I’m especially careful with last names and emails, mine and those belonging to others, so any such information has been edited out.

I see a flower, handpicked for me.

This morning, we went to an Easter egg hunt given by the local parks and rec.  We arrived at the field just five minutes before it began.  There were several hundred people lined up along a starting line of four roped off sections (for different age groups so that little ones didn’t get knocked over by big kids in the rush).  If you’ve ever been to one of these egg “hunts,” I use the word hunt lightly.  There are a few thousand eggs scattered in an open field.  Not much hunting involved.  Pretty much just walking and picking up.  It is this grand event that takes hours to orchestrate.  And it is all over in less than a minute.  The wave of parents and children carrying their baskets sweeps from one side of the square in less than 60 seconds.

Since we were  a bit late arriving, we actually got a better spot.  There was no room left at the ‘starting’ line, so we lined up on the side.  On the mark, get set, GO.  With that, we ducked under the rope and Caleb started dropping eggs in the bag (yes he had an $0.97 Easter bag).  I saw the wave of people moving towards us from the left.  Caleb was taking his time though.  Suddenly, he doubled back and bent down.  I’m wondering what he is doing.  Picking a flower for Mom.  He spent half of the egg hunt picking a flower for me.  He barely had time to grab a few more eggs before we were hit full force by the surf, caught in the undertow and overtaken.  Three seconds later, the rest of the eggs were gone.  Okay, everybody…back in the car.

The Hunt is on! You can begin hunting around the blog for Easter eggs any time between now and Sunday evening at 6pm EST.  For more details, see this post.

Click here to pull up your entry form in a new tab or window, then use the search feature in the sidebar to look for eggs.  Have fun!

I’m hosting an Easter Egg Hunt. I’ll be stashing a dozen eggs around my blog.

Who: Crumbs In My Couch

What: A Blog Easter Egg Hunt for Stellan

When: You are free to begin hunting at 6pm EST Thursday, April 9, 2009. Your deadline is 6pm EST Sunday, April 12, 2009.

Where: You’re reading the details right here.

Why: If you aren’t familiar with the Stellan’s story, head over to My Charming Kids and start reading on the right sidebar. Stellan’s SVT that he was first diagnosed with before birth recently relapsed and he has been in the PICU fighting a rapid heart rhythm. I find myself very thankful and blessed to have a healthy family. I wish to donate $10 to the MckFamily fund in honor of the egg hunt winner. I know that’s not much, but every little bit helps. A bag of jellybeans and a winner’s button (for your blog or website) are optional add-on accessories

When the egg hunt officially starts, use the entry form found here.

~~~

You are more than welcome to snag either button here by copying the code and placing it on your blog. And if you’d like to write a short post to draw in fellow hunters, all the better! I can make that extra easy for you… Grab the code for a button below and paste it in the html section of your new post. Then grab the code from the larger box at the bottom of this post, and paste it in the html section as well. Click Post/Publish. That’s all you have to do!

Large Button:

<a href="http://www.crumbsinmycouch.com/an-egg-hunt-for-stellan.htm"><img border="0" src="http://www.crumbsinmycouch.com/images/egghunt/egghuntbutton.gif"/></a>

Small Button:

<a href="http://www.crumbsinmycouch.com/an-egg-hunt-for-stellan.htm"><img border="0" src="http://www.crumbsinmycouch.com/images/egghunt/egghuntbuttonsmall.gif"/></a>

Please copy this entire code to post the details on your blog:
<br /><strong> Who</strong>: Crumbs In My Couch<br /><strong> What</strong>: A Blog Easter Egg Hunt for Stellan<br /><strong> When</strong>: You are free to <strong>begin hunting at 6pm EST Thursday, April 9, 2009</strong>. Your <strong>deadline is 6pm EST Sunday, April 12, 2009</strong>.<br /><strong> Where</strong>: Please see <a href="http://www.crumbsinmycouch.com/an-egg-hunt-for-stellan.htm" target="_blank">this post</a> for details.<br /><strong> Why</strong>: If you aren’t familiar with the Stellan’s story, head over to <a href="http://www.mycharmingkids.net/" target="_blank">My Charming Kids</a> and start reading on the right sidebar. Stellan’s SVT that he was first diagnosed with before birth recently relapsed and he has been in the PICU fighting a rapid heart rhythm. I find myself very thankful and blessed to have a healthy family. I wish to donate $10 to the MckFamily fund in honor of the egg hunt winner. I know that’s not much, but every little bit helps. A bag of jellybeans and a winner’s button (for your blog or website) are optional add-on accessories <img src='http://www.crumbsinmycouch.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif' alt=';)' class='wp-smiley' /> <br />When the egg hunt officially starts, use the <a href="http://www.crumbsinmycouch.com/eggs-in-my-couch-for-stellan" target="_blank">entry form found here</a>.

A big thanks to the folks over at Wilton for putting this together like the leaning tower of gingerbread just perfectly

Concentration = open mouth

Taste testing as usual

Ugh, he needs another haircut

I have no idea what this face is about

A -thus far- progress picture…when looking at these, take note of the roof and the tabletop.

Bring on the sprinkles.  We have been known to let the sprinkles get out of hand a here and there.  And a little here.  Maybe here too.

The table is getting worse…

…and worse…

…and worse.

Scott is holding his hand under the sprinkles container.

Just a tad too much

Lean in close, I have a secret to tell you.  You know what your kid turns into when you get on the phone?  Right, Satan’s spawn.  Anyway.  Well I have the secret.  Here’s whatcha do.  You sit them at the table (or better yet, outside if the weather is nice…close to the neighbor’s house that you don’t like, that way the ants flock away from your house) and you give them a bowl, spoons, cups, and…sprinkles.  Colored sugar.  That’s it.  You would be amazed.  I mean, we are going on an hour and a half of playtime over here folks.

I decided the $0.94 a container for sprinkles was worth it since he seemed to be enjoying himself so much.

Yikes at the background, I was quickly losing the daylight so the colors in the next few are all whack.

A fort we built from cardboard blocks

For some reason, this new year feels different from others though.  I think it has a lot to do with my homeschooling research.  It feels like a new beginning, a start of something fresh and new that I have never experienced before.  This is the year Caleb would be beginning “school” so I have had my nose stuck in books trying to get a grasp on where to start.  I told Scott in the car the other night, there’s actually about 5% of me that is getting excited about this journey.  Don’t get me wrong, the other 95% is still terrified and filled with questions.  But I smiled inside this morning when he was walking around the [educational/classroom] rug at the library practicing his ABC’s as he stepped on each letter.  “Why” is a favorite question these days, and it is hard to have the desire to answer those whys instead of saying “because it just is.”  Which brings me to another subject that has been pulling my attention away from my blog.  Discipline.  We’ve had our fair share of challenges lately, and I feel like I’m not handling them in the best way that I could.  So what do I do?  Read, read, read.  I had a $30 Target giftcard from a friend, so I ordered three parenting books on Target.com.  I feel like having a good grasp on positive discipline will be indispensable when we begin homeschooling (I say begin just in reference to starting to present materials on a daily basis and guide his attention in certain directions for periods of time.  But I know children are always learning.  Play is serious learning for them.).  With all the stress of Scott’s job change and an impending move weighing down, I know that I have not been the best parent I could be.  I feel like I have been so negative lately, and easily frustrated.  Burnt out basically.  Thus the reason I want to make some changes this year.

With the new year, come the New Year’s Resolutions.  Beginning with baby steps, cause I don’t wanna screw this up again.  I wonder just how many people resolve to lose weight each year, only to have it become a distant memory by Valentine’s?  This week, I’m trying to cut out any after dinner eating (I’m bad about nighttime snacking right before bed, ugh) and drink 10+ cups of water per day.  I desperately want to reduce the amount of “things” I have as well.  I’m absolutely horrible about hanging on to things I *might* need.  Or hanging onto it just to have it.  Telling myself I’ll use it one day, but then I never do.  I could make a small fortune getting rid of some unused toys and clothes.  What an overwhelming task.  This is where the procrastinator in me looks around and says, I don’t know where to start, so I’ll just do it later!

Speaking of procrastination…well this isn’t really procrastination so much as the cheapskate in me…there’s a better late than never post coming up…

Any guesses?

Since Christmas, he’s been playing Polar Express though.  He sings the “Christmas comes to town” song and yells out lines from the movie as he’s playing.  He’ll get ready to go down a hill on his tracks and he’ll yell out “I suggest we all hold on…TIIIIIIGHTLYYYYY.”  Anyway, he built a record breaking train tonight and his poor battery operated Polar Express train that he’s had since he was one actually pulled it.  Hard to believe if you know the train’s history of abuse (let’s just say it no longer works in reverse).

I was standing here by the computer tonight looking at something Scott was doing.  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Caleb shoot down the hall to the bathroom.  I actually thought to myself how nice it is once kids gain that big step of independence.  You don’t even have to take them to the bathroom, they can pretty much get it done themselves other than a few buttons and zippers here and there.

All of a sudden a wail pierced the silence.  I headed down the hall and in the ten or so steps it took me to reach the bathroom, Caleb was screaming and tears were streaming.  I thought surely he had slammed his finger or some other…ahem…extremity in the toilet seat.  But I hadn’t heard a thing.  I kept asking what was wrong and he could even speak.  He just pointed at the toilet and continued wailing like a banshee with his pants around his ankles.  Scott was on my heels to see what all the commotion was about.  He kept asking what was wrong as well.  We could get no words from the bright red tear stained face.

About that time, I stepped back a bit for a better look in the toilet…the right angle if you will.  You know, to see back in the bowels.  That’s when I saw it.  A silver bumper frowning at me.  License plate number Oscar-Foxtrot-Papa-8-5-7.  The 53 emblazoned upside down on the white paint with red and blue racing stripes fading into the deep, dark porcelain abyss.  I let out a huff as I pulled up my sleeve.  Yes that’s right folks, I plunged my arm over wrist deep down into the yellow water for retrieval.  You want me to make you some sandwiches?

Scott hadn’t been able to see what was wrong until my hand emerged with the little love bug.  Who obviously I must love dearly.  Almost as much as my own little love bug who accidentally dropped Herbie down there.  Scott scooted by me in our painfully small bathroom to comfort the still-wailing child.  I began running hot water over Herbie and my hand.  At that point, I started to lose it.  It is just cruel to laugh at a three year old who is obviously upset beyond words, so I turned my head and hid my face as I stifled my laughter.  Within thirty seconds or so, his face had returned to a pale shade and I lost it.  Mine turned bright red and tears welled up in my eyes as I laughed hysterically.  By that time, Caleb found the humor in the situation also after a little reassurance that Herbie was okay, had not been flushed and would not have to be thrown away (like the paci that landed in the toilet this summer).

PS I honestly would have taken a picture had he not been so upset.  You probably can’t decide whether to say “Aaaw man!” or “Thank God!”

Answer to the quiz: I never use capital letters in the title with the exception of “I.”  They were used in this post in combination with the phonetic alphabet to write Herbie in the john.

Santa did save him a cookie, he did!

Yum

I don’t know what’s up with this expression!  I guess because it is a “Charley book.”  And a pop-up book too.  Our first I believe.

Opening the Sprig Discover Rig, which already had at least seven miles on it.

This train plays music as it goes over the notes.  Scott of course, built the Star Wars theme song right away (shown here)

Opening THE Herbies

An important part of Christmas, something I can’t ever remember doing as a kid.

Growing up, our house never looked like this Christmas morning.  We had to open one thing, fold the wrapping paper neatly, etc.  It couldn’t be messy.

We built a HUGE train track in the living room floor.  We moved the couch for the Christmas festivities.