Palate

The boys love palates. They will request them daily. They get the pillows and the palate blanket and the rest is up to Greg and I to put it all together for them. This picture makes me get tears in my eyes. I just can't believe how grown up they are getting. I spend so much time chasing, teaching, scolding, reading to, cleaning up after, loving on and cooking for that I rarely get a picture that captures their innocence. I think this picture really captures it...no silly faces, no precious dimple smiles, just my two boys being two boys.

I love these little guys so much!!

Grayson the Pied Piper

Okay, so no rats here. (reference the pied piper of Hamlin story) Regardless, Grayson loves his flute. Greg picked up one at the store for Gavin thinking Grayson would just use is as a stick. HA! Grayson took the flute and immediately put it in his mouth and started playing. Greg just looked at me, grabbed his keys and went back to the store to buy another. Remember the Howard House Noah's ark rule of toys; two by two! Gavin liks his flute, but Grayson LOVES it.

'Twas the night before Easter......

Traditions are important to me and growing up I had lots. One of my favorite was putting my Easter basket on the porch the night before Easter so the bunny could leave me goodies. This year I started that tradition with the boys. Both hunkered down in my lap when I told them the story of Peter Rabbit and instructed them on leaving the baskets out before we went to bed. (which I didn't expect to go well as they have been carrying their Elmo Easter baskets everywhere with them lately.) They both placed their baskets on the door mat and bunny jumped to bed! The next morning the first word out of Gavin's mouth when I opened his door was "Easter BASKETS!!!" We went to the door and both G&G were super excited. Gavin especially like the Spiderman eggs and Grayson loved his Batman eggs. What a smart Easter Bunny! So fun!

From Caterpillars to Butterflys...G&G's first science lesson

Papa and ShooShoo bought G&G a live butterfly tree house. It came with a cute net "house" and a live butterfly culture container. The container housed 5 caterpillars and food for them. It has been so much fun watching the caterpillars triple in size and then watch them make their chrysalis (cocoon) and then FINALLY to emerge from their chrysalis as beautiful painted lady butterflies!

The final butterfly emerged from his/her chrysalis today-the four sibling butterflies came out yesterday and the day before. I think it's rather symbolic on how the last one came out today, on Easter as beautiful butterfly!

We have taken pics along the way and although they show the stages, they by no means capture their beauty. It's difficult to get real clear pictures d/t the need to avoid flash, but I think we captured the basics. We plan to keep them for a couple of days and "feed" them fresh flowers. Sometime next week we will let them go too....we'll see how G&G react to that. At any rate, it's been fun.

Easter Party at Primrose

G&G had their Easter parties at school today and unfortunately Greg and I had to work. Ta-da...in comes the superhero grandparents Papa and ShooShoo. They attended both parties so our boys wouldn't be without a family representative. (thank you both so much!!) G&G both had egg hunts and brought their Easter baskets. They both brought home lots of eggs, candy and smiles from their party.Surprisingly they weren't crazy high on sugar either. We will attempt to dye eggs and have an egg hunt at the house Easter morning but we'll see if Mother Nature will cooperate with the plan.

Shhhh...don't tell Gavin and Grayson....

I have been, at times, accused of being type A and a little OCD. Whatever! Okay, maybe sometimes. Regardless, when you have toddlers who love their lovey and they need their little friends to sleep, you'll do just about anything to make sure one is always available. Enter the dog pound and bear's den. That's what I call it. I have a special stash of lovies for G&G. All it took was Gavin's first year and Rotovirus (for those who don't know-this is a extreme vomiting and diarrhea toddler virus) and his puppy getting soaked in vomit. No way was I going to put him back to bed with it, so I stocked up (maybe too much!) on extras. Then when little Gray came around, I already knew to buy some extras. Funny thing, though the boys don't know about Mommy's secret stash (I rotate them in/out so they are equally 'worn') Gavin realized some puppy's had more beans in their paws than others and some didn't have any at all (he pushes them around and the beans migrated into the tummy.) Almost busted I quickly (STAT) called upon some surgeons (seamstress) to perform a simple procedure. They made a small incision in the groin and pulled down the beans back into the paws, resealed the site and closed up the incision. Now, I am happy to say both puppy's are back in the dog pound with perfect paws!
Crisis diverted! WHEW!
(Quit laughing at me!) :)

Go Diego! Go Gavin!

Gavin's always loved animals more than the average toddler. He started with his love of sting rays about a year ago. He knows all different types-eagle rays, spotted rays, manta rays, etc. Then he expanded his love of rays to all ocean creatures. He can tell you about different types of whales-sperm, blue, humpback, right, etc. and sharks-great white, blue, zebra, hammer head, etc. Then for Christmas last year he wanted and I (of course) bought him Gorilla Mountain and all the accessory animals that go with it. Now, Gavin has progressed to Diego. He loves the show and the books. Greg has been reading to him at night his Diego books. Last night he made a special request that I finish the books with him. I sat down with him and proceeded to be amazed at how much he knows about animals (again!) He was telling me about the different types of penguins-emperor, chinstrap, adelie, and some others I can't remember. He also was telling me about the different types of moneys in the book- spider, pygmy, howler. bobo. The best part was when he "corrected" me when I said, "Look Gavin a hyena." He quickly said "No Mommy, that is a maned wolf!" I love it! Here are a couple of pics of Gavin pretending to be on a rescue mission to save the maned wolf, tigers and spotted bears. (He made the binoculars at school - just like Diego's, of course!)