Flirting and Flexing

Marianne enjoyed her second Easter. She started the day off with the Kolster family in church, and only had to leave the sanctuary three times! Right after church we headed to Newton to see the Yoder family. We were especially looking forward to seeing Uncle Nate and meeting Manu!

Marianne quickly warmed up to her uncles, and apparently has a baby-crush on Uncle Josh (or Uncle Junk, if you ask David). She kept giving him a big goofy smile and batting her eyelashes at him over lunch, and then tried to follow him into the kitchen for some alone time. Luckily, Jen wasn't worried about her competition. If I could bake a pie like Jen, I wouldn't be worried either!

Marianne impressed Uncle Nate with her flexing skills, which we didn't know existed! Nathan and Manu were so thoughtful and brought Marianne a plush donkey and cow hand-puppet. Marianne's only animal sound thus far is to "hee haw" like a donkey, so it was very appropriate! She loves her new toys almost as much as she loved seeing Nate and Manu, and she'll have fun playing with them on Wednesday when they come to Pinehurst.

Marianne was a trooper today with all the time spent strapped in a car seat (almost six hours!). She only napped about 30 minutes each way, so thank goodness for the DVD player! We watched "Baby Signs" five times and "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" twice. If you don't have a toddler, then you probably didn't know that "They Might Be Giants" does the music for "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse". It's a cute show, and the finale always gets Marianne groovin' -- "Hot dog, hot dog, hot diggity dog...." is usually stuck in my head for hours.

We were back in Pinehurst by 6:30pm and Marianne got to spend some time playing with GaGa and Grandpa, and wouldn't you know, the Easter Bunny came to visit! He brought Marianne some additions to her Potato Head collection and some good books, as well as some candy for mom and dad.

After a day full of excitement, Marianne is in bed and I think it's time for Mama to get to work on that Easter candy!