The Children's Garden

Today we visited the Children's Garden. The garden is lovely, with playhouses, Winnie-the-Pooh characters, Mr. MacGregor's garden, and other themed garden plots. The boys especially liked playing in Old MacDonald's farm house and in the area I've named the "Sunflower" playhouse, as there were tons of sunflowers growing around the house. Thankfully there also is a sand pit in the Winnie-the-Pooh garden area, as my children cannot go a day without grimy hands and faces, and gray feet.

We took a nice walk down the hill to the lake where a conspicuous sign alerts visitors to the presence of alligators. Yes, alligators! The sign indicates how small children who don't behave may be perfectly delicious treats for the 'gators. Okay, maybe not, but my boys were well behaved today so I didn't need to threaten the possibility of alligator snacks. Once I read the sign aloud to the boys, which clearly indicated that the alligators could eat birds, small dogs, etc., Milo decided we should walk back up the hill to the sand pit.

Next Month, A $400 Haircut

Today I gave Milo a haircut in front of the floor length mirror in the boys' bathroom, instead of in the middle of our kitchen as I usually do (where there are no mirrors). As always, I trim around Milo's head, evening things out and then I add some layers to give his hair some body. I'd just about finished evening things out and was about to start the layers stage when Milo, watching in the mirror, says, "I'm not happy about this haircut, I look like Wolfgang." Okay. For those of you who don't know Wolfgang, he is a boy in Milo's class, who has a blond "bowl" cut. I reminded Milo that I still had to add the layers and his hair wouldn't look like Wolfgang's afterwards. He seemed relieved. I, however, had no idea Milo had such stylistic preferences. And now, I'm imagining the day that a haircut by Mommy won't be good enough.

August in April

Suckers that we are, we gave Milo and Calder their birthday presents yesterday. Yes, their birthdays are not until August 30 and 16, respectively. We had planned on giving Milo a two-wheel bike for his birthday this year, as he has been getting really skilled at riding his tricycle. But every time I would take Milo out to ride his trike, Calder would throw a fit about getting a turn too. I just refused to purchase a second tricycle and pushing around the "cozy coupe" is getting old (for my back).

Then, on Friday, Milo hopped on a friend's two-wheeler with training wheels at the playground and didn't look back. Justin took only a little convincing--I mean do we really want them missing out on biking all summer long until their birthdays in August--and off we went to get another bike.

Here are some shots of Justin and Milo assembling the two-wheeler:

And, here are the boys on their inaugural rides:

I swear it was just the other day that we gave Milo his tricycle and his feet did not even reach the pedals:

Ouch

At lunch time today, as at most meals, Calder finished eating before the rest of us and was playing around on the floor in the dining room while we ate. Twice while we continued eating, Calder banged his head while playing and sought solace in my lap for hugs. As I put him back on the floor after the second incident, I said, jokingly, "Okay, now it's time for you to bang your head and come back to my lap for hugs and snuggles." The joke was, apparently, lost. As soon as Calder had his feet on the floor, he walked over to the buffet and intentionally banged his forehead into the metal structure, all the time looking at me. Ouch. I guess we've got to work on his sense of humor.

Fun With Josie and Eliza

Our old college friends Brian Taylor and Amy Matthews recently drove cross-country from Michigan, where they now live, to the beaches of South Carolina for spring break with their two daughters, Josie (age 7) and Eliza (age 4). On their way to the sand and surf they visited with us for the day. Milo had so much fun with the girls, bouncing around, giggling, and making sure that every toy in our house was played with, at least once, during their visit.

Calder, however, wasn't so sure about having company.