Greyson's first real word: BALL

I say "first real word" because to be a real word he has to know what he is saying right? Well, Greyson definitely knows when he is pointing to a ball when he says the word "baw". I was hoping it would be "mama" but I'll take "baw". What does this say about him and his future? Do we have a ball player on our hands? We'll just have to see! (As Ben groans and says "how do I handle an athlete son?")

A mouse?

Madelyn sits at the dining table to eat facing the window that looks out over a tree in our backyard. We have a walkout basement so the picture below is basically the view that she sees. So, yesterday we were sitting down eating dinner when she said very matter-of-factly looking toward the window, "I see a mouse." Seeing that it is too cold outside to have mice running around, my first thought was that a mouse was INSIDE MY HOUSE! So my first question was, "Is it inside?" "No," she says, "It is outside in the tree." I am stumped so I look outside for a minute and then I see it. Can you see what she is talking about in the picture below?


It is really a branch that is going off in the opposite direction but I have to say it does look like a mouse! Madelyn is pretty convinced that it is mouse too. :) I told her today when she was talking about it again, "You know it isn't a real mouse, right?" She replies after a minute, "Mama, it IS a real mouse. It isn't pretend." I left it at that for now. She added tonight that it has "a really long tail."


It is kinda fun to watch her lately recognize shapes and other objects in interesting places. Today she also told me that she had made a flower on her apple. What she meant was that she had eaten her whole apple in such a way that it looked a flower. It probably is an expected development milestone, but I'm impressed with her creative mind nonetheless.

Jesus cleaned us white as SNOW!

I had a great time presenting Easter to the kiddos this year! I'm pretty sure that they enjoyed it too. I would even risk to guess that Ben had fun too... This year Madelyn is really starting to get that these traditions that come and go every year are celebrations of things - you know, Christmas = Jesus' birth, Easter = Jesus is alive (again!). I love unfolded these stories for her. She found a book at the library that had a picture of Jesus on the cross and she started asking questions. I truly think that this might have been her first exposure to extreme violence AND to the visual of Jesus hanging like that. She was kind of taken back by it and asked why the people were doing to him. Kinda surprised myself, I told her that he didn't really deserve to be on the cross and that those people didn't know what they were really doing. (It was the best I could come up with at the time.) We brought the book home and since then have had several conversations about it. It is wonderful to see her starting to understand that which gives her mom and dad so much hope. Even though she knows that Easter is about Jesus and how he died and rose again (in her simple 3yr-old way), I also decided to have the Easter Bunny help us celebrate. He (or She according to Madelyn) came and hid the eggs we colored while they were taking naps on Saturday and then brought the celebration gifts that Jesus has risen. The kids both really enjoyed the egg coloring and hunt. And as for the snow reference, we got 5 inches of snow today! I guess that is what happens when Easter comes early!

Hunting for eggs!

"Jesus is Risen" celebration gifts

Family Photo Op

Madelyn and Greyson showing off their Easter outfits (btw, Madelyn's dress is homemade!)

Easter Videos for you!

32nd birthday today....

Ben and I had our special lunch sans kids last Saturday at Bucca DeBeppo - yum! It was delicious! Today we're playing it low-key but I have to hand it to Ben because this morning he got out of bed early and made blueberry muffins - double yum! The big feat was keeping Madelyn quiet enough that she didn't wake me up! Now, that is *my* husband!

Thanks, babe, for the extra shuteye and wonderful breakfast. Luvya!

While, I was sitting here writing this, I got totally surprised by.... these! Thanks Mom and Dad!


Now, here's a special treat for the people who love my kids - Greyson dancing to "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" in one of my birthday cards. Thanks Grandmomma! :)

Ahhhh.... such a beautiful day!

Today is such a beautiful day! The sun is out and it was in low 50's! The snow is melting and running down the streets in great rivers of water to the nearest street drain. The birds are starting to come back. The buds are starting to appear on the trees and bushes. Ahhh......

The kids and I just got back from a nice walk. Well, Madelyn rode her bike. I'm sorry I didn't get any pictures, I forgot my camera. :( Thank you, God, for the break in cold weather.

Will it last?

Book Club and Book Reports

In December, a friend and I started a book club. We did because we both desired more adult, woman interaction in our lives. The goal was to invite people from our neighborhood and not to read just one genre of book. Another thing we really strived for was having a good mix of life stages: single, married, married w/ kids, ect. I really wanted that because I find that when I'm around women that have kids all we talk about are our kids. It has been really hard but I'm hoping that this group will help remember that there is a WHOLE WORLD outside of me and my household. I think it has gotten off to a good start and the women seem to enjoy themselves and each other. We've read three books now and I thought I would give just a short blurb on each for you, but mostly for me to remember later!

Kick-off Book:
The Power of thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell
Very interesting! Pretty scientific in nature, which I enjoyed. The author did a good job convincing me that we have subconsciencious presuppisitions about people that are always coloring our world. I might be taking what he wrote too far but I came away thinking that if you want to put away all of your innate ideas of something or someone, you need to become an expert in that area. Anything you are not an expert in will be colored by what you think, instead of by what you know.

Korrie's Pick:
Falling Through The Earth: A Memoir by Danielle Trussoni
I really liked this book. It was about a girl/women that grew up in a broken family and whose father fought in the Vietnam War as an untrained "tunnel rat" crawling in the VietCong tunnels of hiding. She struggles throughout the book to discover herself and understand her father. She ends up going to Vietnam by herself as a yound adult to try and understand her father even better. This book really spoke to me because she was so emotionally strong but yet so impressionable. It showed me, again, how sensitive children are and how careful we should be with their minds.

Melissa's Pick:
Sudden Fiction: American short-short stories edited by Robert Shapard and James Thomas
This book was my idea but I didn't even finish it. It was hard for me to read stories that were sudden and abrupt and they didn't seem to leave you with any satisfying conclusion. I learned to not read short-short fiction...

And there you have it! Next month's discussion is about The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman. Until then!