Tornadoes and Bunnies

Things are good here. As I'm sure many of you saw, we had some tornado (tornadic?) action early in the week. I like to think of it as a personal welcome from the meteorological forces of Fort Worth. We lived less than 3 hours away for 4 years and never even had a tornado watch. We live here for less than 3 weeks and get sirens and lock-downs and semi trucks being tossed about in the air a few short miles away. I watched the sky turn black and green from my office on the 19th floor, hearing stories about how a tornado ripped apart downtown Fort Worth a few years ago, tearing apart the building that sits right next to my kids' downtown daycare. Excellent.

Luckily the tornadoes stayed pretty clear of Fort Worth. Even more luckily, despite the destruction and the jaw-dropping footage of multiple truck trailers being tossed about in the sky, no one was killed. The kids' daycare moved all the kids to a downstairs, internal room, mostly under the stairs. The teachers, in all their wisdom, brought books, flashlights, and snacks and called it a camp-out. Landon thought it was awesome and asked to do it again the next day when I picked him up.

Thursday marked the first day Claire didn't sob like her heart was breaking at daycare drop-off. There was a whimper and a little extra snuggle, but she went willingly to her teacher and marched off in the direction of the other toddlers. Thank god, I was losing hope that I'd ever get out of that building without severe emotional trauma.

Thursday was also the Easter party/egg hunt. Parents were invited and I knew I had to be there on time because Claire was going to lose it if a whole bunch of mommies showed up and hers did not. When I walked in the room, she dropped her cookie and juice and yelled, "MAMA!!" at the top of her lungs. She refused to be more than 2 inches away from me while in the classroom, and glared and barked "mama" at anyone who dared to make eye contact with me. So all my pictures are very close up:

 

Until she got her basket and immediately converted it to a weapon. This picture captures Claire perfectly. All the other kids, sweetly holding their baskets, and Claire whipping it around in glee.

 

We proceeded to the hunt, where Claire was highly skeptical of her need to separate from me to grab an egg. She finally complied with all the well-intentioned fun, selecting a purple egg and then showed it to me like, "there, I got it, all done now?"

 

She ended up grabbing a few more, getting into it enough to exclaim, "Ohhhh!" every time she spotted one in the grass. We said goodbye to the teachers and parents, Claire blew her usual enthusiastic kisses to the group, and proceeded upstairs to collect Landon. Claire marched in his room like she owned the place.

 

Seriously. All the older kids know her and fed her ego with exclamations of, "Clairebear! Clearbear is here!"

With Landon collected, off we went at 4:30 in the afternoon, bunnies, baskets, and backpacks in hand for an evening filled with special treats courtesy of Papa and Gigi.

My parents had mailed the kids bunnies and $20 each for Easter. The kids got the bunnies but JP and I appropriated the $40 to treat the family to burgers and frozen yogurt in the middle of the week, a previously unheard of luxury. I realized we might be a bit strict on the "no dessert" thing when Landon nearly fainted when we handed him a frozen yogurt cup all of his own to fill with toppings. Best moment of his life right there.

in their favorite spot on Landon's (little, twin) bed

I'm about to embark on a baking frenzy for our parties this weekend. I'm blessed with some really great co-workers, most of whom live less than a mile away. We have an egg-hunt with one family this afternoon and then brunch with another tomorrow. Several stopped by to make sure we had plans for the weekend. Most are transplants from D.C., either the home office or other firms, so they know what it's like to feel displaced and like us, none have family nearby, which is very different from most of the families we knew in Austin. I'm not sure if I've said it yet, but nothwithstanding a few tornadoes, we really love it here.