I was nervous about the car ride, seeing as how the last long car ride resulted in Bean puking. However, she did really good. As a family, we ate chips and dip (Steve - salsa, Bean/I - guacamole) and that seemed to pass some of the time. But then Bean started spreading the guac on her seat, so snack time was over. The car ride was uneventful and we only had to listen to the Frozen sound track twice. We got to my parents just as they were getting in the car to head to their Easter choir practice. We settled in and let Bean run around for a little bit before putting her to bed.
Bedtime has been sort of crazy lately. Bean's been in this weird funk where she cries when we leave her in the room. I'll talk to her on the monitor and say, "Get your paci and blankie and lay down with wormie." She scans the room, grabs the blanket and immediately lays down. My parents have a monitor system and I wasn't sure if we could talk to her. Well we couldn't, so we had to be creative and patient at bedtime. The first night went pretty smooth. I popped my head in the room a couple of times and told her to lay down, and finally she did. She even slept through the night!
On Friday morning, Bean and I took my mom to the store to buy some last minute Easter stuff. My mom is recovering from foot surgery and still on crutches, so outings are few and far between for her, haha. We got what we needed and headed back to her house. The rest of the afternoon was a whirlwind - my friend April came to hang out along with my sister and nieces. We (well, I) grilled out hamburgers/hot dogs and had a little birthday celebration for April. I offered to watch the nieces (for the whole night) so that my sister didn't have to take them to church for the Easter program or come back to my parents to take them home. So the crew heading to the church left and the rest of us just hung out and watched Disney movies (my mom ended up not feeling well and stayed with us girls!).
(Bean got to eat a cupcake to celebrate April's Birthday! She was loving it!)
(Bean got really attached to Gabbie. She loved playing kitchen with her.)
Getting Bean to bed that night was really rough. After an hour of both Steve and I tag teaming going in, I finally just laid down with her and fell asleep. About an hour later, Steve came up to bed and moved Bean into her crib. She only lasted a couple hours in the crib before she started crying. I ended up going into her room and laid in a bed with her in there for the rest of the night. It wasn't too bad, except for her waking up at 6:30 in the morning to start her day (we usually get up around 8). I'm glad the nieces were around to help out in entertaining her the rest of the day!
We were supposed to go to Lafayette to celebrate my other niece's birthday in the afternoon; however, she ended up sick and the party was cancelled. We then decided to move our Easter egg hunt from the morning to later in the afternoon. When my sister got to my parents, she and I went over to the school track (like a 5 min walk) an ran together. Well, we started off together, but then I broke off and we went at our own paces. She ran 4 miles while I took a few more minutes to complete 4.5. She is the one that started this mini idea, but she's dealing with a knee injury and is a little behind in her training. The run was still really fun to do with her and I loved the outing! While I was running, I thought about all the years I've been on that track for gym class & activities in school. In that 1 instance of running 4.5 miles, I'm convinced that was the most running I've ever done on that track throughout my entire 13 years at that school (kind of a cool feeling!).
We finished our runs and headed back to the house, just in time for lunch! Steve played Mr. Mom in my absence. Bean was just finishing up her lunch when I walked in. We also had some more family show up for a little bit. My sister (who is a miracle worker) put Bean down for her nap. She said Bean fell asleep before the last book was read (which never happens for me). When Bean got up from nap, all the little girls got to color Easter eggs! Bean LOVED coloring the eggs. She would even sign "more" and say "eeeeg".
(Can you tell she's the center of attention??)
(Girls dyeing the eggs together! Thanks Aunt Amber for taking the lead this year in coloring! It's so fun to watch the roles switch from me being the aunt to her girls, to her being the aunt to my girl!)
(So much fun!)
(I love this shot simply because you can see she had her feet perched up against the table.)
(We took home a couple dozen of the colored eggs so we could eat them. I got quite the kick out of one of the older girls's egg -- I <3 do="" ell="" family.="" i="" kid="" my="" nbsp="" p="" said="" too="">
After the coloring, my sister and I took the girls over to the school playground to let them run around a little bit. While they played, the "Easter bunny" hid eggs at my parents' house. It was so nice out that we were able to do the hunt in the front yard. Bean LOVED the egg hunt as well! We each had assigned colors so I helped Bean find her color. She would pick it up and proudly put it in her bag, then run off to find another egg. She did "find" some eggs that weren't hers, but then she'd happily hand them to who they belonged.
(Ahhhh, how on earth is Emily this big?! She was such the big helper over the weekend! She took such good care of Bean and allowed me to relax a little.)
(Slide time with Allie!)
(Slide time with Emily!)
(Hold the phones -- all 4 girls are looking in the right direction AND smiling! Win!)
(Egg hunt time! Bean did a great job picking up her eggs and putting them in the bag. I would point to which ones were hers -- the pink camo! If she picked up someone else's egg, I'd tell her whose it belonged to and she'd run to them and hand it over.)
The girls played together a little more while the guys continued their computer games and then we had tacos for dinner (nothing says Easter dinner like tacos, right??). The Adams crew left and then it was time to get Bean to bed. We had another rough go and she just kept fighting it. With Steve playing computer games (he did offer to help, and even went in, but then the game had to be paused and I felt bad that my dad and brother-in-law were waiting on him) I decided it wasn't worth the headache. So Bean got to stay up later. I laid her in bed with my mom while I finished getting some stuff done. I then joined them when I was ready. They had been laying there watching Frozen and Bean looked like she was almost asleep. At 10, I decided it was time for her to go to bed and if she wouldn't go to sleep, I'd just lay with her again. I rocked her for 5 min and she was out! What?! She cried out once in the night, but went back to sleep.
We got ready and headed to church Sunday morning. Bean went in the toddler nursery at my parents church like it was no big deal. When I picked her up after the service, she was actually disappointed that she didn't get to stay and play. Sorry kid. You are stuck with us. We went back to my parents, changed clothes, and packed up the car. We made it to my Mammie's house for lunch at 1 and got to quickly catch up with my cousins.
(All dolled up for church. We did pigtails on Miss Bean for the first time! It seriously made her look so big! She also loved going to the toddler class at my parents' church. She actually was upset I picked her up and made her leave. She wanted to continue to shake her maraca as they walked around the table listening to music.)
(On the way from my parents' house to Mammie's house, Bean was gong a little crazy. She was tired and hungry, and I didn't want her to fall asleep. So I encouraged the crazy.)
(Okay, so maybe she was going REALLY crazy. And again, those pigtails make her look SOO big!)
We left to head back home to Ohio after lunch. We wanted to time it so that Bean would sleep on the way home. She slept about an hour (that happens when we do later naps, typically she goes down by 1) and was sort of hateful the rest of the car ride. Haha. She's finally caught on to what being in the packed car means and what "byes" mean now. She was devastated to say goodbye to her cousins and return home to just Momma/Daddy. What she doesn't know is we'll be heading back in a couple of weeks. . .
(She passed out like 5 minutes into the car ride. I had high hopes of her sleeping the whole way home; yeah right! She slept about an hour and then was a little hateful the other 1.5 hours. However, we didn't have to pull out the tablet with Frozen so she wasn't being THAT hateful.)
(One of my best friend's parents go to the same church as my parents. I met up with them to get a "gift" from my friend. Bree made one of these for her daughter and made one for Bean! It is a really nice step stool for her to use in the kitchen so she can help me cook, bake, and do dishes. How exciting! Bean loves sitting on it and playing while I'm fluttering around.)
(I had made up an Easter bucket for Bean before we left and had it ready for her when we got back home. It had some little Easter chotsky from last year as well as some toys I got her. She has a neat Disney Princess play set so I got her a couple new Princesses to play with it. When she found them in the eggs, she knew what they were and took them to her castle to play.)
(Loving all her Easter chotsky! This girl is so much fun right now! I'm LOVING this toddler stage, even with the tantrums and teething. I love to watch her learn, interact, and turn into this sweet little person.)
***Addendum****
So these aren't from Easter, but they are from a week later. Sara and Baby James came and hung out with Bean and I while the guys were at a church event. What else do you do with Peeps?! Make S'mores dip of course.
(Chocolate chips & peanut butter mixed/melted together, then layer on the peeps and place under broiler for a couple minutes. Dip with graham crackers - or my favorite animal crackers! Yum!)
(Bean wanted in on that action. This girl has her momma's sweet tooth!)
(It was Bean approved!)
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