Daniel giving James Flower a good morning kiss

Daniel likes to say good morning to James Flower. He rubs my belly and says, "Oohh, James Flower is movin' and groovin'! I love you James Flower!" And most mornings he adds in a whisper, "Really....it's Flower."

Family Easter 2011

This Easter (2011) Daniel is almost three years old. James Flower is coming any day....maybe. Daniel and Dada went to church and Mama sat in the brown chair. We had a great Easter lunch feast from Panera with Aunt Jenny. Daniel ate some of his chocolate bunny, which he'd been waiting for about two weeks. Then, we did a little egg hunting in the front yard. Some of the eggs had "emmies" (M&Ms) and that was really exciting. It was hot, so we were just out for awhile. Then we hid more eggs for fun inside. GrandDaddy and GG will be here soon, and we will hunt more eggs with them. Aunt Jenny brought some great crafts for Daniel's Easter basket. We spent the rest of the afternoon putting together a fabulous pirate ship. It was a great Easter!

Easter Egg Hunt April 2011

We had our third annual Easter egg hunt on April 19, 2011. Eight mamas and 13 kids came. We were happy to have two new families come this year. The kids hunted eggs filled with stickers and snacked on cookies and fruit. Daniel had a BLAST running around with "the big boys." The mamas enjoyed visiting. Rhonda was the champion egg hider. We continually re-stuffed and re-hid the eggs until the kids were worn out. (Well, the mamas were worn out). The weather was beautiful and our yard was great, thanks to Joseph who mowed the night before. Next year, James Flower will be hunting eggs!

Betsy at 34 weeks

Daniel as Ezra

Our neighbor, Ezra, let us borrow her dress-up hood. Daniel adores it and won't take it off. For this picture, it was 80 degrees outside, but he still wanted to wear the fleece shirt Ezra gave him last year (he calls it his green kitten) and her hood. He wore the hood to church on Sunday. When people said, "Good morning, Daniel," he said, "Today I'm Ezra." Ezra is the first real human he has pretended to be. Usually he pretends to be animals or story/tv characters (Henry, Kipper, Annie, etc).

April 2011 Haircut

Jesus said, "Try new things!"

I am fairly often saying things like, "Jesus said, Be kind to people." or "Jesus said, if you see someone who needs help, stop and help them." I probably haven't said it in about a week. We ate lunch at Southern Season for the first time on Sunday after church. They have several really neat prepared food cases, and you can pick and choose small amounts of a bunch of different foods (which is my number-one favorite way to eat). Anyway, we chose about six different things and spread everything out on our table. Daniel looked at his plate, smiled a huge smile, and said, "Jesus said.... Try new things!!!" I so, so, so badly wanted to completely agree with him and say, "Yes, Jesus said that!" But.....I couldn't do it. I explained that Jesus would probably have a big time eating lunch with us, but Mama is really the one who says "Try new things."

Middle of the night conversation

Daniel woke up last night. I went in to check on him. At first he said, "Snuggle up with me." I laid down and snuggled him. In about ten minutes, I thought he was asleep. Then he said, "Please, please don't fly my umbrella. It's unsafe. Airplanes have wings. They are safe. Please, please don't fly my umbrella." Then he fell asleep.

A few things Daniel has said

1. "Why can't we be like other families?" Joseph does the whole night-time routine with Daniel. We've been working up to this in preparation for James Flower for several months. Usually Daniel is fine, but sometimes he wants me and gets upset for a short time. One night he asked Joseph, "Why can't we be like other families?" Joseph asked him what he meant and he went on to say that he wished we could be like other families where everybody just went to sleep together.

2. "Let's do what the different people far, far away do." One night he didn't want to go to sleep, so he said, "Let's just do it like those different people do it." I asked him what he meant and he said, "You know, those different people who just play all night and don't go to sleep. They live far, far away. Let's do it like that." I told him every person needed sleep so their body could have energy. He said, "Even in Japan?" Yep, even in Japan people go to sleep at night. I don't think he believed me.

3. "Bubblegum is what the dentist puts in your mouth." We got this declaration as we were walking into Sunday School this morning. When Daniel went to the dentist and got his teeth polished, the hygenist used bubblegum flavor polish. Daniel thought it was wonderful. It was his first experience with "bubblegum." I'm not sure he'd ever heard the word before. So, that's how he worked out the use/purpose of bubblegum.

Date night at The Cheesecake Factory

 

 

 

 

This was such a fun time! We hadn't been to CF in about four years. Aunt Jenny played with Daniel, and we had a great date! I got dulce du leche cheesecake and Joseph got Oreo. Thanks, Aunt Jenny.

Crop Walk 2011

 

 

 

It was MUCH colder than we thought it would be. I think it was 38 degrees while we walked. Thankfully, it did not rain. The whole walk was four miles, but we decided that we would do the short 1-mile course. It was a good plan. Near the end, Daniel said, "We are walking this long, long mile to our van." Overall, I think the turn-out was very low, but I imagine that they still raised a lot of money. 25% of the money stays in Chapel Hill to fund the meals for the IFC kitchen. We were glad we got the chance to participate!