Easter Baskets

The Easter Bunny came to our house on Thursday. Morgan woke up and found a candy trail from the stairs up to the dining room.

It led to his Easter basket. He also had to find more eggs hidden around the room. Fun morning for Morgan.

Later when Lydia awoke, she got to see her first Easter Basket. A pretty dress, some headbands, and a book.

But what was her favorite part?



Let me tell you what, this little girl loves to eat paper. Loves it. It's a constant struggle.

Here is one of her new headbands.




This is a face she has been making lately. She does that, and sniffs in and breaths out through her nose, rapidly. Cracks me up.

Dye the eggs. And the Morgan

Wednesday, we colored Easter eggs. I boiled eight, ate one immediately, since it cracked, then got the dye and the table all ready.
Morgan sat down, put an egg in one of the cups, was excited about it, got another egg to put in the blue dye, and managed to tip the cup over. This happened to be the fullest, of course.
Boy was that a pain to clean up. All over the table, bench, pretend wood floors, and Morgan. So he had to strip to his skivvies. I soaked his clothes in warm water with dish washing detergent, then put them through the wash, and the stain came out. Woohoo!
I also soaked Morgan in a tub with warm water and dish washing detergent. I'm happy to report that his stains came out as well. :)
So Morgan was mostly naked for the rest of the activity.

The dye kit came with Cars stickers.
He spent so much time on the green egg. He put lots of stickers on it, and said it was his favorite egg. He even said he loved it. Then, right when we finished, Morgan knocked his favorite egg off of the table, and onto the bench. CRACK. He tried to grab it, but it rolled onto the floor. CRACK. When we retrieved it, it was being held together by stickers. So much for his favorite egg.

Deep breaths, Melanie.

This morning we got up and went to swimming lessons. We were in a hurry to get out the door, because I am no good at mornings, and am always running late. So we hurried into the car. We got to the rec center, and we hurried out of the car. After lessons, we all got loaded up again then went to the church so I could play volleyball. I carried in my baby in her carrier, diaper bag, court shoes, and knee pads. After playing, I got everything and everybody back in the car. My last step was putting my shoes and knee pads in the trunk. I closed the trunk and started to make my way to my door.
Then I saw something on my car that shouldn't have been there.
On the side of the car, in the back, was an elaborate scribble scratched into the paint. What?! My first thought was, "Oh, Morgan, you are in SOOOOO much trouble."
Then I noticed that the scribble had a rather long tail. It went over both left-hand-side doors, and continued. It made it's way to the hood, where the scratch got especially deep. All across the hood and around to the other side. The other side had fainter scratchings, another squiggle on the passenger door, then kind of tapered off near the trunk.
My pretty new car appeared to have been keyed. And I was not happy.
It seemed that while I was in the parking lot of the church, my car was vandalized. I didn't notice any scratches before, and they are pretty noticeable. So I thought about the people who play volleyball. Some may not like me especially well, more probably cringe when I end up on their team, but I don't think any are malicious enough to key my car. Alright, so, a random punk drove into the church parking lot, picked one car, and defaced it. But left the purse that was sitting on the seat in the unlocked vehicle...
Okay, so it happened at the rec center. Maybe I inadvertently stole a parking spot, or somehow made someone mad while driving, and they were getting even with me. And...they left my purse on the front seat in my unlocked car... (yeah, I know, bad practice.)
The more I thought about it, the more I saw the patterns on the car, the more I thought that this was the work of a naughty child.
Yesterday, Morgan and his cousins played outside unsupervised. Lately they have been getting into things they shouldn't. When the cousins play, messes are made, things are broken, mischievousness ensues.
While still at the church, I had Morgan get out of the car so he could see the handy-work, and I asked him about it. He denied vehemently having anything to do with it.
Running errands this evening, I asked him again about it. He immediately pointed the finger at his cousin Kaien.
Here's how the conversation went.
Me: Do you know what happened to my car?
Morgan: Kaien drew on it with the thing that makes white.
Me: Kaien did it? How do you know?
Morgan: Because he drew on it.
Me: What did he draw with?
Morgan: I used the thing that looks like a battery.
Me: You used a thing that looks like a battery?
Morgan: No, Kaien did.
Me: Morgan, how do you know?
Morgan: Because he did it.
Me: Did you see him do it?
Morgan: No, I wasn't there.
Me: Morgan, then how would you know if he did it?
Morgan: I mean, Emmy did it.
Me: Did you see her do it?
Morgan: No.
Me: Morgan, you can't say someone did something, if you didn't see it happen. Then it's like lying. You need to always tell the truth.
(We've had a lot of discussions about telling the truth lately. Morgan has had trouble with the important principle.)
Morgan: I did it.
Me: You did it?
Morgan: That's the truth. I drew on it. I'm not lying.
Then he gave details. It was the day Kaien and Emmy were over, and they were outside, and his cousins weren't near by, but he found something and drew white on the car.
Oh boy.
I was being calm and under control.
Me: You do know it is very very naughty, right? It is not okay to ever write on or scratch cars.
Morgan: I know. But I don't have to have a time out, because I told the truth, right Mommy?

And how do you handle that? He told the truth, which I thanked him for doing, and want to encourage, but for pete's sake, he scratched my entire car! The deed needs a consequence, does it not?
I remember once telling the truth about the scissors being left outside by me, and I got a spanking. Then I couldn't figure out why I told the truth.

So we talked about it, set new rules, (no kids allowed by the cars ever again!) and went on our way. No time out, no privileges revoked, no spanking, nothing. What am I supposed to do in a case like that?
I'm really upset about my car.

Uncle Cameron

My brother, Cameron, recently left to Colorado to work installing security systems. He will then go on to Canada. So before he left, he had to get some good play time in with his cutest niece.

Author Interview

Lookit! http://iamareadernotawriter.blogspot.com/2011/04/book-giveaway-author-interview-future.html

I've been interviewed! Also, my book is being given away again, so check it out and try to win a copy!

P.s. I'm really excited about this.

Swimming Lessons

Morgan has been doing swimming lessons every Monday and Wednesday for the past three weeks. He's enjoyed it. I don't think it's as advanced as his lessons last year, but he's having fun and getting used to the water more.
The pool at the Rec Center is shallow enough for the kids to be in without lifejackets, unlike the pool in Dugway. So that makes for a more comfortable learning environment for Morgan.
They play a game where you have to blow bubbles when the teacher catches you in the hula hoop.
When they are done with the shallow end, they form a train and walk over to the deep end (by which I mean 4 ft) and take turns learning different things in the pool with the teacher.
Sorry for the poor picture quality.

When lessons are over, the kids are released to the kiddie pool where they can have free time. This is probably Morgan's favorite part.
And we had a breakthrough! It even happened on the one day I brought the camera. Before that day, Morgan was terrified of putting his head under water. Well, he'd jump in the pool as often as you let him, even though his head would go under, but that was just the cost of having the fun of jumping in. Other than that though, he just wouldn't do it voluntarily.
Until a week ago.
Going under...
Hanging out underneath for awhile...
Then hopping up in delight. He doesn't like plugging his nose though.
Lydia and I hang out while Morgan swims. Good times.

I like to eat, eat, eat, apples and bananas....

Lydia has been trying all sorts of different foods lately. Here's what I've learned.
Rice cereal makes her vomit profusely, and then dry heave for an hour.
Green, pureed vegetables cause her to make some funny faces, and to have a very real gag response.
Fruits are a go.
Cheerios can make just as big a mess as applesauce.
Ritz crackers are best when they crunch. When they get soggy, it's best to just spit them out all over the place.
It doesn't matter how much supplemental food is consumed; Lydia still wants just as much breastmilk. Hence the thunder thighs.

Siblings who bathe together...

When I was young, I took a bath with three of my siblings. My older two siblings sat side by side in the front of the tub, but the spout, and I sat next to my little brother behind them. We barely fit, and my older siblings got the deeper and warmer water.
Lucky for my kids, there are only two of them.

Lydia recently graduated from her baby bath tub. She liked baths before, but they are extra fun now. She had so much fun splashing and splashing.

At one point, Lydia was lying on her back, and splashing up a storm with her arms and legs. Then some water would splash in her face, and she would flail a little at the surprise and distaste. The extra flailing would cause more water to her face, which would make her splash extra hard, which would get more water to her face, which caused a bit of a panic. I eventually intervened to save my baby from herself.








I think they're cute.

Lydia the tank engine?

Morgan has been saying a lot of funny things lately, so here is another Morgan quote post.

One day, Morgan nonchalantly brought up the subject of love and timeouts. He told me, "People that love everyone, don't give other people time-outs." Oh really? I guess I missed that memo. Actually, I tried to tell him that I gave him time-outs because I love him, and I want him to learn to always be a good boy. Yeah, that really didn't fly for him.

Morgan loves trains. The other day we were driving near the train track, and we heard a train whistle. He was very excited about it. Then he said, "I wish Lydia was a train."

Today at church, an older gentleman was complimenting Morgan on his suit. He said, "You're a good looking young man."
Morgan replied. "You're old."
I guess we need to work on our manners.

Morgan likes to say "Yes sir-ree." But he also knows that a man is sir, and a woman is ma'am. So when he talks to me he says, "Yes ma'am-a-ree." Say that out loud. Or don't.

In a tote

I got a couple storage totes the other day, which currently sit in the middle of my bedroom floor, making the night time feedings especially hazardous. I've found that they also make for great temporary play pens.
Observe:

Notice the way she's sucking her finger? She's been doing that a lot lately. Hand backward, one of the middle fingers in the mouth.

So sweet!

Surprise!

I uploaded the pictures from my camera to my computer yesterday, and came across a bit of a surprise.



In other news, last night during Morgan's prayer, he said, "I'm thankful for stamps, beautiful stamps."

Morgan often tells me that I know everything. Good boy.

We've been doing a bit of spring cleaning here, and went through some old toy boxes of my brothers. Many toys are being donated to DI, more are being thrown away, but there were a ton of Hotwheels type cars that Morgan inherited, (like he needed any more!) and he was so thrilled. He was raving about how it was the best day, such a good day, his favorite day.