My good friend Ally came to visit Ana and I today, bring along her two sons Daemien and Ezekiel, the latter of which I was meeting for the first time. Ana was very excited to see a baby so tiny up close and instantly wanted to examine him.

Then once she knew he was safe, out came the hugs.

But for Ana, the very best thing of all was the baby swing. I brought our swing up from the pile-of-things-Ana-has-outgrown downstairs so Ezekiel could coo contently in the swing while the rest of us ate lunch. Once Ally and the kiddos left, Ana spent the better portion of the afternoon playing with the swing. First she wanted to swing…

And it still held its magical ability to make her instantly happy, yet drowsy.

Then once I decided she had played in the swing long enough, she was still fascinated with it, trying to take the tray on and off…

And fussing with the buckles and straps. Ahh, good times.

At least someone is making good use of all the baby gear we have around here!

In an attempt to kill some time while Simeon is traveling this week, Ana and I decided to make a trek out to the beach to visit my mom and sister. Our trip was almost canceled as a result of a couple drama queen weather men who shout “snow storm!” at the first sign of a snow flake. Never wanting to cancel plans at the last minute I decided to conquer the snow, which was great because it turned out to be nothing. Since we were going to be at the coast, I decided to set up a Michaelicious play date for Ana. Is he not just the cutest thing you ever did see??

The last time we got the kiddo together, we had to prop Ana up next to Michael while he gazed up at her from tummy time. This time was quite a bit different…

They had a great time playing and snacking, and then snacking and playing.

Michael was very nice and even shared his toys with Ana.

He was even considerate enough to push the “gas” button for her until she figured it out on her own.

Once Ana understood, Michael stood back to supervise her driving.

Then once the children were sufficiently worn out from playing, we set them side by side on the couch to watch some Sesame Street. Michael, ever the lover, decided it was time to make his move…

And leaned in for a BIG hug…

Which you can see is more than a little disconcerting to Ana. Check out her facial expression: her father would be so proud!

We had a great time and it was lovely to see Michael and Carole again. I just need to make sure we don’t wait another nine months to do it again! All the pictures from our visit are here. Enjoy!

We woke up Easter morning to discover we had a visitor in the night. The Easter Bunny had come to our house! Ana spotted the “footprints” and instantly smiled and said, “wow.”

She followed the footprints into the living room and found a glorious surprise: baskets full of goodies! One was from the Easter bunny and the other was from my mom, who was spending Easter with us.

After a lovely breakfast we dressed Ana in her adorable Easter outfit and got ready to go to my sister’s house for dinner and the traditional Easter Egg Hunt!

Ana remembered just what she needed to do and grabbed her basket, ready to find some eggs. (Note the focused expression–priceless.)

Jeni had made special “Golden Eggs” for each of the kiddos. They were filled with individual surprises and had their names written on the outside. Ana’s had a couple adorable Strawberry Shortcake bracelets inside and she loves them!

The weather was really yucky on Easter so I assumed we would do the hunt inside and therefore didn’t bring Ana’s raincoat or boots. But my sister’s family are hard-core and wanted to hunt outside, so we kept Ana confined to the front porch and walkway to keep her relatively clean and dry. But it didn’t slow her down any. She gathered up all the eggs she could find!

Then we went back inside to examine our findings. Ana quickly learned (just looking around the room at the other kids) that the eggs opened, so she set to cracking them open to see what wonderful things were inside. And finally my sister taught Ana how to make her tongue turn blue by licking the Robin’s Egg candy–a time honored tradition in our family!

We had a wonderful time. It was a great holiday. You can see all the pictures here. Enjoy!

This afternoon Simeon, Ana and I attended the MOMs Club Annual Easter Egg hunt. I had been watching the sky all day, praying it wouldn’t rain so Ana could go and hunt for Easter Eggs with the big kids. Its was particularly important that we attend the event because Simeon really wanted to be there to watch Ana “hunt” for the first time (last year the most we got out of her was propping her up next to the Easter basket). He is going to be traveling next week and unfortunately his flight leaves on Easter. He will be able to spend the morning with us, but the big family egg hunt is later in the afternoon so he would have to miss it. Not wanting to miss such an occassion, he decided to leave work a little early and meet us for the hunt. So you can imagine I was getting a little nervous when it started hailing this afternoon. Luckily the rain stopped long enough that we were able to sprinkle the park with eggs and let the kiddo run around collecting treasures to fill their baskets.

Ana sat back at first to watch the other kids run off into the distance and she was happy to slowly sneak up on the first egg she found.

Apparently collecting eggs is something kids are just born knowing what to do because she leaned over and picked it up without needing any prompting.

She was so excited to have found an egg! In the grass! That she would have been perfectly happy to stop at one, but the hunt was divided up so each child got eight eggs so I encouraged Ana to keep looking for more.

We finally found all her alloted eggs and went back to the car to sort out her findings, just as the sky opened up and started pouring down rain. Sim and I huddled under my tailgate (is that even what you call it? That sounds wrong.) to let Ana pick a candy to eat. Unfortunately she hasn’t ever had to deal with wrappers up to this point, so we had to take the candy out of her mouth so she could enjoy it the way it was intended. Ahhh, well. We can work on wrappers later.

All in all, we had a great time. It was the perfect first hunt and Ana did it like a pro. You can see all the pictures here. Enjoy!

P.S. Ha ha, Chloe! I beat ya!

I have been on a mission searching for little toddler rain boots, with not very much luck. The smallest I have found are size 5 at a fancy little baby shoe boutique (read: expensive), while the majority of stores carry size 7 and up. Well, Miss Ana wears a size 4, poor tiny little thing. (But if she takes after me, having small feet will not be a problem she will have in the future. I’m a 9 1/2, thankyouverymuch.) So I have been asking around and one of the mothers at Ana’s playgroup told me that Fred Meyer had some adorable boots and matching rain coats. So today Ana and I went to check them out and she was right! They are the cutest things I have ever seen. Plus they were on sale! We ended up getting Ana a size 5 boot and 2T coat, which are both very roomy, but I figure once we add warm layers and some thick socks she will do just fine. Plus she may even be able to wear them next year too! Score!!