Beetle‘s spring concert was today. We’ve known for quite some time that it was a farm-related theme as Beetle has been singing Old MacDonald and The Farmer in the Dell at home.

As has been the case for each of these events, we met Grammy and Poppy at Vineland High School. This performance had Beetle’s class on last before the finale. That meant this was going to be a late evening. Usually the younger students are on stage first and then parents are encouraged to take them home when their set is over. Going on last meant we were in for a late evening. For a school night, having two-year olds performing at 8:00 seems a bit late.

Beetle did well on stage. All the children wore blue jeans and red shirts. They were cute. Something happened with our video, so we don’t have that to upload. It’s a good thing we are purchasing the professional DVD of the event.

True to form, however, the car ride home was a scream-fest as the show’s star was very tired. This will be one thing we miss as Little Miss Beetle attends public school next year.

Having two children is more difficult than having one. When it was just Beetle, if our little girl acted up, we had two parents to deal with it. If one of us was frustrated, the other one could step up. With two children, that plan doesn’t work. This weekend, and particularly today, both children have been “off” and their parents are frustrated.

Beetle does not nap on the weekends and she needs to. When she doesn’t, she becomes whiney. Her behavior has been a bit rough to begin with of late. She has been rude and a bit aggressive.

Fritz has stomach issues. Yesterday he pooped a motherlode and we think he is not right yet. He has been up most of the day and fussy. Very fussy. He cannot get comfortable and has whined and cried all day.

Beetle and Fritz’s parents are spent. Beetle told me she didn’t want to kiss me goodnight. Earlier when I told her I loved her, her response was, “I love Mommy.” Sigh . . . Fritz is now overtired.

Here’s hoping tomorrow is a bit more calm.

After a week off, Beetle and I went back to the grind today; she to Little Acres and me to work. Sigh . . .

It was pouring rain as we left. Beetle’s OCD kicks in at times like these. Despite carrying her and rushing to the truck and getting drenched as I tucked our little girl in, she complained because her stockings had a few rain drops on them. Please . . .

Beetle was a bit needy once at school. A week off and she was out of sync. Miss Meghan was very good and got Beetle the fake vacuum cleaner. Beetle will run and cry any time the real vacuum is out, but she loves the fake one at school. Go figure . . . these are the things that make Beetle.

I picked up the fixin’s for a shrimp taco salad on the way home. It was pretty good.

Fritz did not sleep much during the day, which made for a tired Mommy. She had lots of company today as her work friends visited. Sure, she waited until we were out of the house to have a party. <lol>

After dinner Gert gave Little Miss Muffin a bath and I held the alert one. Fritz just fixates on our faces when we hold him. He is adorable.

I am trying to get into a routine of reading a bedtime story to both of the children. Unfortunately, the older one is sometimes rude. She kicked me out of her room and then would not let me read to her. Women! Eventually, she read a story to us. I took the Velveteen Rabbit for tomorrow, even if Beetle chooses not to sit in. 😛

Pretty soon I was the only one awake. Thank goodness tomorrow is Friday. I think I could become accustomed to a two-day work week.

Today Fritz had his first bath. It’s not like he hasn’t been cleaned in the four weeks he has been on the outside. Up until now, however, he has been sponge-bathed. This morning we used the baby tub that fits in the sink (Here is Beetle in the same tub. Don’t they look alike?).

Gert noticed the other day a birthmark Fritz has. He has a perfectly-shaped heart on his left side. He squirms when I try to take photographs of it. Someday I will get a clear shot of it.

Fritz was not as onboard with the plan for a tubby as Mommy was. He cried throughout. Beetle was interested in the process so we set up a chair for her to watch the activity.

Fritz made it through unscathed. We ate lunch and have conked out for the afternoon.

Beetle likes activity. We are not as active as school is. Mommy wanted to attend a Mommies and Me class about breast feeding today, so I planned an outing with Beetle. When Beetle heard, she wanted go immediately.

After lunch, Beetle and I headed to the Cohanzick Zoo. This is a free zoo in Bridgeton. I have always been impressed with this. It isn’t as big as the Cape May Zoo, but it is a lot closer.

Spring break has been chilly. Today was no different. Perhaps because it is still cold or perhaps because of funding issues, there seems to be some animals missing. Beetle didn’t mind. She was interested in monkeys. I knew there were some gibbons. Now, it appears there is but one. But we found lemurs and other monkey-like animals. The lemurs were given Easter eggs apparently as there were some in their area.

We saw a donkey, some llamas, and peacocks. There are peacocks and peahens all over as well as Canada geese. I was taken by the peacocks. Many of them displayed their feathers for us. The white tiger was hiding when we went by. The bear was asleep on the ground.

Beetle enjoyed all the exhibits. She liked things that moved the best. We saw the white tiger later from the other side. He played with big balls. We went around to see him since he was out. He stopped playing by the time we got there and just sat down. The big kitty is cute.

A peahen came right up to Beetle. That frightened our little girl. The hen was in pursuit of the cock who was calling her. They are loud. Perhaps it is mating season. We saw some lions and coatis too. Beetle would have liked to have seen an elephant, but there are none at this zoo.

There is a lot of walking here and Beetle eventually grew tired. I carried her the rest of the way. I think this was Beetle’s way of avoiding the goose poop. FWIW, Canada geese poop up to two pounds a day. Yes, this is an educational site too.

Afterwards, we headed down to Greenwich (site of a tea party) to look at the water. Daddy likes the water. I had met an old man several years ago that owns a house on the river that is very secluded. There was a benchmark there I wanted to see. Beetle was conked out by then.

Back in Millville we ran a few errands. Beetle was very helpful in putting stamps on the envelopes. We returned her Barbie movie and were going to select another. But Beetle spotted Peter Pan. She has been mentioning Peter Pan a lot recently. Perhaps she saw it at school. Unfortunately, what she saw was a DVD for sale. All of the rentals were checked out. Beetle doesn’t understand this. She was not interested in Barbie at that point. We’ll have to look for it later.

To soothe things over, we stopped for an ice cream on the way home. Beetle selects not by flavor, but by color. Since she wanted pink, I had to run through the options. I passed on bubblegum and hand-dipped strawberry. Beetle enjoyed the soft serve strawberry and I had butter pecan. We brought home a malted for Mommy.

For dinner, we had beer can chicken. This elicited a I really liked dinner comment, so I guess it was better than the lasagna. I made it with a $.20 can of birch beer.

It’s enjoyable to be on spring break. Unlike going to Florida, however, this break is full of waking up in the middle of the night and not really feeling rested. Fritz is a different baby than Beetle was. While Beetle cried the entire first month, she did feed well and sleep. Fritz is the opposite. He is a well-mannered boy, but he does not have Beetle’s sleep pattern and his feeding is inconsistent. This makes for grouchy parents.

Things are going well, but neither of us is at 100%.

Beetle likes to do things. She decided to cook for me. We played kitchen all morning. After a bit, I used the opportunity to play house too and we began cleaning Beetle’s room. Cleaning with a toddler is interesting. For every two steps forward, one takes at least one step backward. Eventually, however, things began to look better. Beetle grew tired at that point.

Fritz’s room is done. We like the room. The bright blue that I was very hesitant about looks nice. Gert did a wonderful job selecting colors. We had wanted a Phillies border, but the few we found we did not like. We ended up with a vintage style border. I like it a lot despite the Yankees being on it. Grrr . . .

This room is decidedly smaller than Beetle’s. It is full with a crib, two dressers, and a chair. The chair will eventually go I suppose, but the crib will become a bed. Fritz, you received short shrift when it came to your room. We have not decided on draperies yet.

For dinner, I made our cheesy lasagna. It earned only a good from my bride. It was better than that. I recommend the recipe. 😛

The Easter Bunny arrived and Beetle was eager to check out what it was all about. She had refused a couple times to sit on the large rabbit’s lap at the mall. Last year, as you will recall, she screamed the entire time. We think we have figured it out. Santa is human, therefore, is okay. The furry things are not. She shied away from the bear at her teddy bear party a few weeks ago, does not like the animals at the Derek D Clown shows, and despises the Easter Bunny.

But the bunny brought a basketful of gifts. She liked her sugar egg and her drawing pads. Of course, there was a chocolate bunny and some other candy.

Then it was time for the first egg hunt of the day. Beetle had dyed eggs the night before and decorated them with stickers. I hid those before she came downstairs along with eight plastic eggs that were filled with small candy. Beetle had a blast searching for the eggs! She’s indeed a geocacher.

Fritz wasn’t big on Easter this year. He did receive a big floppy blue bunny. This house has so many stuffed animals!

We then began getting ready for church. The four of us have only been out together once as a family. It is indeed an undertaking. Two diaper bags, car seat, bottles, gifts, Easter eggs, and of course, the Resurrection Salsa! We made a quick stop at Grammy and Poppy’s to drop off the food before heading to mass.

Fritz is very good in church; he slept the entire time. Beetle was a bit restless, but still good. On our way to receive communion, she bumped her head on the pew, which made her cry. It’s always something.

After mass, it was back to Grammy and Poppy’s. Aunt Kitty and I hit the salsa early as dinner was being prepared. Uncle Bob and cousins Sean and James came over. My my, James is a big boy! He’s clocking in at about 25 pounds at eight months. Beetle was eager to see Sean. She wanted to show him all the stuff she was playing with.

Aunt Amanda and Uncle Jesse came over. They brought Easter baskets for each child. More fun, more candy.

We ate dinner. With four children, we don’t all sit at the table at once. There’s lots to deal with as one child needs this, another that. Nevertheless, we managed our way through a ham dinner, which was very tasty.

Aunt Kitty hid more eggs for Sean and Beetle to find. Beetle got a head start and had to be convinced to leave eggs behind for Sean. There was a squabble at one point when Sean found a pink egg that Beetle wanted. We had to teach her about trading. Easter egg hunts are tiring. It was cold this year, so we didn’t hang out after finding the 40 eggs.

We had a wonderful time visiting, playing, and eating. We eventually went home and called it a day. We’re pooped.

Fritz is sleeping about three hours at a time through the night. He stirred at 6:30 a.m. When he did, Beetle woke up. Grrr . . . it was too early to be awake. I tucked her back in; Beetle has a habit of turning 90° during the night. I kissed her and told her to go back to sleep. Fortunately, she did.

Aunt Kitty decided on a whim to fly down for the holiday. Beetle looked forward to her arrival.

In the meantime, Mommy cleaned up some (we are learning that our little girl is the one responsible for most of the mess in this house). Daddy went grocery shopping.

Since Aunt Kitty is here, it was easy to determine to make the traditional Black Bean and Corn Easter Salsa for tomorrow. But Daddy was blind and thinking he had corn had to run out again as the creamed variety wasn’t going to cut it. Before he did, he put on a pot of chili. Daddy is perfecting his homemade recipe. It simmered for a few hours.

Beetle was happy to have a playmate today. Kitty and Beetle blew bubbles outside and ran about. As the chili simmered, Fritz and Daddy began watching the Mets-Braves game before settling into an afternoon snooze-fest. Once awoken (grrr!), Fritz was fed and Daddy made the Easter salsa.

Then it was time for eggs. Mommy had boiled many eggs and soon enough Beetle was dropping them into the dye. She did very well. The colors are very rich. Once they were dry, Beetle affixed Dora stickers to them. Tomorrow Beetle will hunt them as we will hide them later this evening.

Beetle went to bed well tonight. Afterwards, we had chili. Quite tasty, if I say so myself. I may enter the chilifest contest this year.