April Things

Aria has offically begun "dressing up" in my clothes and heels. It's super cute to see because I remember doing that with my mom's stuff. She actually walks really well in my heels!
She also has a great love of books nowadays. She'll open one up she doesn't know (like this one from my nightstand) and make up something. She was calling this a recipe book and preparing to cook. Or she'll take a book of hers that's been read to her, and she'll flip through each page trying to retell the story. Her favorite book to do this with is The Christmas Story.





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Cousin Matt came for a weekend visit. Jackie couldn't make it because of her back pain. We were bummed, but the kids enjoyed having Matt around.
We didn't really go anywhere or do anything special when he was here (I was at a bachelorette Saturday afternoon and all night). But we did a BBQ and just hung out. Sometimes those are the best days. 💜

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Luc had Grandparent's Day at school and my parent's made it there and took Aria along.

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 We actually had a hot day! So we set up the kid's kiddie pool and water table on the deck. Frederic and I just chilled and relaxed (before we all had a water gun fight with ice water).

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 Dave came over for a BBQ on Saturday. It wasn't too hot, but warm enough. We finally set up the lights around the deck- 2 years later. And we're hating ourselves for waiting this long. They look amazing!! I got new LED lights for under the glass top table. You can change them to 14 different colors. Awesome! I can't wait for more summer BBQs!

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And then the same day my mom started her chemo, Luc had pink eye. So I had to work from home with both kids. AHHH!! Not easy! Thank God my mother in law came Monday night and helped me with the kids on Tuesday. That was a blessing and SO much help! Wednesday, I was left alone with them again, and I was drained.
Pink eye meant doing loads and loads of endless laundry. And throwing in 2 loads first thing every morning before coffee and breakfast.

Kisses to Grandma before her 1st chemo treatment

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And then, I finally got up the courage and past the nostalgia, and cut Aria's hair. It was getting so long that she constantly was complaining when I washed it, when I brushed, and when it got stuck in her car seat and jacket. So I decided it was time to say goodbye to the newborn locks that were at the ends and give her a good cut. I quickly studied a YouTube video and did my thing. Not too bad for my first time, huh?

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Then this little stinker named Aria, wasn't happy enough with her after-dinner treat and tried to sneak behind my back to grab more off the counter.

Spring Snow Showers & Easter

Apparently, Mother Nature is confused and just won't let winter go. Even though it was officially Spring, we had another snow fall. The kids were super excited to go sledding across the street and build one more snowman.

Then the weather changed within days and it was warm and sunny. Perfect for coloring Easter eggs on the deck!

And wiping out the shorts (& silliness):

For Easter, we went to my parent's house and my brother came over. And we made a fire in the fireplace. I'm telling you, Maryland weather is as moody as a 13-year-old. Grumpy, happy, sad, excited...

The morning started with the kids getting their Easter basket from the Easter bunny.

Since it was also April Fools, we shoved tissue into one of their shoes. They both were so confused as to why their shoe wasn't going on right, but thought it was super funny that we fooled them! It was off to go outside and do an Easter egg hunt with the neighbors!

Happy Easter, from the Hairson's!

Sweet Luc

Though I often wonder where my sweet baby Luc is sometimes when I see him tease his sister nonstop, there are moments when he surprises us and his sweet heart appears.
As much as he loves to drive his sister crazy and tease her, he will often help her in the bathroom to wash her hands when she was potty training, fix her tablet, get things for her, or even, <:O, share his after-dinner treat with her.

Bonne Maman had surgery on her shoulder last Friday. Her recovery will be quite long and she's not able to use her one arm. She can't cook, clean, etc. Her sister from Belgium is coming to stay and help for 3 weeks. She wasn't coming until Monday evening, so we all went over Saturday to make dinner, bring over a crock pot meal for Sunday, and spend some time with her.

We were telling Luc that Aunt Dominique was coming and we would see her next weekend when we came back to Bonne Maman and Bon Papa's house. Luc remembers Dominique from multiple visits (us there, her here) and enjoys seeing her.  Bonne Maman wasn't sure if Luc remembered exactly who she is, so she began to describe her. "She's the one with no hair."
Luc remembered and asked if she always had no hair. Bonne Maman started telling a story about how when Dominique was Luc's age their neighbor had a fire in their house. This traumatized Dominique and was scared of fire for a long time. About a year or more later she started to lose her hair. They used to think it was the trauma and stress from her fear of fire, but now they believe it's an autoimmune disease. We were trying to explain to Luc what that disease is by saying it's when your cells in your body start fighting with other cells.
Luc said how that must've been scary for her and Bonne Maman shared how she used to get made fun of by other kids.

While were talking to him more about it on the way home, I was reminding him how sometimes she's wears wigs or hats, but other times in the house she doesn't wear anything at all. He told us, "I like her better with no hair."
He then said his ukulele teachers has no hair and wears hats and asked if he had the same thing as Dominique. His teacher is in his 30's, and we said probably not. He probably just shaves it because he doesn't like having hair on his head. Then Luc asked what "special tool" do you need to do that. Frederic began to tell him how he uses a hair trimmer when he does Luc's hair, but to make it all bald you use a razor like what Daddy uses to shave his face.

The next day we told Luc he needed a hair cut (Frederic always cuts it). And that's when Luc asked if he could shave his head to look like Dominique. We said he could if he wanted to, but we would go little at a time and have him look to make sure he kept wanting it shorter.
I asked Luc why he wanted to be bald and he said it's because he felt bad for Dominique and doesn't want her to feel alone. ---There's my sweet-hearted Luc! 💙

So we cut and cut... Frederic couldn't bare to take a razor, but Luc was ok with that.

Luc loves his "bald" head and keeps asking if he can cut it this short all the time from now on.

*Luc was student of the week in class and had to carry around a Cat in the Hat wherever he went that week and take pictures.

This winter has been pretty stagnant. We've shared colds and coughs (Luc had an ear infection; Frederic and I got bronchitis), and spent many days and weekends inside.

Aria willingly laying on the couch in the afternoon...because she's sick.

And while Luc and Aria now play together and create their own games, it also means they fight even more. Aria gets bossy, Luc thinks he knows better than her and tries to control her, Aria will not have anyone controlling what she does or thinks, and so they fight, kick, hit, and scream...then someone ends up crying.

We finally got a warm 65 degree day yesterday, but since it was raining, we still couldn't enjoy it much. But since we weren't in an arctic freeze, we decided to use our pool membership and visit the indoor pool for the afternoon. What a brilliant idea! Except Aria has turned into our accident-prone child.
First, why does a kiddie pool area have tables and chairs for people to use up 2 concrete stairs that are slippery and barely have a traction strip at the ends of them? Nevertheless, they do. And Aria was going back and forth to find different toys. I went up to the table with her and caught her from falling down the stairs one time. The second time, my reflexes weren't fast enough. And the kids wonder why I tell them to be careful and be aware of their surroundings! Aria grabbed a toy, was turning around to head toward the pool, forgot there were 2 concrete stairs, and fell face forward, landing on her hand (the top side of her hand, not palms). sigh.
With her crying (for 30 seconds because she has some weird super power in regards to pain), I picked her up and thought only her knees were messed up. Nope, she started saying her hand hurt and as I looked at the top of her hand, I see a big cut and it instantly turned blue/purple. I took her to front desk for ice and a band aid. The woman was testing to see whether Aria would hold something in that hand since she was holding it strangely and close to her body, like people do when it's broken. She recommended I take her for an x-ray at an urgent care to be sure it's not broken. Of course it was swollen as well. So I put some ice on it, and she and I got dressed.
Aria fell asleep on the car ride home. So we let her sleep while we showered and I bathed Luc. Since she had started to use her hand and bend her wrist before we left, we decided to see how she used it in the bath to determine whether to take her to the urgent care. I took the band aid off and it didn't look as bad. She was using her hand like normal, so we decided not to take her. We did use some left over gauze wrap from her burns to keep a bandage on and kind of immobilize her wrist. But by the next day at Grandma's, she was asking to take it off.
Seems we lucked out on this one and it's only cut and badly bruised. Whew!

Other Updates:

-Aria is 100% diaper-free (we're using up the last Pull Ups for night time, but she wakes up dry every morning)
-Luc got a great report card for school! He also got a bonus question on a classwork and no one else in the entire class got it right except him. He informed me, "It was easy."
-Luc continues to do really well playing his ukulele. He also taught himself how to play Frere Jacques on the keyboard we set up, by ear.
-Aria's new favorite things: Trolls movie, play-doh creations, pretending to be in school

-Luc's new favorite things: singing along to Trolls in the car, learning and playing around with the keyboard
-We've had many mini jam sessions in the house in the evenings:

-Making crepes with Daddy on the weekends

Aria eating the butter

-Pretending to be in school with school-teacher Daddy. He teaches the alphabet, colors, numbers, shapes in English and French! He also teaches about Belgium.

So the winter continues. Frederic impatiently waits for a big snow storm. I impatiently wait for Spring. Aria impatiently waits for next Fall when she starts school, and Luc impatiently waits for Summer when he can go to the beach, and ride his bike all evening long.

What Did We Just Do?!

The first day of the new year was extremely cold. Like high of 10 degrees, wind chill feels like 8-- cold. It hurt to just look outside.
Luc was invited to have a play date at Noah's house across the street after lunch. So off he went for four hours. While he was away, Frederic and I got to spend some one-on-one time with Aria.

In the last week or so we've been dropping more and more hints to Aria that she needs to start using the potty (she has to be 100% trained to start school in the Fall). At her birthday party, the Grandmas were talking to her about it too.
I already bought princess underwear quite awhile ago when they were on sale. I showed them to Aria last month, but she didn't really care.
Monday, I mentioned again to Aria about wearing underwear and she suddenly got really excited. So I ran with it. I showed her the stash, and she picked out a pair and insisted she wear it right then and there!
And so prompted the spontaneous day of starting to potty-train Aria. Luc has been a great helper. He will encourage Aria to go to the bathroom, he will come with her for support (?), he reminds her to wipe and flush, and also helps her wash her hands by pushing up her sleeves, turning on the water and getting her the soap (not that she can't do it herself, but she likes when he helps her). And then they both ask for an M&M or Raisinette when they're done.

After 6 years of continuous diaper changes, it feels quite strange not doing it anymore. But a total welcomed change! My kids are all grown up and aren't babies anymore :-(

...so here we go! ...