o.k so this was almost the end of Easter lunch - Jackson has blue teeth from a lolliepop, and I am just not so great from this angle with the high shine factor people palm off as glowing pregnancy thing.
Uncle Jim's trophy room - notice the fish on the wall - above us is a "reindeer" so J informed us. in fact their are 2 - plus a stuffed bobcat, multiple furs of various kinds and general hunting/fishing/ goodies.
Heaven on Easter for a two year old boy.
two of the three family tables as we sit down to lunch
Lauren, her mum Donna and me around the food.
Parker, Lauren and Jim in the dining room area.
A get-together at Lynda's house a while ago - Angie, Christopher, Allen , me and Brad
Is that my dad??
HOLY MOLLY! J's face was PRICELESS and made everyone laugh - he was pretty freaked out by the wig.

We had a great Easter - I hope my family reads this as the skype phone is out of action this past few days - hope you guys had a great Easter too!

It started out with J opening the door to my room (he had come in about 6:30 and didn't get up until 8:30 after a late night egg coloring) and I had a trail of those plastic eggs filled with little animals, and papermachae eggs filled with confetti - he was so excited to fill his little bag with the eggs and as it was pouring rain outside he had a big time finding all the eggs over the house. He loved shaking the confetti out - all over the house - and I loved it too it was heaps of fun. The trail led him to the kitchen table where the mother ship of Easter eggs had landed - along with presents galore. The most extravagant handpainted eggs you have ever seen - with his name handpainted on one. New books, puzzles and the favorite - a big blue whale and scuba man set from playmobile. So the reason for all this extravagance?

The Easter Bunny takes dummies. you call them binkies/pacifiers.

He takes them to give to little tiny babies and in exchange gives boys all the chocolate and presents a boy could ever want.

It worked

The Easter bunny gave Jackson a new blanky (his old blanky normally has the dummy attached to a corner) and the new blankie is special - if he holds it really tight it will help him go to sleep or nap in the day - because it is a special blankie. Last night he cried and cried for an hour - kept getting up, he was not asking for his dummy - but he was UPSET! Eventually after Brad going in around 10 times, he finally fell asleep as I rubbed his back - and slept through in his own bed until this morning and was happy to go to day care with his new special blankie. He did ask for his dummy sookie for day care - we talked about the new special blankie and reminded him of all the presents and chocolate the Easter bunny gave him for the dummy. This worked. He was not upset, he did however cling to the new blankie for dear life and took it into his day care room.

He has always found comfort from having something in his mouth - he will put his fingers into his mouth when he gets tired if the dummy was not around. He really seems to understand when I explain things to him - and will say "Oh thats right" like he forgot for just a minute that the Easter bunny came but now he suddenly remembered.

Yesterday we had Easter lunch at Aunt Donna's which was DELICIOUS! I brought over deviled eggs - which I felt I needed to explain the reason they were all blue/green and pink and a green bean casserole. J had three slices of ham and asparagus and a bunch of little cakes and chocolates. The cake room - my own name for the room where all the desserts are always laid out at Donnas is my favorite place - i always take a photo as it is always decorated in the appropriate theme and Easter is especially pretty with the most delcious cakes I've ever tasted.
Donna also had an Easter basket for J which made him all of a sudden not shy anymore and he just was tickled pink to have a whole bunch of treats just for him - he carried the bag around his neck most of the afternoon! He was the only child there so got a lot of attention - which by the end of the day he was loving and even gave his great Uncle Clayton a high five and was MORE than happy to take all the candy from his cousin Carmen. He is slowly getting to know Joy's sisters, of course he knows Lou Lou the best as we often visit, however he is begining to know Donna and Gina too. On the way home in the car he sang a song "Donna Donna Donna with the chocolates, i like Donna" Obviously he has connected that time at Donnas means treat treats treats!!
Photos to come - they are on Joy's camera and i will hopefully get some in the next day or so.

Leah's Prom and Easter eve

some candid photos of Leah - Brad's cousin just before heading out for Prom - she looked even more stunning in person. Congratulations Leah! Hope you had fun!

Like I said.... stunning!
Lynda, Leah and Bruce.

I went out for dinner with a girlfriend who's husband is also at the same Bachelor weekend as Brad - yes a bachelor weekend planned for Easter. Hmmmmm... anyway, Nee Nee watched Jackson, she came down tonight as we are doing Easter with her family tomorrow. Jackson about had a fit when I came home to show me his colored eggs - they are beautiful! i am tired but still have green bean casserole and a whole heap of deviled eggs to make, as well as J's easter basket.

Wonder what the mother of a two year old does on a Wednesday? Well you start out waking up to a mess. Today it was nuts all over the kitchen floor - we didn't get up until 8:30 and J had been up already for a while I suppose and got hungry. After a proper breakfast (oatmeal and maple syrup cause we are out of honey due to me loosing the ATM card two days ago-- so we have no funds aka no money even for milk! So use a credit card - well that would be great if the bank didn't cancel it for unauthorized usage when they saw my ATM get eaten up and then didn't understand Brad when he called and the bank subsequently cancelling both cards - did they not think we needed access to our money? We use usaa so no branch to go to either) but I am off track - so then after aimlessly letting J play in his room we headed off to the park. Which is VERY nicely located right next to a small lake with ducks and the library (so I can kill 3 birds with one stone while J works on mutilating one poor duck)



A very proud big boy using the big boy slide.
J was ecstatic to get to touch a duck - they were all sleeping in the sun when J managed to creep up - then of course run them all into the water.

He really wanted to check these out but i didn't' let him - because....
after wiggling his bum to toddler story timeand doing the hoky poky... J decided he wanted to leave story time early - I said we can sit and wait till the teacher is finished then go read more books - J then walked away from me then marched back and hit me across the head. I then picked him up and said time out - and we are leaving - well he started to cry and scream ....all..... the..... way.... home. Lovely. I will never tolerate being hit by my son - he knew better, and knows if he ever acts up out in public - we leave. Weather I'm ready to or not I really feel that he needs to have a punishment bigger than a time out when in public so he knows the behaviour I expect of him. It upset him more to leave his books behind than a time out - so we left the books. Hitting is a strange thing, it is demeaning, but I have myself smacked J's bum out of pure frustration on the way to time out - or in time out. For a while it worked - but not anymore - so I have recently gone back to time outs and ignoring him. So i know he hit me out of pure frustration too - he really wanted to go read and finish singing/story time. So that was our drama of the day.
Eating lentils and rice - our staple lunch. then it was off to nap - for 3 hours. I slept too - heaven.
Checking the mail is almost an outing - and today J got a great Easter card from Aunt Mary and Uncle Bill - with STICKERS! This kept him occupied for like an hour. Thanks guys!
J and his new fish - thanks to Nee Nee J is now the proud owner of a fake nemo, two live goldfish and snails. He likes to pretend to eat them. He really likes being able to watch them eat or often he just sits and watches them for 5 minutes a couple of times a day and talks to them. Very cute. So we also sat outside for a while and enjoyed one of the first warm days of spring, and listened to the baseball practice of the boys next door. Brad has headed off to a game, and J is now watching DVR'd Wiggles. It is still light and almost 6:30 - tomorrow is a day care day - I am hoping the credit card is working by then - we need milk or else Brad may start to get serious withdrawals from his much loved morning espresso.