Hidden in Plain View

Despite the fact that the Easter Bunny hid all of Dexter's eggs in a single room AND within plain view, it took Dex an awfully long time to find them all. He certainly enjoyed the process!

 Can you find the egg in this picture? Dex eventually did!

Dex very methodically took each of his found eggs from his basket and placed them into cardboard holders that came with the egg-dye kit.

Easter Morning

When he went to bed the night before Easter, Dexter refused a cup of water. As he was falling asleep in bed, he explained that he didn't want any water because he didn't want to wake up to go to the bathroom when the Easter Bunny was here.  It worked!

In the morning, Dex found his Easter basket full of goodies.

 Chocolate bunny and

Peeps!

Bunny Cake Preparation

While Dex and I were busy coloring Easter Eggs, Ian and Elissa were at work baking and decorating the Bunny Cake for our Chicago family Easter celebration.

We always think of Kim who introduced all of us to the Bunny Cake.

Egg Decorating Production

Dex and I spent the day before Easter decorating Easter Eggs for the Easter Bunny to hide.

This was the first year that Dex wanted to use the wax crayon.

I was thankful that Dex didn't get any dye on the t-shirt that Ben and I brought back from Austin for him.

Rocket Day False Advertising

I just got the photos from Elissa so this is just being posted even though it happened about a month ago...

Elissa had heard on the radio about a "family friendly" Rocket Day event at a suburban library and talked with Ben and me about us joining her and Ian for it. Unfortunately, it was a Saturday and Ben was working and I was trying to catch up on work. Elissa, being the lovely human being that she is, offered to take Dex along with them so he wouldn't miss out on the excitement of the rockets.

I got a call from Elissa a few hours later letting me know that the Rocket Day "event" was actually a powerpoint presentation about the technical aspects of rockets (you can imagine the crowd at that - Ian and Dex were the only kids).

 The boys sat quietly for a bit in the audience until Ian turned to Elissa and asked, "What are we doing here?" Good point, she thought, and ushered them out of the presentation to the donut table.

They enjoyed some library powerpoint presentation donuts comfortably seated on the floor.

Shortly thereafter she took them to a nearby playground. Just look at how happy they are to be away from Rocket Day.

Dexter and Daddy's Cookie Factory

Ben and Dexter made dozens of Easter cookies for Dex's school party and for our Easter celebration with Elissa, Ian, and Jason.

Dex shepherded Ben through the process (Dex has had more cookie-baking experience than Ben), letting him know that they need to sift flour onto the marble surface before rolling the dough.

I wanted to suggest that they put the same type of cookies on each cookie sheet so that they would bake evenly but I held my tongue. As a result, they ended up with a few "overdone" smaller shapes.

 Flour, flour everywhere!

Finished!

"Daddy, Write This Down"

Dex has been asking Ben to write down the spontaneous stories he dictates. I found this one from February about Handy Helper Glove while I was cleaning the house last weekend. Yup, cleaning happens about once every two months in this house these days.

Happy Passover

We were honored to be invited to Elissa's family's Passover Seder this year. Dex loved playing with Ian and his cousins. As we sat at the table, Dex asked me, "Can I sit next to Ian's girl cousin?" He ended up between Elissa and Ian.

Even though Dex got a little antsy through the Seder rituals ("When do we eat?" "Are we done yet?"), he managed to keep it together.

Interactive features such as Face Time with Jason's parents and the plague masks helped keep Dex engaged.

It was nice to see all the kids participate actively in the Seder. Elissa's sister, Jessica, led the hunt for the afikomen and Dexter's prizes for finding his included the book, "Big Words for Little People." He has read it every night since.

Dexter ate his weight in matzah, matzah ball soup, and meatballs. The food was delicious, the table looked beautiful, and the company could not have been better. Happy Passover.

Daddy Gets Down with the Silly

As Ben was helping Dex get ready for bed, the two of them got distracted by the Ewer's Easter gift packaging. Dex wore the basket (bucket) and Daddy got to wear the Goldfish box.

Dex upped the silly factor by putting a construction hat on top of Daddy's box head and his jammie bottoms on top of his bucket head. I was wondering what was taking Dex so long to get dressed for bed!

Ewers' Easter Gift Box

This week, Dexter received a box in the mail from his Aunt Steph, Uncle Randy, and cousins Amanda, Adam, and Aaron ("the A's"). It was an Easter basket full of yummy candies, a wind-up fuzzy chick, legos, and two Matchbox cars. Opening the box and exploring the goodies brought Dexy a ton of joy. Thanks Ewers!

After playing with the chick, Matchbox cars, and legos, he got hopped up on candy and put the Easter basket (bucket) on his head. Maybe remnants of dress silly day at school? 

After I made him take the bucket off his head, he put the box that everything was packed in on his head and ran around the room. I should have let him stick with the bucket - at least he could see!

Silly Skills

Last week, Dexter's school had different theme days. Tuesday was "school spirit" day when everyone wore their school t-shirts. Wednesday was "sport spirit" day when everyone wore their favorite sports t-shirt. Dex wore a Bears shirt (the only sports shirt he owns). When another mother asked him if football was his favorite sport, he answered, "no." She then said, "Oh, you must like baseball." Dex replied, "no." Finally, she asked what his favorite sport was and he said, "Bobsled." The look on this woman's face was priceless. Unfortunately, we did not have a bobsled t-shirt for him to wear.

Thursday was "dress silly" day. This was Dexter's forte. He started planning his silly outfit three days in advance.

The silly outfit consisted of two different shoes, pants on backwards, jammie shirt on backwards, tie, and jammie pants on head. By the time he got to school, he decided against the pants on his head.

When I asked what silly things other kids were wearing, Dex said, "Nothing! I couldn't even tell that they were silly! But Miss Jill and Miss Jenny dressed so silly!"

Thoughtful Boy

I came home from a meeting yesterday to find a message by our back door. According to Ben, Dex wanted to make a sign to make Mommy feel happy when she got home from work - this was the result of their collaborative effort. Mission accomplished, thoughtful boy.

My Bologna prefers to do his welcoming in person.

Dexter and the King of the Jungle

Fun with a statue...

Fascinated by "for real".

Twist, Twist, Flap, Flap, Jump

The other night Dexter wanted to teach Mom and Dad a new dance. He explained as he did the moves, "It goes twist, twist, flap, flap, jump."

 We each gave it a go.

Dex was delighted. I think he really liked teaching us something as well as actually dancing with us.

Peacock Follower

 Ben said Dex followed this guy for a while. Dexy was so close that he was able to touch the peacock.

 The peacock was unfazed.

Just looking for some fallen popcorn.

More Than Just Animals at the Zoo

Now that the thaw is underway, the zoo is back on the roster. Daddy and Dex did some exploring.

 I have no idea what the zoo-relevance of this is.

 Resting in an abode along the trail.

Climbing like a monkey in the playground.

Engine Museum

As I'm trying to finish up my final quarter of classes for my program I am constantly under water with work I need to do. Sometimes I have to tell Dexter that he is going to have to entertain himself while Mommy does schoolwork. Most of the time, if I give him a time limit and let him know that I'll play with him when the time is up, he is very good at keeping himself quietly occupied for an hour or two.

This weekend, I had to do some reading and Dexter had to entertain himself. I could hear him talking quietly to himself but was so immersed in my reading that I didn't know what he was actually doing. Eventually, he came over to the couch and asked me to look at his "engine museum". I told him I wasn't finished reading but when I saw the disappointed look on his face, I put my book down and let him show me his engine museum.

I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Dexter had taken three different vehicles (race car, helicopter, vw bus) and next to each one had build an oversized model of its engine using all sorts of different materials. He proudly gave me the tour of the museum, explaining the different engine parts and functions.

 "This is the race car engine. Do you see these? [pointing to the construction vehicles positioned on either side of the train] These are the things that pump the gas into the engine." "The pistons?" I asked. "Yup, that's right, the pistons."

 "This is the helicopter engine. Do you see the blade on top?" He asked me. "I do, that's what makes it look like a helicopter." "And this is the alarm," he added, pointing to the train resting on the large board precariously resting on the base." I didn't ask why an alarm or blades were parts of the engine.

"And this is the bus engine. Over here is the battery [pointing to the rounded bump at the end] and next to it is the fan to keep the engine cool." I asked what the long part extending out from the fan was. "That's just a model of the inside of the bus."



I was amazed and tears welled up in my eyes. "Are you crying because you're happy, Mommy?" "I'm crying because I'm very impressed that you had a wonderful idea and you executed it all by yourself. I'm very proud of you and very happy that you shared this with me."

Two days later, he created a "Museum of Science and Industry" and when he called to Ben to show it to him, he also asked for a pair of scissors. Dex had taped a piece of paper across two of his wooden train bridges at the "museum entrance" and had a "ribbon cutting ceremony", snipping the piece of paper to open the museum. Honestly, I don't know where he gets this stuff!