Gosh I Love These Boys...

It kills me how alike they are.

Clap Clap Clap!

We had Aunt Nat for a visit for a whole week! We had lots of fun and did lots of things. She taught Emerson where his various body parts are located, how to make his toy animals walk, and most importantly, how to give high fives. We also had him clap on command, hence the title: Clap Clap Clap! As long as you say it and do it at the same time, Emerson will obey.

Emerson had such a big day that he fell asleep in his highchair before eating dinner.

We got to see the new baby elephant at the zoo.

This was our reaction to the nasty turtles mating. Yes, we accidentally witnessed the gigantic turtles at the Columbus Zoo mating. It was DISGUSTING.

We also made Cafe Rio for Cinco de Mayo. Yum.

Our amazing creamy tomatillo dressing

Child and Nat playing at COSI

E in his little rain slicker playing in the water exhibit.

He had an absolute blast at the little kids' play area

We also had lots of fun at German Village, the American Whistle Factory, and just hangin'. Thanks for the fantastically fun trip, Nattie! You're the coolest.

Happy Mother's Day

I've been reflecting on mothers a lot today and have had a good Mother's Day myself so far although it's been weird not to be in Utah with our own mothers. However, Ben is grilling up the steaks right now for our own little Mother's Day feast....mmmm.

I'm so grateful to have been raised by such a wonderful mother. She's very fair, thoughtful, loving, funny, beautiful, generous, precious and fun. Mom, you don't give yourself enough credit for all of your many talents! Ever since I was little I wanted to grow up to be just like you, and I still feel that way. You're a wonderful example of motherhood and have done such a good job with all of us kids. I appreciate you so much more since becoming a mom, and I'm sure there are still things I don't understand fully and won't until I've been a mother longer. Thanks for teaching all of us so well and for being such a great example. You've already made it as a mom and a grandma! How talented of you! Thanks for everything. I love you so much!

I'm also grateful for my mother-in-law. She is also a good example of motherhood. I'm glad she raised such a respectable boy for me to marry. And I'm grateful to her for including me in their family. "I like them a lot." (That's Christensen code for expressing love and/or appreciation.)

P.S. Mom, click here to see the rest of your Mother's Day present!

Catch Up

Mixing bowl hat family

King E with his miniature gorilla

Mini-Kong getting ready to go down the slide

King E helping mini-Kong go down the slide. (He laughed hysterically the first time Mommy did it and tried to mimic me.)

Just a quick catch up of our activities. We were watching King Kong one night and realized that Emerson got a miniature gorilla toy in a pack of animals we gave him for his birthday so we gave it to him and laughed a lot because he was a giant boy with a little gorilla. And we've been spending a lot of time with mixing bowls on our heads because that's one of Emerson's favorite toys and he thinks it's funny.

Stirring Things Up

(Please excuse missing and floppy socks in these pictures. I know he looks ragamuffinish)

I just thought I'd post really quick one of Emerson's favorite things to do these days. He LOVES to stir things. Well, let me back up. First, he loves to drop things into some kind of container and he has always loved spoons of any kind. So when I was making dinner one night and he was being a "big helper" I had the idea of giving him some toys to stir around. It was a hit and now it's one of his favorite things. (I tried goldfish crackers, but quickly discovered he likes to pulverize them into tiny bits and make a huge mess....bad idea.) Recently he's moved on to throwing things into containers, or picking things up out of containers and then throwing them across the kitchen floor. I love seeing his little arm raised up as high as it can go and then quickly fling something straight into the ground. It's so cute.