The 3 Year Old Tad

Mr. Tadpole is growing into his imagination. He is becoming a master builder, presenting me with all types of airplanes and Guido's (from Cars). Here he has made his own little "Abizella" to play with.

Our dishwasher, Wall-e, is one of his favs. If I accidentally call Wall-e a dishwasher, I get corrected. "Mom, he is not a dishwasher. This is Wall-e".

He has also entered the age of "Why?". He gets an impish expression on his little round face and takes me down a long long road of "whys" every time I open my mouth.

Now that he is such a big boy, he of course does not need naps. Although occasionally he will announce that he is tired and go tuck himself in for a little snooze.
He is easily one of our favs!

Spring Equinox at Last

When Abizella steps outside she throws out her arms to stop everything and everybody and hushes, "SHHHHHHHH!! The birds are back!"

We are all so happy to have the promise of Spring officially and finally here. Yes, it is still quite chilly. We are just appreciating the little signs of the promise of warmth.
Until about 2 weeks ago, this airplane was completely covered by snow. It started to peak out of the ice around the beginning of the month. It was a whole new toy when it finally popped out.

A Busy Night For Mystical Creatures...

We woke up this morning to not only a ransacked house (thanks to our leprechaun) but also a fist full of cash (thanks to our toothfairy)!

But this was no time to dwell on sprung leprechaun traps, green milk, or castles made from teeth, we had STUFF to do. So we stuffed ourselves into our Irish best ...
And hit the dentist. That's right 5 dentist appointments at 7:00 in the morning. In retro-spect (as keeper of the family calendar), I have to admit that a dentist trip has all of the merits worthy of missing a couple of hours of work and school.

Nevertheless, here we are sham-rocking the dentist office with our cute toothy and toothless toady smiles (that's right, make that net toad tooth count= -1)...
Abz even charmed the hygienist into letting her control the "tooth tickler"...
This was Tadpole's first official dentist appointment and he didn't disappoint. I was in the adjoining office listening to him jabber and his hygienist giggle.
All this and I was safely at my desk (IN CAMBRIDGE!) well before 9. When I talked to Pops at lunch Abz had ripped down all of the St. Patty's flair and was working on Easter decorations! It is a good thing that we had our Corned Beef and Cabbage on Sunday with the Cuzzes.
That is also when we constructed our Leprechaun traps. The very traps we have been designing all year for this very day.
Superkid had a lot of ideas worked up in theory, my personal favorite, "Trap at the Diner", which involved a fancy little table and chair with a place settling for a weeeee little leprechaun heaped with steamy hot cabbage to "lure" the leprechaun to his fate. What fate? Well the cage that would be released from above upon the first bite. In the end Superkid opted for the old gold bait. In his words, "What! A leprechaun can't resist gold Mom!"
I'm just glad he was a believer at the zero hour. I actually overheard him reasoning with himself. Something like, "What if leprechauns weren't actually from Ireland? What if they were actually neighbor boys that break in and mess up the place? Or what if it is actually Mom!"

What? ME?! Mess up the house? Never. In my opinion, any effort to trap that pesky rascal should be commended. Here are this year's offerings...
In the end, the only leprechaun we trapped was Tadpole.
He wasn't about to share his gold.
And here is a picture of cute little Tiney. She is all big girl now.
Happy St. Patty's Day!

Net Toad Tooth Count =0

Superkid= -1 tooth (top front)

Little Chief= +1 tooth (bottom right)

3.14

Happy Pi Day!
And thanks to Pops for the Pi-day Miracle Pie Surprise!
(if you have ever tried making a de-luxe banana cream pie around here on a MONDAY you understand the miracle part)

The Abizella Walking School For Babies

Abizella opened the doors to her baby walking school the moment we told her that we were going to have another baby in the house. She was so excited. The first thing she wanted to teach her new sibling was to walk. In Abz time, it probably seemed like a long time coming. Poor little thing had to wait all of Little Chief's pregnancy and all of those wobbly head baby days before she could set about her task.

With Abizella’s dedicated efforts of handholding and coaxing, Little Chief has become a bi-ped, at least some of the time. Little Chief thinks he is one of the big Toads. A couple of weeks ago he was practicing his balancing skills and looked over his shoulder at me and said, "Look at this Mom!" (with his eyes) and then took a step.

Later that week Pops texted me at work to let me know that he took 2 steps and then another text that said he was up to 3. At 9 1/2 months, he is definitely our earliest. I think I would probably push him over, tell him to quit growing up and just be my baby, but I hate to defile Abizella’s masterpiece. Besides, Little Chief is enamored with Abizella. You should see his eyes light up when she comes over to play with him.

Nice work Abizella! Little Chief thinks so too, he has also recently learned to applaud his efforts by clapping!

Two Dapper Gents

Can't you just see me strolling through the Boston Common on a Sunny Sunday afternoon with one of these dashing gentlemen on each arm?

The matching ties were Superkid's idea.