A Good Friday

Today we enjoyed an almost 80 degree Good Friday down at Smith Memorial Playground with a bunch of our friends. What a change from our last trip there last summer! The new Tot Lot is finished and amazing, and with a three and two year old it was much easier and much more fun for all of us! After a couple of hours of play we gathered on the lawn for our first official picnic of the season. My tired, sweaty, dirty kids came straight home and passed out, and woke up for some Easter Egg making fun with Mom Mom and Pop Pop. Now they are clean, fed, and down for the night, and I am about to sit down and not move until morning. Having fun is tiring!

Luke and Jules suddenly have this whole life of their own, this little relationship filled with secret words and inside jokes that Nate and I know nothing about. Somehow this "mousetrap" thing started recently. Luke looks at Jules and whispers or mouths the word "MOUSETRAP" and she bursts into hysterical laughter. She then says it back, the same way, with the same result. Mousetrap can go on, back and forth, for quite some time. I have no idea what they are talking about, or where this started. They also have these hilarious dance parties in the back seat while I drive. Luke starts pretending to play the drums when a song he likes comes on, then Jules starts waving her arms around in the air, and they go on and on until one starts cracking up, then switch roles. The other day Luke picked out his entire outfit. He insisted on his whale shirt, his jeans, his new sandals, and his (treasured) blue windbreaker (he asks to sleep with this windbreaker). He got dressed and came up to me saying "Mama! Look at me! I look so cool". HUH? Who on earth told Luke about "looking cool"? I never say I look "cool". I never tell him he looks "cool". This morning I asked Jules if she wanted me to put her hair in pigtails. She put her hands up to either side of her face and SQUEALED! with delight before saying "Oh that will be so CUTE!". Again, huh? Who is this little girl who replaced my toddler? Spending my days with these funny little people is just getting better and better. Kids are simply funny funny little critters.

We had our 32 week midwife visit this week. Baby is growing well, head down, active as ever, and we are getting closer and closer to meeting this little one. The kids love to watch Kate palpate my belly and listen to the babies heartbeat. We just decided to hire a doula, which I am extremely excited about. I'm gathering together baby clothes and hats and all of the supplies for the birth. I feel great and am just really enjoying this phase of pregnancy ~ the baby is becoming a reality to me but we still have lots of time before the arrival is imminent and I am just soaking up these beautiful days with Luke and Julia before our family expands again.

Easter is throwing me for a loop ~ We don't generally give the kids candy yet I feel all of this weird societal pressure to give them candy ~ I spent a bizarre 15 minutes frozen with indecision and wrestling with myself in the store yesterday ~ Candy? Chocolate bunny? M&M's? PEEPS??? NOTHING? ~ indecision is very unlike me and I found it quite uncomfortable. I ended up with no chocolate ~ One fancy lollipop thing each, a bathing suit, bubbles, art supplies, sidewalk chalk etc. There are all of these semi strange traditions around Easter ~ from giving them an Easter Basket to explaining the giant man in the bunny costume in the mall (if someone could explain the Easter Bunny to me that would be great, I honestly don't even understand it/(him? I assume the Easter Bunny is a male bunny? The woman is too busy reproducing to bother with all those baskets or something?) so have no IDEA how to begin explaining bunny man to my children. Those of you who know my kids well can pretty much guess how the token trip to bunny man went ~ Luke sat, beaming, on the Easter Bunnies lap, while Julia screamed "I don't like that BUNNY! I don't like HIM! Don't LOOK at me BUNNY!!!" while she clung to me and refused to even look at him. Needless to say Luke looks like an only child in our Easter pic this year ~ we are 0-2 between bunny man and Santa with Jules. Can't say I really blame her, bunny man scares me, too.