Today…

Outside my window: it’s beautiful out with sunny skies but a strong breeze is keeping it from feeling very warm. Light jacket weather I suppose you could call it, at least for the kids. I had to take MM to the dentist today to get a tooth looked at (more on that later) and afterwards we stopped by Dan’s office to drop off a tool he needed for his bike and it was so nice out, we sat in the lawn in front of his office and waited for him, rather than wait in the car. I suppose “Dan rode his bike to work this morning,” might also have been a good indicator of the weather. :O)

I am reading: Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert again. I finished Never Tell Our Business To Strangers this weekend (I’ll probably post a review tomorrow) and was very glad to get back to EPL – this is the first book of hers that I’ve read but I can already tell that I am officially a huge fan of Elizabeth Gilbert and may likely read everything she’s ever written now. I’m about halfway through reading about her time in India right now and constantly find myself amazed by little things that I can relate to in her stories and life.

In the kitchen:

• Monday: Baked Sweet Potatoes
• Tuesday: Mac and Cheese with Veggies
• Wednesday: English Muffin Pizzas
• Thursday: Spaghetti with Sauce
• Friday: Penne a la Betsy

I am really excited about: the fact that my little man is going to be four years old in TWO days. I still look at pictures of him from a year ago and think, “Where did that little baby boy go? Who is this gigantic, long, lean child?” And I am super excited for his birthday party this weekend.

Today: I took MM to the dentist, as I mentioned above. Last Friday he was playing on the playground with an older child who in typical Older Child fashion was showing off a lot and monkeying around in ways that MM is so not ready for, but of course MM doesn’t really know that. But he was a good kid and seemed to be trying to keep an eye out and I thought all was well but MM got a bit too brave when they both attempted to ride on a ride on toy at the same time and MM didn’t hold on tight enough and fell off, hit his face on the way down and chipped a tooth. He was fine immediately afterwards and isn’t feeling any pain but I wanted to be sure his tooth was okay so I had it looked at. Everything checked out fine and the dentist and I agreed that it was a good thing kids get “practice teeth” to beat up on first.

I really want to: take the kids camping. Usually it is Dan longing for this, as he is an avid camper and has many, many great memories of camping with his family when he was a kid. I’ve only been camping once but I am actually getting really eager to take our first camping trip as a family. I think it’s the weather getting warmer, making me want to get outdoors more – plus I am always looking for the next great vacation and from what I hear, camping is a fairly inexpensive option, at least in the long run.

This weekend we: celebrated Easter with our two little knuckleheads. I went pretty low key as far as “Easter Baskets” go – I actually didn’t fill a basket at all, just brought last year’s down so that MM could use it to collect the plastic eggs that the Easter Bunny hid around our apartment which he thought was just awesome – especially the part where each egg was filled with Annie’s Bunny Grahams. I did get each kid a new book and a small toy and I dressed them up in their Orange Easter Finest, some cute outfits that my MIL sent them recently. Oh and lots of carrot cake was eaten.

We also: took MM to Walmart to pick out some birthday presents with the gift card my mother sent him. I like to start celebrating birthdays really early and then extend the celebration for a long time, too, so that by the time all is said and done there can be no denying that a birthday happened – for better or worse. Anyway, presents – he picked out a cute school bus with little Garanimal style school kids and also an inexpensive bowling set from their $5 Active Toys section (there were also hoolah hoops and jump ropes and the like).

Some other links I think you should click:

• When is a child ready for Kindergarten? by Make and Takes
• She is One by Amber Page Writes
• 20 Ways To Enjoy Springtime by Simple Mom
• When Do They Sleep? (this website claims they can use your Facebook and Twitter update times to determine when approximately you sleep and for how long. Are they right?)

One last thing I want to tell you about before I go: Can I just brag some more about my little girl and how big she’s getting? I’m so impressed with how quickly she’s progressing – already so sturdy and adventurous. Of course that means I have to constantly be on my guard with her as she’s getting into everything! But seriously… she’s incredible. Now if only she’d sleep through the night. That’s getting to be kind of a thing actually. She still wakes up several times and has figured out that screaming really loudly is the best way to get our attention and unfortunately MM’s attention, too… Sharing a bedroom has it’s disadvantages for sure. You’d think having done this before that I’d know what to do, but now I’ve got MM’s sleep on the line too and the idea of letting her “cry it out” when he’s trying to sleep isn’t really happening – which means getting up. A lot. It’s a good thing she’s cute.