Open Egg Season

It turned out to be quite timely that Zeke learned to identify and say 'egg' about a month ago because he went to three Easter egg hunts this year.

Friday we went to an egg hunt put on by Draper and Dynna and their company. Aaron and I had never been to a community-type egg hunt before, and we discovered it is a short, chaotic event. Kids running around everywhere, snatching up as many eggs as possible. It was Zeke's very first egg hunt, so we were trying to explain the theory to him: 'Do you see that egg? Go pick it up and put it in your sack.' We'd just get to the seeing the egg part when the egg would disappear into some other kid's sack.

Aaron re-hid one of the eggs we tried to find initially so Zeke could really truly find it, pick it up, and claim it for his sack. The kids were still on the hunt, so Aaron did have to turn one little girl away with 'Sorry, this egg belongs to someone else. It actually has already been found.' We also had several other adults with us who volunteered to stand guard over other eggs and candy to keep them safe until Zeke could find them in his own time.

Saturday we hunted small foil-wrapped chocolate eggs at Grandma and Grandpa Carlile's. There was zero competition, so Zeke hunted eggs for a while and then turned to dumping out and re-loading the basket of eggs he had already found.

Sunday Zeke hunted hard-boiled eggs at Grandma and Grandpa Loertscher's with all of his cousins. By now Zeke had the egg-hunting skills down. Except for the fact that he was less than interested in the hunt at the moment.

Again we played the dump the basket game. Good thing eggs were involved in both breakfast and dinner.

The egg collections pretty much stacked up according to age: Zeke's three-year-old cousins found about 14 each, Zeke found six eggs and a plastic turtle, and the nine-month-old crawler found one egg of her very own.

Supposed to Be a Squirrel

A few years ago we went camping with Aaron's family. There was some animal life right out the back (tent) door, and we tried our best to capture our animal friends on film. However, these critters are small and they are fast, so many a photo op was over by the time we got the camera turned on. One squirrel disappeared as soon as I pushed the shutter button, so I lowered the camera, disappointed. But the picture took anyway, and we got this. Pretty cool, eh?

Really we did get good pictures too. It was a beautiful campground and we had a great time. And rumor has it we're going back for more Loertscher fun next month!

Talk It Up

Zeke suddenly, truly talks. And, as is typical for Zeke's style of developing new skills, he waited to demonstrate this ability until he could immediately succeed. A couple of months ago, I learned that by about 20 months most toddlers say about 50 single words and regularly use two-word phrases. Up until this week, Zeke had probably at least 100 words that he only occasionally put together in phrases. In the course of the last five days, he's started using three- or four-word sentences. I have been amazed at how much he sounds just like our three-year-old nieces, only without the abstract observations and made-up stories. And of course only very few people with plenty of experience can translate what he says.

By far his most common phrase is 'I want ____', which is usually but not always related to food. Almost every time he is near the open refrigerator he grabs the container of margarine and says 'I want toast'. He also uses 'my ____' (which may or may not mean the same as 'I want my ____'), as well as 'play ____' and 'go ____'. Last night he saw me putting his clean dishes away and asserted that 'wanna my bowl', which I gave to him just to see what he planned to do with it. This was followed by 'wanna my spoon' and 'Cheerios'. Aaron was writing on a piece of paper on Thursday, which got an 'I wanna color' from Zeke.

In his recent vocabulary explosion he has picked up names of aunts, uncles, and cousins. As part of this, the adults in his life have managed to convince him that I'm 'mom' (previously Aaron and I have both been 'dad'), and I love that he calls me by my real title. On Monday, I heard Zeke say 'hands mom; wanna do hands mom' while pointing at the sink. As I helped him wash his hands, I realized our lives had just changed forever. There's no going back now - he really talks, which means he really is growing up.

Crashed

Zeke would love to give up his daily nap but his body won't let him. Some days he doesn't act tired at all and then crashes hard when he just can't keep his eyes open any longer. When it gets suddenly, totally quiet we know that Zeke is into something off limits or he has fallen asleep in an unusual place. The first time it happened, somehow he managed to sleep for over an hour on hard tile in the kitchen. Then it was the air mattress in the living room, and a couple of days ago I caught him standing next to an armchair, head on the seat, just starting to fall asleep.

Pre-Family Time

I realized this weekend that we passed an unofficial anniversary of sorts. Funny, I don't think I have ever recognized this 'anniversary' before. Aaron and I started dating at the beginning of April a few years ago. This came after about 8 months of getting to know each other and becoming inseparable best friends before we dared admit our feelings to each other.

Maybe what made me think about our start of official dating is I got some of the pictures Aaron's parents had taken of our early days together. Ah the magic of young love (and how quickly a baby in the family can turn young lovers into responsible adults...). But really I wouldn't have it any other way.