Evelyn is going through a stage. Please tell me this is a stage. Yes, it must be a stage, and she will soon grow out of it.

Our daughter hates clothes. There- I said it. At an age where many toddlers start becoming obsessed with playing dress-up, our sweet little girl would rather run around stark naked. When we try to put clothes on her she resists with an intensity that can only be described as impressive. And it isn’t so much the modesty issue that we are concerned about- after all, she is only two. But the thing is that she is not yet housebroken. Rachel walked into her room the other day to find Evelyn gleefully running around in the nude with poop smeared up to her waist and all over on the carpet where she had removed her diaper. We don’t know what to do. We have to plan her outfits based on their ease of removal- in other words, no more zippers or snaps (she hasn’t yet mastered buttons). Tight-waisted jeans have become the norm. When this isn’t possible- church dresses for instance- we have resorted to heavy duct-tape reinforcements. Yes, we duct-taped her. We have to use heavy duty scissors to change these diapers, but it gets the job done.

This week a major project for us was putting together the printed version of The Hazard Chronicles for last year. This is the third year we have done this and it is always so much fun going back and reading the posts and looking at the pictures. It does a pretty good job of providing us with a “family journal,” seeing as we post almost every week, and I think it will be fun for our kids to look back on some day and read about these early years.

On Saturday we went to a large indoor garage sale for kid’s stuff. It was at a school and there were vendors covering the entire floor of the gym with hardly any room to walk between isles let alone navigate a double stroller without running down some poor unsuspecting stranger. The vendors also spilled out into the hallways and all the way back to the cafeteria where the larger items were being sold (cribs, swings, high chairs, etc.). It was a good time and we did pretty well, getting eleven items for a total of fifteen dollars. Evelyn got two new pairs of shoes - one of them being cowboy boots- a dress, and some cute pants. Adalie got two dresses, and Jackson got some cute shirts. It is really fun to shop when everything only costs a dollar or two!

That afternoon we went to Whole Foods. We never buy anything there, but we go periodically just for the free samples and to watch all of the health-crazed organo-people buying their six dollar stocks of celery. Seriously, if you really want to be health conscious, invest in a gym pass. Or even better, don’t; just go outside and play instead. I honestly think that there is enough money spent at Whole Foods on any given day to both save the rain forest and solve the world’s hunger problem and still have change to spare. And what does “all natural” actually mean anyway? I saw some “all natural” jelly beans on sale for Easter and couldn’t help but wondering what a jelly bean plant looks like. It must be very rare, because these jelly beans were about 8 dollars for a normal sized bag. Ridiculous. I need to go to Aldi.

Today we went to Eggshelland. We’ve written about this once before on the blog, but I will do a quick recap. Every year here in Cleveland there is this old couple who decorate their front yard in egg shells- like 33,000 of them. It is pretty impressive to think of the amount of time spent on this project, and sort of neat to see in person. Apparently they are gaining some recognition for their efforts too, since “Eggshelland the Movie” is now available on DVD. They were even featured on the front page of the English Language Newspaper in Japan. “Look what the Americans are up to now!.”

Well, that’s about it for this week. Here’s a bunch of pictures:

Eggshelland

The highly coveted Red Dog

Olives! Oh yea- and Evelyn is wearing Jackson's shirt.

Evelyn totally has a crush on this boy. So much that she sometimes whispers his name in her sleep. "Josh...Josh..." It's very cute- and a little obsessive- actually, sort of scary.

This was cute: Jackson was crying and suddenly Adalie looks over with this very concerned face, as if she was thinking "oh no, my brother is in distress!"

And this is Adalie's new thing. You can do it too- First, wrinkle up your face. Ok, now breathe in and out through your nose as fast and as loud as you possibly can. With a little bit of practice you can be as cool as she is.

When she does decide to wear clothes she goes all out- this is after she got herself ready for a trip to the store: Red striped socks, Jackson's red pants (that he has grown out of), and a pink polka dot shirt. Look out world, here we come! I think that half of the people who saw her thought "what horrible parents to dress their child like that," and the other half thought "what great parents to let her dress herself."

Rachel took our babies to the doctor this week. Jackson is almost on the growth curve; Adalie is almost off of it.

Our Children!

So this was a pretty laid back week. On Wednesday the school had "Professional's day," which, by my interpretation, meant "go home and play with the family day." We drove up to the North Chagrin reservation and went on a nice long walk and wore short sleeve shirts without jackets and rejoiced in the fact that spring had finally arrived in Cleveland. Later that day I did go back to the school and check out some of the student research, but it was nice to have a few hours in the middle of the afternoon to go outside and play. We don't get that a lot.

Saturday was also a really good day. In the morning we went to the Cleveland Heights annual Easter egg hunt. We drove there expecting great things from our city, but despite our highest hopes the egg hunt was rather pathetic. Basically, it was about 200 plastic eggs thrown onto a tennis court. All of the kids lined up along the sides of the court, and after a space-launch style countdown they charged into the middle to pick up the eggs and put them into their baskets. The whole affair lasted no longer than five minutes.

In my opinion the event put the term "Easter egg hunt" to shame, and was even a little bit embarrassing to those of us who had grown up with real egg hunts- you know, where the eggs are actually hidden and stuff. Our best guess is that things have sunken this low in a vague attempt to eliminate "winners" and "losers." We wouldn't want to hurt anyone's feelings now- better not to play the game at all because then everyone loses equally. It's more fair that way. It sort of reminds me of the Bucky Covington song reminiscing about the past: "Not every kid made the team when they tried/ we got disappointed and that was all right/ we turned out all right." It's pretty sad if you ask me...but I digress. The point is that Evelyn actually had a lot of fun picking up the eggs and was able to come away from the mayhem with quite a good haul. Now if only we can find a good hiding place for all of that chocolate!

Later in the day Rachel and I were able to escape during nap time and play some tennis at the nearby school. And again that night we got out by ourselves to go and watch "Princess and the Frog" at the dollar theatre. It was a fun movie and a great evening alone with my amazing wife.

Well, I just looked up from writing this and saw that Evelyn has managed, in record time, to convert all of our nicely folded laundry into one giant twisted up pile of clothes. And now she is burrowing into the pile...and now she is jumping on the pile...and now she is sliding down the pile on her belly...and now she is putting tape all over the pile...and now she is spreading the pile across our living room floor.

Our Children!

Spring is Here!

Since I am in nursery most of the time when we are at church I usually have Rachel tell me about the Sunday School lesson. Today when I asked her what she learned she excitedly told me about how the circumference of your pointer finger is exactly the same as that of your nostril.

Thanks, Love. I think I'll stay in the Nursery.

So this week I was back in school and busy as ever. Not tons of news there. Our children, however, have all made significant breakthroughs this week.

Lets start with Evelyn. First of all, she has somehow managed to become even cuter than she already was. This in itself is a feat. But then she also decided that she wants to start potty training! She saw one of her friends potty train and got all jelous of his toilet and stuff- so now she has one of her own and she lets us know exactly when she needs to use it. Usually she just sits on it for about one and a half seconds and then proclaims that she is "done," but twice she has actually stayed on long enough to go potty. She gets very proud of herself and we are proud of her.

Jackson and Adalie have also made breakthroughs. Both are standing against furniture now, supporting their weight fully on their legs. Jackson is even in the beginning stages of navigating from one place to another. Sometimes we stand them up looking at each other and they just giggle...Until one of them starts seeing the other as food and then we have to step in and break things up. Also, they can both sit up unassisted and love to just sit and check out the world from this new position. They are both happy babies and usually very easy-going.

On Saturday we went to the Lodi Outlet Mall and browsed all of the shops. They have a train there that Evelyn and I took a ride on. For the rest of the day she walked around being a train, saying "Choo, choo. Choo choo." In fact, those were the last words she said as she fell asleep that night. It was clear that she had a lot of fun, and I always feel very fulfilled as a father when I see that I was able to do something to make her happy.

Having kids is so much fun!

The standing duo.

Rachel likes Adalie's chin so she made me include this picture. I guess it is a pretty cute chin- as far as chins go.

It has been a crazy fun week! This last week was my spring break, and it started, appropriately enough, with a blizzard over the weekend. Hooray for spring!

We were busy pretty much every day this week. On Monday we went to Toledo with the Intent of visiting the Imagination Station. This is a really cool children's discovery that is centered all around trains. We were excited! All the way there we talked to Evelyn about trains and I think that she was pretty excited. After the two hour drive we finally pulled into the parking lot...only to find that the Imagination Station is open every day of the week EXCEPT for Monday. Bummer. Not to be outdone, we decided we would make the best of the day by going to the Toledo Zoo, and I am glad that we did.

This was one of the funnest times at the zoo that I have ever had. First of all, the weather was great (besides the aforementioned snow storm, this trend would continue throughout the week). We quickly took off our jackets and enjoyed the nice, warm (45 degrees) sunshine. There weren't many people at the zoo that day so we were able to give Evelyn a fairly wide "Zone of Exploration" and she ran all over the place enjoying this freedom. Hmmm...Maybe she was enjoying it a little too much.

I'm going to make a note here about Evelyn: Our little girl seems to be growing up. It's exciting to watch her as she gains confidence and discovers her abilities. It is also sad in a way that our baby Evelyn is gone. She is definitely not a baby anymore. She has become pretty independent and will often choose to struggle through a project on her own rather than accept help from one of us. I am so proud of her for this gumption to do things herself, but it makes me sort of sad to think that she doesn't need Daddy's help with these things any more. Look at me getting all sentimental and she just barely turned two. Boy, I am in for it.

Anyway, let's get back on topic. At the zoo we started out by going to the aquarium part, which had a lot of things that you don't normally see at aquariums (such as the largest Japanese Deep Sea exhibit in the country). We also saw giraffes and frogs and monkeys- you know, the normal zoo animals. The real treat, however, was the polar bear exhibit. It was one of those glass exhibits so you can see under the water as well as above, and the bear was in a very playful mood. He would jump in the water and swim around, bouncing off rocks and floating on his back. I have never been so close to such a large animal (except when I rode as elephant at the circus as a wee lad) and it was amazing.

On Tuesday we went to a chocolate factory here in Cleveland where they offer free tours. It was
cool to watch all of the workers making and decorating the chocolates, and for some reason I think that the end product tasted better after appreciating the work going into it. And it did taste good. Eating all of the chocolate that we bought at the end of the tour was almost as fun as the tour itself. Also, Jackson is officially weened- from here on out he only gets bottles. For Rachel that means that she no longer has this crazy diet. I wonder why she chose today to ween him?

Wednesday we went to the Science museum down town. It is always fun to go here, and Evelyn had the most fun this time in the giant pit of balls. The babies also joined in the fun, but didn't seem to like it quite as much. Pretty much they just looked concerned as they sunk ever deeper into the pit. On the way home we stopped by the West Side Market where we bought lobsters to grill that night for dinner- Yum.

On Thursday Rachel had to work in the afternoon so we didn't stray too far from home. We went to the local library where they have a room devoted to kids. There are dress-up booths, painting booths, arts and crafts, a reading corner, etc. Pretty much it is a wonderland of fun, with action and adventure waiting behind every corner.

On Friday we headed down to the Cleveland Auto Show. This is where every car manufacturer puts their entire lineup of cars under one roof. That's over 1,000 cars! Obviously this was a very big room. There were also some cool concept cars that made it fun to think about what the future of transportation might be like. Even though we don't really consider ourselves "car people" (my heart doesn't start racing when I see a nice sports car) we all had fun and are glad we went.

Saturday and Sunday saw me at home with the kids while Rachel went to an interpreting conference in Pittsburgh. This summer Rachel is taking the test that represents the last step towards national interpreter certification, and this conference was sort-of a prep course for that. I am so proud of her for continuing to work on her personal goals despite all the distractions...ahem-children...that she has to deal with. She really is an amazing person.

So, that is pretty much our week. Right now I am hearing Evelyn singing her "I'm awake" song from her bedroom. I told her we'd make it a date to bake cookies this afternoon after her nap, so I guess I'll go and pick up my date.

Have a great week everyone! These pictures are in no particular order.

I had to take this picture after we made cookies this afternoon. She sure is a cute girl!

At the car show we each chose which car we will drive in the "realistic" future. We figured that in the next 5-10 years some of these 2010 models will fall in our price range, so for all intents and purposes we were really shopping for our future car. Good logic huh? As for me, I chose a Ford F250 pickup truck.

Rachel went for the VW Jetta. She didn't really buy into the idea of a luxury or sports car. Neither do I. I guess we both have this practicality-centered mindset.

And Evelyn chose a Lotus Type 47. I think she liked that it was just her size!

The polar bear was really cool. For the rest of the day, Evelyn kept getting on her hands and knees and saying "bear...Raaaaaarrrrrr."

I had to include this picture of Jack at the end of a long day. He was so tired that he fell asleep standing up!

It is finally warm enough to start going on walks again...as long as we are well bundled.