It's been over six months now since William was born. He weighs over 22 pounds and is, oh, many inches tall. I'm supposed to remember those things, but his appointment was last Friday morning and since then a lot has happened. Jeff's been on duty a lot lately with the Haiti relief effort, Matthew has developed pink-eye and some awful sinus infection that makes him look like he has slugs crawling out of his nose and the most inoppurntune moments (think grocery store dairy section), and we took our first family vacation. It wasn't much, but it was nice for us: an evening drive over the Skyway Bridge down to Bradenton to dine at the Crab Trap. We didn't really know where we were headed, but we were just so excited about the thought of being able to put the kids in the car and drive (Matthew would NEVER have allowed us to do this without regrets).
Just a few notes about dining at the Crab Trap: the think it's a fancy restaurant, so don't plan on getting seated if you have toddlers and/or infants in tow. And if you order the spinach salad, make sure you ask for the dressing on the side because the warm bacon goop that they call dressing can quickly undo any positive effects the spinach might be having on your arteries. And order applesause for dessert - the four snowbirds sitting next to us did and they raved about it. We were not encouraged to stay for dessert and left quickly, thanking the god of children that ours were well-behaved. Matthew did especially well, given the circumstances, and we're just so pleased every day that he's our boy to raise. What good fortune!
And let's not forget about Little William, who is the unsung hero of the whole family. It is his ready smile and easy demeanor that make everything we're doing these days possible. Jeff and I spend a lot of our time whipping this house into shape, but we wouldn't be doing anything but surviving if William was the infant Matthew was. We're different parents, too, I suppose, and Matthew has grown into a fantastic little boy, so I'm certainly not complaining about how things were. But I'm just so grateful that William is the baby he is. He's learning to crawl now, so I'll be eating these "easy baby" words soon, I'm sure. Whereas Matthew was an observant, critical baby, I think William will be more inquisitive and busy. He grabs everything he can, and reaches for anything he can't. He pulls my hair, and Big Brother's, and is convinced that one of these days he will catch Matthew on the back-swing at the park.
I know, I know. I'm a little late to be posting about Easter. But I have an excuse. Two, really. They are my children and it's all I can do to keep up with them and find some time for myself and my husband. I do sometimes remember to take the camera, and occasionally I actually use it, and every great once-in-a-while I find time to download the pictures. Today was just such a day.
We were at home for Easter, which we celebrated a day early because I wanted to drive back home on Easter and wanted the boys to already have their new toys. Matthew got to do a mini egg-hunt in the lilies at Nana's house and then went with her and Pepaw to a big egg-hunt at the park. I went shopping that morning, which makes me sound like a horrible mama until you understand that I had been parenting round the clock, literally, for the whole week. I was beat.
The boys wore their matching outfits, which their Grandma gets kudos for gifting and I get kudos for remembering to pack. They looked so cute and I wanted so much to get a picture of them together. But I could not get Matthew to look at the camera with a normal expression again once he learned that the Easter eggs contained candies of different sorts. It probably would have been fine if I had just let him open the eggs and consume the contents. But I'm a mean mom and I tapped them all shut - except for one - and I told him that he could open them later.
That just let to an utter fixation with the small plastic orbs. At some point, I realized that he was kissing, licking, and attempting to eat the eggs whole (reference the picture below), so I put a stop to the whole thing and made him put the eggs down. But I did take a mental note and on the 9+ hour drive home the next day, I smartly used the eggs as bribes for good behavior. All in all, I think it was a good holiday, though I never did get an acceptable picture of the two boys together. I guess I'll do things differently next year!
