Insights into eating meat

Brian accidentally found a way to get Tamlin to want to eat meat (like chicken or pork or ground meat). We were sitting down to eat chicken, rice, and a spinach salad. We tend to not make special meals for the kiddos; they eat what we are eating. Even Jude gets some of what we are having, just mushed up because of his lack of teeth. The salad is excellent, with blackberries, cranberries, nuts, goat cheese, and bacon. These are all things that we all love with our green "leaves." (Incidentally, Tam has no problem with processed meats, like chicken nuggets.)

Well, I was trying to cajole Tam into tasting at least a piece of chicken (as is the rule). Tam was valiantly ignoring me and gnawing down on the cheese and blackberries with gusto. Brian looked over, picked up a spinach leaf, and quickly wrapped up the questionable piece of chicken. He presented the little package to Tam with a grin. Tam immediately, and I mean immediately!, opened his mouth and popped the food nugget right in. He chewed, swallowed, and said how yummy it was.

Brian and I looked at each other with astonishment. I told him that I saw spring rolls in our future as a means of getting Tam to eat. Brian was just as amazed at his excellent parenting skills and commented that it would be no problem to provide leaves at all meals for wrapping.

Finding eggs and baskets

Easter at our house was a bit chaotic but fun.  I had thought that Jude would wake up at 6AM like usual, which would give us a two hours for hunting eggs, finding baskets, and eating candy.  Jude, the stinker, slept in to 7AM, not that Brian and I didn't mind the extra hour of sleep.

Both boys woke up to smiling bunnies beside them in their beds.  These I made from knee-high socks, to give them the really long ear-body-leg look.  Sewing and stuffing them was uber-quick with the serger...it was the hand-embroidering of the faces and hearts that took so much longer.  I had forgotten how much patience is required for embroidery work....with my craft ADD, I am glad I allowed myself a week to finish these fun bunnies because of this.

Tamlin knew I was sewing these rabbits, since he helped me choose the socks to use.  For the past week, he kept asking if his bunny was ready yet.  Then, Easter morning, silly Tam saw Jude's bunny in his crib before he saw his own.  He had to make sure Jude saw it too...and then us...before I told him to go look for his own.  Once found, Tam got a big grin on his face while he gave the bunny a hug.  According to Tam, bunny's name is now Peter Rabbit...sometimes.

I had gathered all the items for the baskets over the past few weeks.  Light on the candy, but heavy on the  toys and books.  I had made a stop at a local second-hand store on a whim last week and scored.

Tam ended up with truck books and a View-master, complete with a dozen reels.  I remember having a one of these as a kid with reels of Sesame Street.  They were a great way to stay entertained on a rainy day. Also tucked in the basket was a chef apron, a pair of sunglasses, and odds-and-ends from the Aunts. Tam's been asking for sunglasses ever since the suns been shining again here.

Jude's basket was a little harder to fill.  However, I did score a Leaf Frog magnetic barn game - this one is just like Tam's that Shelly bought him.  When you push the animals they make sounds.  Also included were a smattering of bath toys, board books, and a photo album with photos of the grandparents.

Of course, I had to do an egg hunt for the Taminator.  Last year, the eggs were guarded by dinosaur puzzle pieces.  This year, I picked up little knight figurines to stand by the eggs.  These dozen figurines even included a dragon, and are about the right scale for his duplo blocks and to ride on some cars.

Tam had a blast finding all the little "dudes."  He then had an equally good time counting all the found eggs, opening them, and gobbling up the jellybean contents.  He had his first taste of marshmallow "peeps" too...I squashed two of them into the eggs guarded by the dragon.  Man, his eyes were huge when he first tried that sugary-marshmallowy goodness.

 Now where did I actually hide the baskets?  Why in a tent!  A car tent for the boys to play in!  Tam L.O.V.E.D. this . . . maybe even more than the basket and the candy. 

This tent is held up with springy poles so it is very-light weight, which means that Tam can "ride" (or run) inside of it between rooms.  This also means that the boys can flip it on its side, which they find equally fun to play as when it is upright.

The tent is supposedly super-easy to fold down for storage, but for the life of me, I can't figure this out yet.  When they grow tired of it, I'm just going to forcefully shove it under a bed if I can't find a youtube video showing me how to fold it correctly :-)

Jude found his basket interesting.  And her certainly attempted to chew on everything inside of it.  He had fun looking through his photo book at all the faces and making the animal sounds with the Leap Frog barn.

He also liked smacking the empty basket around :-)

 Oh, but then Jude found the tent and that he could crawl into it all by himself.  The squeals of delight were awesome!  He likes it so much that if Jude sees the tent he makes a bee-line crawling toward it.  Tam has been really good at sharing with his brother, and love making him laugh with him while playing peek-a-boo in through the tent doors. 

Overall, a great Easter Holiday :-)

Nearly Wordless Wednesday - April Flowers

We took time to enjoy the spring flowers last week.  All of our tulips and daffodils were blooming around the house.  Tam liked going around and sniffing them...and then he looked for bugs to poke.
This was all new for Jude.  He tried to grab the flowers and then tried to eat them (successful in both endeavors.)

Bleeding hearts

 Jude also had fun crawling around through our tall grass.  He's getting so mobile!

Tam shows off for the camera...He felt I was taking too many photos of Jude!

Happy Easter

Happy Easter!  The day was sunny and bright and I had finished the kiddos outfits in time :-)

We all go up early to search for eggs and baskets (another post). 

Humidly we dressed and made it to church in time for the early 8:30am service.  I played a handbell solo, Brian sang, and we even let Tam join in with some drums and "La-la-la's" during the gathering music.  He was so excited to be "singing" with dad.  I love that this early service is a bit more laid-back and has more spiritual / less-traditional music...and the folks that attend are more laid-back too.

We headed home for some quick family photos before Brian raced back for the second service.  He was singing another solo for this more traditional service.  With the sun shining, we got some great shots.  I even let Tam climb a small cherry tree to get some fun photos among the bright pink blooms.

Jude still found flowers to attempt to eat.

Here you can see the boys clothes that I made.  I whipped up Tam's pants with  an elastic waist and folded up cuffs.  His shirt I bought.  For Jude, I sewed the overalls with elastic top and around the ankles.  I was so pleased that they fit around his bubble-cloth diapered butt.  The fabric is a plaid seer-sucker cotton I had picked up... and then had to get more for both outfits.  I used home-made patterns based on their current pants and followed a couple of on-line tutorials: For Tam's flat-front pants : Dana's MADE blog and for Jude's romper : Make it and Love it Blog.  I love both patterns / tutorials and plan to make more from them in the future, especially short rompers for Jude's summer wardrobe.

Here are a few shots of my boys together :-)

Lovely!