MBB – Page 464

Shaving cream Easter eggs

March 28, 2013

Last weekend, I tried a new method of dying Easter eggs that sounded like it would be fun for Maxwell. It was fun…but it didn’t dye the eggs well at all. Oh well!

These were the instructions:

SHAVING CREAM EGG DYE
1. Spread cheap white shaving cream in a cookie sheet
2. Apply drops of neon food coloring across surface
3. Use toothpicks to swirl colors around
4. Roll the dried, cooled hardboiled eggs in the colorful cream (we used disposable kitchen gloves to reduce the tattoo effect)
5. Allow to set for 3-4 minutes on a paper plate
6. Wipe off shaving cream with paper toweling
7. Rinse! Voila! Beautiful marbleized eggs, done quickly!

Well, not exactly Voila! Now, I didn’t use the neon food coloring and I think that made the difference. I just had regular food coloring and I think it just wasn’t enough to really saturate the eggs with color. I might have used too much shaving cream too – or just needed to use a LOT more food coloring – in order to coat the eggs with enough color to stain them. No matter though, we still had fun!

dying eggs

Robert did say it was pretty funny to tuck his 2 year old into bed that night smelling like shaving cream! 🙂

One other note – I “boiled” my eggs in the oven and, aside from one cracked one, it worked great. I put them all in a mini muffin tin and baked them at 325 for 30 minutes and then put them in an ice bath immediately. Worked like a charm for this project!

Pole dancing at the tot lot

March 26, 2013

In between the rain last weekend, we made a little stop at the tot lot to get some energy out. I took a bunch of great pictures but these have to be some of my very favorite pictures ever….you’ll see why!

Maxwell wanted to slide down the pole “like a fireman” so Robert decided to give him a little instruction…

“Grab the pole here, jump with your feet”…

‘ tot lot lesson

Maxwell was a quick learner! I looove the expressions on his face in all these pictures!

tot lot lessons

Robert then tried to teach him how to wrap his legs around so he could slide down…

tot lot lessons

Maxwell thought that was pretty cool!

tot lot lessons

Maxwell LOVED sliding down the pole just like the firemen do. “Do it again!”

Could you just die this picture is so cute?!

tot lot lessons

Just look at his excitement when he lands! Too much, just too much!

tot lot lessons

While Maxwell was doing pretty good, Robert thought he needed a little more instruction. And what better way to do that than to demonstrate! 🙂

tot lot lessons

Oh yea, that happened. and I was snapping away as fast as my camera would let me! 🙂

tot lot lessons

Robert didn’t just demonstrate once though – there was a second time too! My favorite part is Maxwell’s face in all these pictures. Robert got major cool Dad points for his demonstration!

tot lot lessons

Even Spencer thought it was pretty funny!

spencer tot lot

Way to go, Robert. Maxwell is lucky to have such a hands-on Dad!! 🙂

Switcheroo!

March 25, 2013

We did a little switching things around here this weekend. Maxwell’s room is now Spencer’s and Spencer’s room is now Maxwell’s! I always wanted to move Maxwell into the other room, I just didn’t do it before Spencer was born for a variety of reasons. But, now seemed like as good a time as any so we switched the cribs, moved all the toys and books and officially declared Spencer’s old room as Maxwell’s new “big boy room!” This is definitely the right move for the long run because it’s a bigger room and it has it’s own bathroom. Now maybe we can finally move all of the Maxwell’s toothbrush stuff out of the hall bath!

You can see pictures of the two rooms here – Spencer’s old room and Maxwell’s old room

We did move Maxwell’s crib into his new room and asked him if he wanted us to make it back into a crib or leave it as a toddler bed like this…

toddler bed

He wanted the toddler bed…until it was time to take a nap. After explaining to him the rules of a big bed and how he can’t get out unless we come in to get him, he decided he wanted to stick to his crib and sleep sack. Fine with me! I’m happy to keep him contained in that bed as long as he wants! 🙂 I didn’t put the bumpers back on the crib though and we put a pillow in there with him instead. He seems to like that so far.

We also figured out that Maxwell can turn on the light in the room from the crib because it’s right by the door! ha! He’ll just have to learn to leave it off or learn to sleep with the lights on I guess!

Spencer seems just fine with his new room and slept all night through in it! He doesn’t even seem to mind the giant MBB monogram over his window that he’s just going to have to live with for the time being! 🙂 I don’t know how to change it without re-doing the entire window treatment and I’m not going to do that. I did get him a new “S” pillow for the chair to try to make the room his own!

In addition to the big room switcheroo, we had a jam packed weekend complete with a failed attempt at dying eggs with shaving cream (post to come), a trip to the swings (in between the rainstorms), two dinners out (thank you cooperative boys!), and an Easter egg hunt at church. Whew…it was busy and fun!

Ready to head to church…

mbb church

Perfectly squeezable…

squeezable cheeks

Love these boys…

boys

See you all tomorrow!

Happy face

March 22, 2013

Like any 2 year old, Maxwell can be a little whiny and ornery sometimes. We try really hard to wipe out the whines though and focus on being happy. Susan also had the great idea to starting throwing away the word “No.” When Maxwell starts in on his “nooooo” we tell him to take it out of his mouth and throw it away! He totally does it and thinks it’s funny. success! We’ve also starting telling him to put on his happy face when he’s acting a little whiny. He does give a great happy face!

Life with a toddler is never easy but I think I’ve got it pretty good with this little guy!

Here’s that happy face!

Cheese!

Hope you have a weekend full of happy faces! 🙂

5 months!

March 20, 2013

Oh my, how is he already 5 months?! Spencer is a happy, lovable, squeezable little guy and what did I ever do without him? I am officially in love with this chubby little baby. He loves to snuggle into my shoulder when I’m holding him and I could just eat him up. He’s such an easy smiler and a GREAT belly laugher! His little blue eyes just sparkle and he’s getting those long Brown eyelashes which makes him just irresistible to me! 🙂

For comparison, Maxwell at 5 months…

They look nothing alike in my opinion. I always thought Maxwell looked just like Robert as a baby but I totally see Robert in Spencer too, especially his nose and eyes. But I’m still holding out hope that Spencer has got some shades of red in that hair! 🙂

He’s becoming quite the good little sleeper now. We’re not longer swaddling him and just putting him in a sleep sack. He sleeps all night on his belly and, hooray!, actually does sleep all night. He’ll rarely let me rock him asleep anymore. He’s usually just too wiggly and awake to calm down in my arms so I’ll just put him in his bed awake and he’ll play for a bit and then go to sleep…sometimes with a little crying, sometimes with none. He’s sleeping from about 8pm to around 7am (which occasional earlier wakeups!) He naps in the morning in his crib from about 9 to 11:00 and then takes an afternoon nap in the swing from around 1 to 3:00. Depending on when he wakes up from that nap, sometimes he’ll get a 3rd little nap in.

He’s eating 4 times a day and clearly loves his milk! 🙂 He’s smiley and giggly and just about perfect.

He’s not the best at sitting up on his own yet…I think that belly gets in the way! 🙂 He can balance for a minute but then…whoa!

off to one side!

or off to the other!

He loves being outside but I’m afraid outside doesn’t love him as much. He’s had some major congestion in his nose since the spring weather hit and I’m thinking it’s all allergy related.

Look at his little feet crossed…too cute!