Julia gives lots of silly faces! She is showing off her teeth in all of her photos now. I love to see her smiles.

Emily was teaching Julia how best to inspect an egg. Some of the eggs had cereal that was perfect for Julia’s tastes. Emily ate every marshmallow that she could sneak into her mouth. The fact that Emily wouldn’t take a nap shouldn’t be a surprise given how much sugar she consumed on our hunt.

Easter this year was a wonderful time with friends and family. It is good to take time and reserve it for renewing of spirit. This year we enjoyed our renewal in worship this morning and then enjoyed an afternoon and evening of play and visiting.

Our egg hunt was slow and fun. Julia was tentative to walk around the yard to get to the eggs and then when she got the eggs she didn’t want to put them down and go to find a new one. Emily’s focus was on what was inside the eggs. It was like a treasure chest that she had to open and inspect. The hunt will be different in future years as they learn a competitive spirit, but it was fun just to watch their different personalities blossom.

Who wouldn’t want these two as your shopping helpers? To borrow my friend’s phrase – they were super cute! At one point they turned away from each other and were pushing against each other with their backs. Another time I looked down to see both heads popping out of the side window checking on what I was buying. There was plenty of “honk, honk” heard in our vicinity. The shoppers were happy and I got my shopping done which involved a decent amount of thinking and counting. As always they were rewarded with free cookies from the bakery when we were done shopping.

It appears we are starting our playground season. Our Saturday was simply lovely and we enjoyed some play at the neighborhood playground. I think my favorite part of the day was just watching the girls as they worked out solutions and explored.

While Emily is our cautious one, she was off on her own exploring and enjoying the equipment on her own. She enjoyed having us nearby, but was happy playing on her own or finding other kids to play with. Julia hung with her Mommy, but also escaped when she could. I was able to appreciate how much Emily has gained in ability and interest as she played on the equipment. She didn’t have to be coaxed down the big slides, she didn’t need warning at high points, she didn’t need suggestions on what to do next, and she knew how to play and interact with all the equipment.

Julia enjoyed swinging, but freedom the most. I let her walk and choose her own direction. I had to have Emily physically restrain her at the top of the slides or she would have gone without me to catch her at the bottom. After she had been down a slide once I was able to just wait for her by the slide. Julia loves to slide. There just were a lot of slides to choose from. She will go down on her bottom if I help her and if she could get away with it she will take the slide on her tummy. She mastered the stairs up onto the equipment and moving along the bridges and paths. On one arched walkway she figured out that she could crawl across it because the incline and decline was a little uneasy for her.

Julia’s confidence is so much stronger then Emily’s. But then this comparison is not fair. Julia has watched Emily do everything and figures that if Emily can do it that she can too. This makes me want to sing the line from a song, “Anything you can do, I can do better.” I wonder if I won’t be singing this song for a long time.

We are proud to announce the addition of two new teeth to Julia’s mouth. They have been taking their own sweet time, but finally we have numbers four and five. She now has three on the bottom and two on the top. Humorously, she had the third on the bottom come in while she only had one on the top. Then, in the next couple of days the second top tooth came in to complete the set of four front teeth. While you can’t see all of her teeth yet in photos, her smile is definitely changing with the addition of teeth. No more toothless grins for us.