The egg tree and other Easterness

eggtree, originally uploaded by skweerell.

The whole Easter experience went really, really well. We dyed eggs on Thursday and Ro was just beside himself with joy. He could hardly stay away from the eggs the rest of the day and he had to check on them every five minutes. I've always, always, always wanted to make an egg tree but never have because blowing eggs is terribly disgusting. However, I blew them all out with a little dedicated hand pump that I found last year and it worked really well.

On Friday, he was so excited by the prospect of the egg tree and the general wonderfulness of dyed eggs that he was up at 5 a.m. --- to see the eggs. He got up at 5 a.m. to look at eggs. It's situations like this that make me realize what a jaded adult I am. Anyhow, spoilsports that we are, we made him go back to bed. He wanted to take the eggs to bed with him and we said no. As you might expect, he kicked the wall for an hour before getting up again at 6 a.m. groan. Later in the day, we made an egg tree using a branch that Daddy cut from a shrub. It came out pretty well. I cut leaves out of pink and yellow construction paper to go with the eggs. Ro helped glue them on the tree and told me where to hang the eggs.

I also tried my hand at embroidery and used felt to make toys for the kids. For Ro, I made a Peter Rabbit toy and for Simone I made a flower toy. Ro loves the Peter Rabbit. I'm not sure how Sim feels about the flower. I think its a good car toy for her.

On Sunday, we did our egg hunt outside at Grandma's house despite the chill 40 degree weather, so Ro could run around. Also, I got the idea to label all the eggs, so Ro could practice reading and learn that he and Sim would be sharing experiences like this. He did great. He would read his name and put his eggs in his basket and when he'd find Simone eggs, he run to her and put them in her basket. After awhile, he seemed to get a bit weirded out that all the eggs were either for him or Sim, so he'd start picking up the eggs and say, "Grandpa's egg!" and try to give it to him instead. I might do a few eggs for everyone next year to mix it up a bit.

Sim really liked looking for eggs too. It was her first chance to toddle about in the grass. She would even grip her basket while trying to hold our hands and walk too. She looked super cute in her bunny hat. I'll have to post another picture of her.

Once inside, the kids opened their eggs. Sim just liked playing with them. Ro relished all the candy treats, which he doesn't get very often. We were all amused that he bit every jelly bean in half but never ate a whole one. He ended up with this pile of half eaten jelly beans. His favorite things were Peter Rabbit and a rubber ducky.

Mr.Domestic wants Netflix

Easter is this weekend. yay! I'm going to dye eggs with Ro and make an egg tree. I also made him a Peter Rabbit to put in his basket. Now, I'm working on a flower dolly for Simone. I'll post pictures when I'm done.

Rather appropriately, Ro is really into eggs at the moment. His normal Saturday morning job is to crack the eggs for the pancakes, but now he likes to sit under the laundry basket and "hatch" out of an egg too. Then, he sort of hops around the living room saying "peep-peep". I'm not sure where he got this from but he does it like 10 times a day. He's also really fixated on my manual eggbeater. He keeps wanting to make cakes or anything where eggs can possibly be used.

The domesticity doesn't end there. He also wants to vacuum every day. He doesn't even mind picking up toys if it means he can vacuum. whee! I'm starting to think this Miele vacuum might be a good toy investment. We need every bit of effort to keep the house from sinking into squalor. Neatness isn't going to happen but I'd like to avoid outright squalor.

We got a bunch of junk mail yesterday. Ro was sifting through it as usual, when he found a flier for Netflix. He ran into the kitchen saying, " Look mommy!" and points to the acronym DVD in the sentence, Now You Can Get DVDs At Your House For Only $17.99 or something like that. Ro knows DVD means movie. Then, he pointed to the pictures of each DVD picture and wanted to know what they were about. For most of the movies, I had no idea what they were about but he definitely wants to see The Incredibles, which was really good but way too violent for a three year old. I told him he had to wait a few years. Anyhow, he flipped the card over and was staring at the pictures and then he said "Mommy get DVDs in the mail!". I was shocked and took the card from him to see where he got that idea from. He'd studied the information graphics and figured out from the pictures that you could get movies mailed to your house. crazy.

On a baby note, Simone said "Mama", "Dada" and waved yesterday. I don't think it meant anything though. I was asking her if she could say mama and then she would. Same for Dada. Then, she'll imitate waving but I don't think she's connected any of the above to specific people or actions. Not sure though. Babies are quite inscrutable sometimes.

help! I'm a bad guy in a cage

Ever since running into a policeman, we've been trying to explain the good guy/bad guy thing to Ro and he gets it but he doesn't understand jail, so I told him it was like a zoo for people who were bad. They had to stay locked up until they learned how to be good. Now, Ro huddles up on one of our dining chairs and peers at us from between the bars of the chair back saying, "Help, I'm a bad guy in a cage!" Then, he promises to be good and we tell him he can get out of jail. It's funny and odd. Now, the big bad wolf goes to jail after harassing the pigs. It's not really rubbing off on the Peter Rabbit story yet though. Although, Mr. McGregor now has laser guns instead of a rake sometimes. Watch out Peter Rabbit! Mr. McGregor is better equiped to tackle his thievery problems. Beatrix Potter would probably roll over in her grave over that one. Laser guns and Beatrix Potter just seem like such an unnatural combination.

dirty clothes bath

dirtyclothes, originally uploaded by skweerell.

Despite the fact that Sim can't really get around yet, Ro has been playing pretty well with her. Here's a picture of Ro and Sim having a pretend bubble bath in a pile of laundry this morning. Ro kept throwing piles of clothes up in the air which Sim loved but I was worried about her getting buried. I kept instructing Ro to always make sure her head was uncovered, which he was very good about. Then, he'd get down and smile at her like in the picture.

Ro isn't allowed to have real bubble baths due to eczema, which is really a huge bummer because he loves them so much. He asks for them and I always have to say no, which makes me sad because I know he can't really understand why right now.

Ro's also "read" two more words this week. Fire Station and popcorn -- although popcorn was incorrect. It was actually popsecret so he made an educated guess that was close.

The peaceman (policeman in Ro speak)

The kids and I were walking up the stairs at an office building when a sheriff started coming down. He said hi and went past us and then he turned around and asked Ro if he wanted a sticker. Ro was so thrilled. He'd never seen a policeman up close before, so he was really homing in on all of his kit which was very shiny and black. I think we spent about a minute with the policeman but you'd think it was hours because Ro has been talking about it for three days. He's still carrying around his tattered sticker too.

Lately, Roen's taken to identifying people by gender. He used to say, "Hello Daddy!" to different men which made me feel a bit sheepish. Fortunately, he's now switched to, "Hello Man!", which is infinitely preferable plus it makes me laugh every time he does it.

Peter Rabbit and Siminy doings

Ro is very into Peter Rabbit now. Playing Peter Rabbit involves him hiding behind the couch and calling me Mr. Gregor every time I wander through the living room so I can threaten him with my broom. Eventually, I planted an orderly little garden of blocks on the floor and took his blue coat and shoes and made a scarecrow out of my broom. He was really, really happy and kept demanding carrots, which was great. I'm so happy when he eats something healthy. I think he ate two and half carrots. Hooray! Ro enjoys playing both sides of a story. He likes being Mr. McGregor too. Then, he chases either me or Daddy around waving his little broom at us and shouting "Stop Thief!" too funny.

Sim is so determined to walk. She won't even try crawling, which is a bit frustrating because she wants to move around and yet she can't get over her bipedal fixation. For Sim to start crawling, we're all going to have to give up walking and start crawling about the house for a week. Then and only then do I think she'd try it - until then she's determined to have me be her form of locomotion. Speaking of which, all of our walking sessions end up in the bathroom now. Sim likes to stare into the empty bathtub. I can only imagine that she's hoping that there will be water and she can take a bath. I think bath time is the highlight of her day.

Sim is starting to half laugh a lot as if things are amusing but not quite funny enough to laugh.
She's also getting her second tooth.