Spring has Sprung

I always think I dislike spring because it's wet and unpredictable, but then it gets here and I'm in love all over again. There is something hopeful and refreshing about budding trees, green grass, singing birds, and even muddy puddles. It has been so good for our souls to get outside and breathe a little bit. We've been up to a lot in the last couple weeks, including Easter (Happy Easter!)

First up, an egg hunt:

Our sweet Nana threw us a little egg hunt. I invited some of my mama friends and their kiddos over (missing a mama in the picture below) and we had a morning of hunting for eggs, eating snack, and chalking the driveway. Then one of my mama friends that owns a restaurant, had her husband deliver us pizzas and cheese balls for an impromptu lunch! It was such a fun morning. It was so good to be with other moms and see Isla interacting with her friends. I'm very thankful for in-laws that want to know Isla's friends and are willing to host things like this. Isla was cracking me up. I think she spent a couple minutes with me the whole morning. She was running all over the place, playing, stealing snacks, and having a good time. She checked in now and then, but I don't have to worry about her lack of socializing haha

Of course, with spring comes rainy weather, but like they say in Scandinavia, "there is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing". Isla has put her rain suit to good use. 

(You can see the rain pouring down! I had to go inside after this picture, but she wanted to stay outside. All of her buddies are tucked into her rain suit too.)

Like always, Isla has been busy in the kitchen. She now makes her own sandwiches (well, all of her lunch really) and loves to help bake and cook. She can identify most tools I use in the kitchen and knows exactly how to use them. She'll be cooking us all dinner in no time.

And then Mimi came to visit! We had such a fun time. It's pretty rare that we get to see Mimi twice in one month. But she had "presents that she simply had to bring" ;) Isla was really sad the day after Mimi left. She woke up asking for her and had tears when she realized she wasn't sleeping downstairs anymore :( We miss our Mimi and Bupa!

(do you see them hiding together? ;))

Then Ewan's first little tooth broke through. He has been INCREDIBLY clingy and fussy. So now it all makes sense. He was only getting up once or twice a night and is now getting up more like four or five times a night. And the second one is just about to break through too. So we've had lots of clove oil, snuggles, extra sleep, chewing, gnawing, and carrying around 24/7. Poor bub.

Our biggest project has been in our backyard. We have a tiny yard, so we are doing the best we can to utilize the space we have. We have hung a swing and built a playhouse, but the biggest excitement for Isla has been her tinker space. We've enhanced it this year and added a few tools. She literally spends HOURS working away. The nice thing is, I don't care what she does with the space so I don't have to direct, instruct, or monitor. It's hers to do with what she likes. And I do my best to not interfere. After all, "play is the work of the child" according to Mr. Rogers. I find when I'm giving my input she is interrupted and the play is shortened. Whereas, if I set her up with tools and space, she knows exactly what to do. I almost want to hang a sign that says "no adult interference allowed" as a reminder to myself. When she is tinkering out there, she is an engineer, scientist, artist, chef, handyman, builder, and so much more. I love watching her.

The space is simple and honestly not that pretty. I'm sure you could spend a lot on a nice "mud kitchen" and tools for it, but the goal here is to let her explore without worrying about what happens to the space. We have an old workbench Michael made last year that is allowed to get wet, painted, chalked, and whatever else on it. And she has her sensory bin for outside. My FIL made it out of PVC pipe and bins from Walmart so it's all easy to spray off if needed. One side has sand and the other is reserved for whatever we want to use (and we've probably used it. We've done A LOT of sensory bins in our time). She has old kitchen tools I no longer use, gardening tools, old rags and sponges, chalk, paint, and more. I have scaffolded the activities so she is successful at all of it. Meaning, I didn't just plop all of this in front of her and expect her to know what to do. She's been tinkering like this since she could walk. We've put in a lot of practice on the front end and I only give her things I know won't cause frustration or problems. And when there is something new, I introduce it, talk about safety, model behavior, and observe to see if she's ready. If she is, it gets added to the tinker space. If it's a problem, I remove it and revisit that item at a later time. For instance, I introduced a cheese grater to her (Yes, a real life cheese grater. Let me tell you how good risky play and dangerous tools are for kids... ;) hint: very good). I explained how we use it and what it's for (like chalk and wood), talked about the safety of using it (like not on your fingers), modeled the behavior (I grated some chalk over a bowl), and stepped back to observe. She was very excited to use it and it hasn't been an issue at all. Whereas, using paint independently was not something she was ready for. I thought a squirt bottle of paint would be easy to handle for when she wanted to paint the plexiglass we hung. Not the case. She wanted to squirt it everywhere. So I removed it and we'll circle back in a few weeks. That's called scaffolding and it's the best way to encourage independent play without frustration from either party. Next up, she's getting a hammer and nails :) Stay tuned.

We are having a lot of fun with it!

And then, it was Easter! We always celebrate what Christ did on the cross with the way we live our lives, but Easter is a day of remembrance and rejoicing, so we did just that. And as a bonus, it was beautiful out! Before Easter, we did a few Easter-esque crafts and read lots of stories about what Easter means. It's not just eggs and bunnies, but something deeper and far more defining for our lives. 

On Easter Sunday, Nana and Pop Pop came over for some Easter lunch. We played outside most of the day (which was good for everyone's attitudes and lack of sleep... hello teething). And I won't post the pictures from the end of the day, but it ended with dirty feet, a naked Isla running around, and eating straight from the garden. It was a great day!

Other than that, we've been up to lots of playing, snuggling, reading, crafting, and tinkering.