Sofia

We have a sweet little neighbor girl named Sofia. Eli and Sadie both love her and Dennis and I do too. She is very good at playing creative games and is very gentle and patient with both kids. Plus, she's teaching Eli Spanish, well, sort of. Eli's Spanish is not so good.

Right Around the Corner...

Do you remember the Frog and Toad story where Frog tells Toad that spring is right around the corner and then there are a whole bunch of pictures of Toad looking around corners for spring? You don't? Well, that's probably because you never taught second grade. I think about that story every time I say that spring is right around the corner, but now spring is here and summer is right around the corner. Yea summer! Here's a preview of what's to come:

I know this picture has nothing to do with spring or summer and it isn't the best photo, but I'm including it so you can have a look at Eli's favorite outfit. Eli's been into picking out his own clothes and this just happens to be his favorite shirt (well, this and his short sleeved tie-dye) and favorite shorts. On this particular day (and today) both the shirt and the shorts happened to be clean at the same time. The only thing this outfit is missing are the green and blue striped socks (or bright red socks that he's wearing today) that he usually wears with it along with his sandals (see trike photo above). He says that he is very "colorful." I can't argue with him there. He is very colorful. :)

Monster Truck Madness

Several weeks ago, the Monster Truck Nationals were at the Schottenstein Center in Columbus. Eli and Dennis along with good friends, Luke and Matt, and some neighbor kids and grandpa attended the loud festivities. I say loud because I could hear them at our house. Granted we are only a block away, but seriously I could hear them in our house. That is why Eli got to wear the really beautiful ear plugs:Normally, Dennis isn't into monster trucks or cars in general, afterall he thinks my Honda Civic is a good ride, but when you have a two year old who thinks monster trucks are the cats meow, you cough up the $5 and go! And Eli had about the best time a two year old could possibly have. Grandpa bought Eli (and Sadie) five new monster trucks and that's about all he plays with. He rolls them over the cars so it looks a lot like this:

He likes to watch monster truck videos on youtube and now his favorite song is Bad to the Bone followed closely by Welcome to the Jungle. We had to download them from itunes for him! Seriously.

Pictures of Sadie from April

April, a neighbor girl, captured these pictures of Sadie. I think she did a really good job. Better job than I ususally do taking pictures and she's only 11! I love them because they show Sadie's skeptical side:
My favorite picture of Sadie of all time because it shows her foot-loose-and-fancy-free side:
This is usually the side I see of Sadie:

The Choke Hold

Whenever I tell Eli and Sadie to smile for a picture, Eli puts his arm around Sadie's neck and pulls her in really tight. It usually looks like he's choking her rather than hugging her, but I guess there is a fine-line between choking and hugging when you're 2.5! (Yes, this is a really great meal of chicken strips, french fries and corn. My attempts at getting the kids to eat really great nutritious meals all-the time has been replaced by "there's sort of a vegetable on their plate--not that they'll eat it" and "Didn't Regan say that Ketchup was a vegetable?".)The best thing about this picture is that the floor is actually picked up. And look at that book shelf. The books are actually neat and orderly. Eli picked out that outfit too-- all blue! He's really into stripes now, like his mother. The only underwear he'll wear that doesn't have Diego or a car on them has stripes. You should see his new Monster Truck underwear that grandma and grandpa Z. gave him. Have I told you about his new monster truck obsession. I didn't? I'll post about that next! He's officially been white-trashified!!
Did I post this one last week? I can't remember. Well, if I did, here it is again.

We All Fall Down...

A little grandma and grandpa time!

Spring Has Sprung

Here it is April 6 and we're just having our first nice day of the year. It was seventy and sunny and really just a perfect day. Even though Eli thought we should go to church, we sided with the devil and went for a hike instead.
You've gotta love self timers on cameras:


There once was a time that Dennis and I would go for hike for the day and plan on being gone for several hours and we could go a good 8-10 miles with no problem. And if I was carrying 30+ pounds on my back it was because we were going to be going somewhere fun for a few days. Well, we made it 2.5 miles today and I carried Sadie instead of a tent and a sleeping bag (not that Sadie or my sleeping bag weigh 30 pounds). Hiking with the kids is a whole different story, and(almost as) fun. I'm contantly amazed at what the kids can discover and what can keep them interested for hours. Here Sadie sat in the meadow to look at sticks (see photo above). I'm trying really really hard to be patient.

We found some acorns starting to sprout, puffed spores from mushrooms, found baby mushrooms growing from a log, and discovered this very cool blue beetle. An action shot of Eli running. It looks like he's running bases. And it turns out that the kids love picnics just like me. It's going to be a very good summer!

A Trip To See the Butterflies

Grandma and Grandpa Z. are in town visiting and we've been too busy to download pictures. Here's some from March from our trip to Franklin Park Conservatory to see the butterflies.

Finally a butterfly at Eli's level:

Taking a rest from all the butterfly action: