Ethel von Nozzenstrap

Easter dawned such a beautiful day, The Precious wanted to be outside from the beginning. Amazingly, we were all dressed and ready on time for the early service (not the sunrise service, mind you, but considering we're often late for the second service, this was impressive).

We had the joy of sharing the celebratory day with my parents. Such fun!

True story: One Easter a handful of years ago, my mom was up early getting breakfast together when my dad walked into the kitchen and said, "He is risen." Instead of hearing my mother reply, "He is risen indeed!" as he expected, he got the lesser known response of, "Do you think he smelled the cinnamon rolls?"

Unfortunately I was not there to witness the event, as I surely would love to have seen the confused and slightly alarmed expression on my father's face. I don't know how long it took them to work out that my mom, her mind on practical things (getting to church on time) thought my dad was referring to my brother getting out of bed. Thus, a Martin family tradition was born and every Easter we have cinnamon rolls for breakfast.

I was determined to dye Easter eggs with Andrew this year. Fortunately Nana had the foresight to suggest the deck as our dying headquarters as Andrew's favorite part of the process was dropping the eggs into the dye and watching the colored liquid splash everywhere. He had opted for zero nap that day and thus was even less moved by my pleas of "gentle!" than usual.

It was still a lot of fun, cracked eggs, splattered clothes and all.

Afterward we tossed the traumatized eggs into the grass in the backyard for The Precious to hunt, and having one egg hunt under his belt already, he took to the task right away. He enjoyed this part even more than the dying - the family all standing around applauding wildly at each new acquisition. Sometimes they made it to the basket, and sometimes they were simply hurled back into the grass with glee.

Yesterday I gave Andrew some thawed frozen blueberries for breakfast and he went wild over them! He'd pop them into his mouth as fast as he could ...

... guzzle the juice from the bottom of the cup ...

... then request another serving. How could I possibly say no to that face?

He presented to me a delightfully blue diaper this afternoon. Ah, the things that amuse me these days!

Snoopy And Prickly Pete

Short sleeves are making a comeback, and we're pretty excited about it. I'm sure we'll still have some days that dip back down into the 50's (don't hate me, Rachel), but springish weather is becoming the norm. That being the case, playing inside is just wrong. Especially when we've got a fun park only minutes away.

My Precious is turning into quite the slide master. If only his rubber-soled shoes didn't grip the slide, boy howdy, he could fly. He's also learned the pure bliss of sliding down on the tummy (feet first, thank goodness).

I finally convinced him to ride the big dinosaur, but only for a moment. He asked to dismount as soon as I'd snapped the picture.

And he discovered that water fountains are good for more than just splashing.

Sunday was big fun - an Easter egg hunt with some of his best friends! Trying to get all the kids to line up for a picture was like trying to wrangle oiled hamsters, but you can see most of them here . Andrew decided to ham it up and kept walking backwards (a fun new skill) away from the group, grinning from ear to ear and delighting in having the adults watch him and call him back.

He caught on to the idea of egg hunting pretty well. Spy a colorful egg ...

... squat next to it, ask it's name and political affiliations, then pick it up gingerly if it seems friendly ...

... lay it in the basket with your other conquests.

One of the mommies more exciting than I filled her eggs with jelly beans. Andrew quickly learned to shake each new egg he came across to see if it contained treasures. He never realized the candies were something to eat so he just carried them around, occasionally pausing to study them and plan experiments.

As if the hunt and jelly bean holding weren't enough, the party ended with cup cakes for everybody! Andrew ate every crumb of his, making this cup cake event far more successful than that of his first birthday party where my suggestion that he taste a cup cake brought forth tears.

We let him come down from the sugar at Crescent Moon, one of our favorite restaurants. It was all giggles and smiles 'til he bonked his chin on the table in a sucrose-induced head-slinging frenzy.

Daddy helped make it all better...

So You Think I'm Fat And Androgynous?

This little horse was Phil's when he was little. Isn't that so sweet? It makes a great squeaky whinny when you move the reigns. We've had it for many months, but it's only been in the last few days that The Precious has decided to ride his trusty steed. And for some reason I haven't yet deciphered, he's started rolling his eyes back into his head when I ask him to smile for a picture. Funny guy.

He adores helping around the house. Unfortunately I didn't get photos of his assistance washing the pets on Wednesday. I'd give him a cup of water and he'd pour it over the unhappy beast with relish. Below you'll see him scrubbing the kitchen floor (in especially festive attire, I might add).

And here he's throwing something away for me - a big thrill. He's pretty good at distinguishing trash (huge wads of stuffing Shiloh has pulled from a decapitated toy) from non-trash (my shoes), but occasionally he'll really get going and start pulling things out of the pantry to toss.

He gets very agitated if he finds Shiloh's dish empty, squatting down next to it and grunting at me while tapping his finger in the bowl. I usually help guide the cup of food to it's rightful spot, but here I was too busy taking a picture. But hey, I got a good action shot! Look at that food fly!

In closing, I just have to share this picture I took this morning of Andrew wearing one of his new turtlenecks (thank you Nana!) Phil said he looked like he was about to grab his lunch box and head out to the first grade. When I told Andrew I wanted a picture, he just stood there staring at me with this stoic expression (well, first he rolled his eyes back, then he looked at me stoically). I finally got a hint of a smile, but this serious expression really amuses me.

My Dignity Has Been Stained Since Last Thursday, And Now I Laugh At Everything

I won't lie to you. I love a pirate party. I took Emily's advice and got the gigantor cyclops eye patch and snazzy head wear to complete my look for Joseph's welcome back pirate soiree. This is the best my hair has looked in a month.

I can't bring myself to throw away the eye patch box. Alfonso is simply too alluring. It's as if he's saying to me, "If you think I'm sexy with this eye patch, you're going to go crazy when I show you my colostomy bag and clubbed foot."

It was great to see Gillian again. Aren't we menacing? I love that she's holding a juice box (I'm not sure what I was doing with my hand - it looks kind of gross and withered.)

And here is our guest of honor. I think that's a sword dangling there by his side.

Andrew was violently opposed to letting me draw a beard on him - I was so disappointed. He was also not down with the hat but kindly agreed to don it long enough for a picture.

The Mobley festivities continued as Phil and I got to house sit and hang out with some big kids for a few days. Here's Andrew gazing out of the Beaver's front door with Shiloh, Friday (the golden retriever) and Addie. It's a whole different ballgame when you have a dog who can rest his chin on the kitchen table and thus sample the food placed there upon with little effort. The look on Andrew's face when Friday walked calmly away with the muffin he had been eating was pretty funny.

I'm experiencing covetous feelings toward the Beaver's back yard: Flat and full of play things that Andrew enjoyed tremendously.

Andrew also fell madly in love with the Beaver's youngest kids, Livingston* and ZuZu* (their oldest was with Beaver Mom on a class trip, or Andrew would certainly have loved her as well). Alas, I have no photographic evidence of ZuZu's existence - she shrieked when I pointed the camera in her direction - but The Precious thought she was fabulous, and she spent a good deal of time patiently bringing me up to speed on Zac Efron and The Jonas Brothers.

Andrew and Livingston on the trampoline ...

... and sliding ...

...and swinging.

This guy was SO good to my baby and acquiesced to countless agee's, which means he spent every afternoon jumping and sliding and swinging for hours. And one morning I came downstairs to find him on a chair putting away the clean dishes from the dishwasher. Wow.

* Names have been changed to protect the innocent.