Showing posts with label daniel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label daniel. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

adventures in egg dyeing


This year marked the first time we attempted to dye Easter eggs with Daniel.  We were nervous... enough so that we all changed into old clothes before we got started.  But surprisingly, it went quite well!

He was SO excited to get going that many of the eggs got tossed (not too softly) into the cups.  There were a few cracks, but nothing disastrous. 


Benjamin observed from the safe vantage point of his highchair (with the ever-present Cheerios to keep him occupied).  Maybe next year he can help too.

Daniel was fascinated by the process of dyeing an egg two different colors.

When Ben got tired of watching, he was rescued by Papa who gave him a balloon to play with! 

Of course, fingers were dyed too. 

The finished products! 

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

egg hunt fun

The church near our house has an annual Easter EGG-stravaganza at the local park.  We went last year and had lots of fun, so of course we had to go back this year and bring Papa, Grandma, and Lala with us!  (Thanks to Rita for all the pictures!!)

Daniel got into the egg-hunting this year.  Last year he was a little young, but he definitely knew what to do this time.  Although he kept getting so focused on a particular egg that he'd run by other ones on the way...

Benjamin joined in on the fun too.  He was thrilled with this orange egg with the racing stripes.  Until he spotted another one hiding in the tree... (okay, he may have had a little help for that one). 


Who needs candy?  The eggs are pretty good by themselves!

Checking out the loot!

Ben got to meet the Easter Bunny, and he was rather taken with the bunny's furry cheeks.  We spared Daniel the trauma of an encounter - as you may remember, he's not so much a fan of large costumed creatures.

Daniel got to hold and pet a REAL bunny, which was much more fun. 

In addition to all that, there were also games!  Daniel had so much fun digging for dinosaur eggs and choosing lollipops.  We're happy to make this egg hunt an annual tradition!

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

helpful

This is what happens when your two-year-old decides the cat is hungry.


Note Licorice in the back, gobbling up all he can before I start cleaning it up.

Monday, February 8, 2010

two and a half

My "big boy" turned two and a half this past week... or "two un-half" if you're using his preferred pronunciation.  I was going to try to make this a coherent post with actual paragraph structure and everything, but I guess my mind is having a hard time wrapping itself around the fact that he's now closer to three than to two.  Plus, I haven't blogged in a really long time (I know, I know).  So it'll be a little more of a stream of consciousness.

At two and a half, Daniel...

... will tell you every chance he gets that he is a "big boy".
... frequently utters the phrase "my do it myself!" 
... hasn't fully grasped the proper usage of pronouns (see previous).
... loves to do puzzles and is very good at them.
... has a bedtime routine consisting of reading two books and having a "big talk" with Dad.
... refuses to let us tuck him into bed, because he has to close his door himself.
... has a good time playing with his friends at school twice a week.
... loves to play any kind of ball, including his own invention, "hall ball".
... is a great big brother to Baby Ben.
... is better than anyone at making Ben laugh.
... is so much more verbal than he was a few months ago - it's so fun seeing how his mind works.
... would probably watch Thomas the Train all day if we let him.  Curious George is a close second.
... loves to build with blocks and legos.
... enjoys chatting with his grandparents via webcam.
... can count to six, but often transposes three and four.
... is learning his letters, with his favorites being D for Daniel, and B for Ben.
... gives amazing bear hugs.
... is loved a whole lot.

Happy two-and-a-half, Daniel!

Sunday, November 1, 2009

trick or treat!

Daniel's first trick-or-treating experience was a success! It was a rainy Halloween, but my little turtle couldn't wait to get out there and get some CANDY!  Daddy braved the rain to take him to a few houses down our street. 


Benjamin and I stayed home to greet the trick-or-treaters and to chew on a hammer (Benjamin) and eat too many Butterfingers (me).


Benjamin did get dressed up too, though - here are my bat and my turtle!


Daniel also had a dragon costume, which was very cute and fit him better than the slightly-too-small turtle, but he would have none of it.  We really tried to get him to put the dragon outfit on, even just for a picture, but he threw a tamtrum of epic proportions, crying "MY NO WEAR DAT!" so we gave up.  He's got a little bit of an obsession with turtles. 

Daniel was pretty excited to dig into his stash of candy, so he topped the evening off with a grape Tootsie Pop, or as he prefers to call it, a Lala-pop.


Happy Halloween!

Friday, October 30, 2009

pumpkin carving

This was Daniel's first year to help with pumpkin carving, and boy did he have a good time!  After only slight hesitation, he dug his hands in to help clean out the pumpkins that we had picked out.


Pumpkin goop is fun! 


Unfortunately, Benjamin was not really able to participate in the carving, but he observed from the sidelines. I think he approves!  (Actually, he just thinks anything Daniel does is hilarious.)  I just love this smile!


Messy hands...


Helping Daddy poke the eyes out.


Have I mentioned that Benjamin is teething?  In fact, his first tooth (bottom left) popped through earlier this week!  I'm trying to get a picture of it, but that's easier said than done. It's just barely through the gums, so it's still pretty hard to see.  I'm pretty sure tooth #2 is on the way though, if his constant chewing on anything that comes close to his mouth is any indication. He liked this position for observing the pumpkin carving from his highchair.


Daniel wanted to pose with his handiwork.


The final products, ready and waiting for trick-or-treaters to come tomorrow!

Thursday, October 29, 2009

our annual trip to the farm

Two years in a row officially makes it an annual trip! Once again, we visited Cagle's Dairy this year. (To see last year's trip, click here.)

Once again, we did the dairy tour - I wish we had a picture like this one from last year so we could compare, but as you can see Daniel is almost 3 feet tall!


Daniel had so much fun feeding the calves!  They weren't too hungry (I think they get fed quite a bit...) but they were adorable nonetheless.


We managed to get a little family picture thanks to our friendly hayride tour guide!


Something must have been awfully interesting to capture Mike and Benjamin's attention!  Ben had a good time hanging out with Dad for the first half of the day, and Mom for the second half!


Next we got to feed the goats. Unlike the cows, they were more than willing to take food from us!  Daniel got really good at keeping his hand open so they could eat.


A feature of the farm that we didn't try out last year was their jumping pillow.  It's kind of like a big trampoline anchored into the ground.  Daniel has recently learned to jump and actually get his feet off the ground (which is harder than you might think). He was hesitant of the jumping pillow at first, but soon thought it was the most fun he'd ever had!  We finally had to drag him away.  Oh, and this was the little kids' jumping pillow - there was a much larger one for older kids and adults. 



Luckily we did have a way to lure Daniel away from the jumping pillow - a giant hay-bale spider! (Poor tired Benjamin had passed out by this point.)


No, the real lure was PUMPKINS! 

Now the question: what is the easiest way to pick up the pumpkin? (I think the stem eventually won.)


So many pumpkins, so little time...

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

turtle taw

A conversation a few weeks ago between me, Daniel, and Alyssa, while playing in Daniel's room just before lunchtime.

Jen: Daniel, what do you want for lunch?
Daniel: Turtle.
Jen: Turtle? Hmmm, I'm pretty sure we're fresh out of turtle today.
Alyssa: I really don't think we have any turtle! What else do you want?
Daniel: Turtle taw!

He was pretty insistent, so we headed downstairs to the kitchen. I was hoping I would be able to find him a suitable subsitute for the "turtle" he was craving. But he dragged me to the pantry and pointed at an upper shelf, insisting, "turtle taw!" Finally I lifted him up so he could show me what he wanted. Turns out "turtle taw" is Daniel-speak for "apple sauce".

I pulled out the video camera while he was eating lunch that day so he could tell us about the "turtle taw".



As we have since discovered, "turtle" has a lot of meanings to Daniel, among them apple, potato, and play-dough, as well as other green animals like frogs and lizards. I love trying to figure out how his mind works! It's also amazing just how far his language skills have come since we took this video.

Saturday, October 3, 2009

pennsylvania (summer vacation part 4)

We had a blast on the next leg of our vacation in the lovely state of Pennsylvania! It was a visit full of family, and we all had a lot of fun.

Benjamin got lots of love and snuggles from everyone - especially his two great-grandmothers! Once or twice I was afraid there might be a tussle over who got to hold him - he definitely got used to napping while snuggled up to his loving grandmas! What a lucky boy.

And at times he was doted on by a grandma and two great-grandmas all at once! Tell me, does it get any better than this?
Ben also had some quality time with Aunt Lissy (and Duke) and Uncle Alex.


Daniel had SO much fun during our visit, mostly playing outside. Daniel thinks the hose is just the absolute best toy in the whole world, so every chance he got, he dragged someone out to play with him. He also managed to shed his clothes just about every time he went outside - must be a guy thing? Anyway, I'd post more pictures, but he's naked in most of them and I just can't do that to him! He tried out the pool, but the hose was more fun.
Wrestling with Uncle Alex was also a lot of fun!
He even managed to drag us outside to play in the rain!

Daniel and his second cousin Samantha got together to play some tunes on Daniel's new guitar.
They were also forced by their moms to hug each other. I'm not sure they were happy about it, but they obliged! It was so much fun seeing them play together and interact with each other!

Of course, Daniel had another birthday party, this one shared with his Aunt Ashley. He got his own personal cake since he couldn't eat the cream cheese frosting on the big cake. He was getting pretty good at blowing out candles by this point! And he also learned to respond, "two!" and hold up two fingers when asked how old he was.


Before we left, we had to snap a couple of group shots! The proud grandparents...
And the whole crew (at least, the part of the crew that was still there when we left).
Finally, just a couple of photos of my sweet boys - Daniel trying to pull Mike up off the ground to play, and Benjamin just hanging out!

Can you tell they had a good time? I'm pretty sure we all did! We are so lucky to have such wonderful families.