Sunday: Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!  He is Risen!

This morning Ben and I were the substitute leaders for 3s church.  While it wasn't really something I loved, it wasn't too bad either.  Play time/color time for 30 minutes and then a movie.  The kids do give a lot more feed back than in nursery though.  So someone mentioned that jump started with J and suddenly everyone is showing us how they can jump.  And how they can jump like a kangaroo.  Also, you know you're strong if you can carry and bus and an airplane to Florida.

We had lunch with Ben's side of the family (it was delicious) and then after a brief stop home we went to Dad and Pat's.  There we had just a light meal and a laid back atmosphere - but it was perfect.  Isaac had another Easter Egg hunt that his cousin made for him (and he got a lot more than one M&M per egg). :)  And there were a bunch of other toys to play with.  Including an organ.

We also saw some definete clapping from Joshua.  (This isn't the best showing of it...but he was!)

Saturday: Easter activities

The day between Good Friday and Easter...such an odd day.  Relief that the pain of the cross is done, but the joy of the Risen Savior isn't here yet.

So we did some of the secular, but very fun, Easter activities today.  First we set up an Easter egg hunt for Isaac.  This was my favorite hiding place...Isaac had put the clothes pin on the light switch yesterday.

Isaac with his finder (the finger).  He did a much better job this year than last year.

Amazingly, he also did a wonderful job sharing.  There was an M&M in each egg...but instead of eating all of them he shared equally with Ben and me.  Joshua got to enjoy some empty eggs.

Isaac made a hunt for us.  Several of the eggs were in the same spot that we put them and several eggs were all together.

Since he had done such a good job sharing, we put another M&M in all the eggs and hid them again.  Jerusalem helped.

Isaac's last attempt at hiding eggs.  They were all in plain sight on the floor.  We hid them one more time with coins ($1.38 to be exact) and then ended up playing with the money for longer than I expected.

We also dyed some eggs.  We found a white crayon, but it didn't work well on the eggs.  So we just dyed them a solid color.  Next year I'll know we need different supplies.  But it was still fun.  The yellow and green eggs turned out the best.

Friday: nice day

Today was a nice day.  Ben was home for work due to Good Friday.  We didn't do much during the day.  Nice, but we might need to figure something out for tomorrow because "do you want to play with me?" got rather old pretty quickly.

In the evening we went to Travis and Allison's to play games.  The kids had a wonderful time together...Isaac kind of plays with the girls, but also really likes the new toys.  The girls love to play with Joshua and kept coming out with more toys for him to play with.  A doll hat went on his head pretty early and stayed there for quite a while.  And we had a fun time playing a new game...the rules were pretty straight forward once you got started, so that helped.

Thursday: 39 months

After another rough night for unknown reasons, I am finally feeling better...hopefully for good this time.  Anyway.  Isaac turned 39 months a few days ago.

 Sleeping - sleeps very well at night, going to sleep usually between 8 and 9.  Naps are about 50/50, but he always gets rest time!

 Eating - still a pretty good eater.  Peanut butter and nutella is a lunch time favorite along with chocolate milk.  He also likes fruits and eats some vegetables.  He still gives us pretend treats all the time.

 Potty training - continues to go well.  I think he only had an accident four or five times last month.

 Animals - His favorite stuffed animals have changed slightly.  EE and Jerusalem are probably the favorites (pictured above) but Snowman is needed while we read Jesus stories and sometimes to sleep.  EE and Jerusalem also show up to help him eat his breakfast sometimes.  After realizing the camel's name was Jerusalem, Isaac decided that Bethlehem is also a name.  I'm not sure how the two got connected together.  Pretend monkeys also join us at our daily activities.  White monkeys (they're the big ones), brown monkeys, and black monkeys.

Toys - His favorite books are still XYZ and we found some Chico Bon-Bon books.  They have monkeys and traps in them...what could be better?  He also plays with Dulpos a lot, especially his train track.

 Joshua - Isaac often will get a toy for Joshua, even when Joshua isn't fussing.  However, Isaac also regularly takes toys from Joshua.  Isaac enjoys doing tummy time (and back time and side time) together with him.

Outside - Isaac loves to be outside, even though it sometimes takes a bit of convincing to get him there.  Maybe that'll change with warmer weather.  Here he is running the lines, as he also loves to run.  It included a place to say hi to Joshua, a zig-zag, a U-turn, and jumps.  Isaac often asks what turns we're going to do when in the car, and U-turns are his favorite.

Tuesday

Yesterday I got the pictures for Isaac's monthly update.  But since I'm raiding and my sinuses hurt, it'll have to wait until tomorrow.

Besides that I'm feeling better though.

Monday: 8 months/35 weeks

Joshua recently had his eight month birthday.  How time flies!

Eating: Nursing is going fine (although he's had a cold so the last few days have been a bit hard).  He is having a harder time drinking from a bottle after several months without a problem.  He refuses formula.  Eating solids is sometimes ok, but he refuses them on a regular basis too.

Sleeping: Sleeping is still about the same.  Two short naps and one longer nap (or one short nap and a very long nap).  He still wakes up about once in the middle of the night to eat.  I usually find him on his stomach in his crib, and I often find him far from the place that I put him.

Mobility: Joshua is still not all that mobile.  He quickly rolls from his back to his front.  He can spin in place.  I've seen him try to pull up on a few things that wouldn't support him and maybe some claps too...it's hard to tell.

Attitude: He's still quite happy.  Not necessarily silly, but getting smiles out of him is pretty easy.  (Except when we were in Florida.  He was rather serious then.)

Misc: We just got rid of the pacifiers.  He had started chewing on them a lot and then with the cold he wouldn't take them.  So it seemed like a good stopping point.  Joshua seems to like Ben a lot more than Isaac did at this age...there is always a huge smile for Ben when he gets home from work.

Sunday: swing

I took down the swing this past week.

Oh swing, you were so good to us.

Your floppy ears may be permanently skewed, but it makes you all the more lovable.

There were so many peaceful naps in your cozy basket.

You will be missed and never forgotten.