The Dickinson Boys: Happy Easter!

We hope everyone had a very Happy Easter! We had a great weekend here. On Saturday we went to the "Eggstravaganza" at our church in Annapolis. It was quite a big event and the weather was great. Will participated in the preschool egg hunt. He had a good time, although it took only a minute or so before he reached his egg limit of twelve. Once we showed him there was candy in the eggs, then he really got excited. We took away the gum but let him have a few of the jelly beans and Kisses. We had lunch there (they were grilling hot dogs and had some other picnic food). They had live music, a bouncy castle, pony rides and a lot of games. Will did some of the preschool games. Though he was tall enough, we didn't do the one carnival ride they had there because it looked a little too old for Will. I didn't think he'd enjoy it. Luke traveled around in the stroller and just took in the sights.

On Sunday we went to church and then came back home to do our own egg hunt and baskets. The Easter Bunny hid eggs on our back deck and Will had the hunt all to himself. Although, he quickly understood that he had no competition so he wanted to open each egg the second he picked it up so he could eat the candy immediately. It became hard to persuade him to keep hunting for the eggs! Next year Luke will be in fine egg-hunting form so Will will have to watch out!

Will's basket had something Will's been admiring at the grocery store for weeks- a chocolate Easter bunny! He also got a new book about dinosaurs and bubbles. Uncle Jake came over for the egg hunt and then we had a nice turkey dinner that evening. Overall it was a great weekend!

Unfortunately, though, the tree pollen is still really awful. Poor Will is having a hard time. On Saturday, after being outside for a couple of hours, he was coughing and sneezing like crazy. He coughed through the night and even had to have a breathing treatment around 4 a.m. He wasn't out much on Sunday- just for his egg hunt- but was still having problems. I've kept him in the house yesterday and today. His coughing is better but now he's got two pretty bad "allergy shiners" under his eyes. He does Zyrtec every day but we're having a hard time with the spring pollen here. I feel bad because the weather is beautiful and Will loves to play outside, but breathing takes priority right now. We've set up a bunch of outdoor toys in the garage, like his bike, the basketball goal and some sand. So he's able to run around the garage a little. We're lucky that there are windows in the garage so it's not too dark.

Luke is just as cute as ever. His skin is actually doing pretty well at the moment. We have been keeping him in his jammies so he can't scratch his legs like he likes to do. He is eating some more solid food- graham crackers, pancakes and some fruits- he's even tried some ravioli. He has become very opinionated about what baby food we feed him. If he doesn't like it, he spits it out. Will became a picky eater eventually but as a baby he would eat whatever we fed him. Luke seems to know what he likes. And apparently he doesn't like barley cereal, peas or a few other foods. Luke is still working on crawling. He's good at pushing himself up onto all fours and rocking. He can also push himself backwards. But forward seems to be a bit more of a challenge.

Luke is still fascinated with Will and is starting to try to copy what Will does. Last night in the bath Will kept pouring water over his own head with a bucket. Luke was playing with a little toy that held water and he kept putting it on top of his own head just like Will was doing. And when Will splashes, Luke splashes.

Will is still making slow but steady progress with his talking. I always find myself surprised when he uses words that I didn't think he knew. He obviously has a lot more words in his head than he's regularly using. He still loves pretending to cook and this morning he was getting into my kitchen drawers. He pulled out some measuring cups and dropped something. I heard him yell "my teaspoon!" I looked up and, sure enough, he had dropped a teaspoon. It dawned on me that he knows some pretty obscure kitchen items. He used to just ask for things like a spatula or a spoon. But yesterday I was cooking and he came in and said "need potato masher." Sometimes he asks for things like tongs or a strainer. This weekend he said he needed muffin liners for his muffin pan. Last night, when he saw we were making corn on the cob, he asked for his corn skewers. The man knows his way around the kitchen! Too bad he can't do dishes yet.

On a related note, one of his new games is playing restaurant. He uses the trunk in the living room as a table, sometimes with a makeshift tablecloth. He sets the table with his toy dishes and toy food. And he pulls one of us down to the table to eat. Sometimes he runs behind the couch to pretend to cook then he brings the food out to our plates. Too bad his enthusiasm doesn't carry over to eating! I have been trying to get him to try new foods. A couple of weeks ago I gave him cheddar cheese cubes with toothpicks (sometimes it's all about the presentation). He ended up putting cheese cubes on both ends of the toothpick, lifted it like a barbell and said he was exercising. I think my eyes got teary, I was laughing so hard.

We had to see Will's doctor for some paperwork related to our move (less than 3 months away!). The doctor went ahead and did Will's 3-year well-child check up. Will is 38 3/4 inches tall and 33 lbs. He's definitely grown but he's been 33 lbs for several months now. Unfortunately the doctor didn't give us percentiles but from what we've looked up Will still seems to be in the low 90s for height and somewhere around 50% for weight. His feet have definitely had a little growth spurt. A few weeks ago I noticed his size 7 shoes were getting a little tight. I ordered a 7 1/2. When they got here, they seemed a little hard to get on his feet too. We've actually already had to move him up to an 8.

The week before last we had a nice visit with Grandma and Grandpa Dickinson and their dog, Daisy. Will loved having new playmates and a new doggie in the house. While they were here we took in some sights in DC. We went to the National Air and Space Museum. Will could set a record with how fast he moves through large museums. No stopping to read placards for this guy. It was somewhat amusing to see him excited to see airplanes and to know that he's actually seeing priceless, historically significant airplanes. We saw The Spirit of St. Louis (the plane flown by Charles Lindburgh on the first transatlantic flight). We also saw rockets and a lunar landing module from the Apollo missions. Someday we'll have to come back when we can actually take it all in. The museum is also supposed to have the Wright Brothers' plane but I think I must have missed that one.

Another day we went to Annapolis to do some sight-seeing. We walked around the Naval Academy campus and saw the chapel there and a really nice naval history museum. Again, Will tore through the place but was excited to see boats.

We don't have any big plans for the next couple of weeks. We're enjoying our last couple of months in Maryland before we move on.