Baby brother!

We welcomed Maxwell Rhys on April 22, and everyone in our family is in love with the little guy.  Ella welcomed him home from the hospital with a great picture of the stars in our family.  I am so looking forward to seeing the relationship these kids develop over the years.

Early birds

I should start by saying that we are SOOO lucky that our kids have generally been good sleepers since infancy.  These days, they both go to bed around 8 pm and stay asleep, or least in their room quietly, until 7 am when their magical bunny clock wakes up and tells them they can get up.  Of course we almost always hear the thump-thump-thump of Dash on his way to our room exactly at 7 but I will take that any day of the week since it's sure better than the early bird wake-ups of many other kids.


Today is Easter, and I woke up around 6:30 to hear the sound of the kids talking in their room.  I couldn't exactly hear what they were saying but they were certainly awake and moving around and chatting with each other.


At 7 am on the dot, I heard them run out of their room.  Ella made a half second appearance at our door and then disappeared.  It took me a minute to realize that they were going for their Easter baskets and totally bypassing the morning snuggle routine. 


When I asked Ella later what happened when they got up early, she said that she woke up and asked Dash if she could get in his bed and read with him.  When I went in to their room this afternoon, I found a book of kid science experiments open on his bed.  It tickled me to no end to think of Ella reading Dash the instructions for various experiments in bed early on a Sunday.   Josh and I say it to ourselves all the time:  they are the BEST kids.  And maybe even future scientists!

Chase St Sparkley

This past weekend, we took advantage of the nice weather and our new, flat driveway to wash our cars inside and out.  For someone who likes things to be clean, I am often very slow in getting the cars cleaned because it seems like such a chore.  But the kids were super into the idea of helping, and in fact, Ella was a pretty good vacuumer and wiper of the inside surfaces of the car.  And of course they both loved the outside part with the hose. So we have two clean cars now, hooray.  And best of all, Ella made a great sign for our car wash which we named Chase St Sparkley.

Ella's sign (she said cars only, no people or horses!)

Cooking experiment

Dash got it in his head that he really wanted to do a cooking experiment, and he had a very specific list of ingredients and tools he needed.  Flour, sugar, salt, that was all fine.  Then he wanted orange juice and coffee beans so it got a little strange.  And he said he needed most of the kitchen measuring cups and spoons.  He really wanted all the glass Pyrex cups but I had to draw the line in case of breakage.

He spent a good 30 minutes or more mixing up his ingredients into a disgusting, pastelike mixture, but he sure enjoyed it.  The kitchen was a little beat up when he was done but not terribly.  Now, though, he asks every day if he can do a cooking experiment and I feel like I need to say no.  Flour isn't expensive but all these ingredients add up to being useful for actual cooking and it feels like a waste to use them like this every day.  While he waits for the next experiment day, he is getting more and more fixated on what else we should buy for his next experiment.  I'm totally avoiding the grape juice purchase as long as possible is all I have to say about that.

Chef Dash, early in the experiment (i.e. when things were still pretty clean)

Smiles

You know how to get your kids to smile in a picture?  Tell them NOT to think about butts!  Look at those silly happy faces!

The big field

One of the reasons we moved to our new house is the setting with big lots, tons of trees, and a huge and beautiful park winding throughout the neighborhood.  At the bottom of our hill, one end of the park stretches out in what the kids call "the big field".  It has become a favorite after dinner destination.  We just walk the few blocks down to the park, cross the wooden bridge (which incidentally, is made of 81 planks of wood.  I know this because Ella and I had to count them one night), and then we're in the big field with lots of space to run and play and just enjoy the big trees and rapidly warming spring weather.  Every night I wish I'd brought my good camera because the kids are having so much fun and the evening light is so pretty.  I have been snapping away with my phone and one of these days, I'll get something good with the other camera.  But for now, happiness in the big field between Ella and her daddy.

Book pile

Dash squirrels books in his bed in a hilarious way.  There is always a giant pile at the end of his bed, and several books tucked under his pillow which you would be well advised to NOT touch.  The kid loves to read in bed.  Who can blame him?  I love it, too.

Happy reader (photo from Mimi)