Yesterday I learned to say the word "pretty" (it sounds more like "pree"). It's my new favorite word. I try it out on everything: the clock in the bathroom, the pinecone bird feeder William made at school that hangs outside our kitchen window, the sewing machine that Mommy used to sew me new blankies today, and always her new necklace. Mommy agrees with the last one, but the rest all get smiles - or laughs when William hears.

William's been on a bit of a defiant streak the past couple weeks. One strategy that works well in gaining his cooperation is to start counting backward from five to let him know that we're serious. He knows he doesn't want us to get to zero. After these last two weeks, Eliana now tells us what comes after five... four!

Uh... Hmmm... I'm going to say about Easter... hmm... uh... I slept 'til the Easter bunny came. And the Easter bunny hid my Easter basket behind the curtains and guess what was with my Easter basket behind the curtains. Trick tracks! And I got candy. Hmmm... We went to Auntie Lynne's house to go on an Easter egg hunt. The Easter bunny came to Grandpa Ron and Grandma Barb's house and hid Easter eggs (fake ones) all over the yard and even in the backyard and even in the front yard. I found only three Easter eggs that had candy in them and I even found my Easter basket. Eliana's Easter basket was under the top of the grill [the grill cover] and I found my Easter basket under the high level of the dock in some leafs and other stuff. We went to another Easter egg hunt at Grandma Lanz's and Grandpa Lanz's house. And we had 3 Easter eggs hunts (Now they will think, "Huh? Who typed this funny 'eggs???'")

Darren got the tickets from the office - row 8!

We went to the Twins game last night. And we ate a big pretzel and we only had bites. And I got some ice cream like a shake. But it was not a shake. It was ice cream. And I used it to scoop it with a little spoon that Mom always liked [those little wooden sticks they call spoons]. The Twins played good but they lost... probably. [We left before the end of the game.] T.C. was very cool. He only was a costume. He rode around the baseball field inside a round building [the Metrodome] a four-wheeler.

Today after my long rest I got up and went outside with my Easter basket and with some eggs inside (they were just fake eggs) and I opened them and all of them that I opened were empty. And I put some candy inside. And I went outside to hide them so Mom and Eliana could find them.

And right now I think we heard the clothes washer buzzing. And I think it was done washing. And right now I got a basket with the foam things that were in the drier with the clothes all the time [drier sheets] and I got a basket with those drier sheets in the laundry bin. The end.

I visited the doctor today and Mommy says it went well. I was much more nervous than any of my other visits. I didn't like it when they laid me on that paper. One time they even gave me shots in the legs! But the first time it was just to get measured. I'm getting taller, but not much heavier. Now I'm 29 inches which is 12% for height and still only 18 lbs 3 oz which is 1% for weight. The doctor's not worried because I'm petite everywhere. My head is at the 7th percentile. She said it's normal to not gain much at this stage now that I'm mobile, or as Mom says, running everywhere. But if I don't gain enough next time, then the doctor said she'd worry. So I'll work on eating lots of Easter candy this weekend, that should do the trick, right?

Eliana playing with the Princess puppet.

We had an Easter egg hunt at playgroup this morning right after the doctor's appointment. I loved running around in the yard looking for eggs. I didn't really get the idea of collecting them. I put my first one down right next to the second one I found. All in all, I found three eggs! I loved the candy inside! I'm always begging for cookies and candy at dinner. But Mom and Dad pretend they don't know what I want unless I say "cookie." It's starting to become a problem.

Some of my favorite things to play right now are doll baby and puppets. I like to hug the baby to make it talk or cry. I also put puppets on my hands and use a high squeeky voice to make them talk. There are some new pictures in the April album of me doing both!

There are also pictures of our trip to the zoo earlier this week. There are not any pictures of me with the animals because I didn't stand still long enough for Mom to get out the camera. She always had to chase me down. But I loved the animals. I signed "fish" for a lot of them... they were in cages, after all. And for the furry ones I would say, "Raar" even while the otters were squeeking away. Mom finally was able to take a few pictures while I played in the Kids Cove because I was contained in one room with the doors closed!

We're transitioning to our summer schedule at our house already! Too bad the weather isn't being very cooperative. We've got mountains of snow in the front yard at the moment. Tuesday and Wednesday the woods behind our house were beautiful! The trees were covered with wet, sticky snow. You didn't want to have to drive on the roads, though. Luckily we never got stuck. It only took us three tries to make it up our driveway on Tuesday after picking up William from preschool.

Now there are only two preschool classes left for William! We finally registered him for kindergarten. He will be attending Prince of Peace Lutheran school in the fall. He will start out going half-days with the option of switching to all day every day when we feel he is ready. He has already told me that he wants to stay for lunch, recess, and more activities in the afternoon. But we'll see how it goes.

This was my first week not teaching! ECFE is finished for the year. While I was excited to have one less thing on my plate, I missed the change of pace on Monday and Tuesday nights. I'm not sure what I'll do until September!

Thursday mornings will be a change of pace for the next few months. We will have some little friends joining us while their mom has class. Three-year-old twins and their 19-month-old sister will be coming to play. They were over today for a couple hours with their mom just to get comfortable and they are sweet kids. Everyone played very nicely together and while I'm sure it will be busy, it should be fun! They were even GREAT clean-up helpers (though they barely made a mess and I said not to worry about it), putting all the toys away before they left. What perfect little house guests! Actually, I may not want to send them home!

It will be fun for Eliana to have more kids to play with. She hasn't had much chance to socialize with other young children. Older kids always treat her like a baby and want to pick her up. These friends will be the perfect age to play alongside her, which she loves! She's becoming very imaginative. She likes to play with the baby doll we got for William when we found out he was having a baby sister. Eliana has played with it more now than William ever has. She holds it, gives the baby its bottle, and stomps on it to make it cry/laugh/say "mama" (still working on that maternal instinct). I'm sure she'll learn a lot by playing with our new friends.

Too cute

Dawn and Nathan welcomed a baby girl into their family yesterday evening. She weighed 6 lbs 7 oz and was 19 inches long - a peanut, just like her cousin Ellie. Although, Eliana suddenly seemed big when we saw her next to Ariella (pronounced air-ee-ella). We went to visit the Legatt family of six, and Darren's parents this evening. Dawn and the boys have been staying with them for almost two weeks now waiting for the baby to arrive. Ariella was born at Grandma and Grandpa's house in a pool with the same midwife who attended her brothers' births. It was good that Dawn was here already instead of 3 1/2 hours away since everything went quickly once it started. We were all excited to have another baby girl in the family. It will be especially fun for Eliana to have a girl cousin so close in age, although she keeps right up with those rough and tumble boys. But when she saw the baby, she was so excited! If I was holding the baby, she wanted to be in my lap, too, checking that baby out and saying "baby." It was very sweet. William was telling her all about the baby in the car on the way there. But when we got there he was more excited about the rockin' guitar that Tiernan got for his birthday than the baby. He did want to hold her when we asked and he gave her a kiss on the head, but that was enough. Then he and Tiernan were off having fun. All too soon, Ariella will be joining them! We'll have to snuggle her while we can.

Off topic: Darren found some fun ice skating pictures on the camera, so check out the January photo album if you're interested.

Kicking on his "pad boat"

When I was at swimming lessons, I was first swimming with the noodles. And second I was swimming without my noodles and I was laying on my back on one of the pad boats. I was just kicking and I was going all around the pool. True. And last I was swimming without my noodles OR my pad boat, and I sunk a little bit.

After swimming lessons, we went to McDonald's so I could go and get the dog toy in the dark yellow spaceship [Littlest Pet Shop]. And it went with its friends Inny the bird and Brian the squirrel. And it was last to go to Jafrica where he and his friends slept.

The End.

That's a true story.

I wrote and illustrated a book that's called "You Know." The words go: "Did you know that giraffes sleep standing up?" And it has a picture of a giraffe sleeping standing up at the end.

Who's having more fun?

The weather was really nice today! So after my nap Mommy and I went for a walk. I made my first trip to the mailbox walking all by myself. My boots made a little clip-clop sound and I stopped every so often to watch the water trickling across the driveways. I didn't go into it, even though I love water!

I started swimming lessons with Daddy. We have gone three times now and each time I have more fun than the last. Maybe one of my parents will actually remember the camera sometime! William gets a turn in the pool after my class. He doesn't even need anyone to hold him. He swims with noodles and plays catch with Dad. Mommy plays with me and feeds me snacks while we watch. My favorite thing about swimming lessons is all the balls to play with! While I wait for William and Daddy to get showered and dressed, I can usually find people in the gym who are playing ball, too. I recognize the sound of the bouncing balls and search for an open door to the gym. I like cheering for volleyball and basketball best.

My seventh tooth poked through about a week ago. It hasn't been followed by #8 yet, which is a first for me. All my other teeth have come in pairs. So now I have four on top and three on the bottom.

I'm starting to communicate a lot! Tonight I signed, "Please, please, please" for William to share his fruit snacks with me. And when he did, I signed, "Thank you!" What good manners I have! Later I saw Daddy's picture on Mommy's computer by his blog entry and said, "Dada!" Some of my other favorite signs are telephone, hot, ball, all gone, eat and drink (which look the same), cat, fish, and waving hello or bye-bye. Other words I say are bottle, Belle, Mama, Will, ball, all gone, there, hungry, and boo!

Eliana has a wonderful way of expressing herself when she's excited, especially when she wants something.