Easter 2009

When Evelyn woke up this morning, she found that the Easter Bunny had left some yummy chocolate treats for her - including a chocolate bunny in her bedroom. It didn't take long for Evelyn to find the 16 eggs (with chocolate candies inside) that were hidden all around the house.

Evelyn proudly wore her Easter dress to church this morning. Both girls posed for pictures after we got home, and thankfully they both were in a good mood.

Since time got away from us last week, we didn't have a chance to dye Easter eggs until today. We put Julia down for her morning nap, and then the three of us colored eggs in the kitchen. Troy used a clear crayon to draw and write on the eggs, and Evelyn supervised the intensity of the eggs' colors.

Horrible Table Manners

Tonight Evelyn pointed out that Julia has bad table manners. Horrible, to be exact.

When it comes to Cheerios, Julia feeds herself very well. The problems lie in what Julia does when the Cheerios are in her mouth. She chews with her mouth open. She talks when she has food in her mouth. And sometimes she lets out the biggest burps. In Evelyn's book, all of this adds up to poor table manners.

Avocado Hummus

This evening Troy and I made a new kind of hummus. We prefer to make our own hummus, and we're always looking for new recipes to try. Using avocado instead of tahini turned out better than we thought it would. Here's the recipe:

1 medium avocado, peeled, pitted and chopped
16 ounces chickpeas, drained
1/4 cup chopped onion
2 large cloves garlic, minced
3 Tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
1 teaspoon ground cumin

Blend all ingredients until creamy

Baby Chatterbox

Julia is very social when she wakes up in the morning. She runs through her repertoire of baby signs, usually in this order: more, milk, all done. Julia makes the signs, and then she waits for whoever is getting her dressed to say the words aloud.

Julia is also trying to "say" some new baby signs - diaper and eat. The only problem is that she makes these signs on whoever is holding her. The baby sign for diaper is patting the hip. So when I pat my hip and say "diaper," Julia pats my hip, not hers. The baby sign for eat is tapping your mouth with your fingers. When Julia makes this sign, she taps my mouth with her fingers. She has the right idea, so we praise her anyway.

Baby J also enjoys clapping for people. While watching Evelyn at gymnastics yesterday and dance today, Julia would clap whenever I would cheer.

Then and Now

Our neighbors to the north have the most beautiful spring-blooming tree in their backyard. Last year, we just had to take some pictures with that tree in the background. We took this picture on April 5th last year . . . when I was 39 weeks pregnant.

April 5th was another gorgeous day this year, and the neighbor's tree was in bloom again. This time around, I thought it would be cute to have the girls in the picture. Evelyn doesn't look that much different, but just look at the baby!

Cherry Blossoms

Today's weather was absolutely perfect for going to the National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, D.C. It was sunny, there was a light wind, and the temperature got up to 70 degrees. As I'm sure you can imagine, we weren't the only ones who thought it was a great day for sight-seeing . . . It was a little crowded (okay, big-time crowded) on the Metro, and walking around the Tidal Basin got tricky at times, but we managed.

Last year we visited the cherry blossoms as a family of three, and Troy and I had a pretty good idea of where to go within a preschooler's range of walking. Adding Julia to the mix only meant trying not to bump into people with her stroller. Evelyn can walk a lot farther than most kids her age, so we knew we would be fine with wandering around for several hours.

We rode the Metro to the Smithsonian stop, where we fought our way through a throng of runners who had just finished a race. We managed to find Kat and Ross amid the chaos, and off we went. The six of us meandered over to the Tidal Basin by way of the Washington Monument. We just took our time walking around the water, taking in the sights. Thankfully Julia fell asleep in the stroller for her morning nap. Once we got to the Jefferson Memorial, we had to go inside to see the president's statue. Well, not all of us went - Troy continued to push Julia in the stroller to help keep her asleep.

Next we headed back to the north side of the basin, where all the food vendors were. We brought our big picnic blanket along, and we all ate our lunch in the shade of the Japanese cherry trees. I think we spent close to two hours there, resting and eating. As I'm sure you would guess, after Evelyn ate, she ran around like a crazy nut, and Ross joined in. Julia played and ate, played and ate. She also explored an ice pop, but not for long - it was too cold!

The weather (and scenery!) was so nice, we could've stayed forever. But, after having some ice cream treats, it was time to head back. Hopefully we'll get picture-perfect weather when we come back next year.

Advanced Gymnastics

Today was the third day (and the third week) Evelyn attended her advanced gymnastics class. She was invited to join this class because of both her upper body strength and her intense concentration when learning new skills.

The first two weeks were a bit frustrating for Evelyn. She is the newest student in the class, and therefore she can't execute some of the moves and skills as well as the other girls (yet!). We have been talking with Evelyn about how she needs to learn new, difficult things to get better. She has also been practicing floor exercises at home. If we only had a balance beam and a bar at home, she would be practicing those skills, too.

Below are some pictures of Evelyn doing her seal stretch and bridge. Amazing flexibility, for sure!