He's a Little Bit Country, She's a Little Bit Rock-n-Roll

These days, Jack is all about cowboys - his cowboy Woody action figure (from Toy Story), which he must have with him at ALL times, and all of his cowboy gear - his cowboy hat and the wooden horse toy that his Grandma and Grandpa bought him when they visited Mt. Vernon. And he loves to run around on his horse yelling "eee-haw, giddyup horsie" and telling everyone that he is a cowboy like Woody. On the other hand, Ellie is the rockin' biker chick. She loves to listen to music, but especially anything with a hard rock-n-roll beat, and despite her dolls and ponies and Little People, her favorite toys are cars and buses and trucks. She loves to push them around and make vroom-vroom sounds. And at Romp-n-Stomp (a big play area they have on post), she loves nothing more than to propel herself (backward) in one of the Cozy Cars. She would do that all day if you let her.

Next Stop....Harvard! (a.k.a., Crazy Mom Emerges)

So my son hasn't even turned 3 yet, and I've already gotten caught up in the crazy-mother-mania. (Mark my words, 10 years from now I'll be knee-capping the 10-year-old girls who compete against my daughter in cheerleading - it's a slippery slope, my friend!). We just went threw the preschool application process, and you would have thought that my very life was dependent on Jack getting into the "right" preschool. Simply put, I was out of my flippin' mind over this. See, when we first heard that we would be moving to northern Virginia, I thought (just casually), hey, I should probably start looking into preschools for Jack. Only to find out that preschool application deadlines were THE VERY NEXT WEEK. So like a madwoman I went crazy trying to figure out which preschools were in the area, what their mysterious application processes consisted of, which was the best one, and who I needed to bribe or threaten to get Jack into the best one. Some of these applications were insane - I think I spent less time on my grad school applications then on some of these. So they all were submitted, and at first, it didn't look like Jack would get into one - we got wait-listed on two of the three schools. But then, hallelujah, he got into the third (which was actually our first choice). So all is well with the world, and Jack's future spot at Harvard is safe and secured. Oh, and why, you may ask, is our future Ivy Leaguer wearing black winter gloves in his photo? Well, because on the way to the photo shoot he found gloves in the car, and insisted that he must wear them. And no amount of pleading, begging, bribing, or threatening could stop him. Oh, sure it may look like he's in serious need of counseling, but we prefer to think that he's just ahead of his time....5 years from now, ALL the trendy kids will be wearing black winter gloves in the spring!

Name That Blog!

Please name our blog. I just can't come up with a pithy, clever little title for our blog. And apparently one must have a pithy, clever little title for their blog. I think it's in the handbook somewhere. All my friends and family have cute titles for their blogs - there's "Candland Family Circus," "Candland Chaos," "Galan Gaggle," and "Chapman Frenzy" - and for the life of me, I just can't come up with one. So please name my blog (and Catherine, please keep it clean).

My name is Lydia, and I'm an anti-blogger

OK, I'll admit it and risk the wrath of every creative, charming little blogger out there - I hate blogs. Don't get me wrong - I'm strangely drawn to them, like one is drawn to those reality shows where everyone tries to kick everyone else off the show through trickery, deceit, and romantic hot tub rendezvous. But I don't like them. And yet......here I sit, blogging. My dear husband would like to have a blog so we can share photos with family members, and since I can't come up with any justifiable reason not to do it ("blogs are oogy" isn't really a valid reason)....here I sit, blogging.

So let's get started. We just celebrated Easter, and Jack and Ellie had a great time hanging out with their cousins at John and Remi's house. The food was delicious, and I think I gained 5 pounds just looking at the twice-baked potatoes that Robyn made. There was also an Easter egg hunt, and Jack actually got the swing of things this year and went to town snatching up the little eggs. Ellie, of course, couldn't have cared less - she picked up one plastic egg, threw its yummy contents onto the driveway, and then chewed on the plastic egg. But later she made up for it by stealing the candy from all the other kids' baskets. That's my girl!