bored, bored, bored

I sit here on a Saturday night in Munster visiting my parents for an extended Easter and I am bored, bored, bored. My mom just took the little guy to mass but I was not able to go because I knew there was no way that I could sit in a pew for an hour. I have known for awhile now that my back was on the verge of going but, of course, I didn't do much to prevent it. I tote around my 21 lb boy often, probably more often than I should, because it is so much quicker than waiting for him sometimes. I'm sorry but sometimes I would rather just walk up to his room, put something away, and move on to the next task rather than waiting for him to pay attention to me, come with me, climb the stairs, and eventually decide to come into his room with me. Well, now, I am paying for it. I have had my fair share of back pain in my lifetime but nothing like this. Although frustrating, if it did have to happen, I am so glad that it happened here so I can have some help. Some help, I'm sorry, I mean more help than I could ever imagine! Thank you mom, dad, aunt mary, aunt bonnie, uncle eddie and lauren for taking care of Gio for me. There have been many times in the past 17 months that I have dreamed of sleeping in, having others wake up and feed my son so I could just get a little more sleep and now my time has come. Be careful what you wish for. Now, I'm so sad that I'm not the one seeing his handsome face in the morning or rocking him to sleep b.c. I can't pick him up or put him in his crib. Thankfully, although it has only been a couple of days, he still lights up when he sees me. I finally know what it feels like when bryan walks in the door after work and that little boy runs to his daddy. He just needed the chance to miss me.

Practice Makes Perfect

As Gio is growing more and more active, it is increasingly difficult for me to find ways to entertain him in the house. We have tried coloring...he eats the crayons...and then laughs. I tried making a construction paper Easter egg where all he has to do is 'pat, pat, pat' the shapes onto the egg. He really enjoyed this until he found it more enjoyable to remove all of the shapes, too. Now, his egg is hanging on the fridge looking very, very sad. We finger paint with pudding but sometimes that takes two-three times as long to make the pudding and clean up the pudding than he will sit and play and is not really worth the effort unless Bryan is here to help.

I have had some success recently with little activities for him. He loves the $1.75 mini dust pan that I bought him and he is very helpful in dusting away. This lasts for about 10 minutes which is quite impressive. I usually last about 2 before I am bored with housework. However, the best investment I have made in my son this past month would be the $1 I spent on plastic Easter eggs. He is completely crazy for his Easter egg hunts. We had our first hunt a few weeks ago and I was pretty amazed at how quickly he took to it. I will hide the egg, say, in his toy barn and will ask him to go to the barn to find the egg and, without hesitation, he proudly walks to the barn and grins as he finds the egg and puts it in his basket. He points #1 as he does this so he thinks he is pretty cool. I am not exaggerating when I say that this egg hunt will keep him busy for at least an hour. It is a pure miracle that I never knew could exist that this little boy could focus on something for that length of time.

Although I enjoy the fact that we have a new way to spend our afternoons, I'm so glad to see that although he does not speak much, he truly is absorbing so much on a daily basis. He can't always express that he knows the egg is under the table but he can find it. To this mom, that is all I need to know that he is doing just fine.

Well, we took our little guy to his very first Easter egg hunt this weekend and, oh boy, what a hunt it was!! I was shocked at the mass of people attending this Easter activity-truly blown away. I was also shocked at the number of eggs they had scattered on the lawn for what seemed like hundreds of children. I don't know who stuffed all the eggs with tootsie rolls but I did feel sorry for them. He did great, picking up 5 of his very own eggs and putting them in his very own Easter basket.

Now, did I ever think that Bryan and I would be so excited to take our 17 month old to an Easter egg hunt? No. Will we be sure to go next year as well? You bet! We had just as much fun as he did. The pictures probably make it look like we had more! Happy Easter to all!!