It's been a busy month since I last wrote. We visited Houston for Easter weekend and had a great time. Charlie spent most of the weekend chasing invisible "bad guys" around Grandma and Grandpa's house. He also played imaginary "ball" with Great Grandma. She would pitch the imaginary ball and he would hit it with his imaginary bat. It was great fun to watch, and I was so glad she could participate in the play while sitting in her chair. At one point, Charlie found some straw hats upstairs, and came into the room wearing one, declaring that it was time to have a "hee haw party!" I have no idea where he got that one!
On Easter Sunday, Charlie and Grandpa and I went to the grocery store to pick up a few essentials. While we were there, Charlie got to decorate a bunny cake, which he shared with everyone after dinner. When we got back from the store, we discovered that the Easter Bunny had visited the house and left eggs for Charlie to find. He had great fun finding eggs, and then later sorting all of his chocolate coins by animal.
Charlie also spent time going to the moon, after discovering "rocket boots" belonging to Grandma. Liam enjoyed a lot of time on Great Grandma's lap.
On our way home, our flight was diverted to Dayton to refuel, because storms in Cincinnati were keeping us up in the air circling for too long. We ended up changing two dirty diapers for Liam on our laps while stretching across the aisle on the plane. Luckily I had plenty of formula, and only had to ask for more water to make the third bottle for the final leg of the flight. We returned home to find the house intact, but ants had invaded the kitchen counter and Charlie's table. We spent the following three weeks trying to completely evict them from the house, finally resorting to a spray to get rid of them.
Right before we left for Houston, Charlie obtained a scar on the other side of his face, when another child at daycare threw an object-- "the thing with pointy sides" (a prism)-- at him. I knew it was only a matter of time before the small line left by the biopsy last summer would be just another mark of boyhood to anyone who spotted it. While we were on our trip, Charlie displayed his "back and forth" dance for the first time. This amuses Liam quite a bit. Charlie has also learned the chicken dance at daycare, so he is officially a true Cincinnatian!
Liam started on rice cereal this past month, and is working his way through vegetables. We're starting to move him on to the size 3 diapers. He often sleeps mostly through the night, maybe waking only briefly once or twice for comforting or maybe once for a small bottle. I can't wait to see how big he is when we go in for his 6 month visit tomorrow.
We recently made Charlie's bed bigger (half way between the toddler bed and a full twin size). He helped John complete the task with his Handy Manny tools. I also took Charlie shopping at Toys R Us for the first time about a week ago. He wanted all sorts of things in the store. Many times I caught myself saying "maybe for your birthday." He was so well behaved I did buy him a small Diego no-spill bubble container.
As a make-up for one of the swimming classes Charlie missed while we were on our trips, we attended a "family fun swim" at Kids First Sports. It was Liam's first time in the pool, and we didn't keep him in there long. But he seemed to enjoy it. Charlie didn't want to get out of the pool, and we stayed nearly until the time was up. He still does not like going under water with his head, but he is growing to like the idea of swimming, and we've gotten lots of good ideas about toys to play with and games to do so that he gets more comfortable with the water. He's on his second session of classes now, and by summer we should be able to enjoy the pool more this year than last.
On other (non-kid related) notes, we very much enjoyed "Italian Night" with the movie club last weekend. We watched Godfather I and II, with a great meal of Italian food and wine in between. It was a marathon movie night, and by the end of the session, the discussion was short-lived, because everyone was ready to go to sleep! John's team and my team played against each other in the CBA Winter season finals-- his team won. Work has been busy for both of us, but we've been gearing up for a summer filled with fun activities and trips.
