Raising Wildcats

ACU, we love you!

Giddy Up!

Step 1: Yell at your mama that you want to go potty.
Step 2: Go potty and be totally defiant when she tells you that you need to wash your hands.
Step 3: Realize that maybe she did mean business and wash those hands!
Step 4: Tell her you ARE going to wear underwear to bed tonight.
Step 5: Realize that she is the boss (and sheet changer) and you will NOT wear underwear tonight.
Step 6: Scream and cry that you want to wear your horse hat to bed.
Step 7: Be amazed at how big and bad and convincing you are since she actually is allowing you to wear the horse hat (or maybe she's just picking her battles...).
Step 8: Play, play, play to avoid falling asleep.
Step 9: Wake up to hear your parents hysterically laughing and taking pictures and realize you can't see a darn thing.
Step 10: Jump around wildly trying to figure out why you can't see anything until Daddy comes to your rescue.
Step 11: Wonder if maybe it wasn't such a good idea to fall asleep leaning against the bed wearing a horse hat. Oh well.

Like Father, Like Son

Clay and I were putting a puzzle together the other day and he asked me, "Can you pass me that piece, sweetie?"
Today he and Carolina were fighting over a toy and he told her "No! That's my toy!" I told him not to be selfish. His response," I wasn't, honey, I wasn't."
As I am trying to type this Clay is playing with the mouse. I told him to stop touching it and he told me, "I'm helping you, honey!"

I have to admit I thought it would be a long time before I heard Clay calling a girl honey and sweetie. I'm pretty happy that I get to be the first!

When Accessories Clash (literally)

Carolina loves to put her own necklaces on but this one gave her a little trouble...


...still a little frustrated after having to get outside help....


...all better. Ta da!

Easter 2010

Easter this year was a little crazy but we had fun. Here's what our little family did this year: We started the Easter season with egg hunts and Resurrection eggs. Clay loved the egg hunts (who doesn't?!) and Carolina had some fun, too. We did the Resurrection eggs each night before Clay went to bed and I thought it was a pretty good intro to Easter for his age. We did end up skipping several that we felt he wasn't ready for but it was a neat way to learn about the real meaning of Easter and a great hands-on activity for toddlers.
The night before Easter we dyed eggs and boy was that fun! For a little while I sat and tried to monitor the length of time each egg spent in the dye and carefully lifted each egg in and out of the water. Clay was SO eager to get his hands on the wire "egg supporter" and lift the eggs out himself. Finally, I gave in. We were leaving town the next day so it's not like we needed to preserve the eggs for anything and isn't dyeing eggs about having fun anyway??

Clay could have played with those eggs for days! He had the best time being big stuff and lifting them in and out of the water. He was thrilled to have a whole project that he could control and make all the decisions. Mike videotaped the whole thing and caught each of my sighs and gasps when Clay would drop an egg and break it in the glass. He couldn't have had a better time, though, and we both loved watching him do his thing.




The next morning was Easter and as usual Clay got up an hour before Carolina. These are the years when I am so glad he has no idea about racing out of his room in the morning to see what the Easter Bunny brought. He came and hung out with me in our bed watching cartoons until Carolina got up. Mike was able (and blessed) to be able to pop in for a minute as the kids were coming out to see all their Easter goodies.




Both kids were VERY excited to see the "bus". This is one of the things I bought on Black Friday but I knew it would be a great Easter gift so it's been sitting in our present box just waiting. Little did I know the number of tantrums I would have to endure in Toys R Us about leaving the bus at the store in the meantime. They looove the bus.
I also picked up the Mr. Potato Head pack on Black Friday (maybe it was worth the 4 hours...) and it was a surprise hit for Easter, too. Both kids like to play with it and we have already played with it a lot.


The other big hit of Easter was Pillow Pets. Clay has been asking for one since Christmas but we just hadn't bought him one. At Christmas when they were pushing the Pillow Pets so much on television Clay kept talking about "twenty dollars". It took us forever to figure out what "twenty dollars" meant because he said it ALL the time. Finally, I heard the commercial and him talking along with it about how Pillow Pets are just twenty dollars (they don't mention the $15 shipping for two, boo).

Anyhow, when I saw the commercials again I thought it would make a fun thing for Easter. I pulled up the website and asked Clay which one he wanted and he was adamant about the monkey. The funny thing was when I asked him which one would be good for Carolina. He picked the lamb and turned to her and said, "You can take it to your grandma's house!" Hmmm, maybe we need to cut back on the commercial watching around here. Needless to say, he was very happy to see his Pillow Pet!

Easter morning was such a fun little morning for us. We didn't get to go to church but Mike was able to come home for a great ham lunch. Our afternoon got a little crazier but we got a lot of preparations done since we were traveling the next day. It was a fun Easter!

Blast from the Past

We turned in some film the other day from our non-digital camera which I thought was going to be pictures from last month. Surprise! They're from 2 years ago (exactly)! I guess this roll just slipped between the cracks and never got developed but what a fun surprise! Here's a few of the sweet shots (not sure what's going on with the film but it's not great quality for some reason):






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Clay was 10.5 months old, I was 1.5 months pregnant and Mike was 100% tired from taking care of both of us. Oh, how times have changed (although Mike still takes good care of us all). Can you believe my baby boy will be 3 in a couple of weeks? Me, neither.




Two years later...same sweet boy, same sweet smile!

Hoppy Hunts

We finished our third Easter egg hunt today and I think we're starting to get the hang of it! We've had such a good time getting excited about Easter this year.

Last Saturday, we did the Funny Bunny Festival in our city. This was advertised a lot so I was a little worried about having to park really far away and how crazy the egg hunt would be since I was on my own that day with the kids. It always makes me a little sad to do these things without Mike but I was hoping Clay would have some fun so last minute I decided to suck it up and go!

It was such a fun time! I felt really blessed that day since Mike ended up being assigned to the festival. His shift started just about the time we were arriving so we got a front row spot! Then, to add to our blessings, Mike was able to come to the egg hunt with us!

This egg hunt was like nothing I had ever seen! It was reserved for 0-3-year-olds and there were quite a few kids (and many, many more parents). Out of the 500+ eggs on the baseball field Clay found 4 eggs and Carolina got 3. They were thrilled!


Clay was very overwhelmed when the egg hunt started (those people were intense) so I had to pull him along and get him going. I ended up putting a couple of the eggs in his basket and he picked up one. It was our first egg hunt where he kind of knew what to do so he was really happy. Daddy was on picture patrol and I held Carolina (seriously she would have been trampled otherwise). The whole thing was over in less than two minutes but it was a good start to our egg hunting season!

After the egg hunt, the festival had carnival games and once again, Clay had so much fun! He did bean bag tosses, mini-golf, basketball and bowling. It was very cute and the lines were not bad at all. Our city is so good about putting on these kinds of things that are affordable (it was $1 total for me and the kids) and fun.


Each time Clay would "win" a game he would reach in the candy bucket and grab two candies-- one for him and one for Carolina. She was happy as could be riding around in the stroller eating candy after candy (wrappers included). These are kids that haven't even finished their Halloween or Christmas candy so I let her live it up!


Monday we went to an Easter party hosted by one of Clay's little friends, Cody. It was so sweet! It was a lunch/Easter party and Clay loved it all. At lunch time the hostess put a big blanket on the floor so the kids could eat picnic style. I sat Clay down and went to hand him his lunch but he was already standing up. I sat him back down and tried to hand him his lunch again but he kept standing back up. Finally I said, "Why don't you pick a spot to sit in?" And he did. At the table. He might be a little bit pampered (and I'm okay with that).


The kids played and played until it was time for the egg hunt. The family who hosted has a big backyard and there were so many places to hide eggs. Carolina picked up two eggs, plopped down and played with them during the egg hunt.


Clay's strategy was to put his bucket in the middle of the yard and run to the eggs. He wasn't letting that bucket weigh him down! The moms were cracking up because the kids did the egg hunt just until they were tired of it. The moms ended up doing about 1/4 of the egg hunt! We were just glad our kids were busy and happy!


I loved getting the chance to visit with the moms and knowing the kids were having so much fun. I think Clay would have stayed there all day if I would have let him.


That afternoon Clay said to me, "Mama, di' you have fun at Cody's house?" "Yes, I did. Did you?" "Yes! Thanks, Mama. Thanks." It was so sweet to hear him be grateful for taking him somewhere.

Today was our third egg hunt. This time we got to hunt with our friends from our small group at church. We are thrilled that there are so many children in our small group who are close in age to our little ones and we love their parents, too!

This egg hunt was held at a park and the kids were so happy to have some space to roam. I was laughing at one point because Carolina was running off from the play area by herself and trailing behind her were three of the older (4-5-year-old) girls. They were all trying to get her to come back but she was up for the chase! They looked like a bunch of little ducks all chasing a runaway (who thought it was hilarious)! The kids played for a long time before it was time for the egg hunt and I don't blame them-- that playground had fun stuff!

When it was time for the hunt, this time Clay was ready! He did such a good job and he kept telling me he was looking for the special egg (the golden egg that they hid for the big kids). Bless his heart, he didn't know it was up in a tree way above his head! This time he got about 10 eggs and he was excited. As we walked away he stuck a peanut butter chocolate egg in my hand that he had tried and not liked. I guess he didn't want to wait to check out his loot- yuck!

Carolina didn't even care to take her bucket out this time. I kept trying to put it in her hand but she wasn't having it! She ran out, grabbed a couple of eggs and put them in another girl's basket. She did this a couple of times and she was happy with herself. If she's happy, I'm happy...

..and then she was unhappy! Carolina and the Easter Bunny were not friends.

Last year, my dad and I were changing the kids outside of the Easter Bunny area into their picture clothes and the moment Clay laid eyes on the Bunny he started shaking REALLY bad. I told the picture people that I would run up and stick him by the Bunny and whenever they could get him in the shot to take it. No matter how many times they backed that camera up, Clay was faster. He would take off running and there was no way he was getting a picture with that Bunny!

So you must know how super proud I am of him this year. Look at that adorable smile and look how close he is to the bunny (who was a sweet mom from small group). Yay for Clay!

And those are our egg hunt tales so far this year. We are getting all of our last minute Easter prep done and trying to explain the Easter Bunny to Clay. He and Carolina are going to be in for quite the surprise tomorrow when they realize what the Bunny brought! I can't wait!