Catching up

I don't know where April went, between the kitchen project and the nice weather, time is flying. Evenings are shorter since we are letting E stay up a little bit later then she should, which also cuts into the time I have to get anything done. I'm hoping I'll feel a little more organized in the weeks to come, which means more pictures and stories about life.

E has rediscovered her love of sidewalk chalk. She thought it was wonderful last summer, but early this spring, wanted nothing to do with it. That all has changed, and she spends her time either writing her "ABCDs" or asking me to draw things. She usually requests an alligator, which I'm not great at drawing. She always wants to draw on the house (which isn't allowed) or on the neighbors sidewalk since she runs out of room. Last weekend we even made it out in between rain storms to draw. She loved drawing and then washing her hands in the neighbor's downspout.

 We made a cake to take to dada's work, E was in charge of measuring flour and sugar and cracking eggs. She did a great job of filling the measuring cup and dumping it into the mixer. She loved playing (and tasting) the extra flour that was on the spill plate. She also liked eating handfuls of sugar.

E has cracked eggs a few times, she loves pulling the shells off of hard boiled eggs, but doesn't like to eat the egg. So I wasn't too surprised that she also liked cracking eggs. She's a fearless egg cracker, she smashes it against the side of the bowl and then crushes the remaining shell in her hands, the egg leaks out into the bowl. It means that I end up picking a lot of shell bits out of the bowl, but its such fun to watch her work.

 We had a rainy few days and E started talking about needing a Dora umbrella. She didn't have an umbrella, and we happened to be running around at the mall when we found one so we got it. She absolutely loves it, and her face lights up whenever she holds it.

We had a busy weekend (April 19-22), it started with momma and dada going to faculty prom for dada's school, so E spent the night at Ama and Grandpa Ada's house. She did very well at their house, eating dinner and sleeping through the night. The next day, she came home and was a little more clingy then usual, we could tell she was a little confused about what had happened the night before. We had a nice family afternoon and got a walk in with A and R. Both girls came to our house to play for a little bit before dinner. They loved the left over balloons that had decorated the prom.

Sunday we had a great family day. We started with nice breakfast (E cracked the eggs) and then headed to the zoo, the weather was great so we spent a good two hours looking at the animals and having lunch. After a long nap to recover from the outing, we went to E's favorite store (Target) and out to a restaurant with Ama and Grandpa Ada, just as we were leaving, A and her parents came in, and E was over the moon with excitement, the girls got to run around and play for a little bit. Then, to top it off, once we got home, E got to play with R for a little bit.

The most amazing part of the day was E's huge potty training success. She used the potty successfully all day long, she even wore big girl underpants for a good part of the morning. We experienced potty training at public restrooms (the zoo, Target, and the restaurant) and were successful ever time. E only used her diaper one time today! And that was during nap, so we didn't even think it really should have counted!

 E and dada rode the carousal at the zoo

 E tried to sit on the rocks near the otters, she also wanted to hold on to the sunscreen  (on sun scream as she calls it)