A Boy and his Bicycle

Atticus is a very cautious boy so we've been thrilled that, slowly but surely, he has improved in riding his strider bike.  Here are the videos we've taken, thus far, to show his progression:

The Truth is Poop

Oh my goodness April has been a busy, busy month!

 

Before I tell you why, allow me to explain the title.  Atticus is not into potty training.  At all.  In fact, whenever we ask him if he has pooped he begins yelling, "NOOO!  NO POOP!" and the like.  Unfortunately, this isn't always true.  So we wanted to teach him about truth and lies.  We started asking him, "Atticus, that's not the truth!  What's the truth?!"  He started responding, "The truth is... poop."  Well, we're not sure if he understands the concept of "truth" yet, but it has made for some fun conversations. 

 

Here are some memorable moments we've had in between the craziness.  Atticus loves to "ride" his dinosaur and attack people, going "Woar, Woar!"  He also has been choosing some interesting outfits when I let him, as is the case with this winning number- complete with Mom's hat and belt.  He's still into bowties and is learning (slowly) to sleep in his new toddler bed.  This might take a while.  He can sing the whole ABCs and often asks me to make them with his playdough.  He is a cheeseball, and the last time we went swinging he started imitating the girl next to him by throwing his head back and smiling.  I'm still not sure if he was making fun of her or just thought it was the proper way to swing...

  
On top of the usual laughter (and tears- many tears!) of toddlerhood, we finally made it public that we are expecting a new baby.  This is, without question, a miracle for our family.  Dane and I can't begin to express our gratitude for the friends and family who've expressed so much love and support.  We feel so blessed and just wish it was a gift that we could share and give to other, amazing families and parents who struggle with fertility.

Thank heavens the word is out, because I was starting to run out of excuses for my irritability, increased forgetfulness and ridiculously large baby bump for how far along I am.

Then there was Easter.  We had some sweet neighbors "egg" us on Friday (they left 12 eggs for Atticus, one of which was empty to represent the empty tomb).

 Then, Saturday and Sunday we were able to spend time with some other awesome friends to celebrate their daughter's birthday and Easter.  We had a fantastic time!

 Atticus loved wearing these leis.  He kept wearing them just about every day for the next week!

 Atticus's little friend is so sweet!  She blew out two of her candles and then insisted on having Atticus help her blow out the last two.  He was happy to comply!


 The day was complete with an Easter egg hunt.

With only four toddlers looking, each of the kiddos made out big!

Of course, the Easter Bunny (known as "Peter Rabbit" where I come from) made his appearance earlier that morning.  It was so fun to watch our groggy little boy look for his basket for the first time:

 

 A new bike, helmet, soccer outfit, and other goodies!  He was thrilled.  Especially with his first chocolate bunny (He took exactly one bite and was "All done!"  Ha!)

 

There has, of course, been some action with the bicycle. Well, as much action as can be expected from a very, very cautious little boy.

 Our greatest source of busyness, however, has been guests.

When we were looking at houses last fall, one of my biggest hopes was that we would find a home big and comfortable enough that we would have guests come regularly.  Well, this month I got my wish!

Toward the beginning of the month we saw my sister and her family.  They didn't stay with us but we did get to hang out a couple times.  We'll need to get more pictures next time.

Then, almost a week after Easter, my sweet mom and big brother came down for the weekend.  Boy, did Atticus have fun with Mimi and Uncle Danny!

  

Here's some dancing at our favorite, Skinny Fats:

Here's our trip to the Lion Habitat Ranch down in Henderson.

  

Atticus was VERY cautious around the lions at first.
 
He was not shy, however, around the giraffe!  At one point, when he saw the other kids feeding the giraffe romaine lettuce, he started offering it Doritos, as though he pitied the giraffe and its green diet.  Cracked me up.
 
He did finally loosen up toward the end.
 
We also celebrated Mom's birthday a couple of times with some ice cream and cake.  Atticus LOVED both.  We had our dear Whitakers over on Sunday so Bowman got in on the candle action, as well.  Love those boys!

Then it was time for them to go.  It was as hard for me to see them go as it was for Atticus.  Thank heavens for Facetime!

Atticus wasn't sad for long, though, because my dad and step-mom made the trip down just four days later!  We had a blast with them at a local park.

 

    

We even got to see my dad's brother, Uncle David, a couple of times with his cute girlfriend Judy.

The time we were able to spend, just hanging out with them, was precious.

  
And like that, April was over!  Three weeks until our next visitor comes!  Hooray!