENTIRE HAND

and the table too

Another messy tale: what childhood is not complete without "baby eating spaghetti" picture?  Especially such a cute baby!

He loves to eat!  Tonight he ate lasagna (not pictured, that's last week's spaghetti picture above), and it was just about the cutest thing I have ever seen.  He pounds his tray and smooshes his food up, then grabs big handfuls to scoop to his mouth.  He has the biggest smile while he chews away.  David started calling him Bam Bam because he just slams his hands down on his food. 

Dance class

Eliana and Adele with Miss Maggie.  They were walking in a circle working on kicks.  Claire is the little girl in dark pink.

 Eliana is taking a new dance class and loving it!  I wasn't sure about signing her up because she didn't like tumbling class at all.  However, when I asked her about it, she was so excited!  She wanted to know if she could go that very day!  I should have known she would like ballet class since she is going to be a ballerina when she grows up!  Eliana has been excited about every aspect of the class from shopping for leotards to getting dance shoes to going to class.  She actually gets ready for the class in a hurry because she can't wait to go (which she never does for anything else) and she will ask me about dance class throughout the week to see when it will be time to go again.  During class, i was really impressed by how well Eliana followed directions and did the dance moves.  Miss Maggie, her instructor is great.  Dance class for 3 and 4 years is probably a little like herding cats, but she is really good at getting the little girls to follow some sort of structure and all participate.  I think it is really neat watching Eliana grow up and develop interests of her own.  I took a lot of art classes and music classes as a kid, which I kind of pictured Eliana doing too.  I would have never though to sign her up for dance class if my friend Melissa (Claire's mom) had not suggested it.  I'm really glad she did.

Eliana pointing her toes and touching her nose to her knees.  Adele didn't want to participate during this part...

She loved it!

9 months old!

Our handsome little man is 9 months old!  We saw the pediatrician last week.  I wasn't sure if it was a well child check up or an ill visit.  William has been fighting a cold and cough for a couple of weeks now.  Actually everyone, except me, has been sick with a cold.  The best part of the doctor's visit was that Eliana had a runny nose and cough, and that morning before breakfast Eliana was painting.  She decided the paper wasn't enough so she painted her face, including painting her nose red.  So there we were at the pediatrician's with Eliana sneezing and snuffing and coughing with a bright red nose.  It looked like she was trying to fake be sick like she was trying to get out of going to school. 

Anyway, William was 19 lb 8 oz (50%) and 28in (25%).  He got his last Hep B shot, which made him miserable.  But he is growing and developing just as he should.  He just started waving "bye-bye" and clapping his hands.  He is so proud of himself for that!  I just keep thinking that in a few short months he will be a year old and not my little baby anymore.  Crazy!

William's face was looking pretty bad at the 9 month check up.  We now think William has eczema which is continually getting infected because it is on his face and always being gooped up with food.  Poor guy!  You can tell it really itches him because he is always rubbing his face on your shoulder when you hold him. 

Happy Easter!

Christ is Risen, Alleluia!

I hope you all had a very Blessed Easter.  Because I had to work on Saturday night, we stayed in Columbus and celebrated together as a family.  I was supposed to work from 7pm to 7am, but the NICU was very busy and short staffed, so I ended up working a 16 hour shift from 7pm to 11am.  I felt horrible for messing up our Easter celebrations as a family, but I had to do what was best for the little babies I care for at work.  David is an amazing man and really made the day special.  He just took over and kept the kids entertained, gave them their Easter baskets, and got them ready for church all by himself.  We went to mass at noon after I got home which went surprising well.  Then I snoozed a little on the couch while Eliana watched her Easter movie, William napped, and David made dinner.  David prepared an amazing Easter feast for us - roast beef, mashed potatoes, rainbow chard, beets, and Yorkshire pudding.  I really think I should be the one who works full time and David be the stay at home parent!  We would definitely eat better.  Despite my bad work schedule, we had a great day!

We met the Easter Bunny at the St. Brendan's Bunny Hop

Both kids really liked him!

Eliana coloring with her friend Claire in the background

My handsome boys on Easter day.

Easter baskets

enjoying some bunny crackers

Eliana is helping William enjoy some bunny crackers

David was quite proud of this meal.

A feast!