Our big (and strong) boy

I can't believe how big our baby is getting. Last Thursday he went to Kindergarten Round-up. There he got to meet the teachers and some new friends (and several old friends), see his class rooms, and get a taste of kindergarten. The parents were in the cafeteria getting the run-down from the principal while the kids were playing (aka- being closely observed by the teachers to determine class assignments, etc). This is a picture of Wally and I walking to kindergarten. Wally had to pick dandelions for his teacher. Only one teacher got a dandelion because he found friends to give them too first. This is a demonstration of Wally's engineering skills and his muscles. I'm not sure which I'm more impressed with.
I like how Wally states that he can do it without any help, and then at the end of the video he asks me for help. He does still need his mommy!

Easter

Easter is a magical time. Obviously, it is the time that we celebrate Christ's dieing for us and his resurrection. But, with a kid, there are so many fun things to do as well.

A tradition that Joel's family always did was an Easter tree. On Palm Sunday, you cut a branch from a flowering tree, like a crab apple, you put the branch in water in the house, and on Easter, it blossoms. Wally and I cut a couple branches from a crab apple tree and the pear tree mid-Holy week, and decorated it with Easter eggs. Wally is very much into making silly faces for pictures.
Wally and I also decorated Easter eggs. Wally started out being very careful and watching the eggs to make sure they were the right brightness...
Then I mentioned to him that he could put the eggs in multiple colors to make fancy eggs and new colors. Next thing I knew, he had nearly 2 dozen eggs in his dye cups at the same time...that Wally!

Wally worked very hard on every egg, and was very proud of his work. This year, rather than breaking the large majority of eggs, only 2 of 24 were cracked at the end!
The Easter bunny showed up at Hy-vee the day before Easter and hid eggs in the parking lot. When Wally saw the Easter Bunny, he ran right up to him and gave him a huge hug and kiss. I was too slow with the camera of course. Wally is not shy about sharing love with giant animals. After Wally found a few eggs in the parking lot, he began searching for trash. He learned about Earth Day in preschool the day before, and is taking it very seriously. He was much more into picking up trash than eggs...he continues to do so today. Because it looked like it wasn't supposed to be very nice weather for Easter, we decided to let Wally have his Easter present a day early. We got him a bicycle a couple weeks ago and hid it in the blue Blazer. A week before Easter, we were at a baseball game and decided to let Wally ride home in the Blazer with Dad while I picked up pizza in the van. After it was too late, Joel remembered that Wally's bike was in the back. Wally crawled into the Blazer and looked right into the back because he was looking for a toy, but he didn't seem to notice the bike...maybe he was too focused on finding the toy. On the way home he yelled out the window to pedestrians, "Happy Easter!" Later that week, Wally made a paper Easter egg with a drawing of a bicycle in it. We asked him why he drew a bike (figuring it was because he saw his new one) and he responded that he thought it would be silly because chickens come from eggs, not bikes! We were thinking...did he really not see the bike? I decided to get his response to the bike on camera, so I waited outside for Joel and Wally to come out. As you see, he was happy, but not really surprised. Later that day, Wally said to Joel, "That is the bike that was in the blue truck." When Joel asked why he didn't mention that he knew it was back there, Wally responded, "Because it was supposed to be a surprise!" Did he really see the bike, decide it was a surprise, and decide not to respond at all to it? I guess we will never really know.

Wally knew exactly what to do with it the first time he got on.

Within minutes, he was cruising around our loop. He has made many many laps since then. He would make the loops faster, except that he must stop and pick up all trash and dandelions. The Easter bunny left Wally a Zhu-zhu pet and a chocolate Easter egg with a duck (basically a Peep) inside. I thought Wally would get a kick out of it, but as you can see in the video, he didn't really care that much...but I tried hard!

Aw, a cute little ducky (that he gave to me to eat - he wouldn't touch the thing, and can't keep anything for himself - except for chocolate).

Notice the chunk of chocolate shell stuck between his glasses and nose. I guess glasses can be handy!

Last year, we thought that it would be nice this year for Wally to have a little competition with the egg hunting from Brother and Sister (ha ha ha...maybe next year). The Easter bunny definitely hid the eggs in harder places this year though. We were talking to our neighbors when the Easter bunny hid the eggs (or so Wally thinks). After we were done talking to them, Wally jumped back on his bike. When he got in front of our house, he saw an egg and jumped off his bike. We told him he couldn't leave his bike in the road like that, so he ran to his bike, picked the thing up (I'm sure not an easy task when the bike is a big as he is), and waddled with it to the curb so he could hunt for the eggs. I wish I had gotten that on camera because it doesn't sound nearly as cute as it was. Being the only kid looking for the eggs, he made out pretty well.

Despite all of the "stuff" that goes with Easter, Wally still managed to remember what Easter means. I was told that on Palm Sunday the youth director asked Wally how he was, and he responded, "You should be sad because Jesus is going to die soon." Then on Easter during the children's sermon, the kids were asked what they are celebrating on Easter. Wally immediately piped in "Jesus is coming back to life!" But, since he has a hard time with his "L" sounds, it sounded like Jesus was coming back to his wife. That got a few giggles from the congregation.

How did the Easter bunny know Wally loves jelly beans?

If anyone is still unsure, Wally is full of love and is not shy about sharing it. At times during church, Wally gets over-powered by the need to kiss and just attacks Joel or I with a billion kisses. This batch that Joel got was nothing. Note that Joel is asking for a napkin because Wally had just finished eating some of his Easter candy and was wearing it all over his face.

A big holiday meal isn't the same when it is just the 3 of us, but I still try. This year, we had ham, cheesy peas, cheesy potatoes, marshmallow fruit salad, and fresh bread. Not so healthy, but delicious! The Easter tree bloomed perfectly! During the Easter egg hunt, we found 4 real eggs in one of the trees in our back yard. We figured out that these were cardinal eggs.

About a week later, we found that 3 of the eggs had hatched really ugly birds! It was fun to see since we've been watching the eagles. Too bad the momma had built the nest right at nose level for the dogs. The next day, we found the nest tipped and no birds or eggs to be found. "Maybe the mommy bird carried the babies to a new nest away from Moose and Daisy." Maybe, Wally, maybe.

Random Pre-Easter Stuff

Wally wanted to paint the other day. I was busy cooking, he knows where his painting supplies are, and I was busy cooking, so I just told him to go ahead and get his stuff. He got it all and then sat down to paint. Next thing I knew, this is what I found...
He decided he wanted to "hand paint" and was sticking his fingers as far as they could go into the paint bottles and slopping it onto the paper. To mix colors, he would just rub his hands together. I guess he needed a bigger pallet and used the backs of his hands, wrists... Oh Wally! (I find myself saying that a lot!)

Wally and I had our friends "Friend Joel" (to differentiate between him and "Daddy Joel) and his mom Suzanne over. We decided to stop letting the rain run our lives and take a walk in the rain. It was in the low 40s, so we bundled up.

Wally's new rain coat had a lovely cone head.

Those two boys have a great time together and are hard to tell apart from behind.

Though the weather is getting nicer, I'm going to try to get an Easter blog up soon. I'm off to pick up Wally from school now. I can't believe he has less than a month left before he has preschool graduation! What happened to my baby?!?!?!!

Go Cousin Drew!

Joel's cousin Drew Leininger pitches for the University of Indiana Hoosiers. Two years ago when Indiana was playing the Hawkeyes, we went to the games, but, as a freshman, Drew didn't get to pitch during that series. It was fun seeing him anyway.

Fast forward to this past weekend and it was deja vu all over again. Unfortunately, Indiana's starting pitching had an easy time keeping the Hawkeye's at bay. The weather was crummy on Friday night, so the game was canceled. We tracked Drew down at the mall that night and got to chit chat a bit. The rain went away but only Joel ventured to the ballpark since the high temperature only made it into the low 40s. Sunday was "nicer" although winter coats were still necessary. Here is a picture of Wally putting the finishing touches on a sign for Drew. He worked very hard on it and used up a good portion of two crayons to give it some color.


Drew warmed up in the bullpen toward the end of both games of Sunday's double-header, but alas the Hawkeyes neglected to mount any rallies, so the Hoosier relievers didn't get much playing time. In order to get a workout, Drew threw a side session after the final game.

Wally had an opportunity to give Drew the sign in the end. If you can't tell, he was a little proud to give a sign to a real ball player.

Random: Wally and Sander dancing to some music.

To make Montanans feel better...

Well, summer arrived in Iowa. We've had a few days in the 80s, several in the 70s, and many in the 60s. We've been enjoying being able to play outside. I have some seeds in the garden and will plant the rest in a week or two. Wally loves climbing the tree in the loop, but it still terrifies Mom.

Wally loves the Chick-fil-A cow at the mall. I missed getting a picture of Wally hugging and kissing the cow. We were at the mall last night to see Joel's cousin Drew who is in town to play baseball for Indiana against the Hawkeyes. We didn't have much time to spend with him as he had to get back to the hotel to do homework, but it was nice just the same.

Mmmm pancakes!

Well, this is what we have this morning. I guess it is better to have had summer and lost it than never to have had summer at all!

Hawkeye Baseball Season has Begun!

Last Sunday was beautiful weather and the Hawkeye baseball team had a home game, so we put on our Hawkeye gear, and off we went. Wally was excited to cheer "Go Cubs" (We corrected him that he should cheer Go Hawkeyes). He wasn't really into the game, but he was a great kid just the same.

He did get a bit bored, so Joel pulled out the ipod. Maybe next game, Wally will be more into it. Hopefully he will be, as Joel's cousin Drew will be pitching for Indiana next week. I love how Katie often includes pictures from the past, so I dug through the archives, and found our first Hawkeye game when Drew came to town with Indiana in 2009.

He still looks like Wally, but our baby is definitely growing up.

Speaking of, I'm going to be late to picking him up from school! Gotta go!

Thundershirt

Moose is terrified of thunder. Moose is terrified of rain. Moose is terrified of cloudy days. Poor Moose gets so worked up that it seems like he is having a seizure. If we pet Moose, talk to him, or even just look at him, it makes it much worse. Moose also gets even dumber than normal during these times. Last April at least 3 police vehicles were out looking for Moose when he ran away during a storm. I took the dogs to the vet yesterday for routine shots and mentioned that Moose was even more nervous at the time because it was cloudy. The vet immediately said, "Thundershirt." Um, excuse me? What did you say? She proceeded to tell me about her big wussy dog that is also terrified of thunder. They tried everything, even drugs, but then they learned about Thundershirts. They work like swaddling a baby. The pressure on their chest is supposed to make them less anxious (even with non-thunder issues). With the rain starting to come down and thunderstorms predicted (well, face it, we live in Iowa), Wally, Moose, Daisy and I rushed to a pet store and picked up a Thundershirt for Moose. He really did seem calmer during the drive home. Maybe he is just an old dog and he was worn out from the exciting afternoon. There hasn't been any thunder since we got the shirt last night, but he started shaking this afternoon, so I put it on him. I'll up-date everyone to see how he does this weekend. Poor Moose. Hopefully his "Brave shirt" will help.