Easter beach trips

The end of March saw David's 26th birthday and some giant shifts in the Massachusetts weather. Over David's birthday weekend, he had two college friends visiting for a conference in Boston. He enjoyed catching up with them, and we all enjoyed playing games throughout the weekend, especially our new obsession: Dominion. During their visit, the weather started off chilly, as we went to Marblehead's Devereaux Beach on Thursday in fleeces, and Avonlea Jane and I went to the Plum Island Beach over the weekend wearing winter hats and gloves.

Her first time walking on sand, wearing a dragon hat made for her by her Great-Grandma Bissell

By the Saturday of Easter weekend, the weather had warmed considerably, and the temperature was in the mid 60s. It was the perfect temperature for an egg hunt at the Salem Athenaeum, a private library.

Hunting for eggs in a new Easter outfit with her new purse

The egg hunt started at 11:00 a.m., and by 11:05, there were no eggs left. Avonlea Jane just had a good time chasing the big kids around. They were quite taken with her as well, as the older kids would throw some of their goodies on the ground for Avonlea Jane to "find."

Her buddy Joe helping her to search the lawn

After mass on Easter Sunday, we went for a walk with four of our neighbors through the cemetery, where we had an egg hunt of our own.

Avonlea Jane was so thrilled with picking up eggs and putting them in her bag that we didn't even fill them this year.

Below: On our walk around the cemetery pond, we spotted a large group of turtles sunning themselves.

On Sunday, the weather was in the mid 70s, so we decided to trade in our Easter clothes for beach wear and head to Crane Beach in Ipswich. The nice weather had perfect timing, as most of Avonlea Jane's Easter basket was full of sand toys.

Last year in April, we had the same rash of warm weather where everyone flocked to the beach. You can see in the photos that there are no leaves on the trees.

Avonlea Jane is not deterred by the taste of sand.

Eating sand at Crane Beach, April 2010

Eating sand at Crane Beach, April 2009

Buried in a hole

Avonlea Jane did not let the freezing water keep her from running in.

What a difference a year makes

April 2009

April 2010

The fabulous weather kept improving through the week. On Tuesday, we spent part of the evening at Singing Beach in Manchester. By Wednesday, the temperatures reached 88 degrees and we headed back to Crane Beach but this time with her swimsuit.

Playing with her friend Violet

The water was not as cold as it was on Sunday, but it was still cold. This did not stop every kid on the beach from running into the waves, Avonlea Jane included. She was even content to sit in the water and let the frigid waves come over her legs. I went in up to my knees briefly, and that was quite enough for me. Brrr.

Now that she's developed her sand legs, she can really run on the beach. She needs a constant eye kept on her, and not because of the water, but because she is a snack goblin. On Wednesday, Avonlea Jane would take every opportunity to go up to other kids and parents and try to get snacks from them. She would also run over to unoccupied blankets and snoop through their bags looking for snacks. (As a note, we were well stocked with Pirate's Booty, bananas, applesauce, strawberries, and grapes.)

Here she is returning from a tag team effort with a group of seagulls. She saw three seagulls swooping over an unoccupied blanket and went to investigate. The birds picked up a box of Wheat Thins and shook out the bag from inside the box. Avonlea Jane rushed over to get the bag, and then plopped down on their blanket happily eating their Wheat Thins, much to her mother's dismay.

On Thursday we were back to somewhat normal spring temperatures, so instead of going to the beach, we went to get Avonlea Jane's first haircut at Snip-Its, a salon for kids. For the last few months she's been looking pretty shaggy, but we weren't sure whether or not it was the right time for her first cut. It seemed like such a big step, but we were already referring to her as Mad Madame Mim from Walt Disney's The Sword in the Stone.

A before shot

A before shot, while being held by a sick Daddy home from work

She actually enjoyed getting her haircut.

The After shot

In back she got nearly 3/4 of an inch cut off, but it looks much better and feels much thicker. Had we known it would turn out this well, we would have gotten it cut a long time ago.

In other baby news, she had a doctor's appointment this week. She is moving up the scales. She now weighs 23 pounds (which is more than we thought) and is in the 33rd percentile for weight. She is 30.5 inches and is in the 41st percentile in height. She's added a few new words to her vocabulary: kitty and meow. We were suprised by the "kitty" because we refer to Mabel and Maxwell as cats or pussy cats. However, her two favorite books right now are Kittens and Pat Schrodinger's Kitty, a physics-based spoof of Pat the Bunny. She has also started signing "bird," "brushing teeth" and "washing your face." The last one is a sign she made up, but she does it regularly and consistently. You can see all of her words and signs in lists on the right.

She has also started mimicking and enjoying some adult behaviors. She really likes to help around the house. She's been very good at helping to pick up her room and to put things away, and this activity has spread through the house. She likes holding the dustpan and helping to sweep. She also likes to pretend to mop, and if asked, she will put things in the trash or recycling bins. She also likes to help load the dishwasher, so we've started to put some dirty dishes on the floor or within her reach so that she can put those in on her own. These tasks have made it clear how much language she understands and what she can identify. We had previously mentioned that she can identify the parts of her body (head, eyes, nose, mouth, belly, arm, hand, fingers, leg, foot, toes), she's added neck, face, ear, and back to that list. It has also become clear that she can identify all the things on a dining table and the rooms of the house.

Seen mopping while wearing a t-shirt that reads: "Bad grammar makes me [sic]" Oh, like mother, like daughter. She comes by it naturally, as my favorite toys as a kid were a toy broom and a toy ironing board and iron set.

She has also learned the joys of dipping her food. We were at a restaurant and she saw us using some dipping sauce and wanted to try for herself. She's always loved to tear up her food into tiny little pieces, and now she likes to dip these tiny pieces in ketchup, mustard, olive oil, whatever. The cutest thing is that she is so dainty about it. She uses only her thumb and pointer finger and holds up the other three.