Good Girl

I know I've posted a picture similar to this already, but I can't help but think my little girl is adorable when she's trying to be like Momma (or Daddy). Here's a list of some things she's done lately.

- She wants to put makeup and lotion on like Momma does. I keep my hand mirror hanging over the toilet seat. In the mornings she climbs on the toilet, asks me for some makeup props, and then looks carefully into the mirror while dusting her face with imaginary blush or dabbing her cheeks with lotion. She also asks for hand sanitizer followed by a dollop of lotion after diaper changes, just like Mom.

- She is loving that Spring actually feels like spring and always wants to go outside. She's learned that, in order to be ready to go outside, we have to have shoes on. She's become good at locating her socks and shoes- or just her sandals- and brings them over for me to put on her. She's become frustrated, however, that I'm not always ready to go when she is. She has therefore also started bringing her shoes and my shoes to me, and if Daddy is home, she'll fetch his as well. Then she grabs a blanket or stuffed animal, our playground bag, and sometimes touches her head, indicating the need for a hat. I guess we get each other ready in the mornings.

- This past week she's been such a sweetheart that I've let her get away with staying up a half an hour to an hour past her bedtime. Tonight I asked her if she was ready to get in bed and she said "no", to which I told her that it was bed time anyway. She replied by saying "uh-oh!" and rand over to a pile of books she had recently pulled from the book basket. One by one she said "uh-oh" and put a book back in the basket. When all the books were put away she politely let me kiss her goodnight and walked to the bedroom where Daddy put her to bed without a fuss. I didn't realize she'd been noticing how I usually pick up toy clutter at bedtime...

- She's had a runny nose and been drooly all week. Her face is red and cracking from nose wiping. I feel terrible that she has have such miserable symptoms in light of her recent dedication to being a good girl. Two weeks ago (when I thought we had hit the terrible two's early) I might not have minded quite so much... I'm pretty sure that makes me a terrible mother. As it is I ended up crying on the phone with the pediatrician's office when they told me there's not really a recommendation to help runny noses in children under two. Two weeks ago I still would have called, but I don't know if I would have cried.

- Reese is growing out of her high chair. Sometimes she refuses to sit in it. She'd rather be in a normal chair like her parents.

- She's finally starting to talk. She likes to repeat things that we say, and says "see ya" when we leave someone. She doesn't just wave and greet people, though, she also issues salutations to the birds when we're outside.

Spring Break Ends

You know that Will had the camera over Spring break, so here are some shots from when he got home and over Easter weekend.

Reese sometimes escapes when we're changing her clothes. This time she found her favorite pair of Momma's shoes and Daddy's hat and poncho bag from his open suitcase as he unpacked.

Reese once again helps with the laundry.

Reese attended a birthday party over Easter weekend. Here she is walking around on her knees. I don't know why she was doing it or where she learned to do it.

We stopped at a mall to take a break from driving on a family visit. Reese played on all the coin opperated toys. Will played on half of them with her.

Easter Egg Hunt

This year was the first time Reese went on an Easter egg hunt. It was outdoors and there was snow on the ground.

She liked picking up the eggs but didn't realize at the time that there were goodies inside. Had she known, I'm sure she would have put the eggs in her own basket instead of helping other kids put eggs in theirs.

She was terrified of the Easter bunny, who happened to be one of Will's friends in disguise. If he even started walking in our direction she would cuddle up to me and try to hide.

The weather was so cold that we opened our eggs in the car. Here's Reese showing off a chocolate egg- her favorite. She became pretty good at unwrapping the foil and wanted more while her mouth was still full.

Will's Spring Break

Anna said I would post pictures of my trip to Spain and Israel so here we go.

There were 12 students and 5 faculty that went on the trip. Our first stop was Barcelona or for those of you that have been to Spain Barthselona. They speak funny Spanish there. We got there Saturday jet lagged and tired but excited.

I actually look okay here but this was after 14 hours of flight.

Matt and Jordan give a preview of what we had for dinner the first night, yummy paella and seafood.

The next morning we had a free day to go see some of the sights of Barcelona. We went to an old city replica. It was pretty cool and then later we went to Sagrada Familia, a Cathedral under construction for the past 120 years or so and expected to be finished in 2030. Monday was filled with business visits to ACS (they do HR work for other companies), Huntsman Performance Products, and ESADE (Spanish University and we met with Simon Dolan one of our professors mentors).

This is a castle down the street from our hotel.

This is some of us in the in a replica of the old Barcelona city.

A bigger group us of after going through Sagrada Familia.

Tuesday was an early start, 3:30am, so we could get to the Airport and fly to Paris and then Tel Aviv. The flights weren't too bad this time but when we did enter Israeli airspace we had were to sit in our seats and buckle our seat belts. It kind of seemed extreme but it sure made it real that we were going to Israel. Going through customs in Israel was an interesting experience. We all did the American things and went to the shortest line, apparently it is probably a better idea to go through as a group. But the customs agent that helped me thought my name was Joseph, my middle name and he pronounced it Yoseph. He asked me a ton of questions about my family. I realized afterward that it he might have been trying to figure out if I was a Jew, some of group members thought that I could pass for a Polish Jew and some people took me for a Hebrew or Arabic speaker a couple of times. In Israel we started out in Haifa, spent a couple of days there, then travel to the Sea of Galilee, and lastly Jerusalem.

The whole group in Haifa overlooking the Mediterranean.

Lunch at the Sea of Galilee was St. Peter's Fish (sounds cooler than tilapia) and we paid way too much for it, but they make good pita bread and sauces to dip the bread in.

The wall below the Dome of the Rock is the Western Wall. This is a couple of hours before the start of the Sabbath.

View from the Jerusalem Center.

Dip in the Dead Sea. The muds is supposed to be good for the skin, doesn't take your chest hair off (I tried). It was also game day for the USU Aggies in the NCAA tournament.

Some of the other highlights were going to the Garden Tomb, visiting Capernaum, shopping in the street markets in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and visiting a defense contractor near Haifa.

There are some other fun pictures. Let me know if you want to see them.

Big Girl Bed

Reese's crib converts into a toddler bed and this past week we made the change. We wanted her to be used to the bed before the new baby came so that when we needed the crib to be a crib again she would be okay.

Well, we needn't have worried. She's a big girl bed pro. She stays on the bed when we ask her to, and mostly waits for us to come tell her it's okay to get out of be in the mornings (except for once when Will had to get up and go to school before Reese usually gets up. She heard him getting ready and when he was about ready to go she decided that he had ignored her long enough, and came into our room with a cheerful "hi!" - even though I wasn't ready to get up.) I hope it lasts a while before she figures out that there really isn't anything forcing her to stay in bed...

In case you were wondering what's on her head, it's the pair of bloomers that came with her Easter dress. She's also sporting last fall's fleece jacket that is now too small. Gotta love little laundry helpers.

Spring.

Gee, I'm so glad that Spring is finally here. Blah.