A Hunting We Will Go...

 Our Easter was lovely, thanks for asking.

It was gray and rainy all day, so we hunted for eggs in the living room. Oliver searched high and low for eggs, all the while singing:

Where are you eggs, where can you be?

Where are you eggs, don't hide from me!

Every time he found one, he tossed it into his basket where we heard it crack, just like all of the previous eggs that he found. (Turns out Easter grass is good for more than just filling out baskets, hiding small pieces of candy, and being impossible to rid oneself of.)

Oliver must have my hunting skills, because it took him a lot of time and some pretty significant hints (i.e. Jesse and me pointing at a nearby egg, in plain sight, and saying, "why don't you look there?") for him to find some of them. 

We finished the day off right with every toddler's fantasy Easter feast: corn dogs, yogurt, and deviled eggs for dinner, followed by a nice fat slice of Chocolate Easter Bunny Pie for everyone.

*I promise I'll share the recipe tomorrow, but for now, it's 11:00 pm and I'm going to bed...

The End of an Era

Recently, Oliver J. stopped referring to his eye color as "blueberry" and started correctly using the "L" sound. 

I think maybe he's growing up or something...

How can that be so exciting and distressing all at once?

Duckpin Bowling

Would you care to see my new rack?

POT rack!

Get your mind out of the gutter!

Jesse devised this plan after I started browsing pot racks online.

He used a wire shelving  unit thingy that I bought to hold towels in our first apartment four years ago, but have thoroughly hated since because it never proved useful ever again.

When Jesse told me his idea, I protested. It sounded really, really lame. And hideous.

So he did it anyway.

And I learned a very valuable lesson...one that seems to surprise me over and over and over and over again.

Shut up and listen to my husband once in a while!

It is tremendously useful! And while it doesn't look just the way I wanted a pot rack to look, it is far from hideous. And it only cost $8 (for the s hooks, which are actually shower curtain hangers, because they were cheaper than s hooks and more appropriately sized). Not to mention that it made a completely wasted space useful again. It also functions as a drum set for Oliver J. 

Cheap, re purposed, and really really useful? I'm good with that.

I'm a little less good with the drumming, but it's all about picking my battles.

Behaving Like Tourists

Cherry Blossom Trip...sans Cherry Blossoms

We bought a fancy schmancy new lightweight stroller (which, incidentally, I am in love with), and hopped a train into D.C. so we could see some cherry blossoms in the Tidal Basin...  

Except, as you can see, there weren't any!

Not a single tiny pink little bud. 

We soldiered on anyway. Stopping in to see monuments and memorials as they crossed our path, and taking numerous photographs of ourselves.

Oliver fell asleep somewhere between the Lincoln Memorial and the Foggy Bottom Metro Station. He slept through the commotion of the metro at peak travel time, trains blowing past, and one train transfer. He woke up as we were stepping onto the Greenbelt platform and cried all the way to the car...

...because he wanted to ride the train!

But hey, his new stroller must have been pretty comfortable! Which, incidentally, makes me love it even more.

And as for those pesky cherry blossoms...maybe my new stroller and I can squeeze in another attempt to see them later this week. Oh, and I guess Ollie can come too.

A little bit of love from Oliver J.

For all of the Grandmas and Grandpas (and great grandparents) in his life...

If you are not a Grandma or Grandpa in Oliver's life, not to worry! For you viewing pleasure, I give you...

 A bug...dressed as a fox...headed to Ellicott City.

Don't worry, there is also a nose on the hood.

Did you know that in Maryland, the pronunciation for Ellicott actually sounds like Ellicut?

And in case you were wondering if Marylanders pronounce any of their other cities funny, they do.

For instance Bowie sounds like buoy.

However, there's a whole song full of Utah's crazy city names...so I guess Maryland isn't doing too bad.

Speaking of Utah, did you know that a more recent episode of Dr. Who was filmed in southern Utah...Jesse laughed a lot when he saw a San Juan County school bus.

I can't believe that I just told the whole internet that we watch Dr. Who. But I'll do you one better...we LOVE Dr. Who. So there!

Yikes, that got really rambly really fast...

See you in May!

We sent Jesse back to school today...

We're both kind of bummed about it.

Long Neck Turtles

We went to Inner Harbor and visited the National Aquarium again!

Favorite aquatic specimen from this visit:

This fish is called a cowfish. He is NOT a very fetching fish.

This turtle's neck is about 37 times longer than the other turtle necks in the tank. Ok, that was an exaggeration, but not by much! This photo just doesn't do it justice. It seemed that he could move his neck any way that he wanted. Like a snake...with a turtle shell. 

It was fascinating...and gross.

Also fascinating: Just past the turtles, we came across a woman feeding a bucket of crickets to a tank of fish. She would dip a long stick into her cricket bucket and hold it over the tank. The fish inside would spit water up to the stick to knock cricket off and into the water. Jesse and I were enthralled by the actual fish feeding. Oliver was most interested in the bucket of crickets.

Sick Day

Fever [fee-ver]. noun. The price you pay for adventuring in March.



{Dear Mom}

 a comprehensive update on each of us infused with various photos of Oliver...

Oliver's favorite song is "This is Halloween" from the Nightmare Before Christmas.  He knows every word.

If you think you are being the coolest mom ever, and rearrange the electronic devices in the house so that he can listen to the previously mentioned song while he goes to sleep, because he is bored with all of the other music options you have provided, you're wrong. He will look at you with a little frown and say "I don't want to be scared of the dark! I don't want to listen to Halloween!"

Jesse has become somewhat superstitious...When he does really well on a test, he singles out a couple of things that happened before the test and recreates them before every test. It's a little bit funny, but mostly sad because it shows just how stressed out his poor little brain is. He's a no-nonsense, very logical, black and white kind of guy. He's never been superstitious about anything before. A couple of his pretest habits include not leaving the house before I have wished  him luck, and moving the clock back to where it was before I rearranged the dining room, so that he can sit in the same place at the dining table every time he studies and still see the time.

Ollie has memorized the opening of Blue's Clues. He knows all the little jingles, and always does the Blue's Clues hand actions when he talks to you about the show. He's obsessed.

The other day I realized that I am SO SICK of hearing/reading the acronym "DIY," the word "Ombre," and the phrase "Chevron Stripes." I need to spend less time on pinterest.

This is Jesse's favorite collection of youtube videos on the web...seriously, he found them last August and we are still laughing.

A few weeks ago, Oliver was being silly at bedtime and was waving his feet in the air. I laughed along and then said, "Put your feet down, silly goose." He thought it was so funny that it is now a required part of our regular bedtime routine, even more important than hugs, kisses, or I love yous.

I have sort of a reputation at the post office... I send a lot of mail...and I try to be creative about it. Steve (my favorite postman) laughed at my Valentine's packaging, and another post lady always asks me if I'm that one girl who sends those birthday cards.

Jesse learned to do stitches and casts in lab recently and we are 2 1/2 months away from clinical rotations. I'm finally starting to feel like this PA school thing is really happening, and not just a bad dream.

A recent conversation between Oliver and Jesse:

Oliver, "You're a GRUMP dad!!!"
Jesse, "Oliver, please don't talk to me like that."
Oliver, "You're a grump, please?"

I've started entering all kinds of giveaways. Because you know, it doesn't hurt to enter. And every once in a while, I actually win!

Jesse won't stop singing this song. It's pretty much the most annoying song ever, and if you watch it, you'll see why.

Oliver has started pretending to be dinosaurs, and kittens, and monsters, and etc. While he is pretending to be those things, he informs you of how he wishes to be referred to. For example, if he is pretending to be a dinosaur, he will only respond to "Mr. Dinosaur." If he is pretending to be a cat, he will only respond to "Mr. very cute Cat." If he is pretending to be a monster, he will only respond to "Mr. very VERY scary Monster."

The Adventures of Jesse James and The Peanut Butter Bandit

This morning while I was in bed willing myself to wake up (I found super high thread count sheets on mega sale two Christmases ago, and now every morning is a battle), Jesse was getting ready for a field trip (sort of), and Oliver was roaming through the house looking for trouble.

Jesse had prepared himself a nice, triple stack PB&J for lunch. That sounds like a lot, right? It is.  He left it sitting on top of his backpack where he would be sure to remember it, and ran back upstairs to grab a couple of things he had forgotten.

He kissed me goodbye, waited for me to say the obligatory morning-of-a-test phrase "Good luck on your test!" (He's become a little supersticious...), and headed towards the door.

The next thing I heard was Jesse saying, "Where's my lunch?!?!"

Then I heard him laugh. A lot.

Which was enough to get me out of bed...I never want to miss out on the fun.

When I reached the bottom of the stairs, Oliver met me, smacking his lips and saying, "I'm eating peanut butter and jewwy for breakfast, mom! I WOVE peanut butter and jewwy!"