Thursday, April 12, 2012

Sweetness and Light

Thank you all for commenting in my post about chores and relationships. I learned a lot from your comments. I'm going to let them percolate in my brain for a week or two, and then I'll probably write a follow up post summarizing what I learned. Because I'm geeky like that.

But since my brain is now full, I thought I'd just put up some pictures of things that have made me happy recently.

First, we dyed eggs for Easter, even though we don't do much else for the holiday. We haven't even introduced our kids to chocolate bunnies! Yet.



Those are Petunia's little hands. She was really fond of the green and "lel-o" cups of dye. Pumpkin is right on the cusp of the phase where you can't help but turn all your eggs gray, as you experiment with different colors. Remember that from childhood? This year, she only turned a couple of eggs gray. Next year, I expect they'll all be gray.

And yes, we also did the egg hunt, with our 12 real eggs and 12 plastic eggs with one jelly bean and one gummy bear inside each. We were worried that Petunia wouldn't get it, or would not be able to compete with her sister, so we had my husband help her out. It turns out that we needn't have worried- she caught on right away and ran around the yard finding eggs. It was very cute to watch, but the only bloggable picture I got of that is too blurry to post. I did manage to capture this one of Pumpkin, though:



The final score was Petunia 13, Pumpkin 11. Pumpkin didn't mind at all until she got inside and realized that Petunia had more of the candy-containing plastic eggs. So I got out the bag of jelly beans and let her have as many as she wanted. Petunia spurned the jelly beans (although she did try and spit out one), but ate up all her gummy bears and demanded more. So I gave her some.

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Pumpkin's swim teacher is moving on, and Pumpkin decided to make her a card. I didn't get to see the inside of the card, because Pumpkin insists on sealing all envelopes right away, and I was in getting Petunia to bed when the card was produced. My husband assures me it is very cute. But even just the way she addressed it to her teacher makes me go all gooey.



I also can't help but smile when I look at this paper she brought home from day care recently.






When do they learn to put in spaces, I wonder?

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And lest you think that only the kids are up to anything good, I'm happy to report that last weekend we bottled our second batch of home brew. The first one was surprisingly good.



What's making you smile these days?

14 comments:

  1. I'll play! My chickens are laying again after a moulting break, one of my cats received a parcel in the mail addressed to her (a cat rug from my MIL) and I have two old friends visiting from far away. Smile!

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  2. The milliner3:48 AM

    OMG, that pig drawing is sooooo cute! I found a blog post a while back that described the phases of development in acquiring drawing skills. It's totally fascinating. Will try to link it later when I have more time.

    We dyed Easter eggs this year too. DS loved it. There is a store close to us that has an egg decorating contest every year for kids & adults. It's really great. They display the eggs in the window and a lot of people in the neighbourhood participate. DS entered an egg this year, and I think it's something we'll do every year. Next year I want to do something too...ran out of time this year.

    Good things going on around here: the weather is finally starting to warm up, I'm actually quite engaged at work right now and DH just bought a used Wine fridge to start making his own cheese. Yum!

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  3. We are currently in the gray easter egg phase. And my mother-in-law mailed us solid dark chocolate bunnies that need to be gnawed on for a while to eat. It was a messy day!

    What makes me smile are my kids' nice interactions with each other (the biting I can do without). This morning the baby and I went to get the 2-year-old out of bed. He was so excited to see her, said her name over and over and asked to "hold" her (I hold her while placing her on his lap). So cute. Once recently all three were in the backseat laughing so hard at some inside joke (such as 4-year-olds, 2-year-olds and babies can have). I smile to think these three little people will have a relationship with each other that I in some way created, but in many other ways, have absolutely nothing to do with.

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    Replies
    1. The kids winding each other up into giggling fits is pure magic.

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  4. paola9:25 AM

    I'm smiling at the fact that the kids can now spend time in the yard ( fenced off and child safe) without my actually being there! I had seen this in other families, but never thought it would ever happen to me. I can now send them off outside, set some ground rules, and feel relatively sure they will come to no harm/be stolen by gypsies.

    The down side is that we are heading back to London tomorrow where we don't actually have a yard.

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  5. We had a great Easter. The kids dyed eggs, always fun, and the egg hunt was great! I finished my last day of law school class ever! Two finals to go. Tate started a new school and seems to be loving it so that has me very, very happy!

    @paola - moving? good luck!!

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  6. I'm bummed that we didn't dye eggs this year - we're still on vacation and I was sick during Easter weekend. We might do it randomly during the summer.

    I LOVE the PIGPIGPIG paper. That's definitely one to save (digitally at least if you're not into paper clutter...)

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    1. I have a big art portfolio for each kid. This one is definitely going in there.

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  7. Just read your very well spoken (written) comment at Scalzi's Whatever.

    I thought I might visit here for awhile.

    Grey eggs... I'd forgotten their ~beauty~ =)

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    1. Welcome! Make yourself at home, and feel free to comment anywhere that takes your fancy- I read 'em all, even on old posts.

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  8. Adorable! The PIGPIGPIG and drawing is way too cute for words.

    I did a similar post today on how Evan makes me smile...good thing, because I had a heck of a week.

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  9. I've been smiling to watch Moo play with her 7 & 5 year old cousins. They are her rock-stars. She loooooooves them. And they tire her out.

    I'm happy to have started a crochet project and decided on a new food processor. I research obsessively, so actually picking a project & a food processor has been a long process. But - I'm satisfied I'm making a good decision now so I can let go and just get on with it.

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  10. DC has been working a lot on spacing this year. The teacher tells him to put his finger down after he's finished a word and to start the new word on the other side of his finger. One 5 year old finger-width is about the right spacing.

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  11. Homebrew = awesome. Kudos on successfully making a tasty first batch. I understand it can often be kind of a rarity for those first few batches to turn out drinkable.

    @mom2boy - Congrats on being done with law school!

    @Paola - Good luck with your move!

    Had a wonderful trip to my parents' house. It was the first time DD flew on a plane without incident. We're pinching ourselves and mentally booking our fantasy long family trip. DS's friend-girl from Montessori invited him to her 6th birthday party - he was worried he wasn't going to be invited and we were prepared to help him mourn a loss that never happened (save this one for another day). Other things making me smile - I've been learning speed walking and am loving it. And I'm super excited for the premier of the "Girls" the new Lena Dunham show on HBO. Hope it is every bit as groundbreaking and feministy as the critics are promising.

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