concentration

Its been such great weather! Forest has been spending most of his days playing outside, and desparately trying to get a tan. haha or maybe thats just me. Last night he was extremely busy working on a tower of blocks and coffee containers. It ended up being as tall as him! He had no help in building this. He was really proud! Sometimes he concentrates so hard on his "projects" that i wonder if hes even having fun. I would never know by the look on his face. He can rarely crack a smile until the project is complete...in which he then lets out a loud a proud "TADA!" and a "OOOO YAAAAY". He definitely does not get this deep focus and concentration from me...his projects are causing me to fear the days when he needs home work help after school.

Easter

The three of us had a very fun Easter at home.
A friend of mine calls Easter the "yearly pilgrimage". Meaning, its the one Sunday out of the whole year that people feel the need to step into a church. Knowing that i havent been able to go to church lately, and knowing that Robert was off work for Easter, i realized that it would be possibly to finally get to church if we wanted to. But then the words of my friend came into my head. I realized that if we went to church, we would actually be a part of the pilgrimage since we havent been to church for quite some time. We totally qualify to be in this category this year. So....I then heard the words of my mother from when i was a kid, "we are not going to church for Easter so that there will be extra seats available to people who havent been all year". Hmmmm.
After thinking about how miserable Forest would be in the chaotic and crowded Sunday school,
i was convinced to stay home. We even decided against inviting people over.
So it was declared a family day in our home!
And this is how it went......

Forest and I made cinnamon rolls in the morning.
He was a great helper

But he was very mad when they had to go into the oven.
He checked their progress every couple of minutes.
And finally, sobbing, climbed into his highchair and put on his bib,
and proceeded to wait.
Finally, they were done baking!
He helped with the frosting.

Already starting the sugar high
"back away from my cinnamon roll"

Our Easter breakfast

Spying on Dad while he hides the eggs

His fist Easter egg hunt!

He knew exactly what to do

"Did i find them all?"

The eggs were filled with mini frogs, stickers, and fruit snacks.

And due to the sugary cinnamon rolls followed by fruit snacks, he had a complete

emotional melt down 15 min after the hunt and went to bed for 3 hours!
I spent the afternoon baking a carrot cake.
Forest helped me frost it after his nap

He thought he was so cool helping

After a while he realized he could eat the frosting
(quite the sugary day)

The finished cake!

The 3 of us took some of the cake over to our friends and then came home to have a dinner prepared by Robert. We had a great day together. We missed being with some of our family that we knew were gathering together for the day, but we were so glad to spend the day doing the beginnings of our own family traditions.

The morning after.....all stickers that were once in the eggs, are now on our glass door.

Moles

Two peas in a pod.

We soaked up a movie in bed night. Tues and Wed is our weekend. So we thought it would be fun to finish off the weekend snuggled up in bed like two moles. Forest is really into the movie Babe, and so of course thats the one we watched. Lucky for me, i happen to love it too!
FINALLY NOT BARNEY! He always gets very concerned about what is happening with the animals throughout the movie. Gasping, whispering some "uh oh's" and "oh no's" under his breath. It was a rainy day, so we enjoyed some hot apple/pear cider during our mole time.
He was livin it up...mom and dad's bed, night time showing of Babe, plus cider.

I love doing stuff like this, and lately ive been thinking of how in the near future, it will no longer be two moles in the bed...but three! (four if we let Robert participate). Another mole will be so fun (and maybe my use of the word "fun" proves that ive never had more than 1 child before).
But id like to imagine that ill jump right into being a mom of 2, just as i jumped into being a mom period. I hope Forest jumps into being a big brother too. For now, im totally enjoying the one on one time with Forest and soaking it up, because i know it will be different one day.
We have what my mom likes to call a "mystery due date", so i dont know when it will happen.
I do know however, that we have at least the next month and a half before i have to be ready.
I never want to feel like i missed out on special time alone with Forest, so for the next month and a a half, plus however long it takes, ill be taking advantage of being two peas in a pod.

Sometimes its just not necessary to mention every opinion.

This is something that im currently learning. And im learning it on both sides.
Im an opinionated person. Sometimes its intimidating. I know this. Therefor, i rarely allow myself or feel the need to, publicly verbalize it. If im with people and i hear something i dont agree with, im usually not the one who speaks up to argue why i disagree. Its not necessary. Silence speaks for its self in those circumstances. Its something im constantly learning.

Im feeling like people should speak more when they agree, and speak less when they disagree.

I dont care to hear about why someone disagrees with a personal preference that i have decided to share. Its a personal preference...no one needs to tell me if they disagree, because it has nothing to do with them. And quite honestly, i dont really care.
This also means, that i shouldnt be doing this to others as well.
Its something im constantly learning.

Chiming in to mention why i DO agree, can often be encouraging. And i too, am encouraged when others chime in to agree with me. And THAT my friends, is worth mentioning.
Its something im constantly learning.

A visit with Grandparents!

Grandpa Dan and Grandma came for a weekend visit!
And with them, came many of our favorite treats! Once i noticed the Ikeda's bag that entered my house with them, i knew we were about to be very spoiled. Ikeda's is an Auburn favorite of ours. In my personal opinion, and i will share it because this is my blog, there isnt much to say about Auburn CA. Except two things: we have family there, and we love Ikeda's.
The bag was filled with Ikeda's raspberry whole wheat bars, Apricot whole wheat bars, a tub of black licorice medley (my personal fav), a tub of star cookies, bag of sesame sticks, and lets not forget to mention the huge fresh apple pie! Wow.
Forest was extremely spoiled with some new clothes and a trip to Target to pick out his four-wheeler! He cannot get enough of this thing...its the first thing he does in the morning, and the last thing he does at night. Needless to say, it was a great visit with Dan and Thelma and im sure Forest is already looking forward to the next time!

Showing Grandma his animals

Testing out his first set of wheels

Faster Grandpa!!!
Quite proud of himself
Come on Grandma, ill show you my front yard!

Luscious locks

His hair is really getting long! Im lovin it!

Warming up!

Enjoying the warm weather!
(please note how cool i am in the background)

nothing like poking the goldfish with sticks in the pond

A boy of constant movement!

Im happy to say that its been getting very warm outside. The past week has been in the high 70's.
We have been having a lot of fun remembering what its like to play outside. Walks, playing at the park, playing in the front yard, and side walk chalk with the neighbors.
Forest is obsessed with our down stairs neighbors. They are 2 1/2 and 1 1/2...i can see why he's so into them! I on the other hand, am not quite as into the parents. They are nice. And i should just top myself at that. Every time we go downstairs, he runs around the staircase and knocks on their door. He has temper tantrums on their door mat, if i tell him we are not sticking around the play.
Im sure they really appreciate this. (they have told me they dont mind at all). The kids usually come running out to play with him, but if they only open the door to tell us they cannot play, he darts right into their home and runs straight into the kid's bedroom to play with all their toys.
O my, how embarrassing. Sometimes, when we are playing out on our patio, the kids downstairs will go out on their patio below us, and shout up to Forest. So cute.
Sadly, they will be moving away in the next month. Lets hope another family moves in!

Finally, Sun!

After a few weeks in a row of rain, hale, snow, wind, lightening and thunder, and 30 degrees...the sun decided to come out! Even though the sun came out, it was still pretty chilly, but that didnt stop us from finally playing outside!

"Ok, where are my friends?"

The gang finally gets to be outside again!

"Chuck, i think youre pretty cool"

He decided it got warm enough to ditch the froggy boots

Happy to get our very white skin out in the sun!