Easter...a bit late!

Howdy all...I'm finally back, to try and get some easter pics up for everyone to look at. We had a great easter here in Washington, the weather was (mostly) nice, the cherry trees were blooming and grandma and grandpa came for a visit!!! How much more fun could that be!!!

The kids were their usual magnificent selves...they're getting so big it's just incredible. I'm very proud to announce that Eilish is now going potty on the potty like a big girl...and only wearing pull-ups during sleepy times!!! She wears regular underwear all day and hasn't had an accident in weeks! Now we're just trying to coach her through sleep times...she's doing pretty good...most nap times she wakes up dry...and even a bit lately, she's waking up from a night of sleep dry. She's getting so close!!! She is currently obsessed with the movie "Bolt"...and because of it, she spends 1/2 her days on her hands and knees barking at me.

Cavan is starting to get really curious about his surroundings and points to things all the time, trying to get us to tell him what they are. It is bloody adorable when he tries to repeat it back...Lights are "Li", the cieling is "c", balloons are "ball" and balls don't seem to be anything (figure that one out, LOL!!!) He has also reached a level of physical adeptness that Eilish now accepts that he can play with her and now they retreat into her room for hours at a time and just play their little hearts out.

Anyway...on with the pictures!!!!


Bucket boy is back!!! In a new, bigger bucket!!!


Eily being Eily...




Cav and Grandma star in the new movie..."Two People with One Bucket..."


Eily and Grandma making Easter Eggs
















Look what the Easter Bunny did!!!






Yup, they love to play now...






Love this shirt!!! CAPTAIN CHAOS!!!!




Out for walks with Grandma, Grandpa and Miss Ashley

Eily's 4!!!!

Eily turned 4 today!!! Wow...I just can't believe my little baby girl has gotten so big. She had a blast...a big party with 7 or 8 of her friends from her playgroup...pizza...cupcakes...and lots and lots of balloons. What more could a 4 year old ask for???

Anyway...I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.


Remember when???








And now!!!


"Why do I have to get all dressed up???"


Beautiful Princess


"Whatcha doin???"


Eily and Friends








Blowing out the candles




CAKE!!!!








All in all it was a good day for Ms. Eily. Not so much for me. I love my daughter...couldn't be more proud of her and how big and mature she is getting. But along with all the usual, "Oh my, my baby is getting bigger!!" feelings that go into days like today, there was a discernible emptiness to the day.

It is a terrible thing for a little girl to pass yet another birthday and not have her mother there...especially one so young. As I stood there watching the festivities and seeing all these other mom's interacting with their children...several of which were pregnant again...I just can't help but feel horrible for my daughter...the little girly things she's missing out on...not having the love and affection of her mother. It just kills me inside.

I try my hardest...but I can never be Christy. I can't replace the things that she would have given Eilish. Seeing how Eily interacted and gravitated to all the moms in the room just drove that home in a way that I don't think I've ever really appreciated to this point. I think a small part of me somewhere was still telling me that I could do it all...I could be both parents and Eily would be just fine...she wouldn't miss out on anything.

After today, I now know that isn't true...my poor babies.

Finally...an update!!!!

Hey and howdy all...it's been a long time since I've posted anything meaningful here...so here's the news...

Eilish first...

I cannot believe her birthday is next week. I cannot believe that she is going to be 4!!! How did that happen???? Four years old...she's getting so big too...I just don't know what to do with her sometimes.

She's finally potty training really well. She is down to only wearing pull-ups during rest times...the rest of the time she's in underwear and she goes potty without too much prompting. I don't even know when the last time she had an accident was...she's doing so great...I'm so proud of her.

On top of that, she's finally growing some...those of you that got a chance to see her around Christmas likely noticed something...Cav was nearly as tall and nearly as heavy as she was...that has changed...quite a bit. Cav hasn't stopped growing...that's for sure (more on him later), but Miss Eily is now (finally) over 30 lbs and is a full head taller than her brother again.

She's so smart too...every night, Dad reads her a book and then tells her a short made up story before bed. Well, the last couple of weeks, she's turned it around on me. Now she's making up stories for me...it's really impressive. She takes the bits and pieces of all the "Princess Eily and Prince Daddy" stories that I've told her and uses them to create completely new stories.

On top of that, we're (mostly her nanny and her) working on teaching her how to write her letters and numbers and other general kindergarten prep. She doesn't start school until the fall of 2010, but I figured it was time to get her started...after all...the schools here require that she be able to read (at a "See Jane run" kind of level) and be prepared to start arithmetic when they enter kindergarten.

The best part is that Eily the camera ham has made a reappearance. It's not every time the camera comes out like it used to be (before her momma passed)...but it's a lot more frequent that it has been any time since then...see the pictures below.

Eily the ham...pre-haircut








Eily the ham...post haircut








Eily in some of her pretty new princess dresses










Cavan...well the kid is something else. He's huge (nearly 28 lbs last he was checked...he's got to be around 30 by now)...when you put him and Eily back to back, he's broader across the shoulders, chest and hips than she is...the only thing is, he's shorter.

He's also become much more physically adept...he's walking with absolutely no issues now, it's still kind of stiff legged, but he's well balanced and only crawls as a last resort now. He's taken to climbing anything he can...the couch, the toy box, the kids small play table...heck, this past weekend, I'm making his breakfast and I look over to the side and he's standing on Eilish's chair (at the kitchen table) leaning out trying to get his hands on one of her left over chicken nuggets from the night before!!!

He's also getting so smart...he can say a few of the typicals (Daddy, baby, momma, Hi, bye, hey), he's also got his sisters name down (Eily...not Eilish) and his nanny's (Ashley). He understands some signs (more, help, stop, all gone, milk, drink, eat) but he refuses to do them...he just sits there and smiles at you. He's started actually playing with his toys too...instead of haphazardly flinging them all over the room.

Cavy in his new "grown up" cloths






Cav the pimp...well kinda!








Yes, my children are bucketheads!!


All in all they're are a pretty amazing group of kids...I know they are what keeps me going. Anyway, enjoy the pictures...their should be a video below this...and I'll try and not be such a stranger...especially now that my computer is being somewhat more cooperative.

Dance of the Bucketheads

The "Great Cream Incident of 2008"

Alright, I've teased you with this long enough...I finally managed to find all the pictures and get a few minutes to post this...so here goes.

One weekend last October, Dad was out of the room for about 10 minutes. Now this isn't all that unusual around here. Dad does have other things to do...but I try and keep my time out of the room as short as possible...especially considering I was dealing with a (at the time) 3 1/2 year old and a soon to be one year old. So I notice that things seem abnormally quiet...and I go out into the living room and boy was I greeted with a sight. My son has pulled himself up on the doorwall and is smearing something white across the glass...now this wasn't even the best part...his hair, neck, face, hands and clothes were also completely white. The kid looked like a ghost!!! At his feet I find a (now empty) tube of Eucerin body cream (the really thick and heavy kind...not the nice thin lotion). Evidently, Christy had kept a tube of that in with the kids diaper creams and such...I didn't know that it was even there.

Anyway, I naturally panicked, the stuff was on his entire face...nose, eyelids, mouth...it was a mess. I through him right into the bathtub and literally scrubbed the kid pink. Came off of everything great...except for his hair. Now...I only have "after" pictures...I was (understandably, I think) more concerend with getting him cleaned up before had...but the pictures below were after washing his hair 6 times...2 with Johnson's baby shampoo and 4 with Dawn dish soap. His hair looked like this for days and it took weeks before it lost the really oily sheen that it had after the color went away...

A quick update

Apologies all, for the dearth of updates recently. Things have been crazy here in Washington. Between 3 years worth of snowfall already this winter, record setting floods, difficult flying experiences, a very uncooperative computer, and the economy now affecting what was supposed to be the one safe haven (Pacific Northwest companies have announced job reductions close to 100,000 in the last few weeks...including an upcoming 10,000 from Boeing). It has been difficult to get time to post...add to that, I went cross-country skiing last week and my butt's still to sore to sit comfortably for any period of time and it's just been a mess.

I have tons of stuff to post...Thanksgiving, "The Great Cream Incident", a retrospective on my life since Christy has gone, Christmas...I just have it all stored off my rapidly failing computer right now...I'll dribble bits of it out as I get my computer running again (or kick it to death...one or the other). For now enjoy the two videos from today of Cav and Eily dancing their little hearts out.

Also, I apologize to some of you whom I was supposed to visit while I was back in Michigan...my original flight home got canceled...we ended up almost a week late...and the pure, seething hatred that I developed for Northwest Airlines caused me to forget to bring my address book with me...so for those of you that are unlisted...I had no way of getting a hold of you...I apologize. We (or maybe just the kids) are likely coming back in the summer (or earlier if Boeing decides to RIF me)...so we'll work something out.