Stinker

That's my Zander. A cranky little stink one minute and the cutest little ray of sunshine the next. He's at that wonderful age where everything is his and he has to do everything all by himself. The slightest bit of help sends him into a tizzy. He wants his milk, so I give it to him. Nope, doesn't want it anymore, so I put it back in the fridge. Oh look, he wants it. So I give it to him only to have him throw it across the room. But, still, I love this kid. I'm thinking it's that goofy smile that does it to me every time.

Sliding

It's going to be a long summer of worry for this mama. Zander is into everything and wants to do everything his brother does, including climbing up the stairs and rope so he can go down the wavy slide in our backyard. He is still little enough that the waves send him sailing and he very rarely lands on his feet at the end. On a good slide he plops off the slide onto his butt, but usually he ends up face planting in the grass. And then he's off to the stairs again, where his legs just aren't quite long enough to make it an easy climb.






Yes, he is going head first down the slide. I'm not looking forward to Zander trying this one.

Sand piles

The long, harsh winter has left behind a fun (though likely unsanitary) fun spring adventure. The boys have spent the last three days at the end of the street moving around the piles of sand left behind by our wonderful city crews. I'm beginning to think the street cleaners are on strike and will never come by to remove all this sand. My boys don't seem to mind.








And this is my favorite. Technically, it is far from perfect (as most of my shots are), but I love the pure joy on his face. My baby is growing into a little boy with no fear. Which makes this mommy very scared.


And of course, if we are outside Nick has to ride the tractor. I don't know what he is going to do when he gets too big for that thing. The day is coming sooner rather than later.

Shapes and fire trucks

More learning!! Yeah! Not that Nick doesn't know his shapes, but it was fun to see if he could put together a "puzzle" without a picture to go off of. Again, this was an idea from a mommy blogger (I'm so glad there are crafty women out there who like to share).

Nick has been home sick (fevers from 101 to 103.5) all week and is really getting tired of being cooped up. So, during naptime today I cut out the shapes for a fire truck. He loves crafts, glue and fire trucks so it seemed like a perfect combo.




The masterpiece was complete.

All it was missing was the artist's signature!


When we finished this Nick wanted to make a second one. This time, I drew the shapes and he cut them out. He got about halfway through putting it altogether and decided he was bored.

Style

I am raising one stylin' little man.


For what it's worth, I was going through tubs of Nick's old clothes this morning to see if there was anything that would fit Zander or that I could get rid of in our upcoming neighborhood sales. Zander found the shorts and boots in a tub and wouldn't take them off. I, of course, had to take pictures for future blackmailing purposes.

Science experiment

I've been trying very hard lately to incorporate educational play into the time I spend with the kids. I've been following all kinds of blogs about how to use everyday things as educational tools. This was one of those recommendations. After Easter we had bunches of the plastic eggs everywhere around the house. So, thanks to one of my favorite mommy bloggers, I decided to put them to good use. I had Nick and Zander collect the eggs while I searched for items we could use in our experiment. I grabbed blocks, Hot Wheels, art supplies and money for the project. Then I got a big bowl of water. By now, the boys were VERY interested. I started by explaining to Nick about what it meant to sink or float. We filled each egg with the stuff and then decided if it would sink to the bottom or float. Unfortunately, I'm not very smart when it comes to science and I severely underestimated just how much it would take to get those darn eggs to drop. Only one (well actually three) things in the bucket made the egg sink: Nick's magic coins (the ones he keeps in his pocket in case he gets sad at school). But, the boys didn't seem to mind. Zander just dropped empty eggs in while Nick meticulously chose items to fill his egg.

Then all hell broke loose.

Easter egg hunt

After our family lunch we took advantage of the semi-nice day and herded the kids outside. Michele (who is always a favorite among the kids) was on top of things as usual and had bubbles and sidewalk chalk out for the kids to play with.


And the big surprise of the day was an Easter egg hunt in their backyard! Jay and Michele had stuffed 18 eggs with candy and money for Quitin (their grandson) and my boys to find. Jamie was supposed to be in on it, but being older she graciously bowed out and just "helped" the little kids find some of the hidden treats. And because Quintin is still so little (he just turned one), my boys ended up benefitting the most from the fun. Nick was on a mission to collect as many as he could (and was visibly disappointed when they were all found), but Zander was more interested on what was inside not how many he could collect. He wandered around the yard, the dollar bill from his first colorful find in one hand and his basket in the other repeating "Where are you egg?" Adorable! Yeah, when he's not trying my patience he might just be the cutest thing ever.



See that money in his hand? He didn't let go for a long time.











When it was all said and done Mike and Nick both got their dog fix playing catch with Riley.