Happy Easter!

The Easter Bunny made it to our house!

Liam already knew about Easter egg hunts because he went on one at daycare.  After finding the first egg, he opened it right away and was ecstatic to find that the Easter Bunny left chocolate in the eggs (daycare put goldfish crackers in the eggs)!  He unwrapped the chocolate and stuffed it in his mouth right away.  Upon finding the second egg, he did the same thing.  What a fun breakfast!  By the third egg, we knew what was coming so we were able to successfully convince him to find the rest of the eggs and put them in his basket before eating anymore chocolate.  By then, we were ready for pancakes so he forgot about the chocolate for a few hours at least.    

"Wait a minute!  Who is this Bunny Guy?  Liam gets chocolate and I get my first toothbrush?"

"If I can't have chocolate then I guess this Easter grass will have to do."

Easter morning fun before Mass...

Easter Sunday turned out to be a beautiful, warm day so we enjoyed some time outdoors by the Hudson River.  Having fun with Easter eggs...  

Daddy and his boys...

Admiring the Hudson River...

Admiring his crazy brother...

Family picture!

Neil and I cooked Easter dinner for his family.  It was our first ham.  And, although Neil gave me a hard time about the recipe I chose that included an orange flavored soft drink, we used Fanta, it was delicious!  Still eating leftovers four days later...

Although the eggs were boiled a few days before Easter, we didn't get a chance to dye them until the weekend after Easter.  It was just as much fun!

First we colored on the eggs with crayons.

Next, we dropped them in the colored water.   

The future chemist...

Admiring his colored eggs...

Baby Dylan was excited to dye an egg too.  He chose red!

After this picture was taken, Dylan pulled the glass so hard he dumped the red dye all over himself.  This blue and white outfit is now a very patriotic red, white and blue!

Check out our finished Easter eggs!  

Although every egg has at least one crack and most include every color, or "marbled" as I like to say, they are true works of art!

I imagine there will be lots of egg salad in our future...

A Week of Milestones

In the past week, Dylan met some major milestones and Liam continued to show us he's a big boy now.

Dylan's most exciting milestone was his first clap!  He's very proud of himself and gives huge smiles when he claps.  When I tell him to wave bye bye, he claps instead.  This new skill is proving to be a very LOUD milestone.  He now enjoys banging pots and pans together like one of those little monkeys with the cymbals.  Maybe the marching band is in his future.

Although it's our second time watching a baby reach new milestones, it is just as exciting!  The minute I saw Dylan clap for the first time, I knew it was a new trick and quickly recorded the date.  We're now on the brink of the crawling.  Pretty soon it may be time to retire "Baby" from the "Baby Dylan" nickname for our growing boy.  But, definitely not yet!

Dylan is officially on the move.  He moves around the room by rolling mostly.  He can cross a room in a matter of seconds but seems to be a one way roller at this point.  When I hear a little bump, bump, bump, "wah", then I know he's made his way to the wall and can't go any farther.  Poor little guy keeps on trying though.

Dylan continues to be an amazing eater!  We're branching out from the pureees and he's loving real banana, broccoli and teething biscuits.

His face says it all.  He definitely didn't like the asparagus.

 

Mealtimes are very, very messy.  Dylan insists on feeding himself.  We typically use two spoons to feed him.  One for me and one for him.  Well, sometimes three spoons because the floor gets at least one spoon too.  Mmmmmmmm....prunes.

It's actually quite messy for both kids.  Although Liam can use his spoon and fork, he often decides that it's more fun to use his fingers, even when eating cereal with milk.  This is what happens when you lick a piece of toast with Nutella:

Another milestone for Dylan is that he loves to experiment with his voice.  He babbles loud, louder and even louder.  Dylan's second "word" is "Baba".  Of course, he is just babbling.  But, when he says it while waiting for his bottle, it gets a good reaction from us and he is starting to figure out it's an important word.  It's fun to challenge him to say "Baba" or "Mama" and to hear him correctly repeat it back.  "Mama" is still my favorite word to hear, of course.  Neil is still trying to convince him to say, "Dada" but he just looks at him and says, "Mamamamom."

Dylan also learned to move from sitting to lying flat on the floor.  When sitting, he just leans forward as far as he can until his face is planted on the floor and he can kick his legs back.  It's quite the trick!

Another first for Dylan.  He pet a turtle for the first time thanks to our friend Dottie's 3rd birthday party at a nature center.

Liam hit a new notable milestone this week as well.  He now expresses his "needs."  And, he "needs" a lot of things.  At the grocery store, it used to be so cute when he pointed and said, "Look, Mama," or "What's that?"  Now, I hear, "I need this.  I need that."  And, then he often starts to whine about how much he "needs" it.  I know I played a part in this one.  I'm always asking, "What do you need?" when he starts to fuss and whine.  But, I've watched Supernanny too many times to give in.

Liam is also experimenting with his loves, likes and dislikes.  Of course, I love to hear, "I love mommy."  I don't like to hear, "I don't like mommy."  I hear both.  I also hear, "I like daddy.  I don't like mommy."  After we spent some time with one of his friends, he said, "I don't like 'friend's name'" while I was buckling him into the carseat.  And, I just overheard him telling his toy that he loved him.  Of course it was his Buzz Lightyear action figure.  I guess he's entitled to his own opinion and he's definitely got one...about everything!
    
Also thanks to Dottie's birthday party, Liam met a ferret for the first time.  I'm not sure he had even heard about a ferret before this first meeting.  He had no fear.

Another milestone for Liam.  He began shaving.

Well, not really.  He's just practicing with his daddy.

The little Rudden brothers were clearly up to no good and I caught them in the act!

These two little boys keep me entertained and exhausted everyday!

A View from the Bear Mountain Bridge

The weather this past weekend was really nice so we wanted to get the boys out in the fresh air.  We took a hike across the Bear Mountain bridge, which also counted as a hike on the Appalachian Trail.  The bridge is about 20 minutes north of our home.  What an amazing view!  The journey continued with a quick stop at the Bear Mountain Zoo.

 A view of the Hudson River looking south from atop the bridge.  It was early in the morning and still a little hazy but a beautiful view of the Hudson Valley.

Liam was pretty quiet on the hike.  Maybe he has a fear of heights or maybe riding in the backpack carrier was putting him to sleep.  

Dylan was pretty quiet as well.  He couldn't see much 1) because he was in the baby carrier and 2) because he was wearing his winter hat.   But, he'll get his chance to see the view.  I'm looking forward to taking the kids across again this summer in the double stroller!  It's such a great hike and there's more to see on the other side.

 Daddy and his little buddy.

All of the animals at the Bear Mountain zoo are either permanently injured or orphaned and would not be able to survive in the wild.  The Bald Eagle wouldn't look at us...

The Bear Mountain Zoo actually has bears...

It's rare that all four of us actually make it into a photo.  We set the timer...

Dylan finally decided that since he couldn't see much, he might as well take a nap!  You can see the Bear Mountain Bridge in the background.  It's really high!  

The Littlest Top Chef

Liam and I took a kid's cooking class in March.  On the first day, he was the only kid not afraid of the blender.  During the class, we learned to make 1) Milk Punch, 2) Carrot Salad, 3) Vinaigrette and 4) Silo sandwiches (wraps).  I'm not sure whether we will make any of these recipes ever again (they weren't exactly delicious) but it was so much fun watching Liam cook.  And, the recipes were chosen as teaching tools for colors, flavors, textures, etc.

Our brave boy putting carrots into the Cuisinart!

Here's Liam performing the all important "Bang, bang, plop" task with the mayonnaise.

Squeezing the honey (honey comes from bees lesson)...

Stirring (spoon is made of wood from trees lesson)...

And, of course, the best part - tasting his culinary masterpiece!  He won't eat raisins at home but he seemed to enjoy them hidden in the carrot salad.

Where was Dylan during the class?  Napping in the stroller.

Liam did his homework.  Here he is practicing his new culinary skills at home in his pint-sized kitchen.  Steamed peas, I guess.  By the way, his microwaved donut is really delicious!

Dylan likes the donut too!  And, of course, the strawberry ice cream.  He seems to be saying, "Alright mom, just take the picture."

Okay, back to eating the plastic food.  See his two bottom front teeth!!