Green Eggs and Hams

Hi everyone - Pete here.

Just wanted to relay a little "Daddy Moment." Tonight Rosie was out for dinner with some moms from one of her mom clubs, so I was in charge of dinner. As is my fashion, I included a grinded blend of spinach and broccoli to the dish - which happened to be omelets. So without futher ado, here are the green eggs:


And here are the "hams"

Duckie Math Games

Daphne's been practicing her math skills in the bath.
(They're short but if you have time to watch just one, go with the last one).


And the grand finale. She figured this out tonight on her own:

Sewing (aka watch out for puns)

I recently took up sewing. I'm taking a class through the local community college and our project is a pillowcase and a small pillow. So this pillowcase for Daphne was my first sewing project.

My reasons for taking up sewing are many and varied, but mainly I just figured it was high time I learned. I remember being fascinated with my mom's sewing basket as a child, but I never had any interest in taking home ec and passed up on (or zoned out during) various family members' attempts to teach me. But now that I am learning, a side-bonus for Pete is that the sewing world is ripe with puns, and I will be forced to endure them. Darn. ;)

Anyway, I'm glad she likes it. It was sew fun to make. Hardy har har.

Daphne's 1st Bicycle (aka The Driveway Gauntlet)

Daphne has graduated to a her 1st bicycle (with training wheels). She's been spending a lot of time riding up and down the street, with James doing his best to keep up while pushing along his "ridey toy." I'm doing my best to keep up and make sure they don't get hit by cars coming in and out of driveways during the evening commute. Thankfully it's a pretty kid-friendly/aware street.


Seeing Daphne on a bike makes her seem so grown up to me. When did she become a little kid?

Happy McEaster

Yes, we went to McDonald's for breakfast this lovely Easter morning. We never go to McDonald's. But this might just become a tradition.

You can see from this picture that even our young children sense this is not the most classy thing to do to celebrate the resurrection of Christ.

"Huh. McDonald's, eh? Okay, you're the boss..."


Our main goal today was to avoid crowds. The problem is that every place that's open (i.e. churches and restaurants) is super-crowded. So we tried to think of the tackiest thing to do on Easter hoping that it would leave us lonely. Our answers: McDonald's and bowling. Bowling was closed; McD's was open.

Our plan worked pretty well. Proof: As we walked in, Daphne said, "Where are all the kids?"





It was a strange Easter. Normally I would be singing in the choir for the 9:30 and 11am services at our church, but since I'm still recovering from straining my back, we thought it would be a bad idea for me to sit/stand that long. We also knew that simply attending one of those services would be anything but simple, due to the aformentioned crowding issue--our church has a big music to-do at 9:30 and 11 with the huge choir, brass from the Oregon Symphony, etc--and there is very limited parking and seating on even a regular old Sunday. So we opted for the freakishly early 8am service, which wasn't overcrowded at all. But after that we had tons of time to kill before we met up with family after the 11am service. That's when we hit the McPancakes and McBreakfast McBurritos, and of course the McPlayPlace.

Then, disappointed to find that bowling was closed (yes, it was a long-shot to begin with), we stopped in at the local Fred Meyer and let the kids play in the toy aisle.



And then we had a great time at Grammy and Grandpa's house in the afternoon.


James is holding a cherry tomato that came out of his Easter egg. Probably not enough to counteract the McDonald's from earlier, but worth a try.

Daphne hid James' eggs and then helped him open them.


A fun, strange, and memorable Easter. Truly, what more can you ask for?

He Walks!

Well, James finally did it. Sure felt like it was never going to happen, but he managed to squeak in his first steps before he turned 18 months (next week). He's really had the strength and ability for several weeks now, but just not the motivation. He'd walk very steadily while holding our hands, but every time we tried to make him let go of even one of our hands at a time, he'd just sit down and cry. No wonder my back went out this week!

We thought it was interesting how he learned to stand up by himself without holding on to anything before he really tried walking. We thought most kids (including Daphne) started by pulling up on something to stand and then letting go to try to walk.

At first, he was motivated to stand up because he liked to try to dance:

Then he was trying a few steps at a time:

And by the next day:

Pump It Up Jr.

All the static in there makes Daphne's hair extra crazy.

Someone's had enough