Easter

This year's Easter was pretty low key. My mom and dad came over on Saturday to give the kids their Easter baskets, then on Sunday we went to Steve's mom and dad's for brunch. Sunday morning was my turn to sleep in and I was so proud when I saw that Steve had gotten Curran dressed in her fru-fru Easter dress all by himself. He even put tights on her! She was so cute in her little dress, she knew she looked pretty. Here is a pic of thie kids on Easter:




I think its very cute that Steve tries to get Curran ready for these dressed up days. Although he got the general gist of the Easter outfit right he forgot the little pantaloons that go under the dress and also put grey tights on her rather then white. But I give him an A for effort. Curran is just loving Steve these days. She'll call him from her crib in the morning. It's very cute. I have been experimenting with enhancing my photos with Photoshop - here are some of my favorite pictures I recently framed at the house:

Brayden's candy obsession is bordering on insane. He could eat candy 24-7 if we let him. He asked me for his Easter basket yesterday, and since there was only a large chocolate bunny in it that I knew he couldn't open, I gave it to him. I figured he wanted to put some little cars in it or something and carry it around. About five minutes later I went in the family room and he was about 3/4 of the way done with the giant chocolate bunny. He had gotten it open and went to town on it. I thought for sure he was going to puke. But he was OK, just mad that I took his bunny from him. This candy obsession is helping our efforts in getting him to brush his teeth. I explained to him that since he eats so much candy (not really, but trying to make him think so), he needs to brush his teeth or they will fall out. So he's been more cooperative.

The next hurdle that I see on the horizon is the end of the binky for Brayden. He only gets it in his bed, but it's still something he loves very much. Part of me is absolutely dreading this, much like I did potty training. But potty training was such a pleasant surprise in how easy it was, I am trying to not be pessimistic about his giving up the binky.

I am going to use the "binky fairy" technique. I am planning on waiting until the excitement of the Easter bunny wears off before the binky fairy pays a visit.

It will go like this - I will explain to B that he is a big boy now. No more diapers, he sleeps in a big boy bed, gets to stay up late and go to Indians/Cavs games with Dad, etc. Binkies are for babies and there is a very special fairy that comes and takes the binks for the babies, and then leaves a special surprise for Brayden.

I figured I would have him help me decorate an envelope or box with ribbons, sparkles, etc. and then we would put all of his binkies in that and put it in the mailbox. Then the next day the bink fairy will leave him a surprise in the mail box. He loves that kind of stuff so my fingers are crossed that it works well. Please don't think I was creative enough to think of this whole binky fairy thing myself, I saw it on Supernanny.

Some have told me that if I take Brayden's bink I need to take Curran's too. I have given it a lot of thought, and I don't think it's necessary to take her's too. Brayden knows and likes to tell us that he's a big boy and that Curran is a baby. I will just follow that logic with the binky.

Another milestone that I think Brayden is ready for is no pull up at night. He wakes dry about 3/4s of the time. However, I am concerned about the 1/4th. He pooped in his pull up one night a couple of weeks ago and just about lost it. He will now wake us up when he has to poo (see previous post). I know that he will probably get up himself if he has too pee if he goes with out a pull up at night. The problem is he still needs us to help him get him pants up and down. He also won't get out of bed unless one of us comes to get him, which has been great until he started needing to go potty in the middle of the night. I know I am just being lazy, but I hate getting up in the night - ugh!

In sports news, the Browns season schedule came out yesterday, and I must say that I am absolutely shocked the NFL gave us 2 nationally-televised games after our performance last year. Once again, I hope beyond hope that the Browns will be a contender this year. In other uplifting news, the Indians are 1-7. Great! Looks like the Cavs are the one bright spot in my sports world right now.

When I was watching the Cavs game on Sunday, the sportscasters all said that they thought the Cavs would meet the Lakers in the finals and that the Lakers would win the series in anywhere from 5-7 games. I hate the Lakers. I hate Kobe Bryant. I hope the pundits are wrong - as they often are. The sportscasters said the Lakers beat us 2x this season, and pretty much ended their argument there. But, as Steve pointed out, when the Cavs were swept by the Spurs in the Finals 2 years ago, the Cavs beat them in the regular season twice. So we'll see...regardless, playoff time is a great time in Cleveland! Especially when you see famous people at the games, here's one of my favorite playoff sightings -