Happy Easter!!!!!!!!

Well, this might not be worthy of a framed portrait, but let's be honest, it's a real picture, taken shortly after the Easter egg hunt this afternoon, sponsored by Grandma and Grandpa. By the picture alone, you might guess it was Nicholas who had gone without a nap and Owen who had just woken up from an almost 2 1/2 hour rest, but no... It was a beautiful Easter, though much more low-key for me this year than usual. Being 38 weeks pregnant can make any number of people low key who are normally quite highly strung! We're not in the habit of taking the boys with us to church, just given their ages, and we normally get a babysitter on Sunday mornings, but of course Easter is very special, and they really were quite well behaved for the children's Mass at OLMC. We accepted the dinner invitation of my in-laws for the afternoon and got home with the boys shortly before their bedtime. We all indulged in a bit too much Easter candy and lots of desserts (never have I been so happy to indulge n Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs sans guilt!), but after all, it is Easter and celebration is in order!


Oh, so much to say in so little time, but I want to make sure I get one more post in before Baby Abrams arrives. No, I am not in labor, despite several instances of false labor, but nesting has kicked in full force for any number of reasons.

In the midst of all the preparation, Owen had his 3 year well visit with the pediatrician. When he was first born, I didn't think that well visits could be any tougher; after all, I had to answer a barrage of very official sounding questions with great confidence ("Is he putting his hands together? Is he cooing? Is he saying mama and dada? Is he rolling over? Pulling to standing?"), strip him down to nothing so he could get weighed and measured and pee all over the doctor, watch him get treated like a pincushion, and then dope him up with some Tylenol. But nothing could prepare me for the SCREAM that came from Owen when he saw the doctor. He's all fine with the doctor when it's Nicholas' turn, but not when it's his turn. And I have to say, from a toddler's perspective, I would not trust the track record of a man best known for sticking long q-tips down my throat and up my nose with little to no notice. All of that aside, here's what I liked about the 3 year well visit: no shots, just one finger prick. Height and weight are done on a real scale and don't require anything to be taken off but shoes and the shirt for a quick scoliosis check. The kid got to doodle, play with blocks, and HE got to answer some of the questions this time. RELIEF! Of course I was the proud mama of my three year-old who knew his first and last name, and his gender, too. But those other questions just keep coming on my end ("Is he playing hide and seek? Jumping on both feet? One foot?") And when Owen got a lollipop at the end of his visit, he made sure to tell the nurse and everyone in earshot that Nicholas could NOT have one because he was TOO little. I think he enjoyed that lollipop twice as much BECAUSE Nicholas couldn't have one. Owen is three feet, five inches and 36 pounds, 95th percentile for his height and 90th for his weight. (Certainly, this will also correlate to his future scores on the SAT, so college admissions officers, I hope you are all reading this closely...)

Two weeks ago, Owen took a spill on the playground and scraped the entire left side of his face rather badly. We really were afraid to take him out in public. It was amazing how quickly he healed, though! And just as Owen was starting to look presentable, Nicholas took two tumbles in two consecutive days, leaving him with a scratched up face and a cut between his two front teeth. Add to that a pretty bad head cold that left him with a chafed and scabby nose, and he is just looking miserable, the poor little guy. So, I was delighted to hear that Kindercare did a "field trip" to the Sunrise Assisted Living for an Easter Egg Hunt and a meet and greet with the Easter Bunny. Owen could hunt down some eggs and do the bunny hop with his friends, and we didn't have to take all the troops to the mall.

I was home from work this week on "staycation" -- tons of papers to grade before I go out on maternity leave in two more weeks. Owen still got to go to Kindercare, just later in the morning than usual, and I got some QT with little Nicholas. His most pronounced animal noise is the chicken. He delights in imitating it, and he is working on the others. We do some baby signs, and he is definitely clear on "more," "milk" and "juice." But the one he says very clearly is "all gone" or "all done." Oh, and "No." He says it with a smile on his face that could make you scream. The next one, I am certain, is going to be "mine." Out of the mouths of babes does come the truth -- and they are super HONEST! I have dubbed Nicholas "Jerkules" because while the boy has Herculean strength, he has no idea what he is doing with it. He pushes our La-Z-Boy recliners across the wood floor, climbs the dining room chairs, zooms at high speed toward anything not baby-proofed, and in general uses his poor behavior as a decoy to get what he wants. For example, if he wants the remote control, he'll go and start climbing the dining room chair; this way, I will get up and yell, and he immediately dismounts the chair and runs across the room to grab the remote from my chair. In the words of Will Ferrell (impersonating George W. Bush), this kid has "STRATEEJERY." He'll be the president of the high school chess club one day, with all of his thinking two steps ahead... What amazed me most this week about Nicholas was his genuine need for company. I have to remember that he came into this world to a bigger family than his older brother did. He actually did much better once Owen and Jason were home for the day. Not that he doesn't love his time with me, but I definitely noticed that he likes it when we're all around. That's great news, considering there'll be one more around sooner as opposed to later...