Easter

Easter

Being a parent, holidays take on new meanings...

Growing up, holidays start to lose their glamour as you realize the true nature of "Santa Claus" or "The Easter Bunny".  But this glamour is returned when your children are able to experience the magic of the holiday.  As well, Holidays change as you grow up because you start to focus on the real meaning of the holiday (Easter = the Savior's resurrection) instead of the treats and surprises involved with the holiday.

This particular holiday we tried to make special for Lily.  She is still a little young, but gaining a greater understanding for each holiday that passes.  We wanted to really try to make an effort to make this holiday special for her.  So we got her some special treats!

Can you tell what her favorite gift of the whole basket was?  Frozen cereal!  It was a hit!

She liked the little bunny that the Easter Bunny brought also...

But we couldn't go anywhere or do anything until we had eaten our 'Frozen' cereal (or at least all the marshmallows in it).

That was probably a good thing because it was really cold this specific morning and we wanted to wait until it warmed up a bit to go and gather eggs.  However, when she looked out the back window and saw the "eggs" she wanted to go and get them right away.

So we bundled up and gathered eggs as quickly as possible.  At first she wanted to open each egg as she gathered it, but with our guidance, she learned to just gather them and put them in her basket to open for later.

When we came inside to open eggs, she wanted to eat each one right away.  Unless the egg was filled with goldfish.  Those goldfish went to the side and all the other treats were eaten.  Holy cow - she was a good eater today - but of course - if you had treats all morning, you'd be a good eater too!

I think that she grasped the idea of Easter and gathering eggs, because the next few mornings she went to the back window and said "Easter Bunny.  Easter Bunny." Hoping that she could go and gather eggs, and thus get more treats.  This has been a good teaching moment to explain why holidays are so important and why they happen only once a year and how we need to make them as extra special as possible.  As Lily gets older, we will include Michal's Polish tradition of going to get baskets blessed the day before Easter Sunday.  But for now, we are so happy of how Easter turned out for Lily, because she was so happy and excited!

Good Friday Zoo Trip

April 3, 2015

After Michal working so, so hard the month of March... he got Good Friday off of work. I could have had him help me clean the house... or we could have taken it easy (since he'd been working so hard)... but we decided to head over to the zoo so that Lily could see the "animals".

Michal was such a trooper about it, he didn't complain about going - but I think that both of us were glad we went when we saw how happy Lily was at seeing each animal.  (Even though we were worn out when we were done with both the North America and the Africa parts of the zoo).

We found out from the zoo volunteers, that Good Friday is their busiest day of the WHOLE year.  Because many husbands get the day off work and it's usually the first nice day where you can be outside.  We didn't know it would be so busy, so we were only able to see a handful of animals (seals, puffins, bears, elephants, giraffes, and zebras) because the exhibits were just way too busy or there were too many people and we just wanted to get from point A to point B without fighting the crowds huddled around the animal enclosures.

Ever since our zoo trip, Lily has been asking every day to go and see the "animals."  Each time I ask her to put her shoes on, she says, "Animals? Animals?"  It breaks my heart to disappoint her when we arrive at the store, but I went ahead and bought a double stroller so that I can take her on my own... right now I have to have another adult to push Lily (since I am pushing Marco in the Bob stroller we have).  As soon as the double stroller comes in the mail, we will be making it out to the zoo much more often since we bought a yearly pass.  Lily will be so happy - and I will do anything (or spend anything - even the price of a double stroller!) to make her happy!

Marco 2 Months

Marco turned two months old!  He is getting bigger and bigger.  But still in newborn diapers and just barely has switched over to 0-3 months clothing.  I can't wait for our doctor appointment on April 8 to find out his stats and where he lies on the spectrum of his growth development.

Anytime I pull out the camera to take pictures of Marco, Lily wants to badly to be included, so I try to let her be included.  And I also want to document how much she truly loves her little brother. 

Happy two months to Marco!  And a big Thank You to Lily for being such a good big sister and loving your little brother.