Easter 2017

David and I both had Easter off this year, so we got to spend it with our families in Indianapolis.  First the kids and I dyed Easter Eggs at home.  It went much better this year than last although we still had several dropped and broken eggs.  My cousin Melissa also gave us two egg cartons full of blown-out eggs.  Because these eggs are hollow with a couple of holes in them, after they are dunked in dye, they drip water.  William thought it was like the eggs were peeing.  For several days after egg dying, he went around saying "I'm an Easter egg! I pee on you! Psssss!"

Will ended the egg dying by putting his egg in the trunk of this car and driving it around the kitchen.

 We spent Saturday with my family at a park, then the kids woke up Easter morning to find their Easter baskets! There was lots of candy, stickers, and gold fish!

Can you tell what was the best part of the basket?

We went to mass with my family Easter morning.  Good looking crew if I do say so myself!

 And for this post's episode of Who Wore It Best?

 Eliana 2012 (4 months)                            Laney 2017 (6 months)

Easter Egg hunt with the cousins, aka my kids versus the 1 year olds!

Eliana got the most eggs by far.

Will tried to play a trick on everyone - he would find the eggs, open them up to take out the candy, and then drop the empty egg back on the ground.

Hannah with her daddy.

Checking out her candy.

Swinging with cousin Claire.

Fun!

William and his Godfather were twins!

After the egg hunt, we went to David's parent's house for some Easter ham with all of his family.  The kids really enjoyed visiting their furry cousins Mindy the dog and Tracey the cat.  We had a lovely time and enjoyed seeing so many family members.

Happy Easter season everyone!

VIP night

Every year Eliana's preschool has VIP night.  On this night, the school plans something special for the preschoolers to bring a parent or VIP to.  Last year was Carnival night, and David was able to attend with her.  This year VIP night was a dance.  Girls were supposed to bring their dads and boys were supposed to bring their moms.  Unfortunately, VIP night was in March, when David was super busy and worked most nights until 7pm or later.  When I told Eliana I was going to be her VIP, she was pretty upset.  "I already told my teachers I am going to bring my dad!!" she wailed.  I reassured her that I was allowed to go since her dad was working.  Eliana had to check with her teachers, but then was okay with the idea.  The dance was really cute and actually pretty fun.  They had an ice cream sundae bar and light up rings for all of the kids. Most of the girls were dressed up in fancy dresses, and all the kids were hopping around to the music.  Lucky Eliana got to bring along some extra special VIPs - her younger brother and sister as well. 

All dressed up for the dance.

William and Eliana dancing along with their friends Adele and Hannah, and their VIP their dad Rick. Pretty darn cute!!

Ice Cream Sundae Bar.  William was following Adele around the whole dance.  If you asked, William would probably tell you that Adele is his best friend.  She usually lets him play with them even when his sister is not so excited about it.  William was also very into the dancing - he couldn't stand still, even while eating his ice cream.  He definitely had a blast.

Best friends!

After we got home from VIP night, Eliana requested to stay in her dress until David got home.  She didn't want her dad to miss out on the dance.  When he got home, Eliana turned on the CD player so that she and William could dance with their other favorite VIP.  This was a really sweet moment.

Spring Break 2017!

In March, for Eliana's spring break, we took a trip to Wisconsin to visit my sister Abby and her family.  David was in the middle of one of his busiest months of inpatient service, so we left him to work hard while we partied for Spring Break.  That means I drove the three kids from Ohio through Indianapolis to Wisconsin mostly by myself! Yikes!  We did split the trip up a little though by stopping in Indy to visit grandparents both there and back.  The kids did amazingly well in the van, and luckily Laney slept most of the time.  She travels much better than Eliana did at the same age.

Abby took a few days off of work so we were able to spend lots of time together with her, her husband Mike, and my niece Hannah.  The kids really liked playing with a new set of toys, especially Laney

Laney was just learning how to sit up on her own.  At this point, she still needed something to hold onto to keep from tipping over.

After checking out the toys and the playground, we explored Wisconsin together.  We went bowling at Mike's school (I bet they don't get a lot of toddlers at that particular bowling alley).  Eliana and William really enjoyed themselves.  Hannah wasn't so sure about the whole thing.  Laney slept in my carrier, which added a unique challenge to bowling.

Watching the ball roll slowly down to the pins.

Pretty pumped!  Eliana got to be quite the expert at using the ball ramp.  She figured out that the ramp was not quite straight so you couldn't aim it directly down the middle of the alley.  She had one of the top scores for the game - better than my score!

William had what I called the "Punch Method" for bowling - he put his ball on top of the ramp and then did the double punch to get it down.  Unfortunately, even with two punches, he usually couldn't get his ball rolling fast enough to knock down more than a couple of pins.

Watching very seriously.  The bowling alley (remember, on a college campus) did not have bowling shoes small enough for William so he had to play in his socks.  He also liked to carry his bowling ball himself to the ramp.  There were several near misses on smashed toes, but we managed to have a fun game without any tears.

We had a very busy Saturday in Madison, visiting both a huge cave and the free Madison zoo.  I think both older kids enjoyed the cave although there were a couple of areas of concern.  We learned that this cave had no natural entrance, so there were no bats living there.  However, they did have some very small water insects (I think?) that floated on the cave pools.  Eliana did not want to see those!  Then, at one point in the tour, the tour guide turned the lights off to show how dark the cave was naturally before electrical lighting was added.  William really did not like that part!  Luckily there were several small kids on the tour, so I think the tour guide knew to keep that part very short.  We did enjoy looking at the cave formations and imagining what they looked like (melted ice cream mostly).

The narrowest part of the cave.  Laney and I could not follow the rule of not touching the walls.

See the melted ice cream behind us?

The zoo of course was a hit.  The first animal we saw was a lion, so William spent much of the rest of the time roaring like a lion.  Until we got to the giraffes.  Then he started stretching his neck and chomping his jaws, pretending he was a giraffe.  

"Roooaaaarrr!"

Hannah, William, and Ana.

They had a really cute carousel that Eliana rode twice!  Abby and Hannah also tried it out.  Hannah thought the zebra was no fun at all.

All in all, it was a great spring break trip!

The ride home.  My two tired babies getting ready for a long car nap.

An assortment

More catch up pictures for your enjoyment!

I seem to have a lot of these pictures of Laney in the swing, because she is always laughing and smiling so much in it!  She has so much joy in her heart! When she smiles, her whole face lights up.  She might cry like a banshee sometimes, but she also has the best smile.  She's my sweet Laney Lu.

Found William sleeping like this one night.  Dump trucks make great cuddle toys to sleep with!

Pretty girl!

Story time with my littles.  Laney loved Pat the Bunny, especially the part when you play peek-a-boo with Paul.

Books make me smile!

 Eliana came up with an idea to make squirrel feeder.  She thought that if the squirrels had their own food, maybe they would leave the bird feeder alone.  She described her invention and I used some scrap wood to make a little box that had a side that moved up and down, so that the squirrels could enter the feeder "through the door." She helped with the screws and painted it herself.  Then we put random snacks in it like cranberries, cheerios, peanuts, and almonds.  The next day, most of the food was gone!  The squirrels must have enjoyed their treat.

Eliana and her neighbor friend Violet. They started out painting with paint brushes.  Then it slowly got messier and messier.

And if you have teeth, you should use them!

I don't know if it is the teeth or not, but Laney has always loved to chew on things or put them in her mouth.  She will bite your finger off if you give her the chance.  So I thought she would be pretty excited about starting baby foods.  Boy, was I wrong!  A week before she turned 6 months old, I offered Laney baby rice cereal mixed with breast milk.  In case you don't know, this is a flavorless cereal so it should taste just like breast milk.  What's not to love?

I let her hold onto a spoon so we didn't have to fight over mine.

Taking a few bites

Eliana wanted to get in on the action.

She hated it! She says, "Why are you trying to poison me, mom?"

However, I have found that Laney just doesn't like change and is slow to warm up to new things.  After about 3 tries with the cereal, she realized it was pretty good and now loves it!

Mmmm-mmm!

Up next were more flavors - baby food!  I started with carrots.

Once again, she's not a big fan.

Kind of tolerating it. For a few bites at least.

I have found though that if I keep offering something, she eventually likes it.  So far she has tried carrots, peas, green beans, and apple sauce.  Along with a variety of things she has grabbed off of our plates (which she never really likes).  Now she is a big fan of eating!

I ate all my peas!!

Up next is sweet potato.

To be fair, I could see how eating baby food might be tough.  It is quite a commotion at our house at meal times.  Usually William is a dinosaur and roaring through dinner.  Eliana is yelling at him to stop, and I am trying to keep everyone at the table with their cups upright.  When we feed Laney, this is her view:

You'd probably be scared to eat too!

PS.  This reminds me of a funny story, unrelated to Laney eating.  Last night I made kale for dinner.  Eliana claims she does not like kale, but eats it to make her muscles strong.  Last night while eating it, she declared that she was a giraffe and eating leaves.  William thought that sounded awesome, so he became a giraffe (they were both trying to stretch their necks out really long hahaha), and he asked for kale as well.  They both ate a ton of it!  Every time they would clear their plates, they would ask for more "leaves" because they were hungry giraffes.  By the time David got home from work late, there was hardly any kale left for him.  That is not usually a problem at our house.  We were having such fun at dinner.  What goofy kids I have.  I hope these hungry giraffes return to dinner often!

Look who has teeth!

Little Laney has matched her brother and sister - she got her first tooth two days before she turned 5 months old!  That makes us 3 for 3 on kids getting their first tooth at 4 months (they take after their father).  The second tooth popped through a day later.  Laney was not too happy about the whole ordeal.

See those little bumps on her bottom gum?

It's hard to get a picture of those little suckers.

Here is a more recent picture of Laney - those bottom teeth are much bigger now!  And sharp!

I think she is working on some top teeth now.  I can see them under the gum, but they are quite through yet. I bet soon though.  I blame teething then for our recent bout of non-sleep.  Laney had been waking up every 1-2 hours at night.  I was going crazy.  But the last few days things have gotten better, which is quite a relief.  So maybe the teeth aren't to blame after all?

And what do you do if you have teeth?

Brush them!!