Easter 2011

We had a great Easter Sunday. We were invited to Sunday lunch with some good friends, and it was like family. The kids even got to have an Easter egg hunt. Don't get me wrong, we would have hunted eggs at our house, too, but they would have been filled with "recycled" candy (all Caleb's stash he has had since Halloween). He was pretty thrilled. It is so funny to watch him hunt eggs. His philosophy is more like "How much distance can I cover between each egg?", or "Can I make it to an egg someone else is going for before they get there?" as opposed to how to obtain the most eggs. Levi was content to get one and suck on it the entire hunt. I have only one picture of them in the same frame during our egg hunt at home on Monday (no candy this time, just hunting for fun), since Caleb is like a little ping pong ball. He finally got the idea when he said, "I'll let Levi have the ones on the ground and I'll get all the hard ones". That would be the ones on the fence. We attempted to get some sweet shots of Levi with the eggs since I have some of Caleb's first egg hunt, but he was SO tired, his eyes are about closed in most of them.
here's a link to the album
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/VdfHaGqRTV664NvXxw5XN6v3tfAfYCwG6vFCTVewKpA?feat=directlink

Sadness

For many reasons. The most trivial, but the one I notice every night when we had our TV date... we finished Alias. Now I have nothing to look forward to every night. Sigh. Huge sadness... we lost a dear sister in Christ on Sunday. Miss Linda, who used to watch Caleb (and Levi sometimes) for Ladies Bible class. When we told Caleb, he wanted to pray for her. So we prayed for her family.

Let's see... other happenings. Levi appears to be attempting to say real words. At 11 months. First one, I think, was Dadda (for Daddy), bye bye, down, up, all done, ball, amen. He is getting into everything... loves my purse, Caleb's ladder on his bed, all Caleb's cars, shoes/laces of any kind, paper, outside/grass, water/bathtime, and a new favorite, Easter eggs. Although he isn't the greatest hunter because once he gets one, he is satisfied to chew on it while everyone else runs around him. Things he dislikes: naps (after the first 45 minutes, he's done), waiting for any length of time in his high chair for food, sitting still for a diaper change, mama leaving the room. He's a little high-maintenance. Everyone said your second would be easier and not at all like the first... still waiting on that and wondering what went wrong. My friend Angie says I waited too long to have him. It took that long to recover from the first high-maintenance. I need one that looks like me and has Joe's personality... maybe #3? Course I keep telling Caleb (who is already asking when we can have another brother) that we won't have any more if he can't learn to share and play with the one he has. He says, "Agh! Mom, I'll play with him when he's bigger." He is constantly lecturing Levi to stay out of his things and is very frustrated that Levi cares not a whit what Caleb desires. He has been told that if he hurts him in any way there will be swift and painful punishment, so he never touches Levi, but he keeps saying things like, " Levi, I'm very mad at you for doing that. You are not allowed in my room any more. I'm very disappointed that you keep messing up my things." complete with sighs and grunts, while he picks up the mess. Hey, I think it keeps him occupied. The other day we had our first little ball game together, passing it from the bed to the floor between people. Levi got a big kick out of "throwing" it to Caleb and rolling it (with a little help) to Daddy. Oh, and tonight at church he watched the boys leading singing and started waving his arm around while watching. He is a cutie!

Caleb has become interested in magic tricks. His newest trick is making his food disappear from his plate at mealtimes. I actually claim this as my newest trick, since I got him to eat all his broccoli, sweet potatoes, and chicken in record time tonight, and without the promise of dessert when he was done. I was so impressed with us both, we gave him 3 M&M's.

Disney on Ice

Guess I never posted about our incredible time at Disney on Ice. Toy Story 3. If I did, I can't find it, so here goes. Granna, Poppa, Uncle Mark, Aunt Lindsay, Mia, baby (in utero), Daddy, Mommy, Caleb and Levi all went to see it at the AAC on April Fools Day. It was SO fun! My favorite part was at the beginning, when the army men parachuted in onto the ice, "marched" on skates, doing rifles in the dark. Talk about impressive. I have attempted rifles before... not easy, forget about it on skates and in the dark!! Caleb's favorite part was Buzz Lightyear entering from above on some contraption with fire/lights, etc. to defeat Zerg. That, and the cotton candy. (Side note: Gross. How can anyone like something that takes like a medicine-flavored cotton ball?) Levi loved it all until about the last 15 minutes. Can you blame him, it lasted 2 hours. All the men were ready to go at intermission!

Busy, busy, busy

It all started with a little flyer. "Dinosaurs and donuts" at the zoo... Caleb's 3 favorite things. Of course, when I planned it, I didn't plan on taking the boys by myself everywhere today. We arrived at the zoo at 9:15, only 1hr 15 min after I'd hoped to get there (when it opened, at 8:00am... who was I kidding right?). And guess what... no donuts. Silly me, why should there be any left. They only put that on the flyer as a way to get people to go, like doorbuster specials. They don't actually expect to hand out donuts until 10am. Sigh. Luckily, Caleb was so enthralled with the dinosaurs that he didn't even miss the donuts. (I have to stop typing that, because it's making me really want some). The dinosaurs were VERY cool. Spread out all over the zoo, they make noises, move, and even blink their eyes. Caleb insisted they were not robots, but were, in fact, real. And another discussion on the word extinct ensued. Levi was a real trooper; he didn't fall asleep until about 10:30 -- when we were ready to find our last dinosaur by the exit doors. So I decided to let him have a nap and we went through the reptile house. I need to note that CJ was SO into the dinos, he didn't even want to play in the barn. A first since he was 2. Didn't ask to ride the train or the carousel (gasp). Safe to say he really liked it. We made it home in time to throw together some lunch before heading to a birthday party for Caleb's friend from church. It was really great... a bounce house, playground, pizza, and the ultimate... an Easter egg hunt. This is the only hunt Caleb actually scores more than about 5 eggs, since there are SO many. I think he runs to a group, picks up one, then runs to another group. My competitive instinct is to teach him the proper egg-gathering strategy, but then my mother instinct kicks in which says, "This way, he'll have less candy to eat.". Mom won. Caleb left with about 20 pieces of candy as opposed to several I saw with probably at least 50 eggs! Levi even picked up one. I attempted to get him to get another one, but he staunchly refused to have anything to do with any egg that was not his bright blue one. Side note - Levi had potato chips and cake for the first time (with icing, of course... what is cake without icing???); first dessert of any kind! Welcome to the world of sweets, little one.
Joe, sadly, did not join us, due to a persistent little bug that keeps finding new ways to torment him. I'm not all that sure he was terribly upset at being left behind. The Detroit Tigers were playing.
oh, added the pic of the lady who must have missed the memo it was the ZOO today, since she wore silk shorts/top and 3" plastic Cinderella-heels.

Chuck E Cheese

We loaded up and took Levi (and Caleb) for his 1st Chuck E Cheese experience. He had fun and I let him join me in "Deal or No Deal". Probably should have let him push the buttons for the cases, since I have NO luck at all. I won 3 tickets... pitiful. This is why I never gamble. It's not a gamble for me, I know I would lose. I am not positive since I was pinching off bits and lost track, but I'm reasonably sure Levi ate at least one piece of pizza, maybe 2. And a whole jar of baby food. Caleb sweet-talked the prize lady into extras -- only to discover mom has a new rule that for everything that comes in, something has to go out. So we pulled out some unused items to donate. He wasn't amused, but he stopped asking for things!
Round two of medicine went much better than expected... apple juice and/or lemonade is the key, we have discovered. Along with M&M's and Girl Scout cookies. It's a good thing there are 15 cookies in that whole box (tongue in cheek), since we have 10 days of antibiotics left and Mommy has already helped a little with the emptying of said box. Caleb asked if we could buy more at the store (which he does with everything when we are getting to where he can see the last of the product). I told him, "No, they only sell these one time per year. You have to buy them from the girl scouts." (I did not add "it's their way of ripping you off and they know no one will continue to pay such outrageous prices all year long, so they make it seem so special that you won't notice your arm and leg leaving with the cute little girl in pigtails." I'll let him draw his own conclusions when the time is right. After I buy some from all his friends in the years to come).
Levi was a hoot tonight. He is truly mobile. He was chasing Caleb's remote control car around the laminate floor tonight, spinning all around on his backside. Even crawling and pushing it with one hand. He was very proud of himself for this accomplishment and kept laugh, grinning, and spinning all over the place.
Tomorrow... Dinosaurs and donuts... if we can be at the zoo by 8am...better hit the hay.

Antibotics...anti-kid-friendly

We finally took Caleb to the Dr to check his ears, which he ONLY agreed to do on the promise of a new lizard from his nurse, Miss Lisa. He had not seemed to be hearing us (WAY worse than his usual selective hearing). You know something is wrong when you whisper about Chuck E. Cheese and get no response. So we tried chewing gum, which he isn't very good at, blowing air out his nose and pinching it shut to "pop" them (also not very good at this), and taking decongestant. Nothing worked. He kept saying, "Say it again". Couldn't hear anything in the car or across the room. Sure enough, there was fluid behind his eardrum. Dr. said a lot, though it didn't appear to be infected. So we gave Caleb his first antibiotics in his 4.5 yrs tonight. We had to do antibiotics and steriods for the fluid and to keep out infection. Wow, that was a treat. giving nasty tasting medicine to a young 'un. I thought we would never find a way, but several drink concoctions, m&m's, and cookies later, success. For 1 night, anyway.
One fun thing, Caleb and Levi rode together tonight in the wagon for the fist time. They were a pair. Already having "kick fights" (Levi isn't even 11 months yet). I can tell he already wants to do everything Caleb does. He was happy as a clam when I put him in the swing next to Caleb... he kept looking over at him and laughing. Then he wanted me to put him down the slide every time Caleb went down. This is going to be a trip!! (Oh, I attempted to get a pic of them in the wagon, but Caleb is anti-picture right now, so I knew it wasn't going to happen.. so I just took a mental photo). I'll post Levi's 11 month pics instead. Should have been 9 months.. just a little behind. At least he still poses, sort of.