We Eastered

We hunted for giant eggs all around New York City, we colored eggs as a family, we hunted candy-filled eggs with friends from church and we ate deviled eggs like they were going out of style. So...do you want to see some pictures of our Easter week?

There were 250 giant eggs hidden all over the city, and if you were really cool you went hunting them in the deepest, darkest corners of the Burroughs. And then there is me, who realized my boys would probably be thrilled seeing the dozen at Columbus Circle and waiting until they put the whole lot at Rockefeller Center to see the rest. It was brilliant.

Poor Everett mostly cries lately. He really got into coloring eggs, but it's so hard to be two sometimes!

The little boys' Easter baskets...and a Diet Coke for me from the Easter Bunny!

The highlight of T and Ever's life thus far may have been when they saw their Ninja Turtle PJ set in their Easter baskets. They both stripped down immediately and those guys have pretty much been turtles ever since. I have no clue how they even know what Ninja Turtles are, but they both decided about a month ago that they were going to dress up as them for Halloween. T the red one, Ev the blue!

Sad when the only family Easter picture you get is from the mirror in your lobby. I was a-slackin' this Easter is the picture department.

But I did get one of me and my ninja's before church. And don't worry, we made them take off their masks before going to Sacrament meeting! Easter Sunday was calm and low-key, with plenty of time to think about our Savior and the wonderful gift of His resurrection. We love Him so much and are so, so grateful for everything He's given us.

My thoughts on six years

Yesterday James and I celebrated our sixth anniversary. In a gesture of true romanticism, James took the day off of work, and my surprise matched his sincerity to make this the best anniversary yet. "If there was ever something to celebrate, it is me and you!" he said, racking up all sorts of brownie points. And gosh guys, it really was the best anniversary we've ever had. I give all the credit to the wonderful man that I married, with an honorable mention to Mother Nature because the weather mostly rocked.

The stars were aligned and the boys had a birthday party in the morning, so we dropped them off and giggled like the kid-less children that we were all the way to Sarabeth's for brunch. The sweetest waitress was soon at our table, and James started gushing about six years of wedded bliss. "Wow," she said shaking her head. "These days I feel like if people make it to two or three years it's a major fete. But six years, that's incredible!" And you know what? I didn't disagree. We don't take marriage lightly around these parts and I definitely don't take it for granted, so while six years is not the customary "big celebration" year like 5 or 10 or 50, I felt like our fancy breakfast and James taking off work and the fun family day we had planned was all worth it. Because six years, that's awesome.

I could say every cliche phrase in the world about how these have been the best six years of my life, how I got lucky to marry him and about how I'm excited for us to spend the next 50 together. But those really go without saying, don't they? What I really feel like saying is what I told the waitress in Sarabeth's, and that's that I'm darn proud of my husband and I. Because we are learning together and growing together, and becoming more conscious and more committed, and frankly, just better at the partnership we created six years ago. We've had fun adventures and personal tragedies, the typical highs and lows that experience brings, we've had times where we couldn't have connected more in life and love and then we've had those where we looked at each other and thought, "Who in the heck is sharing my bed?" But that's the beauty of real life, of real love. I think so at least. We have taken two individuals and have created one family, a team that we cherish and honor. And six years, two kids and about a million plane trips later here we are: together, happy, eating french toast and not toasting with the Strawberry Champagne Cocktail our waitress brought us--we fancied OJ instead!

Happy Anniversary to me and you, James. I love you. Even if we are shameful at selfies.

 You know, just taking a picture since I didn't dare take a sip!

 The french toast was out of this world. And James got a crabcake eggs benedict. Yeah, unreal.

We spent the whole afternoon in Central Park with the boys. Our first stop was to Sheep's Meadow to fly a kite. And while the kite mostly just dragged on the green grass behind little running men, we had a blast!

We were planning on taking a boat ride, but since the wind closed down the boathouse for the afternoon we decided to try our hand at sailing baby boats. The boys loved it, and I think we even figured out how to move it once or twice ;)

Right after sailing and right before we put the boys to bed and ran to a movie, the boys got to pick out an ice cream from a cart in Central Park. Don't mind T's perpetual bloody nose, poor kid. We told them that our anniversary is kind of like our family's birthday--and everyone knows no birthday's complete without a sweet treat!

Earth Day in Brooklyn

Today is Earth Day so we decided to spend the whole darn thing outside. We stopped downtown and had a little snack with Dad and then took the 4 train to the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. Flowers, flowers everywhere and Tuesday's are free to boot. But that rule banning all food from the premises, I don't get it. I see a big field of grass surrounded by cherry blossoms and my stomach immediately starts to grumble...but take my word for it for I saw them chew out a Chinese family who I dare say didn't speak a lick of English, don't mess with the BBG Security team.

It was such a beautiful day and the park is gorgeous, but boys and flowers are only friends for approximately five minutes (ok, more like 30) so we left out the back door in search for the Prospect Park Zoo. Oh, but before we left the boys entertained themselves by playing the sweetest game of hide-and-seek you ever have seen. Every time Ever was the "Counter" T hid behind the same skinny tree and Ever just couldn't find him as hard as he tried, time after time after time. And then when T counted, Ever would plop himself in the middle of the field and hide just like an Easter egg. T would laugh and be so frustrated in the same breath and say, "No Everett...that's not how you hide. I can't even find you because I open my eyes and I'm just seeing you!"

The zoo was small and perfect for a few hours of fun. Anytime Talmage can get his fingers in a goat's mouth he's game, and Everett was pretty content with pretending he was a turtle and skipping over lily pads. We also watched some of the most active sea lions I have ever seen. It was such a beautiful way to spend Earth day. Hopefully the rest of the Spring, all Summer and at least half of next Fall are equally as warm and celebratory!

Our Main Man's Birthday

There are pros and cons to having a Sunday birthday, but I must say that Jim's big day this last Sunday was a roaring success. I mean, mid-morning breakfast in our pj's, picnicking together in Central Park after church, an afternoon full of naps (and for the birthday boy--reading his new book) and a gorgeous dinner and dessert party made for such a special day for our special guy. It was so fun to be with him all. day. long. and to tell him 100 times that we were grateful that he was born. Happy Birthday James. We love you so much!

Daffodils and Sloppy Sloppy Joes

Talmage is in mighty love with all signs of Spring. You should hear him squeal at the sight of white popcorn trees and blossoming daffodils. Mostly the kid loves wearing shorts, so if the weather is warm enough for him to show a little leg there is almost guaranteed to be a smile on his cute little face. We were on our way home from playing at the park and the littles decided they needed a picture with the daffodils to show their Daddy. I taught them the song, "I love the mountains, I love the rolling hills..." and we've been singing it ever since. Except with the wrong words, because it turns out I never know the right words or true meaning to any song in existence. But I knew it said daffodils, which was my point of singing it, so that's still included. It's awesome. And it was also awesome to teach them Adam Sandler's famous Sloppy Joe song at dinner the other night.

A Pickle and Pepper Jack Ketchup Post

So...for lunch today I ate a pickle and pepper jack sandwich with extra mustard. It's been far too long since I've really updated this blog, and, well, telling you about my weird lunch craving seemed the only sensible way to dive back in. I'm not exactly sure why, but there you go. And if you were wondering, I used a hot dog bun instead of normal bread. Weird, weird life I'm living people.

Weird, yes, but pretty awesome sometimes too. Because not only am I feeling somewhat human again after lying on the bathroom floor for weeks on end, but I'm starting to think that maybe, just maybe, mean Old Man Winter is finally waving the white flag over New York City. I'm still kind of cursing the guy, but I'm also singing his praises for peacing out already. It's the middle of April for heaven sake, isn't that practically summer back in California? One things for sure, Talmage is loud and proud about his disdain for all things cold and love for all things sunshiney. In the past week we've had two deliciously warm days and both times T was seen skipping and singing at the top of his lungs a made up song about how "I love Spring in New York, but only when it's not acting like Winter. Because I like the WARM the very most!!!!" That Talmage Scott is so much his dad so much of the time, and then BAM, he's all mine!

We went to see the Flower Show at Macy's. In protest the boys decided they were all going to wear khakis and blue collared shirts and I wasn't allowed to be in their boys-only club (see the picture at the top of this post for proof). And then I told them that their sister was already my favorite child. OK, no I didn't. But people, don't you agree that I need someone to be on my pink-wearing team? Yes, I do. And I'm so excited that she's coming. The Flower Show was magnificent as always, and I made all three of those blue-wearing boys go shopping with me for baby girl clothes when we were done. Ha! I sure showed them!

There's been a lot of preschool going on lately. I was in charge of V week so we made a Volcano and Vases of flowers and somehow I got enough energy to cut their watermelon into little V's. These kids are so easy to please and so happy to be together, plus they cut me some major slack when I sent them to play while I rested between activities.

Dr. Martland came to visit from Cambridge, and the Weitzels from Palo Alto. Visitors are dreamy.

What else for ketchup sake? A group of fun friends did a pasta making class and it was ridiculously fun to get together and learn from a real pro. And turns out, pasta making is not nearly as hard as you'd think. Another couple of friends and I made peeps together...at least we tried. The joke of the night was that our Easter peeps looked more like Easter poops. But alas, it was fun and my stomach was tight as can be from laughing so hard! And free ice cream from Baskin Robbins. Yes, please. And speaking of ketchup. Everett begs me to put some on his plate so he can eat it with a spoon. The idea completely disgusts me, but turns out the kid kind of loves it. Not that I can judge, I'm just more a spoonful of mustard kind of girl.

Mr. T and the little Miss

 

 Kyle and the New Baby, by Kay Crain

Talmage has always been an old soul. Sure, it's trapped in a ridiculously bouncy young body but his soul, it's old and it's wise. I've mentioned before (here) that T was the one who gave hope to the idea of extending our family. When at times, one or both of us Wiggy parents thought that maybe we were a two-and-through kind of family, Talmage would start reminding us (completely oblivious of our thoughts, mind you) of the sister who wanted so badly to join us here on earth. "She wants to come!" he'd say. "My sister is ready!" And James and I agreed, our family was not done. But hello people, adding to your family is sometimes easier said than done! And so the reminders kept coming of her wanting to come here and of him wanting to see her and all we could say was, "We're trying buddy, we're trying!"

And then came that wretched miscarriage which brought with it such a long healing process. So long, in fact, that when my body was finally healthy enough to start trying again, it just straight up refused to get pregnant. I can't blame it for resisting, the months spent carrying and releasing that baby were just plain ugly. But my soul was starving for another newborn, and eventually my body assured me it was time. And by assured me, I mean completely and utterly shocked the heck out of me with a little stick in the bathroom that I totally didn't believe until I saw my fertility doctor. So assured is probably too quaint a word. Even after the appointment, I was completely wary and told not a person. Which, if you know me, is not my style. But my soul is still pretty raw from the last couple years it turns out, and I just didn't want anyone getting excited for anything that could potentially break me with grief. It was selfish, but I knew ya'll would understand.

As the weeks wore on and the genetic tests started coming back I found comfort in knowing that my little bun in the oven was as genetically normal as can be. {All we know about the heart right now is that it's on the inside of the body, phew, but we'll have a fetal echo done in a few weeks to learn the rest and I'll fill you in. Stat.} We were 12 weeks along when we told the boys the good news (who in turn got to make the phone calls to our family spreading the happiness!) Ever Knight is two--need I say more?!--but that Talmage, it was as if we'd just spilled the beans on a trip to Disneyland! He was screaming and hooting and jumping and yelling, "YES!!! This is what I've wanted for so, so long!" And when we told him that we didn't know yet if it'd be a boy or a girl he was undeterred, "Oh, I know. It's my sister. It's a girl!"

So a few days later when my doctor called to deliver more good news about normal tests, I shouldn't have been surprised when she told me that the blood test showed that I was carrying a little lady. I was sobbing and feeling so grateful, but mostly I was just thrilled to tell Talmage. His reaction was not as crazy and giddy as mine, because all he had to say was, "Yeah, I knew she was coming!"

I don't want to get all Saturday's Warrior on people, but it's hard for me to believe that wise Mr. T and this little lady aren't already acquainted. He talks about her like they're old friends, and tells me that he's going to hold her for hours and sing her songs and tell her stories until she's fast asleep. Oh, and shall I mention that he's named her Little Cheetah? I told him it sounds like a delightful nickname--and he's thrilled! Just this morning he asked me what I was writing about and I told him it was a post about him and his sister. He got a huge smile on his face and said, "Are you writing about how we love each other so much?" and my heart kind of leaped within my chest because, yes, I think that is what I'm writing about right now. My Mr. T and that little Miss, now they're something special.
And Ever is too of course, although he may never get over not getting "annudah bwuddah!"