On the hunt for eggs

An egg hunt is pretty much just a more elaborate game of hide-and-seek, one that eliminates the need for large people to squish themselves into small places and then stay there until small people find them. If, like me, you have a super small person, then the super small person has to hide with the large person and quickly gives away the hiding spot to the slightly larger small person. This is not a bad thing as it lessens the time spent crunched up uncomfortably. Still, I'd much rather hide eggs and follow the small person around the house as she locates them.

We went big this year with both an indoor and an outdoor egg hunt. I had bought an absurd amount of eggs and stuffed them with random items I picked up at the craft store like jewels that are flat on one end and can be glued down, jingle bells, small plastic animals, and coins from Eric's non-piggy bank. I put close to 30 eggs in a plastic bag to be hidden outside and hid at least 15 all around the house. Hannah knew about the outdoor hunt, but the indoor hunt was a surprise.

She ran around the house excitedly collecting eggs and even pointed out some to Jacob to help him grasp the concept.

When they were all collected, she got to work inspecting her booty and organizing it Montessori-style into separate bowls which Jacob continuously knocked over and then thrashed around to make sure that each little jingle bell and jewel scattered far and wide. He is an excellent destroyer.

My dad and Sondra showed up around 10 bearing Jacob's birthday gift, and after enjoying it for a bit, we all went around back to meet our friends and commence egg hunt number two. The park in the alley behind our house is where we sledded a lot this winter. We had never thought to use it for an egg hunt, but fortunately a neighbor without kids shared her genius idea, and those of us with kids were all over it. There's not much there other than some grass, but that's pretty much all that's needed for an egg hunt. We rallied together with three other families with homes backing to that alley, all of whom have daughters around Hannah's age. Parents from each family hid the eggs around 10, and then the kids went crazy at 10:30. They aren't terribly visible in this shot, but I wanted to share a group action shot of the four of them spreading out to cover more territory.

Jacob found a few too.

Running was the means of movement to each new egg as soon as it was spotted. I wish we were all like kids and just took off running at the drop of a hat. At what point do we stop running excitedly everywhere we go? 

I couldn't pick my favorite posed group shot, but it's one of these two.

More post-egg hunt booty inspecting commenced while the parents mingled and enjoyed the amazing weather and the awesomeness of our neighborhood, specifically because of the people who live here.

 Having so many people around meant extra hands to snap family photos.

After the egg hunt we went to the bookstore where the kids each picked a book that the grandparents bought them. They're wanting this to be their new Easter tradition in lieu of giving the kids an Easter basket full of stuff I don't approve of and end up sending to work with Eric, and it's an idea I couldn't be happier with! Hannah picked out this hysterical book called Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich. It's pretty rad. Jacob picked Goodnight Spot, a lift-the-flap book. Brandy bought him Where's Spot for Christmas, and he loves it, so that warrants starting a collection.

Later we walked down to The Charmery for ice cream, which pretty much iced the cake of an awesome spring day.

A hand for Hampden

This hand, situated in the bed of Steve's truck in March when I took these pictures, will soon be part of a sweet new playground currently being built a few blocks south of us. Since the playground is the brainchild of Steve, I have high expectations and no doubt that it will exceed those expectations. Really, just the hand is enough to make the space a huge hit; the fact that there will be more is just a party bonus. What kid doesn't want to sit in the palm of a giant hand and climb up the fingers?? I kinda want to sit on it too...

After a week of awesomely amazing 70-degree temperatures, it's hard to look at these pictures of Hannah bundled up in her winter gear and come to terms with the fact that this really wasn't that long ago. Sure, I'm behind on the blog, but I'm not THAT behind....am I?? It's funny how a dramatic change in weather can warp my sense of time and make a month feel like a year.

Wheeeee! Love at first slide

We took advantage of the awesome warm weather today and sloshed over to the playground. The second it came into sight, Jacob started bouncing excitedly in his seat and tried to stand up out of his tricycle. He had his eyes on the slide and didn't give up until Eric reluctantly used his sleeve to absorb most of the rain that had fallen on it an hour earlier. Jacob happily dried the rest of it with his fleecy butt, going up and down over and over again, until we grew tired and sloshed home again.

He remembered the slide from our visit to the playground a couple of weeks ago when we had those two 40ish degree days. It was love at first slide, and now he's hooked. These pics are from that first visit (there'd be a lot of slushy snow on the ground if they were from today).

Snowman snow!

Finally, some snowman-building snow!! This is Hannah's first ever snowman with the requisite three parts (the bottom third was more noticeable before Eric shoveled the walk).

Usually our snowmen end up resembling Jabba the Hutt like this little blob guy we made a couple weeks ago.

We do not get the award for tallest snowman in the 'hood though--that goes to someone on Elm Street near The Wine Source who built a snowman that is taller than the street signs (and may in fact have a street sign as its skeleton). It's pretty awe inspiring.

While we're on the subject of snow, have two more snow day pics courtesy of Eric. And yes, that is Jacob, our little boy, rockin' those sweet pink pajamas. He has two pair of "boy" pajamas and about eight that were his sister's, and since I can't be bothered with dressing him most days, he has spent a great deal of this winter snuggly warm and pretty in pink pajamas.  "How did pink get ghettoized as a girls' color," anyway??!Jacob is going to lead the movement to take it back as a gender neutral color, him and the little boy around the corner who wears his sister's hand-me-down violet snow pants. Love these Hampden kids!

December. All of it.

This is our December in something slightly larger than a nutshell. If you make it to the end, you may need to do some finger stretches to recover from all the scrolling. I hate to photo dump on you like this, but I'm ready to be done with 2013!

Now that he's home, I feel safe announcing to the world wide web that Eric was gone from November 13 to December 21, and it sucked! The kids and I got into a routine, and we had a TON of help from our community, including Jessica who came for the dinner and bedtime routine every Tuesday and Amy who took care of us when Hannah and I battled super high fevers.

The good news is that he got a break in the middle for Thanksgiving and got to come home and eat turkey and pumpkin pie rather than being alone in his hotel room on the other side of the country.

We rolled right from turkey day into Christmas in that one short weekend, starting with tree trimming.

Then we walked down to Rocket to Venus for dinner and sat on the enclosed patio where we could see the 34th Street lights when they came on for the season. After dinner we strolled over for a closer look and found that the lighting ceremony included a Santa who was taking lap requests from neighborhood children. Hannah was thrilled. Her interest in Santa really peaked this year, and although we've always let her know that Santa is imaginary, this year she stopped believing us.

While standing in line to sit on Santa's lap for the first time ever, I asked Hannah if knew what she was going to ask for. Her reply: "yes, but I'm not going to tell you." I explained that her odds of having her wish come true increased exponentially when she told me, but she kept silent. The only clue Santa would give me is that it walks on four legs...Since she's been obsessed with those Buddies movies about the golden retriever puppies, I'm assuming she asked him for a dog. She confirmed my assumption on our walk home and explained to her again why we can't have a dog right now. She said, "It's okay mom, that wasn't the real Santa."

Amy came the next weekend to take Hannah to the BSO for a family concert, and we walked down to the lights again later that evening, this time stopping at The Charmery for some of their super awesome hot chocolate. This time Hannah sat on a different Santa's lap. He was just for picture posing to raise money for a charity though--he wasn't taking requests for the big guy up north.

On the following weekend, we got very, very sick. We had all kinds of activities planned including tickets to the Holiday Cirque at the BSO but instead Hannah and I took turns sitting in lukewarm baths, crying and shivering and begging to get out, in an attempt to bring down our high fevers. Amy came to take care of us and help with Jacob who managed to avoid it all. Prior to the fevers, I had reached burned out status from single mama mode. Throwing fevers on top of that accelerated me into something far greater than fatigue. I was counting down the minutes until Eric's return and had every intention of retiring to my bed for a few days when that happened.

Amy came again a few days later on the eve of her birthday and brought presents for Hannah: a globe!! That's what Hannah told Amy she wanted, and of course the jet-setting, world-traveling Amy was happy to make that happen. She also bought her a children's atlas so we can point to a place and then read about it.

We celebrated Amy's birthday the next day with some vegan chocolate cupcakes with pink candy cane icing from Goldenwest. Yum!!! None for Jacob, but he was a good sport and wore the hat.

 

Eric's first flight home on the 20th got canceled causing him to miss his second flight and be re-routed through DC so instead of getting in at 8:00 on that Friday, he arrived at 3:30 a.m. We let him sleep in the next day, and then we spent the afternoon at Cylburn enjoying the crazy welcome warm weather. Almost 70 degrees in December! Yes please!

Grannah and Granpah arrived later that evening, followed by Justin and his girlfriend and dog. We made a big dinner the next day for Eric's birthday, and I baked a chocolate cake with coconut icing that turned out amazing thanks to Kathryn and Caroline who supplied me with awesome recipes for each.

Photo courtesy of Jeannie Kellogg

Photo courtesy of Jeannie Kellogg

While he was cleaning up, I took the present out of its basement hiding placed and set it on his chair until he noticed. I can't tell the world wide web what the present was, but he cried. It was very sentimental and exactly what he'd been wanting. It was also very expensive and took the collaboration of many wallets, including mine, his parents, his brother, our neighbors, and my mom.

Photo courtesy of Jeannie Kellogg

Photo courtesy of Jeannie Kellogg

We all got fancy pants the next day and went to lunch. Check out Jacob's hand-me-down super slick outfit.

 

Photo courtesy of Jeannie Kellogg

We got dressed up again the next day and had our pictures taken by Laura at various local settings, including a hotel lobby across from Hopkins. This was mine and Eric's Christmas present to his mom who has been wanting family photos for a very long time.

Photo courtesy of Laura Mae Socks

Photo courtesy of Laura Mae Socks

Photo courtesy of Laura Mae Socks

Photo courtesy of Laura Mae Socks

And then it was Christmas!

Photo courtesy of Jeannie Kellogg

Photo courtesy of Jeannie Kellogg

Hannah got a new backpack that she'll be able to fit a library book in without having to leave it unzipped.

Photo courtesy of Jeannie Kellogg

She got a cooperative board game and some fun new accessories from Uncle Joel.

Grannah and Granpah got her a ton of stuff, including this really cool knit hooded sweater that she loves and wears constantly.

They also got her this awesome fort building kit that I am loving because it means the couches don't have to be torn apart to make a bear fort. 

She also got a foam letter floor mat set from Uncle Justin, the yellow lab Calico Critters family, the new Ladybug Girl book, a bunch of new Stella books, and probably a lot of other stuff that I'm missing.

Eric picked up some more fake mustaches so we took another mustache shot. Looks like this might become a very fun annual tradition.

Present-opening occurred during Jacob's nap time so he missed most of the hoopla, but we had round two when he woke up. Babies are hard to buy for and really don't need anything (or know the difference if they get nothing), so he didn't get much. I picked out these textured critter balls for him that he seems to like, and he got a new starry turtle from Grannah and Granpah since the one Jessica and Todd got him when he was born had some sort of electric malfunction and would only flash on and off creating a less-than-restful starry strobe effect that Eric was unable to fix.

Jacob and I slept through Christmas dinner. Here's the rest of the gang.

Photo courtesy of Jeannie Kellogg

We drove to my brother's house the Friday after Christmas to celebrate with him and my nephews and my mom. In spite of that one Christmas day nap, I still hadn't recovered from the 6-week single mom streak, so I spent most of my time laying on the couch rather than taking pictures. My mom got this cute one of Eric, the human jungle gym, reading to Hannah and Clay.

Photo courtesy of Bonnie Errico

A few days later, we drove back to Hagerstown to celebrate with my dad and Sondra. They have a new golden retriever puppy who Hannah LOVED! Oddly enough, I didn't get that many pictures of Ginger...I'm still using the "I was tired" excuse. I'm beginning to wonder if I will ever not feel tired... I did snap some pictures with my phone though which is more than I managed at Chip's. 

Sayonara 2013!! And happy very belated holidays :)