Sunday Afternoon

Sunday afternoons are a good time to watch racing, and, do I ever love racing!

It's important to "race" race cars while watching racing. See? I'm all set! "Gentlemen, start your engines!"

Remember how Jack likes Mommy to hold him ALL of the time? Well, this weekend, Mommy had to do something real quick and she needed both hands. She set Jack down in the nearest thing fully expecting him to cry. Did he cry? Nope! It turns out that the carseat is Jack's favorite if-it-can't-be-Mommy-place-to-sit.

That brother of mine, put his thumb in his mouth and was content for at least 10 minutes! Who would have guessed it?

Bathing Brothers

Last night, for the first time, Mommy let Jack and I take a bath together. It was so much fun!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day...again!

Way back before Jack was born Dad went to Northern Ireland. We all got presents when Dad came home, and this outfit is what Dad brought back for Jack. Mommy put it on him for St. Patrick's Day, but Jack got it all messy before Mommy had time to take a picture. So, here's a "re-do".

And, did you notice Jack's new trick? See how he sucks in his bottom lip. Silly, little brother--it's his new favorite thing to do!

Tracing

After naptime, Mommy said, "Wanna do a craft project?" Of course I was up for the challenge! Mommy and I love doing projects together. We got out the roll of butcher paper. I spread out on a long piece of paper while Mommy traced my body with a crayon. Then it was time to draw the eyes, hair, nose, etc.

We thought it might be fun to trace Jack. Apparently he doesn't like tracing.

Pretty soon, I decided I was hungry. We cleaned up the crayons and headed to the kitchen for a snack.

Craft projects are serious business, and they always leave me a little bit hungry!

Crawling?

Jack may have crawled today. Dad's pretty sure Jack took a few "crawls" forward to try and get my baseball. These pictures aren't all that great because, if Jack saw Mommy, he would cry, and Mommy wanted pictures of him crawling not crying.

Here's another attempt on Jack's part to crawl.

I'm thinking that Mommy and my days of keeping stuff out of Jack's reach are numbered. I think life is about to change around here.

The Day after Easter

This morning we've been putting things around the house back together after our fun, busy weekend.

Jack and I found a place to put all of the new lizards from the Easter eggs.

We also organized our new baseball cards. There were a couple of new packs in our Easter buckets, so we added them to the baseball card books Uncle Tom made for us.

Next it was time to straighten up the house. We needed to take down the Easter decorations and other stuff. I was helping with the pick-up when I decided to stick my finger in one of the holes on this ball. Yep, you guessed it! My finger was stuck! And Mommy had the giggles! She couldn't stop laughing, and I couldn't stop crying...

Mommy pulled and pulled on that ball, but it wouldn't come off. The only thing she could think to do was to soap up my hand and keep pulling. The soap worked and the ball slid right off. There is, however, a scrape where the hole dug into my finger. Mommy fixed me up with a band-aid.

It really was a sad time. I had on a really, really sad face, and I think Mommy felt pretty sad herself. Good thing we have a sofa to snuggle on!

Goin' on and egg hunt...

Well, the Easter baskets were opened, Jack was down for his nap, and it was time to find the missing eggs! I got dressed and headed outside...

I found lots of eggs!

They were full of chocolate, pennies, and more lizards. That Easter Bunny had filled the eggs with fun things.

Pretty soon my bucket was full! All the eggs were found!

We headed back inside to continue with the celebrations. First up, was breakfast with our friends Mark and Joy. We had waffles with whipped cream and strawberries and blueberry pancakes. Yummy! And then Oliver came over for Easter lunch. We had a great time playing together. What a fun day!

Easter Morning

We woke up to find the eggs missing and the carrot eaten!

Jack was excited, too!

The Easter Bunny (with some help from Mommy) left us some Easter buckets. We pulled stuff out of our buckets. There were some fun plastic, toy lizards...

...some spring shirts--Jack's had a carrot and mine had trucks and basketballs...

...and we each got a book about the real meaning of Easter. Even though we had fun thinking and pretending about the Easter Bunny, Easter is really about the empty tomb! Jesus rose from the dead!

He is risen! He is risen indeed!

Twas the night before Easter...

Last night we spent some time getting ready for Easter morning. First Mommy and Jack had a little snuggle before we got on with the rest of the preparations.

We had to get the eggs all ready for the Easter Bunny to hide. He comes in the middle of the night and hides the eggs in the grass. Then we had to leave the Easter Bunny a carrot. He loves carrots and needs the food to have strength to hide all the eggs. It's a BIG job, you know! This year the Easter Bunny gave Mommy an early gift--see the fun carrot holder? It holds the Easter Bunny's carrot.

I went to bed VERY excited for the morning!

Coloring Eggs

This morning we colored eggs. Mommy hardboiled some white eggs, and then the fun began!

Mommy mixed the colors, and Dad helped me drop the eggs in the cups.

Next I stirred the egg around to help the color soak in better.

We lifted the egg with the spoon to see if it was just the right color.

Here's one of the blue eggs.

Here are all the finished eggs. They turned out so pretty! I sure like looking at them.

Next up, leaving a carrot for the Easter Bunny!

A Stay-Home Day for Dad

After a long trip, Dad had a stay-home day today. We started off the day with a hot breakfast...

...and then we headed to the local warehouse club. Dad had a hot dog and Mom and I split a piece of cheese pizza.

After we bought our groceries, we headed home for lots and lots of basketball...and lots and lots more basketball...

Today

We started off today by having breakfast twice. The first time around, we had bagels with peanut butter and bananas on them. Then, about an hour later, I told Mommy I wanted breakfast again, so we had eggs, cottage cheese, and peaches. Actually, just I had the eggs and cottage cheese. Mommy is the world's pickiest eater--eggs and cottage cheese are not things she eats. Oh my! It drives my Dad crazy!

Then we spent the rest of the day (except for naptime) building Lego cranes. Up at Dad's work there is a crane working on one of the new buildings. Mom and I visit quite often. Yesterday we noticed the crane is gone. Not to worry; I'll build my own! Here's mine:

And here's the crane I built for Jack. He tried to eat it. I took it away from him, because cranes are not for eating. Jack got sad.

But then Jack found the baby in the mirror and was happy again.

And when Jack's happy, we're all happy!

Over and out...I've got to get back to my Legos.

The rains came down, and the floods came up...

Yep, it's true! Arkansas has been flooding.

We didn't realize it was all over the national news until we started getting calls and emails from the relatives. We're still here. The water didn't wash us away!

There are a few roads in town that closed. All are now open but one--the one (the bridge by the library) that closes at the thought of a drizzle! Our local news said that the road by our church and the road to the airport were closed. We weren't as concerned about the roads as we were about the ducks. Our town has a lot of ducks that hang out by the creek, so yesterday morning we got into our car and went looking for the ducks. They seemed to be fine and enjoying the extra water.

And, of course, it all happened while Dad was on a trip. It always happens that way! It's exciting when Dad is gone and calms down by the time he gets home. He'll get home this afternoon just in time to enjoy the 70 degree weather and clear, sunny skies!

Shaker Thing

Yesterday the mail carrier brought me and Jack an Easter card from Grandma Lou and Grandpa Jere. Inside of the card were some stickers!

Mommy and I both like to do crafts, so this morning we decided to use the stickers to make a "shaker thing". We gathered up the supplies.
We sealed of one end of the paper towel tube and filled it up with dried beans.
I asked Mommy if we could use some ribbons. "Sure," she said.
Stickers came next. I decorated the shaker thing with my Easter stickers.
And then I...

...cried.

Yep, when Mommy handed me the finished craft and said, "Here is your shaker thing; let's shake it to some music," I was mad! Mommy said we couldn't even talk about things until I calmed down, so I tried my best to breathe and talk to Mommy without crying. Mommy then realized that when she said "let's make a shaker thing", I thought she was telling me we were going to be making shaker milks (my word for milk shake). "Oh," said Mommy, "Shaker things are different than shaker milks." And she set the shaker thing aside.

We headed to the family room and turned on some music. Mommy found my favorite song, and we started dancing.

I was feeling better, so Mommy asked me if I wanted to drum to the music...

...then Mommy asked if she could drum while I shook the shaker thing to the music...

...and all was right with the world! (Except for one thing... For some reason we can't get this picture to turn right way up. Just turn your head sideways when you look at it.)