Art show

A piece of Brendan's school artwork was selected to appear in the inaugural Plymouth-Canton Community Schools art show, which was held last night at Plymouth High School. We've been looking forward to this event for the past month, and it lived up to all the hype.

Hubby and I decided to leave the little ones at home with a sitter so we could fully enjoy the moment with Brendan. (If they had attended, we would have spent our time chasing after them in a crowded, hot cafeteria.) Of course, as soon as we pulled up to the high school, the heavens opened. It rained hard and fast, the wind was wild, and we could see plenty of lightning strikes. We decided to wait out the storm in the car.

After a few minutes, the rain let up. We took our chance to run inside. Thankfully, we made it in though my feet were wet from the streams flowing over the sidewalks and parking lot!

I was immediately surprised by the big turnout for the art show. The place was packed! We saw several familiar faces. Brendan made a beeline to the back corner, where his school's artwork was being displayed.

His piece was the Anasazi spider, which he drew, the cut out the various shapes and glued together. He did a wonderful job! We were so proud, and I think he was, too. I will say that most kids his age seemed to be disappointed that they hadn't received awards. (Next year, perhaps they should consider giving all elementary-aged children a ribbon, and distinguish winners with another prize?)

We walked around looking at the various other entries, which were created by kindergartners through high school seniors. Some of the artwork was quite impressive!

After the show, we treated Brendan to the Dairy King. The best part of the treat: They were serving their delicious orange soft serve, which is usually only served during the summer (or the very warmest days of the year). Brendan was thrilled.

Kelsey is 2!

Happy birthday to my sweet Kelsey, who is 2 today! She started the day early and has enjoyed the beautiful weather outside with a neighborhood walk and a quick lunch treat with Dad. The rest of the day should be interesting since she's exercising her right to fight the nap at this moment.

Drumroll, please. Kelsey at 2:

• She's learning new words every day: popsicle, cupcake, reach, ghost, scary, bug, spidey (spider), purple. (Why do I always draw a blank when I sit down to type?)
• This week she begun saying "No" with all the attitude you come to love in a 2-year-old. Fun times!
• In her dance class, she particularly likes to gallop and spin in circles on her toes.
• She loves to wrestle on the floor with her brothers, particularly Brendan. (She knocked out his loose tooth on St. Patrick's Day.)
• She naps once a day, around noon. The length varies widely. She used to hold steady between 2-3 hours. Without the pacifier, her naps have been a bit shorter. :(
• She still loves to eat, eat, and eat some more. She hasn't picked up any of the pickiness that toddlers often do. That'll come soon, I am sure!
• Her favorite toys right now include books, her doll and puppy, Pablo (of The Backyardigans fame), any and every ball, and Ryan's Batcave and Batman accessories.
• She still has what I consider to be baby hair. That makes her look quite a bit younger than some of her 2-year-old friends. The curls come and go depending on the day, but they are definitely there.
• Kelsey loves going down slides.
• Her favorite shows are "Wow Wow Wubbzy" and "The Backyardigans."
• Her favorite color is purple, or so she says. Nevermind that everything is "purple" to her these days.

Obsessed with Star Wars

Much of the conversation between Brendan and anyone else is all about Star Wars. Why Anakin Skywalker turned to the dark side. How Chancellor Palpatine convinced Anakin to do so. The different color lightsabers that the Jedi carry. How Obi Wan let Anakin fall into the lava on the volcano.

You get the idea.

Brendan's artwork further illustrates his interest in Star Wars. Tonight Brendan drew one of the Clone Troopers from the newest movie, Star Wars: The Clone Wars. He has two sets of playing cards with pictures of Star Wars heroes and villians. He based his picture on one of the cards.

End of an era?

As parents, you never really plan these things. Well, perhaps you do if your child is 5 and you realize you must stop a bad habit that should have been stopped long ago.

The pacifier -- paci in our house -- has been an important part of each of our children's infancy and toddlerhood. While I support the idea of paci, I've been careful not to let the kids (or myself) become too dependent on it. At a certain age, usually after a year, we gradually encouraged each of our children to only use paci during naps and at bedtime.

For Brendan, paci was a hit from day one. He loved it. In fact, when he was about 4-5 weeks old, I remember watching as he popped paci back in his mouth from where it sat on his shoulder. (This was quite impressive for his young age and also to a new mom!) Yet, one January day when he was 17 months old, Brendan gave it up. I didn't ask him to, nor had I suggested it. He had chewed a hole in one paci already, and did it again to his other. (We didn't tote around a dozen of them, just two.) I was sure our world would come to an end, that he'd never sleep again.

But he did, just like any other night. At naptime, too.

For Ryan, I tried to rid him of paci around the same time. He wasn't convinced, though. Perhaps I shouldn't have pushed paci quite so hard in the first place. He never loved it from day one, but he did use it. Ultimately, Ryan chose his own timing to rid his world of paci: one week before Kelsey was born. This wasn't my ideal timing! But, as with his brother, he handled it without looking back.

Kelsey has been a tad more attached to her paci. Since Christmas, I have tried on several occasions to wean her of paci. It hasn't always gone so well. She'd cry for it in the car while running errands or refuse to give it up after a nap. In the past few weeks, though, she's gained some confidence without it. Last week I realized that I no longer leave the house with paci hidden in my pocket, just in case. When she wakes from her nap, she spits paci out into my hand before leaving her crib.

So it was last night, as I went to put Kelsey to bed, that I realized I hadn't a clue where paci was. It wasn't in its normal "spot" where I keep it between nap and bedtime. I was convinced it was hiding in her crib. She didn't have paci when she got up from her nap, right? I looked in every crevice, under every blanket, even checked under the crib. There were no signs of paci.

I explained to Kelsey that we lost it and she'd have to sleep without it. She had napped once without paci, so I knew she could do it. Still, she wasn't thrilled. She cried and whined and threw a fit. And at 9 p.m., she finally fell asleep. We didn't hear from her until 6:15 this morning.

At naptime today, she gave me a frown when I reminded her that paci was lost. (Note to self: Don't bring it up unless she asks.) She cried once in her crib, but after a little drink of milk, she settled in. She was asleep 15 minutes later.

Tonight, we tried the bedtime routine again. Admittedly, it may be harder on me to have paci out of the picture. It was my easy way of avoiding a battle, since Kelsey almost never wants to go to bed these days. She'd rather chase after her brothers. But I put her in her crib. She fussed a bit, asked for some milk, then talked herself to sleep.

The departure of paci marks the end of an era in the Healy house. It's a sure sign of a baby, and it's gone! Soon the diapers will be out the door and we'll be deep in preschoolerhood (is that a word?). And I bet there will be no looking back.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to all! We started early, with an Easter egg hunt in the basement (the Easter Bunny's favorite hiding spot in our house), church, followed by a wonderful brunch. Now we're home while Kelsey naps and the boys enjoy their treasures from the Bunny.

Kelsey cried at the sight of the Easter Bunny, but happily took a piece of candy and waved "goodbye."

The brunch was at the Inn at St. John's, which is a beautiful setting in an old seminary. Before we were seated, we explored the many hallways, the chapel and the beautiful arches.

Kelsey was particularly intrigued by the birds and flowers in the garden.

All three kids were ready to head home after brunch. It's a beautiful day, so we plan to be outside this afternoon.

Easter egg fun

This morning we attempted to dye our Easter eggs. The boys were super excited to do this, since Ryan had colored two eggs at preschool yesterday. (Predictably, both were smashed when he dropped the basket he insisted on carrying all afternoon and evening.)

Kelsey participated this year and did a great job, other than being a tad impatient. Hmm ... that may have been all three kids!

We opted for food coloring instead of the tablets you buy in the Easter egg coloring sets. The results were good. I think the kids created a very colorful batch of eggs!

Kelsey wanted "purple" for her Egg. This is her favorite color, and also happens to be the only color she can say!

Ryan, working very hard on his green and blue eggs.

Brendan won the award for least messiest, which is actually quite a feat for our Messy Marvin!

Brendan, Kelsey & Ryan show off their colorful Easter egg collection.

Catching up

I can hardly believe it is April and that my sweet Kelsey will be 2 in less than three weeks. We've been busy, as usual, but thought I'd take a moment to post a few updates:

• Ryan has had a stye in his left eye for more than six months. At first, it would come and go. Then it started to stay longer and grew bigger, and Kelsey scratched it one day, causing it to bleed. We made a few trips to the pediatrician, who eventually referred us to an opthalmologist. (Would you believe there is a 3-4 month wait to get into the U-M Kellogg Eye Center?!?)
  
  For at least two months, we've been applying an ointment to both eyes (the styes like to spread) twice a day. We're also supposed to be cleaning it with baby shampoo daily and applying warm compresses for 5-10 minutes a few times a day. Well, for any of you who didn't notice, Ryan is 3. So we're lucky if he agrees to the daily cleaning, and we're lottery winners if he actually holds a warm compress on his eye for more than 10 seconds.
  
  I have been mostly skeptical that this treatment would ever work, particularly if it depended on these warm compresses. Happily, I can report, that Ryan's eyes almost look normal. They styes are getting smaller. I doubt they'll be gone forever until we can apply the compresses, but I can handle that.
  


Ryan's eyes are improving, even since this photo was taken a couple of weeks ago.



• Brendan lost his third tooth -- on St. Patrick's Day. He is Irish, after all! Kelsey knocked his tooth out while the two rolled around wrestling on the living room floor. (Aside: No doubt that Kelsey will grow up rough around the edges!) Brendan was treated to ice cream at Dairy King and a visit from the Tooth Fairy that night.
  
• Earlier in March, Brendan had a read-in at school. He packed a bag with his sleeping bag, pillow, slippers and multiple favorite books. The class read all day long. Ryan was upset that he couldn't do the same at his school. So we staged a read-in at home. Both Kelsey and Ryan loved it!

Kelsey and Ryan, during their read-in. They were happy to snuggle in their sleeping bags on this rainy Friday and look through books. Ryan stuck around a bit longer than Kelsey.

"I'll be dead before ... "

Dan Jenkins is, first and foremost, a proud TCU alum. He also happens to be a sportswriter, having covered sports for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and Dallas Times Herald and most notably for Sports Illustrated, a golf columnist and has written several books.

In this month's TCU Magazine, he makes this comment about the future of newspapers:

"As for the future, I'm glad I'll be dead before I'm forced to read a paper on a gizmo in the palm of my hand. Dan Jenkins has spoken."

Good thing he doesn't live in Detroit.