Vroom!

Henry seems to have picked up on his older brother's fascination with cars already. He copies everything Nick does, including driving cars around while saying, "Vroom!" I don't remember Nick doing this until he was much older.

Listen to him vrooming!

Lately, Henry has been following Nick around, trying to play with whatever he is playing with, and shrieking in desperation when Nick doesn't give him the toys. Poor little brother.

Nearly Wordless Wednesday

I have no story to go along with these pictures. Henry is just cute. That is all.

Visiting Auntie Mandy at Work

Henry and Nick don't get to see Auntie Mandy very often. She works long hours and is very busy. But last weekend we went to visit her at her work. She showed off her restaurant, and we had a delicious lunch.

Nick didn't quite understand the concept of "Auntie Mandy's work." He kept asking where she was going, and why she wasn't going to be leaving with us. He sure didn't complain about the tasty lunch, though.

Neither did Henry. He ate (and threw on the floor) an entire ham and cheese sandwich.

Let's Go Fly A Kite!

I spend many of my Saturday mornings lately in a very similar routine. First, I wake up and blearily drink a few cups of coffee while feeding the boys breakfast. Then, I search the internet for interesting things to do with the kids.

Yesterday, I was lucky. I read about the Go Fly a Kite! Festival in Wheaton. At first I was concerned that Nick would be too little to fly his own kite. Then, I worried about what I'd do with Henry while Nick and I tried to get a kite airborne. We went, anyhow.

Nick adored picking out his kite. He seriously deliberated, and finally chose this beautiful butterfly kite with red streamers. It took a little while for us to figure out how to fly a kite. I don't believe I've done this since the mid 1980s. Nick was a little discouraged, at first, but he persevered.

The kite salesman said it'd hold up well and be easy for a little kid to fly. Oh, and I was totally wrong about Nick being too little to fly a kite. I had to help him get started, but, oh boy, did he love kite flying! Here is a picture of his first successful flight.

I'm so glad I took the boys! We had one of the best days I've had in a long time. I captured Nick on video running with his new kite. 

There were professional kite fliers, kites for sale, snacks, a candy drop, and a booth where you could make a paper kite. I found it very relaxing sitting in the grass with Henry, listening to the music and watching the kites fly in choreographed patterns. Nick wasn't relaxed, though he had a good time. This is what he did for at least 40 minutes straight:

I do not know where he gets the energy, but he loved running around that tree. I watched him in amazement, and Henry played in the grass. 

I want to make sure we make it to this festival next year. I also want to fly more kites with Nicholas. I really liked it, and all the running around was great exercise. 

Nick's Octopuses

Tonight Nick wanted to draw. We pulled out the crayons and paper.

Mommy: So what do you want to draw, Nick?
Nick: Octopus!
Mommy: Alrighty then. Octopuses it is, I suppose. Why octopuses?
Nick: They have legs!
Mommy: That's a great reason.

I demonstrated with my, ahem, superior crayon skills how to draw an octopus. Basically, I showed a circle with eight legs. Nick followed directions pretty well for a child who can neither put on his own shirt nor use the potty.

The one on the far right has the most promise of actually looking like an octopus. Nick, however, knew that his octopuses didn't have enough legs, and he wanted to try again. Nick kept trying to pronounce the plural form of octopus, and it came out sounding something like "octopussies" or "octopussessess." I ended up looking up whether it was octopi or octopuses, because I wasn't sure. Octopuses won the day.

His result was adorable and artistic and amazing. But I'm his mommy. I have to say that.

In my artistic analysis, I would have to say that Nick's octopus looks rather angry. Perhaps that's because he has twelve legs, some on his head. He definitely has eyes and a mouth, though. Nick is still working on his counting skills. Oh, and what was Mr. Henry doing during our drawing lesson? He was locating and chewing on whatever crayons he could find.

An Egg Hunt

Last Sunday was the big egg hunt at my mom's house. This one was also Henry's first. Doesn't he look excited?

Henry was, actually, pretty thrilled about the Easter Egg Hunt. However, I don't know if it was the eggs that thrilled him or the grass. He loves to pull grass.

Once Henry figured out that his grandma had put cookie bears in the eggs and they made noise when shaken, he was all about shaking the eggs. 

I can't emphasize enough the importance of teaching young children to search for plastic eggs filled with candy, while of course stopping frequently to make themselves available for photographs. 

It's a time-honored tradition that welcomes spring while also creating a surplus of candy. Unless we give our children unlimited access to that candy (not going to happen), most of the candy ends up being eaten by adults. Greg said tonight that most of his diet this week was made up of sugar and saturated fat. My snacking wasn't quite as bad, but Peeps and chocolate were definitely on the menu.

Both boys found eggs, but Nick filled his basket with considerable ease. He's an old hat at hunting for eggs.

Thanks to my sister for the awesome pictures.  :)

Wordless Wednesday

Egg'straordinary Fun in Downtown Plainfield

I wrote a few days ago about taking the boys to the Easter event in Downtown Plainfield. We had an eggceptionally good time and will be eggspecially certain to attend next year.

We had lovely weather all day, just perfect for strolling up and down looking for goodies and special things to do. Henry stayed in the stroller for most of it, people watching and enjoying the sunshine. The fresh air was eggshilarating.

They had a bouncy house and face painting, two ways to ensure my boy Nick had an eggcellent time.

After face painting and pictures, we went to the library to complete an eggstra special craft.

Nick made an eggstra sticky bunny necklace. (He used lots of glue.) Henry just crawled around, entertaining the volunteers with his cuteness and his mischievous crawling, climbing, and "traveling" (that's where he walks around holding on to things).

Here's Nick's final project. After this, we were all ready for a nap, myself included.  I was especially eggshausted. If you've read this far, you're probably not all that eggsthusiastic about my puns. Sorry about that. I'm pretty tired tonight and a little slap-happy, to tell you the truth. Puns make me giggle.

Happy Easter!

Lunch with the Easter Bunny

Yup. We had lunch with the bunny. It was awesome, especially for Nick. Henry was a bit confused by the giant furry white rabbit. He tried to give him a lemon wedge.

Since Greg started working on Saturdays, I've been getting used to taking the boys on outings by myself. Sometimes we're successful, other days everyone (myself included) ends up in tears. Today ended up being pretty fun. I took the boys to Downtown Plainfield for their Eggstraordinary day of fun. We started with an early lunch at Bin 48, a restaurant/wine bar. I'd heard they were having "Lunch with the Easter Bunny." Even though we didn't have a reservation, they squeezed us in.

The food was pretty good. I'm sure their wine would've been nice, but it was just before noon and I thought it was a bit early to imbibe. I ordered a fancy grilled cheese sandwich with tomato basil soup.

It was pretty yummy. Henry and I both loved it. He especially loved chewing on the crusts. The waitress also brought him some crackers to smush around.

Nick started out being afraid of the bunny, and ended up dancing with him.

This was a very persistent bunny. Nick was so shy with him at first, so the bunny played peekaboo with him. Nick loved his lunch today because every five minutes or so, that bunny peeked in to see him. I was really happy with the experience. I liked the restaurant, too. 

Houseplants in Jeopardy

Lately, Henry has been a destroyer of all things, especially those things that make a mess when destroyed. Let's take my houseplants, for example.

I've been taking quite drastic measures in order to try to protect my plants. I don't have rare or delicate plants, but the spot by my front door works especially well because of the amount of sun that comes in through the side windows. My plants seem to love this particular location. I am rather proud of the fact that I've kept them alive for so long. At least until dear Henry came along.

No, I did not let him smash the dirt (and the plant) with his hands while I snapped pictures. I came upon him in the aftermath, and figured that if I had to clean up the mess anyway, I might as well have some pictures to document the destruction.

The thing is, Henry is pretty single-minded. When he wants to destroy something, he will keep coming back again and again. If I block off whatever he's trying to get to, he will either find a way to bypass my makeshift childproofing or wail pitifully until Nick bypasses the childproofing. The end result? We had to move my plants for the time being.

Friday Fun at the Riverwalk

The Riverwalk was our destination of choice last Friday after lunch. Nick loves walking by the river, and he especially loves the playground past Centennial Beach. He also adores walking back and forth on the bridges. 

Friday ended up being the best day of my whole spring break. I had a great day with both kids and I think they had a ball as well. I'm feeling kind of sad now that break is over, but it is only two months until summer. I will survive, I'm sure. 

Henry loves hanging out in the stroller, because he can move fast and watch the world fly by. 

Nick flies all by himself. He hardly ever moves slowly. We walked all the way to the park, where more fun ensued for both boys.