Happy Easter!

Somehow we advanced from "should we celebrate Easter with Ben?" to "let's shower more gifts on him than we did at Christmas" in the matter of 24 hours. It started innocently enough, a few small items for his Easter basket from Walgreens. Then we were shopping at Target and I found a couple fun things for the backyard. Hubby saw them and decided to hit Toys R Us in search of a few more items (this is by far the most bizarre thing that has happened so far in our parenting experience by the way - hubby, at TRU, alone, per his suggestion??).

And he came back with a ridiculous pile of loot -- this awesome tent, tunneling contraption; a basketball hoop; and a train set.

Even Stella got into the action, lifting this giant duck Paula got Ben, and taking it as her own on to the couch.

Before all the gift-giving craziness got started, we did manage to make it to early mass, which was my only request this weekend. And while we spent the bulk of the hour chasing after the little guy and trying to keep him quiet, it was wonderful (as always) to be there. I pray for more of it in the future.

Finally, we were lucky enough to have the Easter bunny visit our backyard while we were at church and Ben loved picking up all the eggs he could fine.

Was it a beautiful weekend where you are celebrating Easter today? I hope you had a lovely day with your family.

Happy Easter Weekend!

Thanks (sis) for the reminder to share the best Easter graphic of all...

We're anxiously awaiting a great weekend of warm weather here in Chitown. My question is, do you think I should hide eggs in the backyard and give Ben a basket? Obviously he is too little to understand either (and he doesn't eat candy, so what goes in the basket?), but I think it would be really fun.

Should I do the baby powder bunny tracks down the hall like my mom used to do for us??

Ben's Crawling!

Without further ado, Ben's crawling! 

I had some technical difficulties so I didn't capture the first few times when he was moving with (relative) ease and enjoying it, he's pretty pooped out in this video but exciting nevertheless.

AND Ben ate scrambled eggs for breakfast, and loved them. I read later that he really isn't supposed to eat egg whites until he's a little older b/c of potential for allergies. Anyone have a baby react badly to them? He seems fine so I'm not too concerned. 

He also tried a little of hubby's juice today and ate some chicken. I can't contain my excitement. Thankfully this experimentation mainly happens on the weekends, otherwise I'd have him on lobster by Wednesday at this rate. 

The time change continued to confuse all of us throughout the day but the extra hour keeps on giving. 

Finally, a big huge THANK YOU to hubby who took me out last night to party like a rock star, then took monitor duty and woke up with the little camper this morning so I could recover (boy, it's much more fun while it's happening than it is the next day). We had such a great night out on the town!

It is finally spring in Chicago and to welcome the season, we have a robin's nest in the backyard. I noticed the nest, empty, on Saturday. By Sunday the mother robin had taken on her post and sits tight throughout the day. The dad sits perched in a nearby tree and dive-bombs anyone who walks in the backyard, limiting our ability to drive anywhere. Pictures of the eggs will be tough to do without disturbing nest. I'm expecting baby robins in less than two weeks. Maybe by then I'll know how to upload a photo to the blog...