Family Picture

More Easter

Lucia and Uncle Dave.

Easter

A few pictures from Easter this year. I wish the one of Ethan and Norah was a little more in focus- but I love it becuase they are making the same smiling face!


























Ethan shoving candy into his mouth.












Nonna, Grandma Jeri, Ethan and Lucia.

Easter Egg Hunt

I took the kids to the Hope Network Easter Egg Hunt again this year. Ethan had a lot of fun. He caught on to what he was supposed to do more quickly than last year. The group shot is Ethan, Kylen, and Lauren- daughters of my co-workers. Ethan and Kylen are betrothed to one another- and from Kylen's face in the bottom pic- she's not too thrilled about it!

New Niece

Nick and Sunny welcomed their daughter- Ivana Piper- early Good Friday morning! Welcome Ivana- you sure are beautiful!

Happy Girl

Here she is after she figured out how to put the puff in her mouth.
In other news- Lucia had her first ear infection late last week. She had a very restless night on Wed., so I took her in Thursday morning and, sure enough, one ear was infected. She's on some antibiotics now, and I think she is starting to feel better. Hopefully her sleep will also start to improve- I'm getting really tired of waking up with her every 3-4 hours. Jim keeps saying "it isn't supposed to be like this right? Ethan was sleeping through the night at her age." Too bad all children are not the same. I was foolish to think that my second child would follow the same patterns as my first. Lucia is schooling me on motherhood big time!

Puffs

Lucia trying puffs for the first time. I think it is a little two soon- she doesn't quite have the "pinch" grasp down. When she did figure out how to get one in her mouth- she was quite surprised!

Pillow Pet

Ethan was watching cartoons the other day- I was in the other room doing something. I check in on him, and he is draped across Zero. It was pretty cute!

Come back warm weather!

It's cold and windy in Michigan today. Here are some pics from last weekend when it was 80 degrees! I hate this time of year in Michigan- pick a side already!

Workin' Hard

Ethan sure did work hard today, not quite sure what he was doing- there was a lot of moving word around (for his Tonka Trucks), raking various parts of the yard, trying to move the wheel barrow, and "helping" me move some flowers.  After all that work, I thought for sure he would take a nap- no such luck!

Too Hot

It was almost too hot today- Lucia did start to get cranky- maybe it was her yellow bonnet?

Finally!

 The weather was beautiful here in Michigan today!  It must have hit 80 degrees for the first time this year.  We spent the majority of the day outside working on cleaning up the yard, getting ready for summer, etc.
Ethan "helped" me transplant some flowers to the side of the yard- he would start to dig up the ones I had already moved, or he would step all over them.  I'm sure they will be fine.  Lucia loved being outside in her "Saucer-Saucer" (how Ethan refers to her Excer-Saucer).

Morning Girl

Lucia is such a happy girl in the mornings.  Unlike her mother, she doesn't seem to mind sleeping in 4 hour blocks (if I'm lucky!).

One of her top teeth has broken through, which now means she can rub/grind her top and bottom teeth together.  The sounds of grinding/scraping teeth makes me want to vomit.  If I'm holding Lucia when she does this, I have to put her down before I drop her- it's like finger nails on a chalkboard to me!

Zero and Lucia

Zero's such a good dog with the kids. The other day I put Lucia on her play mat in the living room- Zero gets up from his dog bed in the dining room and come to join her. He then proceeds to let her climb all over him, pull his ears, poke his eyes, and put him in wrestle-mania moves- all without blinking an eye!

Zero does look like he has had enough at this point!

Say What?

Ethan says some funny stuff at times, here are some tidbits:

Me: Why were you so naughty in church today?
E: Because I don't like the Priest.
Me: That doesn't make sense- you don't know the Priest.
E: Because I wanted to go play in the nursery.

Ethan and I were snuggling on the couch today watching the cooking channel (he loves watching cooking shows with me!).  I ran up stairs to stick Lucia's pacifier back in her mouth, when I came back down Ethan is singing this little tune.
E: "Two fat ladies, la la.  Two fat ladies, la la."
Me (appalled):  "Why are you saying that! Where did you hear that!"
E. "on the TV show."
Then I remember this show that is on Cooking Channel about two (rotund) British ladies that come to your house and cook- that must be jingle for it (I hope so anyway!)

A scene that has played out at dinners recently:
E:  Can I have some of my juice now?
Me: No, you need to eat more _____ (fill in the blank).
E: Can I have some of my juice?
Me: I just answered that question, you need to eat more food first.
E: Can I have my juice?
Me: What did I say?
E: What did I say? Can ___ I ___ Have ___ More ___ Juice? (drawn out).
Oh Lord! When he did this I almost died trying to hold back my laughter- I had to turn away from  him so he wouldn't see.  Then I turned back to him and told him not to get smart with his mother.  

Ethan and Nonna stopped by Grandpa and Oma's house the other day.  Grandpa is working on some renovation projects.  Ethan walked into the room being redone and noticed some of Grandpa's tools laying around, "oh, Grandpa, you have two knockers?"  Ethan calls hammers "knockers."  Nonna thought that was pretty funny!

Gettin' Around

Lucia is so close to crawling!  She can make her way towards things she wants (like laundry baskets) by doing this weird sideways/belly/scoot thing.  She still goes backwards and sometimes gets stuck under the couch! (only her legs though- her big butt stops her from going much further :-))

Zero's Challenge

 Zero is now 4+ years old and he has definitely mellowed out over the past year or so.  When we first brought Zero home, we had a nice little dog bed for him- that lasted all of three seconds!  Over the next few years, we tired other dog beds/padding, and Zero would promptly destroy them (usually when we were sleeping).  So, for two years Zero has had nothing soft to sleep on (except the couch when I forget to block it off, and out bedroom rug).
I was at Costco the other day and saw these nice, plush dog beds.  I figured it was time to try again- and gave Jim a call to see if he agreed.
When I got home and laid the bed out for Zero, he immediately jumped right on it and started nestling his head into it.  Jim said "ten bucks says he chews it."  I should have taken him on that bet, because we are approaching day three and Zero has yet to chew it!  This is by far the longest he has ever had anything nice for himself!  Come on Zero- you can do it!

Lucia

 A few recent pictures of Lucy Lu.  After months of speculation (slight exaggeration) she is finally cutting her top front teeth!  That explains her restless night last night (and for the last 3 months!) right? Right?

Bella

Grandma Sue brought her new German Shepherd puppy, Bella, over for a visit the other night.  Ethan tried really hard to be gentle, Bella tried really hard to get far enough away from him!  Too bad for Bella she was trapped in the dining room with Ethan :-)