A Week in Pictures {Apr 1-7}

sunday. brand new ipod.

monday. helping mom clean up.

tuesday. cuddling with dad.

wednesday. sound asleep.

thursday. scientific discoveries.

friday. dinner and a movie.

saturday. the thrill of the hunt.

Easter

In a strange way, this year was Tennyson’s first real Easter. He just missed Easter 2010 because he had decided he wasn’t going to come out of mom’s belly. And we spent Easter 2011 in an airport, not really what I’d consider a celebration.
So it was kind of fun this year doing a first Easter with a 2 year old. I don’t think many people get to do that. It was fun learning what Mike’s traditions were, and teaching him some of mine.
This year Tennyson was old enough to color his own eggs. A tradition in my family. I didn’t know until this year that Mike apparently has no recollection of ever coloring on Easter eggs. I also didn’t know until Mike told me this that not everyone colors on Easter eggs… I just thought that’s what everyone did. The things you learn.

very focused on the task at hand.

tennyson's finished products.

the fun mike and i had.

 
On Easter Eve, before putting Tennyson to bed, Mike introduced one of his family traditions. It’s a book called “The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes” and it’s all about a bunny who becomes one of the best Easter bunnies. It’s gloriously dated, since it was written in the 1940s and it teaches kids all about how “only a country rabbit would go and have all those babies” and also that rich kids and poor kids are delivered different eggs. But it also teaches values like being wise and kind, so I guess those can be overlooked.

On Easter morning, we had to wake Tennyson up since he was so excited for the Easter bunny to come that he decided to get up and play from about 11-1 the night before.
Then we did the worst thing ever imaginable. We disrupted his morning routine. Instead of giving him a vitamin and waffles, we gave him an Easter basket.

Clearly not okay. Until he learned there was a waffle cooking in the toaster and that there was chocolate in the eggs. Life was okay again.

Then we got dressed up for church. He looked so dapper. I looked the same as I do every week because I only actually have one maternity skirt and only one shirt that both matches the skirt and still fits around my belly. Mike wore a fabulously vintage-y awful tie. He calls it his Easter tie, and I let it slide for one day of the year.

how could you not love this face?

After church, Tennyson went down for a long nap. We used the peace and quiet to enjoy our Easter meal, since we knew Tennyson would much prefer mac and cheese over anything we could make. Mike made us a great meal of ham, green beans, and funeral potatoes. Then we ate some of Tennyson’s Easter candy, because he’d never know it didn’t make it into his basket.
When Tennyson woke up, it was time for the official Easter egg hunt. We’ve been doing them every day for a while now… but this one was “official.” He found and then re-found and then re-found the eggs for the entire afternoon.
We learned pretty quickly that Tennyson has an aversion to orange eggs. He wanted absolutely nothing to do with them. He would tantrum if we even tried to sneak one back into his basket. Weird kid.

It was a fantastic day. I love that Tennyson is at an age now that we can do holidays and celebrations and he is able to participate in them. It is magical to see a holiday through a child’s eyes. And this Easter was pretty magical.

Found

Today was our church Easter egg hunt.

Tennyson proved to be a champ.
 
We’ve been practicing hunting for eggs. It’s become one of Tennyson’s favorite games. We fill up his basket with eggs, he dumps them out, and then he runs around collecting them all to put back into the basket. So for him to see what must have looked like a billion eggs covering the church lawn, his eyes lit up and he knew exactly what to do.

He carried around that giant basket of his and found his allotted eggs in record time. Then he dumped the basket out and found all his eggs again. And again. Until we made him stop and carried him crying back inside.

The crying stopped once we showed him the chocolate that was inside the eggs.
Don’t worry, Tennyson. We’ll be hunting for eggs again real soon. And until then, we have plenty of candy to hold you over.

Let’s Make a Deal!

Mike here. Yes, apparently I am still a contributor. So today Nichelle and I decided to take a little trip out to the Tanger Outlets over in Howell. It looked like they were having some good sales that would justify spending the gas to get there and back. Plus, it was kind of a nice day out and walking around the area could be fun.

So, we went and spent a few hours poking in and out of some of the stores; Nichelle (being 8 months pregnant now) got to poke in and out of the restrooms to pee; and Tennyson got to poke in and out of wherever he could run off to. It was fun, we hit the clearance racks pretty hard, and managed to find some pretty awesome deals if I do say so myself.

Here’s a picture of what we came away with. Nichelle got a shirt at the Gap; I got one from Banana Republic; Tennyson got socks, a bowtie, a necktie, and a pair of sunglasses; and we got two pairs of tights and a pair of shoes for she-who-must-not-be-named. All in all we spent less than $35 on what would normally cost over $200. Not too shabs if you ask me.

I think Tennyson made off like a bandit. Look at these shades:

And even more importantly, this tie: I’m pretty jealous.

After finishing up at Tanger we realized that it was getting kind of late and Tennyson was pretty hungry and tired. So, we headed over to a local restaurant for dinner, The Tomato Brothers.

Nichelle used to frequent this place when she lived in Howell during high school. For nearly two years, since we moved to Michigan, she had told me numerous times about how good the breadsticks are at this place, and I was finally going to get to try!

They did not disappoint.

Neither did the pizza.

Tennyson was tired, but enjoyed watching Toy Story 3, if nothing else.

It was a good end to a good trip. Now I’m going to go eat some leftover pizza.

Until next time, this is Mike, signing off.

Speaking of Speaking

Today Mike told me that we’ve been slacking lately on teaching Tennyson new signs. I replied that it’s because I’ve been trying to teach him to talk.
But really, we’ve been working hard around here. For a while, we focused on words Tennyson needed to communicate. Which meant signs for things he likes to eat or drink, or things he wanted to watch or do.
Lately, our focus has been on animal sounds. I’m pretty proud to say that he’s getting good. As good as can be expected at least. I really try to ignore the fact that pigs and ducks say the same thing, as do lambs and goats. And pretty much every animal under the sun roars.
Anyway, I thought tonight that I should finally get some of his talking progress on video.
Without further delay, I present to you Tennyson’s animal sounds.

The next video we have here is a sampling of words/signs that Tennyson knows.
I got as many as I could with his short attention span. Honestly, there aren’t much more that he can say/sign. He has a sign for Mickey Mouse that didn’t make the video, as well as a sign for Elmo and iPod. Those signs didn’t make the video because I didn’t want him to throw a tantrum to get one of those three things once mom mentioned them.

He really is making progress. I’m impatient and would love for him to be speaking in full on sentences by this point, but I know that for only four months of therapy, he’s really making a lot of progress. I also know that we still have a long way to go. An average 2 year old has about 250 words. Obviously we have a lot less than that. We’re working on it. And we’ll get there… just on Tennyson’s timetable. Not mom and dad’s.