Be Vewy Vewy Quiet

We're hunting Easter Eggs!

Today the Elkridge Library and the Elkridge Senior Center put on an Easter Egg Hunt for kids in the area. We went along with 140 other kids under 5, and their siblings, and their parents! We watched a 'magic' show and then the Easter Bunny walked us out to the lawn behind the library and we turned the kids loose. Jack totally understood the game and started picking up eggs and putting them in my hand or directly in his basket.

Last Easter I was swollen, sleep deprived and Jack didn't do much. This Easter is going to be so much better!! I can't wait to watch him hunt for Eggs at my parents place!

Plum Thief

This morning Jack stole a plum and carried it around the house eating it.

All I have to say is WOW! These snap peas are growing fast!

Also we get to start painting the deck tonight, finally! I would be more excited but manual labor doesn't exactly make me say, YAY!

Beachin' good time

Today we went to the beach. We played with our new sand toys.

Modeled our new shades (he sort of tolerated wearing them.)

Got a little wind-swept.

Wandered into the waves. Brrr!

Pondered which came first the waves or the shore.

Put some footprints in the sand.

And then ran around in my parents backyard.

Now we're pooped!

Zoom Zoom

Upon arrival in the OC Jack took a late nap. When he woke up after 3 (gasp!) we went to a playground near my parents house. Turns out its made by the same company that made the playground near my house! This one is considerably smaller, but it was also empty so there you go. Jack enjoyed the merry-go-round as a place to bang his hands and make noise.

The car or "CAH!" as Jack calls it, was the biggest hit of all. I have 20 pics of him in the car, these are my faves.

Every time I tried to get him to play on the swings or the slides he would run to or tell me he wanted the "CAH!" -he was very determined. I'm beginning to wonder how much of gender difference really is a social construct... because I'm not teaching him to be in to cars but this need to connect with things with wheels is visceral.

I have a bunch of videos from today but it was so windy here that all you hear is the deafening "WSHhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" of the wind while Jack slides, swings and rides in the car.

My parents friends came for dinner so we had a 50+ ladies night, while the men watched the final 4, that the women-folk they charitably allowed me to participate in.

Best. Day. Ever.

We started off the day with a play date with Katie and Colin from swimming class. The boys had a good time following each other around and playing side-by-side.
Then I noticed that my peas have already sprouted!

Then Mark (a friend from HS youth group -yes, I said youth group, try not to act so surprised) came to visit. He lives in Seattle, since he was in town for a friend's wedding we went to lunch and caught up!

In between we hung out with the neighbors until the rain drove us inside so we provided moral support while Michelle folded some clothes.

Then Emily and Colin came over for an impromptu play date. We chatted about those pesky husbands until mine came home. Shhh!

Finally I went to Home Depot to buy a washing machine. Best Buy had the LG listed as 699 (just like the Depot) so with tax that would be 750. Best Buy was offering 10% off bringing us to 629 (pre-tax). The Depot does meet & beat so they saw their price and lowered an additional 10% bringing us down to 601.01 (tax included) and then the power company is offering 50 bucks in a rebate for energy star washing machines! so that's 550 for a 750 washer. AWESOMENESS!!

Don't mess with a good thing

We had such a fun time at the park that when my plans with an out-of-town friend got moved to Friday, we took advantage of the weather and went back to play.

There were 2 YMCA after school groups there today. It took all my self control not to join in their awesome game of freeze tag!

We hung out in the tunnel for a while and then we made some new friends.

As seen here:

We love our playground... we're certainly not going to mess with a good thing!

Playin' around

Today we went to Meadowbrook Park. It's a HUGE park and there is no mulch (YAY!) instead it has rubber on the ground under the play area (like the rubber of a HS track). There were lots of kids playing, based on the time of day I'm guessing they were probably pre-K aged. You know I'm not one to shy away from complaining when big kids make it hard for the little ones to play and explore. It never occurred to me that there would be big kids there too (duh!) but they all seemed to be fine sharing the playground with our pint-sized monsters.

Jillian, Jack, Brooks and Jocelyn (who is now walking while holding mommy's fingers!) were all there. Jack got comfortable with the big play ground pretty quick. The playground has a large ramp that goes from level to level and from area to area so Jack started at the bottom and made his way to the top. He didn't show interest in the 'fire poles' or other toddler un-friendly apparati; thank goodness because some areas were 8ish feet off the ground.

He did however immediately take to the slides. He would walk over to them and then sit down and crawl backwards till he slid down them. One slide he decided to crawl face first down which lead to me grabbing his ankle and bracing myself to slowly lower us down this crazy steep slide. We got far enough down that I let go and he slid safely to the bottom. When I tried to adjust myself I lost my grip, slid down, collided with him and clumsily scooped him up so I didn't actually land on the ground on top of him as we both fell off the end of the slide. We flopped to the ground facing the sky and both immediately started laughing.

It's times like this that I think, yep, he's the perfect kid for me because I can throw him down a slide and onto the ground and he thinks it's funny.