Country-style Easter

We were so excited to be in VA for Granny Jen's Annual Easter Egg Hunt. There were hundreds of eggs to be found in the yard (for the little kids) and the orchard (for the bigger kids).

Thanks to weeks of practicing around the house hunting for snacks such as Goldfish, raisins, and the occasional jelly bean, Breeley mastered egg hunting this year. Since she was in-between little and big, she got to hunt in both places, but she would have found plenty just in the orchard.

The kids love inspecting their loot... and Mommy and Daddy had to test a few things too.

All the great-grandkids (plus a few cousins) with Granny Jen.

I love this picture of all Brian's first cousins on the Hudson side--all grown up now and everyone with their own kids!

Doug's branch of the family tree.

After the egg hunt and a delicious meal at Granny's, most of the cousins headed over to see Roger and Ashley's new house and land. Zack and Breeley both loved the swing.

This started Breeley's love of swinging on the big swing. She did great on it and kept wanting to go higher. It was fun getting to push all these sweet girls.

Zack giving his ladies a lift on his bike. His ladies in this case are Roger and Ashley's girls, Makenzie, 4, and Lakin, 2.

The kids had a ton of fun at Farmer Ashley's Petting Zoo. In addition to these 3 billy goats, they have 2 donkeys, 3 calves, chickens, and rabbits.

Brian got to revert back to his teenage years and ride Roger's dirtbike. He also gave Breeley a ride on a smaller one, and Zack got to ride on the 4-wheeler. 

It's mostly when we're home spending time in the mountains with family that we really miss living there. It was great getting to spend so much time with family at Easter!

Baskets and eggs with G&P

We had a super-fun-filled weekend in Virginia for Easter and Breeley's birthday. I took so many pictures and it was so packed that I'm breaking the festivities into multiple posts.  

Our first stop was Grammy and Papa's house for baskets and eggs.

Grammy loaded Easter baskets with some of their favorite treats: fruit roll-ups for Breeley and Goldfish for Zack! In this picture they are already digging in, and obviously very happy about it!

Zack ended up taking a nap in their Pack 'n Play, but first he enjoyed some playtime with Papa.

While Zack napped, Breeley decorated eggs. I was really happy when Mom suggested this activity because we hadn't been able to do it yet. I had a kit that I'd gotten on clearance the year before and stored in the attic. Thankfully, Breeley didn't care that the crayons were melted and the stickers didn't stick very well!

After his nap, here is Zack eating something from the lunch made of random items that fit my parents' diet. (When you don't have kids at home anymore, you get to make what you want without hearing complaints or force-feeding.) I don't remember what this was, but he seemed happy with it!

Grammy and Papa with their two cutest (and only) grandkids!

Bee's 3rd Birthday!

Breeley's 3rd birthday fell on Easter Sunday, so we celebrated with family in Virginia!

I went the simple route and made cupcakes decorated with jelly beans. The liners had jelly beans too so at least there was a theme. Breeley loves Starburst jelly beans!

Brian's parents, grandparents, and sister and her family, and my parents gathered at his parents' house for dinner and a little celebration for Breeley. She loved seeing everyone, especially her cousins! (She doesn't look all that happy in this picture, but I promise she was having fun!)

Breeley has learned to sing the birthday song, and at the end she always pretends to blow out the candles. One time she found a candle-size stick, stuck it in the ground, and said it was a birthday party and started blowing on it. She was happy to blow out real candles for her birthday! (There may have been a little spit too.)

Zack is in the messy stage with eating. Considering he weighed over 25 lbs at the doctor this morning, I think at least some of the food gets into his mouth! Kade was his buddy and they kept each other smiling.

Breeley received some wonderful gifts, but of course the kids had the most fun with a cardboard box! Lance surprised her by jumping out of the box, then all the kids had their turn. There were lots of laughs and only a few injuries.

While the kids hunted for Easter eggs downstairs, the granddads picked up the mess upstairs. I won't say how long it took them to get up. (Just kidding.)

Breeley played hide-and-seek with Brian. Apparently she liked this spot because she hid here every time! Somehow, Brian still had trouble finding her! ;)

Happy birthday, Breeley! I can't believe you are "free" years old!!

Playing on the Interstate

On our way to Virginia for our super-fun weekend celebration of Breeley's birthday and Easter, we ran into stopped traffic for about 45 minutes. We figured out that it is much more fun to be completely stopped than in stop-and-go traffic, and traveling with kids guarantees that you're prepared with food, diapers, and even a potty, so we made the most of the situation.  

This picture reminds me of the commercial (I think it's for insurance) where the dad is talking to the little girl and then she switches to a teenager. It made me think for the first time about how I'll feel when our kids start driving--it's a terrifying thought! I'm impressed my mom was able to outwardly hold it together so well, especially having to go through it five times! I'm sure it's one of those times as a parent where your outer actions do not match up with your inner emotions!

Daddy's Girl

I loved getting these cute pictures, but I hate that we were stopped due to a fatal accident. Car fatalities affect me a lot because of the suddenness of them. I imagine the families of the victims and realize that while we were enjoying time with our kids, they were getting some awful news. Like most people, I get annoyed waiting in traffic and selfishly think about where I need to be or the kids going crazy, but a few years ago I saw a body bag as I drove past an accident and it changed the way I react to traffic delays, especially when I hear it's caused by a fatal accident. (I still get annoyed if it's just due to bad drivers.) Sorry to be so morbid, but please be safe on the roads, kiss your loved ones, and remember that life is precious... and so are these pictures. :) 

Post-it Chronicles Part 1

12/18/11 - Although I do not post as often as I'd like, I'm pretty much always thinking about blog posts. Things we do as a family become narratives in my head, pictures chronicle almost every move my children make, and almost every statement or funny comment is scribbled down to remember for a future post. Occasionally, those Post-its and scrap pieces of paper are dug up from the bottom of my purse or rediscovered on a pile in my kitchen, and I compile them in one post titled "stories" or "tidbits" or "future posts." I have full intentions of adding pictures and putting them together in some clever way, but so far, none of them have made it past the dreaded draft stage.

One thing I've learned about myself in my 31 years--yikes! it's only been a week and that's the first time I've verbalized my new age!--is that I tend to put things off until I can make them perfect. Making things perfect requires significantly more time and effort, so I end up pushing these things aside until it's too late and then they never get done. For my blog, it means that by the time some things get posted, the pictures are outdated (kids grow so darn fast!) and the stories are not as relevant. My battle with this form of perfectionism could be an entire post on it's own, but in the context of this post, it means you're not getting any pictures and are truly just getting small "snip its" of our lives. Whenever I get a clump of these--pictures or no--I'm going to try to post them as "The Post-it Chronicles."

This post (from this point forward) was started on 4/17/11, which was a week before Breeley turned 3 and Zack reached 14 months. These things could have occurred anytime the month before (or earlier if noted) or after. Some things I dated. For any of these I've done more recently, I usually include dates.

Several months ago (when Zack was about 11 months):
Breeley came and got me and said, "Look at him [Zack]."
Me: What's he doing?
B: Open the door and touch Reesey.
This is notable because it shows Breeley's "mothering" and telling me when Zack is getting into mischief, which happens often. This is helpful most of the time because that boy has to be watched constantly! (As in this case, where he was opening the sliding door on his own.)

Me: Aw man.
B: What'd you do?
Me: I dropped my makeup brush in the water.
B: Oh, that's too bad.

I was trying to get Zack to sleep and Breeley came in and started singing "Jesus Loves Me." Very sweet.

Breeley got out of the bath.
B: My hair is wet.
Me: I know. Do you want me to blow dry it?
B: No.
Brian, totally different subject: I need to get the air mattress down.
B, following him to the attic, looking very concerned: What are you going to do to my hair, Daddy?
Me: No, Breeley, AIR mattress. Daddy is not doing anything to your hair.

Me: Hey, Breeley Bee!

B: Hey, Mommy Mom!

Breeley saw me putting a few jelly beans in my lunchbox.

B: What are you doing?
Me: Making my lunch.
B: (immediately) I want lunch too.

B: Yes, I is! [a boy]

For a while, Breeley was a bit confused about boys and girls and liked to say she was a boy like Daddy and Zack. (Perfect example of stories being irrelevant when I post so late because Breeley is now very aware of who are girls and who are boys.)

I've noticed Breeley is able to look at three objects and say it is three, without counting each individually out loud (1-2-3). She is also getting good at naming opposites.

B started saying "is what I saaaid."

A concern about Breeley moving to her new class was picking up bad behavior from older children. One kid was throwing a fit because her mom wanted to change her shoes to the right feet. (Honestly, I would have just kept them on the wrong feet. That's not a battle I choose to fight.)

4/5 - Zack 1-year well appointment - 23 lb 10 oz, 31 in, 18 3/4 in head

Referred to Baby Net for speech development (not saying mama, dada, or bye bye are biggest concerns). They called a few days later and I admitted that I'm not good at recognizing speech development and also the older sister tends to overshadow and butt in whenever I try to get him to repeat anything.
They told me things to pay attention to:

• If I'm 3 ft away and say his name, does he turn to look at least 50% of time.
• If I say Breeley's name and turn to look at her, does he turn too.
• If I say juice, will he look at the container or cup.
• If I get my keys, does he start going toward the door like he knows it's time to go.

Hearing and comprehension are the most important at this point; saying things himself often comes later. They do not consider a child behind until he is not saying mama, dada, or bye bye at 19 months. They could come assess him, but I decided that we'd pay better attention and call them if we thought there were problems. They gave suggestions for things we could do: give more opportunities to make sounds and ask questions; tell Breeley it's his turn and let him answer.

Update on 12/18: We listened better and determined there was no concern. He started saying mama, dada, bye bye, and a lot of other things right after this. I think he had a few months delay because of being sick and ear infections. Today, at nearly 22 months, he talks all the time!! (And Breeley still butts in and answers for him.)

4/18 - Zack bitten at daycare (for first time?)

4/26 - Breeley 3-year well appointment - 30 lbs 5 oz (50%), 37 3/4 in (75%)
Reported belly aches - keep watching but probably not a huge concern because she is likely just eating too fast or needs to use the bathroom. Also, she may just hear other people talk about their bellies hurting, or be saying it because of the attention or just because she can actually report on these things now.

Update on 12/18: She actually still complains of belly aches fairly often, but sometimes you can tell it really hurts and other times it doesn't seem to as much. It doesn't seem like severe pain and it never lasts very long, so I think it's just normal digestion issues like the rest of us.

Zack was 25 lb 7 oz, 30 in at the same appointment, which was only 2 weeks after his well appointment. By then, he'd gained nearly 2 lbs and strunk one inch! (Not sure of the accuracies there, but there is a pretty consistent 5 lb difference between our kids.)

Buddy

Breeley has recently started calling Zack "buddy" when she's talking to him. We hear "Come on, buddy," and "No, buddy" very often! Brian calls Zack this all the time and I say both "buddy" and "bud" a lot, so it's cute that she picked it up. I'm sure my mom will point out that this was the same nickname I called my older brother when we were little. We were Buddy and Fuzon. So far, Zack does not have a name for Breeley, not one that I've noticed anyway, but I admit I'm not very observant when it comes to language development. My guess is he'll start out by calling her Bee or Beebee, which is what she still calls herself.  

I'm kind of a nickname person, if there is such a classification. My parents weren't into nicknames (unless you count calling us one of our other siblings' names), but my Granddaddy gave his kids nicknames. My dad calls his siblings Jake, Jo, Poke, Butter, and Bill (who is female). They call him Duck. (Not to leave her out, there's also Karen, who was the oldest and somehow escaped a nickname that I know of.) I call my brother DJ or Deej and my sister is Ames at least 90% of the time. Our sweet dog, Reesey, is almost always Reese. I have a thing about shortening names, and sometimes giving a nickname for a nickname. (Amy started off as Mamers, and Deej is a phonetic DJ). Breeley shortens names too and we are more and more often becoming Mom and Dad instead of Mommy and Daddy. :(

Besides Buddy and Bud, Zack's nicknames include Zack Attack, Zackman, and Zackadoodledo. Don't worry, as much as I think "Zack Attack" would make for an intimidating wrestling contender, the nicknames I give my kids are more like "pet" names because they are just for me. We specifically did not name him "Zachary" because we knew we planned on calling him Zack, and we didn't want an official nickname (i.e. having to respond, "I go by Zack," after every roll call in school). My children will always be Breeley and Zack when introduced to others and used in public. (However, I will admit at some point I am dying to have a reason to say "The Zack Attack is Back, Jack," in honor of his nickname-sake, the Mighty Ducks movies.) 

My names for Breeley include Bree and Bee, and I find myself using "baby" a lot, as in "I don't know, baby." I usually prefer "sweetie" over any other common pet names (honey, baby, babe, boo), but for some reason "baby" slips out for her. I'm probably confusing her because when it serves our interests, we make a big deal about certain things being for babies (like pacis) and certain things being for big girls (like potties)... and she is a big girl when it comes to those things. She probably wants me to make up my mind already, or else offer her some of the benefits of being a baby (e.g. "Zack didn't mean to do that; he's just a baby" or "You have to be careful with Zack because he's a baby." Come to think about it, I probably need to be honest with myself and realize neither of my "babies" is actually a baby anymore!!) 

Before I went on my nickname tangent, the purpose of this post was to talk about the *budding* relationship between Breeley and Zack. They are so cute to watch as they play together. Yesterday, Zack was fussy in the grocery store and Breeley kept them both laughing by throwing frozen vegetables back and forth. She loves to make him laugh and does a good job sharing most things. She gets concerned when he is "whying" [crying] and has come into his bedroom to sing him "Jesus Loves Me" while I'm rocking him. When we drop him off in his class at daycare, she always brings him a ball or push-toy, which she knows are his favorites, and nudges other kids away who crowd around him and act interested in his toy. I've been told they get very excited when they spot each other across the hall, and they always sit together on the bye-bye buggy at the end of the day. I know the fights will come, but I'm excited to watch their relationship grow even more.

Buddies