I’m feeling guilty for the second-child syndrome – poor MonkeyBoyToo has only a fraction of the videos and photos that his brother has. So I took advantage of some alone time with the little one to capture a video of him practicing his talking and rolling skills.
We went to visit the Easter Bunny today and then the boys participated in an Easter Egg hunt. MonkeyBoyToo scored one egg while MonkeyBoy found a dozen or so. Hunts at this age consist of a roped off area where eggs are scattered all over the ground and the kids start searching on the count of three. While the other kids in his age group stopped at the very first eggs they saw, MonkeyBoy headed right into the middle of the hunt area and scooped up as many as he could grab before the other kids made their way in from the periphery. Pretty clever strategy for a four year old. Earlier when we were packing the car for our outing he saw me grabbing his Easter basket and asked why we were taking it. I told him it was so that he would have a place to put the eggs he found. His response “I have hands!” in the “gee Mom is so dumb” tone that I’m sure I’ll hear a lot of in the coming years. In the end, he was happy that he had the basket and didn’t have to hold all the eggs he gathered.
The bluebonnet crop is fairly sparse this year, but I managed to find one big field for photos. Neither boy was very interested in having his picture taken, so this is the best I could get.
Trying to shove the flower up his brother’s nose
It’s warm enough to get rid of the BundleMe car seat cover. I’m sad to see it go, it was so soft!
Height: 23 3/4 inches
Weight: 12 pounds, 10 ounces
Head: 41.5 cm
I finally downloaded about 100 pictures from my phone and thought I’d share some from the past couple weeks.
Eating a donut on the way to the rodeo
The best shot I could get of the boys in their matching “brother” shirts
Did you know hand dryers work great for hair?
MonkeyBoyToo’s first trip to Steak ‘N Shake
Rainbow artwork
After a lesson on weather, MonkeyBoy’s answer to the question “What do you want to fall from the sky”?
This shirt was an emergency purchase for MonkeyBoy because he had a blowout diaper while we were shopping and I was out of spare clothing. It’s the first time MonkeyBoyToo has worn it and it made him look like such a big boy!
Baby’s first trip to one of our favorite BBQ restaurants. In planning dinner this evening, I opened up the fridge and spied a bottle of this restaurant’s sauce. It sounded so good, that instead of cooking we just hopped in the car and treated ourselves to a meal out.
It’s time to put the flannel jammies away for the year and I couldn’t resist picking up a pair of matching lightweight monkey footie jammies for the boys. Here’s hoping they help both boys sleep through the night.
This morning we were rushing around trying to get ready to leave the house for a birthday party. MonkeyMan was taking care of MonkeyBoyToo, I was putting the finishing touches on the birthday present, and MonkeyBoy was happily coloring away on a poster he’d received way back at Big Brother class this fall. After a few minutes of silence, MonkeyBoy came running up to me and said “Look at what I drew, Mama!” Thinking he was going to show me his poster, I was surprised when instead he was holding up his pant leg.
This was the first time that he’s ever drawn on himself, and also the first time that he’s ever drawn anything remotely representational of himself. Most of his drawings are just hurried lines of scribbles. In fact, I was just talking to his teachers a week or two ago about how one of my concerns with possibly sending him to private Kindergarten next year was that he doesn’t draw at all like his classmates or the kids in the next class up do. I don’t know whether to be proud of his new skill, or upset that he’s chosen markers and skin as his chosen medium.
We’ve had a busy week of special holiday meals. We started the week breaking in our new vehicle by driving 100 miles to get a Shamrock Shake. These are cups of minty green goodness available at the Golden Arches in the month of March. They aren’t usually sold in Texas, so I haven’t had one in a probably a decade or more. When I discovered they were being sold for the first time “nearby”, we hit the road and headed south. Unfortunately, like most things, they didn’t live up to the memories. As you can see in the picture, they didn’t even bother to mix the green in very well, and MonkeyBoy’s drink appears layered. I didn’t like the addition of the whipped cream and cherry either – I’m a Shamrock Shake purist, I guess. I think this one will definitely tide me over for another ten years.
On Monday (3/14) we celebrated Pi Day with round foods. We had steak grilled on the Big Green Egg, a round loaf of German Rye, and then chocolate chip pie with scoops of ice cream for dessert.
Tonight we celebrated St. Patrick’s Day with green foods. We had green pancakes (some in the shape of Yoda). We also dyed our milk green, ate some sausage patties, and had green jello for dessert.
The boys wore their St. Patrick’s Day shirts to school today along with green socks. I’m still working on getting them to both sit still and look at the camera at the same time. It’s a lot harder than it seems!
The day ended with a bedtime reading of The Night Before St. Patrick’s Day. After the story, MonkeyBoy handed his dad a dollar coin and said “Here, Daddy. Take my gold and hide it from the leprechaun so he doesn’t come take it!”
