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.  :)

Trick or Treat!

I suppose my trick is that I am actually writing a post. It's been longer than a week, and for me, that's way too long. But I have lots of treats, in the form of Halloween pictures from our Trick or Treating this evening.

The costumes this year were as follows: Nick was the Itsy-Bitsy Spider, and Henry was the Very Hungry Caterpillar. Yes, Nick is chewing on one of his eight legs. Both boys loved going outside to demand candy from all of our generous neighbors.

Nicholas insisted he was a scary spider, so we had him give us his scary look. This is what he did.  :)

Nick loved his scary costume, but he loved the candy more. We let him eat more than usual. Honestly, we don't keep it in the house, so when it's around it is a huge temptation for all of us. Nick is still sticky.

Henry wasn't into the candy, but he loved watching all of the kids running around in the brightly colored costumes.

After we got home, Henry hung around a little bit, reveling in his alter ego. He ate like a hungry caterpillar, too, and had his first taste of pears.

Today I read an awesome book with my students. It's called Night of the Gargoyles, by Eve Bunting and David Wiesner. I read it to my 1st and 3rd graders, with different purposes. There are so many awesome words in this book. So I brought it home to share with Nick. Grandma Toni read it twice to the boys.

Although I think I prefer Halloween on a weekend, this one turned out pretty nice. Greg got the chance to go with us (he got off work early) and we all went out together as a family.

Visiting with Gigi

During my spring break, Nick and I decided to take a day to go and visit my grandmother, who Nick calls Gigi. (G.G.=great grandma) She just had cataract surgery and we figured she could use some cheering up. Nick picked out pretty yellow tulips and cupcakes to bring for her.

I think Nick's favorite part of the visit was romping with Lucy, the Yorkie pup.

My grandma made us lunch and dinner, and we talked and watched Nick run around and try to destroy things. At one point, he kept sneaking into the living room and stealing Hershey's kisses from the candy bowl.  For a two-year-old, he can be pretty surreptitious--Nick would put the candy behind his back so we couldn't see it. He must've gone back seven or eight times before we finally put the candy bowl where he couldn't reach it.

That really brought back memories for me, because I can remember doing the exact same thing. In fact, one time, when I was about 5 or 6, I snuck a whole bunch of chocolate out of that same crystal candy bowl and hid the wrappers under the couch cushions. I was caught and I can remember having to write a silly sentence about 100 times. It was something like: I will not take candy without asking. It seems my son has inherited the tendancy to swipe chocolate whenever it is in the vicinity.

It was a sunny day, so we decided to go outside with Lucy for awhile. Even though it was somewhat chilly outside, Nick wasn't even a little bit cold. Too busy running full speed towards and away from the puppy, he got quite a bit of exercise. You can tell, though, that Gigi was a little chilled.

I really love this time in the spring when you can have the windows open and let in the fresh air. Spring is such a hopeful time, and I have to say that Nick is so much more mellow when he gets to run around and play outdoors.

Nick has quite a few doting grandparents--four grandmas and three grandpas--but there's only one Gigi. Since Nick lost his Grandma Marie in February, she's his only living great grandparent, and very special to him. You'd think he'd get confused with all of the relatives, but we have pictures up all over the house, and Nick can point to them and name everyone. He knew just who I was talking about when I said we were going to visit Gigi. In the car, he asked, "I see Gigi. Puppy, too?"


Yup. Puppy, too.

At times, I felt sorry for the puppy, because Nick was not very gentle with her. But Lucy kept coming back for more, and licking the heck out of my boy. He didn't seem to mind much.

I spent most of my spring break working on a very big freelance writing project, all while potty training Mr. Nick. I also had papers to edit for some friends and a Power Point presentation I was working on for work. Not very relaxing.

So getting to take a rest from the computer and drive up for some adult company was really nice. I think Gigi liked the company, too, though she looked pretty tired by the time we left. It's hard for anyone to get used to the energy of a two-year-old!

Trick or Treat!

Yes, this was Nick's first Halloween, and he really loved seeing all of the people. And candy? Well, he sure liked that, too, although we didn't let him have too much.

We went trick-or-treating with my father and stepmother out in Rosemont. Everyone was so nice, even though Nick had an entourage of adults with him. We were asked a few times, "All of you guys for this one little baby?" Yup, he had a posse.

The cheetah costume didn't bother him too much, and the padding on his head even saved his head from getting bonked a few times.

This was just the first part of Nick's Halloween Adventure. We ended up going to my mom and stepdad's house for more trick-or-treating. I will have to post more later this week, when I get the pictures from my sister. It was a really fun day, though. I think Nick loved the whole Halloween thing. We sure got a kick out of watching him enjoy it.