No, we are not pagans

Yes, my kids got forced into a picture with the Easter bunny at the library.

Yes, we did go to an egg hunt and enjoyed the candy. (Scott had a couple of pieces and the rest of the chocolate was put away for later. I sure hope he has forgotten about it...Gulp!:)

Yes, I did forget my Bible on Easter Sunday. (Ironically, the last time I can remember forgetting my Bible for church was two Easters ago.)

Yes, we were running late and I didn't get any pictures of Natalie's first Easter. The matching little hat that she had with her dress never even made it on her head.

Yes, I got paged to the nursery during the service and missed the Easter message. Oh, Natalie Grace!

Yes, my kids are pictured below wearing bunny ears.

Yes, Donatos IS indeed open on Easter.

Despite all of this, we DID celebrate that we serve the Risen Lord. Jon and I are thankful to know Him as our Savior and used the day and activities around Easter to talk with Scott about Jesus' sacrifice and the reason why we celebrate.

Grammy helped Scott gather some eggs.

(I'm guessing that this might be the first AND last year he poses with a pink and white bunny ear headband.)

Natalie's New Tricks

This month has been kind of sparse as far as updating my blog goes. Reason? Check out the pictures below and see if you can guess.




Natalie says, "Okay! Enough already! They get the point! I'm mobile now and have a lot of exploring to do. What's so wrong with that?!"

This little girl is certainly keeping us on our toes. She is walking all over and has no fear. She seems bound and determined to get stitches, and she has me gasping several times a day. She walks at high speed and has more confidence in her walking ability than she should. She tries to clap, jump, dance, and carry large objects while making her way across the room. She really just needs to focus on the walking part, but you can't tell her that!

Her little personality is coming out more and more. She loves to do a happy scream in public and get attention. She has also learned how to fake cry, which she likes to do on her way into the playpen. She must feel that the padded walls are too safe. She has developed a big cheesy grin, which always makes me smile. She refuses to eat baby food or anything on a spoon. She insists on feeding herself. Natalie has recently started bringing me certain books that she wants to read over and over. When we get to the end, she flips it back to the first page and grunts. In the picture below, she is laughing at her great grandma Joyce.

HAPPY 11 MONTH BIRTHDAY, MISS NATALIE!

*A Scott update is coming soon. Both of the kids seem to be growing up on me! He's up to some new tricks of his own.

It's April!

I thought this clown picture was appropriate for April Fool's Day. I kept sending Scott to the other room with jokes to try on Jon this morning. Scott was pretty poor at the joke execution, however, and wasn't too convincing. Perhaps next year he will be a better trickster.

My buddies, Molly and Amy, came for a visit last week. Elliana, who is three months older than Natalie, came too. She let Natalie borrow her clown outfit for a few pictures. As always, we all had a special time together and are ready to do it again soon!
Surprise, surprise...Scott L-O-V-E-S his "new" pick-up truck. He drives just like Daddy.


He's been hauling lots of rocks to various pretend locations around the house. When he had delivered all of his rocks, he asked to take Natalie for a spin. Oh, she's such a good sport!

We took the kids to the zoo last week. Jon and I went on the train ride with Scott. He loved it and said that it was his favorite part. It was a big deal for him, and he kept reminding me to hold on tight. My mom helped to care for Natalie and used her grandparent membership to get us in. It's still odd to think of my mom as a "grandparent."

We bought Scott a new spin toothbrush. Who knew brushing could be so much fun? I think he brushed more times today than I have all week. He's learning how to spit now too, which is great fun for all. Oh to be a two year old! :)

Child A vs. Child B

As I wrote in my last post, the children appear to be total opposites.

Pictured below is "Child A" eating his sandwich with a fork, so he won't get peanut butter on his fingers. Sticky peanut butter on the fingers is an automatic meal stopper.


"Child B" on the other hand refuses to be spoon fed. She is pictured below going to town on her second serving of spaghetti.

Observations

I'm not going to compare. I'm just going to state some differences that we notice. Okay...so maybe this is a comparison of my two kiddos. What's so bad about that anyway?

*The other day I was vacuuming, and I kept having to stop the vacuum because Natalie was trying to attack it and climb up the machine while it was running. Scott sat on the couch with his feet up, lest the vacuum would get too close.

*This past summer when we got out the kiddie pool, we had to teach Scott how to splash and encourage him to do so. Each time I bathe Natalie however, the entire bathroom gets a shower. She goes wild! She starts splashing as soon as I put her in and keeps it up until only about an inch of water remains in her whale tub.

*Natalie will dig into new food and shovel it in, if allowed. She doesn't mind if it gets on her hands, face, or hair. Scott has always been a pretty neat eater. We've often had to stop mid-meal to clean him off if he thought he had too much food on his lips or hands. He was quite reserved when it came to diving into his first birthday cake. I'm already bracing myself for the mess that Natalie will enjoy making with her cake.

Jon and I (both firstborns) tend to be more like Scott. Natalie is in a league of her own in our house. I have a feeling Jon, Scott, and myself will marvel at the tricks this little girl has up her sleeve.

And...in case making comparisons is a bad thing to do, I will finish this post by saying that we love both of our kiddos immensely and are thankful for their unique personalities.

Natalie is 10 months old today. That big birthday celebration will be here before we know it!

Pass the Peas, Please!

So, I admit...we've gotten ourselves into a bit of a pickle when it comes to Scott and his eating. He's become extremely picky. One picky dad + one picky mom= one very picky two year old.

This past week, we've tried to crack down and really force him to try and eat new foods. Eat or starve kind of approach.

On Monday morning, we began the experiment with oatmeal. (He would eat baby oatmeal, but not adult oatmeal.) He helped me make the normal/big kid kind and was very excited about it. He then took his first bite, gagged, and said, "You turn on that garbage disposal and put this down the drain!"

I didn't even know the word "garbage disposal" was part of his vocabulary! Wow...

So then came lasagna for lunch. We had to cut Natalie off from eating too much of hers, but Scott spent his lunch time in his bed since he refused to even try it.

By, dinner, the kid was starved. I made him a grilled cheese sandwich. He had eaten half of a grilled cheese several months ago, but then suddenly stopped after asking me how I made it. I made the mistake of telling him there was "cheese" between the two slices of bread. So...this time we referred to it as a toasted sandwich...no mention of the word cheese. Scott gobbled it down and said, "This is the BEST toasted sandwich EVER!" :)

We've continued to have our share of battles this week, but we've had some victories too. For instance, during one meal he was protesting about his chicken and angrily said, "I only want to eat my peas!" (Peas were a huge turn off before this, so it was interesting to see him eat them during the chicken stand-off.)

Last night, he kept saying, "More apple, please!" This is HUGE!

Hopefully we will look back on all of this and laugh someday. It's not been fun for any of us. I'm open to any tips or advice, and Scott is open to any pizza or chicken nuggets you have to send our way.

Remember this?!
Scott remembers this book all too well.

How to Ruin a Pizza

Today in Scott's Merry Monkeys class, they were taught that God made food. As a reinforcement of this concept, they used construction paper to create pizzas. When we picked Scott up, his teacher told us that he was the only child who refused to put all of the toppings on his pizza. He adamantly told them that he did not want black olives or green pepper on his creation. Jon and I were so proud of our little pizza connoisseur. We've trained him well. Ha! :)
When it snows or rains, sometimes Scott pulls up a chair to look out the window. I told him that it was sunny outside the other day and he asked if he could pull up a chair to "watch."

We had several boxes of diapers delivered this week. Scott had a great time playing in them, and he melted my heart when he started singing "God is so good" while sitting in his cardboard box.


A few days ago Scott said, "This shirt is getting too small for me. Maybe we will have to give it to my baby brother." He later said, "Where is my baby brother? Is he in your belly?" Before I gave myself too much of a complex, I remembered that we had recently been talking about his friend Luke's new baby brother who is soon to be born. I am hoping that this is where he got this idea from!