Egg Hunt With the One You Love

Last Friday, we went to an Easter Egg Hunt for our local moms' group. Jacks was SO happy to get to participate, since it was Spring Break, and he couldn't wait to see his best friend, Zoe. Awww!!!

Superheroes!

Gramma made a treasure hunt for the boys to do on Easter, just the way she always used to for Kate and me when we were little. They had to follow little clues on index cards (which Jacks read, impressively). The clues led them around the house until they got to the final stop, in the dryer, of course! Inside, they found superhero capes that I had ordered for them. They were a HUGE hit. :)

Easter Egg Dyeing

Though we missed Daddy very much, the boys and I had fun dyeing (or is it dying? that just looks wrong) eggs this weekend. Cody's favorite color was pink, natch, and Jacks ended up with green fingers because he was just too impatient to use the egg dipper. :) I think they enjoyed using the "magic crayon" most, and waiting to see the invisible image appear once the egg was colored. Somehow I failed to get a picture of all the beautiful eggs once we were done...but trust me, they were a sight to behold!

Build-A-Daddy-Bear (or Puppy and Elephant)

Anthony left yesterday on his long drive to DC. We're not sure when he'll be coming back for a visit, though we know we'll make it happen before too long. Still, we were all very sad to see him go.

So I took the boys to Build-A-Bear yesterday to create their very own Daddy-bears so they'd have something to love on and hug and squeeze when they missed Daddy.

Jacks picked an elephant and Cody went right to the Husky puppy dog. Jacks seemed to know exactly what he wanted his elephant to wear (including a T-shirt with a Jeep that says "Off-Roadin'") and got him dressed with no help with me until the shoes needed tying. :) Cody put his Daddy-Dog in a Spiderman costume...so now he has Spiderdog. And Jacks named his TJ.

To complete the outfits, of course, both animals needed the quintessential Daddy accessory: a guitar.

They had a really good time and both slept with their Daddy-lovies last night.

Jacks and Daddy at the Airplane Museum

Little Boy Blue

Cody in the Driver's Seat

Cody had a blast "driving" the Suburban while we were packing up the garage.

A Visit with Aunt Beth

All 3 of my boys are just in love with their Aunt Beth. Anthony's sister came up on Thursday to help us pack and spend some time with her brother and nephews (and me, too, of course!) before we leave for Washington.

Beth was SOOO good with the boys. She came bearing gifts of Moon Sand, dinosaurs, and model airplanes. She read countless books, including at bedtime when she was dog tired. AND, she didn't mind (too much) when she ended up with more than one little gremlin who crept into her bed in the middle of the night. :)

Cody especially was terribly sad to see her go, and cried big crocodile tears while saying he wanted her to be here all the time. Hopefully she'll come visit us after we move...the boys are already looking forward to it.

Cody and Luke

Jackson's Snail Story

When we came home from school yesterday, Jacks grabbed some paper and asked if he could "cut." I had no idea what kind of project he had in mind, but he was very motivated...so we got out the scissors and he went to town. I had to feed Luke so I left him to it, and about 20 minutes later, he brought me the above masterpiece.

The story read, "One day a snail saw a egg. He thought it was good enough to eat and see what's inside." (punctuation and spelling corrected by me LOL)

One of the things his teacher suggested we do at home to practice reading/writing was to have him draw a picture and then write a story about it...and he did this one all on his own! I'm so proud. :)

A Visit with the Easter Bunny

Both Jacks and Cody were entranced with the Easter Bunny at Willow Bend mall last weekend, so I promised them we could go back and visit him one day after school. This is actually a pretty cute bunny, as far as guys in bunny suits go...smart little red vest with matching red Cons, no pastels anywhere in sight, and no creepy wire-rimmed glasses (as some of the mall EBs have).

Once we were there, Jacks ran right up and gave him a hug, but Cody refused to get any closer than about 10 feet away and just stood there waving at him. He had talked about it all day, but in the moment, there was no way he was going to come near enough to the bunny to have his picture taken.

So Luke stepped in. :) It doesn't seem quite right to have a picture that's missing Cody, but Jacks so wanted his picture taken that we couldn't leave without one. And can you believe it, the lady actually caught Luke smiling! Good thing, too, since despite Jackson's enthusiasm, the expression on his face is the closest to a smile we could get.

Forgive the awful quality..it's a picture of a picture, since our scanner is already packed. ;)

Jacks Lost His First Tooth!

He's so proud! It had been wiggly for a few weeks, and it was so loose that the dentist offered to "help" him get it out on Tuesday, but he refused. Well, Friday night he bit into a tortilla at dinner and voila!!

He was SO excited for the tooth fairy to come!

I had ordered him a special pillow back when I was preggo and bored and shopping online LOL, so we had that ready to go. Also, when he first noticed his tooth was wiggly a few weeks ago, we picked up some gold dollars at the bank. So the tooth fairy left Jacks 2 gold dollars (mainly because "she" had to leave Cody something too, but it needed to be less than Jacks since he didn't actually LOSE anything , so Jacks got 2 and Cody got 1).

Here's the pillow before the tooth fairy delivered it:

He was SO excited...I went to check on the boys upstairs in the middle of the night when I was up with Luke, and I guess Jacks heard me (good thing he heard me then and not when the tooth fairy was creeping around! ). He popped his head right up and pointed at his pillow and his coins...he was SO excited, even at 3 am! LOL

Here's the next morning:

The Mind is Gone

This isn't news. I mean, as soon as you see that 2nd line on a pregnancy test, your brain starts melting out your ears and you begin forgetting things. So here I am, on kid #3, and the mental devastation is becoming absurd.

How many times can you lose track, while in the shower, of whether or not you have washed your face, or of whether it's time for shampoo or conditioner? How often do you have to leak through your bra and shirt before you make putting in breast pads a permanent part of your morning routine? How many times can you call Jackson Cody, and Cody Luke, and Luke Baby (because it's better than getting the name wrong) before you cause permanent psychological damage?

Will it come back one day? I'm thinking not. It's only going to get worse as we begin to juggle soccer, boy scouts, sleepovers, etc. I'm going to have to start labeling things, including people, and carrying a little MagnaDoodle with me to keep track of our next destination.

Perhaps earplugs will keep what few brain cells remain from escaping???

Luke's 4-month Appointment

He's a growin' boy!

Here are his stats:

Ht: 25 3/4" (88%)---J and C were both 26"
Wt: 18 lbs 6 oz (97%)---C=16lbs10oz, J=18lbs3.5oz
HC: 17 1/4" (95%)--C=17 5/8", J=16.7"

He's doing good! He got 4 shots and the 2nd dose of the rotavirus vaccine. He wasn't too happy and cried all the way to the car, but he's already doing better this afternoon than he did at his 2-mo appointment. I remember that the older boys had a lot of trouble with the 2-mo shots but the rest were much easier.

Doc said we could start solids if we wanted or we could wait until 6 mos. Both Jacks and Cody had already had cereal in bottles at this point. Luke watches us like a hawk as we move food from a plate to our mouths, so I think the interest is there. On the other hand, his "tongueing" reflex is still really strong with everything except fingers and nipples (human, not bottles, unfortunately LOL). Honestly, I'm feeling lazy and it seems like a lot of work to get him started now...so I think we'll wait. :P

How can it have been 4 months already?

Oh and I've been nursing for 4 mos, yay!

Snow!!

We got our yearly requisite dose of the white stuff! The weather has been so insane...last weekend it was close to 80, it's supposed to be in the 70's again next weekend, but last night it gone down into the low thirties and we got our snow.

The boys were excited to see it all this morning, but we didn't have much time to play before heading out to school. And most of it melted by lunchtime.

Next year, snow won't be such an unusual occurrence for us...and maybe we'll actually get enough on the ground to make a snowman! Hopefully, before then we can get Cody over the idea that snow=Santa. He has been hoping to catch a glimpse of Jolly Old St. Nick all day long. :)