1. Spencer. Oh this boy, he is growing way to fast. He is "crawling" in his own crawl/flop motion wherever he wants to go much to his puzzle loving brother's dismay. This new found motion and ability to flip and flop means we all of a sudden have a lot of baby gear that is no longer helpful, bouncers, seats, playmats and our bath seat because someone can sit up himself and splash around now. I am constantly bracing myself for his "lasts" which will be our family's lasts and on a very practical note, I'm mourning the last of a child who can't follow me into the bathroom.
2. John is busy as ever as well, but every once in a while (generally when a cold is coming on) he slows down to rest and all his wild fury is settled into this angelic face:
And while there are many things he is not excited about daily (using the potty, bedtime, foods that aren't brown etc.) he is so excited about going to school, playdates and new books and magazines! While I'm excited about the time Spencer and I will get when he goes to school twice a week next year it's already hard to believe how quickly that will be here.
3. Easter Camping. So, in our grand scheme of mild craziness we decided to go camping for Easter. Easter used to be "Grandma Elsie's" holiday and I needed a distraction from missing her and we've been slowly trying to shape a new set of Easter traditions. Packing up our brand new camper and taking 4 kids cold weather camping was certainly a distraction and outside our norm :-) We weren't too ambitious as we camped less than 6 miles from home.
First meal in the new camper! No one caught on fire in the tight quarters!
The good of the trip:
- Everyone eventually slept
- We had extra space in the van even after putting the bikes in the new car instead of on the bike rack so there is hope that we aren't *that* van where shit falls out everytime a door opens this summer.
- The kids survived the top bunk even after I put a too thick mattress up there, no claustrophobia for them!
- The stove, fridge and electrical outlets worked beautifully. I haven't messed with the water systems since its still freezing often enough, but we are working our way to success.
The bad:
- We are still used to packing everything back into the van instead of leaving it in the camper so I wasted a lot of time moving stuff around
- Catherine and Spencer sharing a sleeping space needs some tweaks, as well as figuring out how to keep a crawling toddler warm
- The furnace gave out about midnight :( Luckily we were a) close to home and James could run and grab a space heater and b) at a site with electricity.
The cold limited much of what the kids like to do when camping, so we made some jiffy pop and settled in for a movie on the iPad:
The Hot Springs don't open until 8pm on Saturdays, but they certainly were a perfect way to wear the kids out and get them to bed easily! I finally invested in a waterproof case for my phone, so we played around with it a bit:
The next morning we tested out the oven with cinnamon rolls and then the kids rode bikes around and hit up the playground. Spencer finally decided to snooze:
And I forced the kids to take a family picture:
4. After a second trip to the Hot Springs, we got all dressed up for some more semi-regular traditions. Spencer again was unimpressed:
Until he discovered the pure sugary goodness that is Peeps on a stick:
Matthew was worried there weren't enough places in the camper for the Easter Bunny to hide eggs so he suggested we leave our eggs/baskets at the house for the Easter Bunny to find (smart kid!) It worked out beautifully to come home and find eggs instead of playing the "let's wait for everyone to wake up and pretend we haven't already spotted everything" game. We then wore our finest to IHOP where at 2pm most of the rest of the clientele were still in ratty pajamas. It was perfect and mostly someone who was not me was willing to keep refilling my water glass, which is pretty much where my standards are for taking the family out to a restaurant. #winning
And capped it off with the magic of Shrinky Dinks:
5. And now I leave you with a .gif (hopefully) of Spencer eating broccoli, because damn, 7 month olds love broccoli.
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