A couple weekends ago I got to take Mason and Brody to Chick fila's mother/son date knight. It was such a cute night. They had valet parking and someone to greet us at a podium next to a Knight when we walked in. We were taken to a special line to order food and then were taken to our seats. The tables were covered with tablecloths and each boy got to decorate a family shield. I didn't have to get up one time to get anything - the employees were dressed up and walking around to tend to our every need. They brought out our food on plates and we enjoyed a great meal and great company. There was a photo booth to capture the night and they gave the boys flowers to give their moms. The boys seemed to have fun although they were very confused why someone else was driving our car :)

I love the idea of going on "dates" with my boys. I want them to learn how they should behave and how they should treat their future lady friends (WAY in the future). Anyone who knows our family knows how much we love Chick fila (most of the staff know us by name which is pretty sad) but this is one of the many reasons why we love it - such a great company that promotes family. I hope they do it again next year!

At 11 months you are...

*sleeping about the same at night although you had a stretch of some early mornings this month - thankfully you are back to your normal 7:30ish wake up time
*taking 2 naps a day - the morning one is usually around an hour to an hour and a half and the afternoon one is typically an hour and a half to 2 hours.
*loving table food and hardly eating baby food anymore. You love strawberries, grapes, chicken nuggets, yogurt, and any kind of cereal or cracker. You still have 2 bottles of formula every day and otherwise eat at regular meal times. I plan to take away at least one of the bottles this month and the other one next month
*you got another tooth - this time on top. It came in April 7th but there is still no sign of the one next to it on top although it looks like it will pop through any day.
*you are becoming quite a bit more high-maintenance it seems - your laid back personality doesn't seem to be as strong as it once was :) You are not as patient in the car when we run errands and you will definitely get upset if we take something away from you
*doing great at church/MOPS for childcare. You cry when I leave but they say you do well and are happy while I'm gone
*started playing with a push toy and are doing pretty well at walking behind it although you won't go more than 4 or 5 steps
*moving around very well now - can get to where you want to go and have attempted the stairs a few times, although you did fall a couple weeks ago from a few steps up and got a nice size bruise on your forehead (mom felt terrible about that one). You haven't really tried the stairs since then.
Speaking of falls - you also had a nasty fall at a friend's house while standing up against their front screen door. Someone opened the door and out you fell, head first on the concrete porch. You scraped up your nose and above your top lip pretty badly - that combined with your bruise, and scratches on your forehead from the fall made for a sad site.
*you do this thing where you cock your head to your right shoulder - it started out as just a thing you did when you were bashful or flirting, but now you do it all the time.
*you can sign "more" and understand a lot of words now. I know you understand bath, eat, bottle, dog, bye bye, dance, and shake

*you become more and more fun with each day - your brothers love to play with you and make you laugh

I was very determined this year to help the boys understand more about the actual reason behind Easter - not just the egg hunts. Actually a song that Mason learned at preschool sums it up pretty well (and its one I want to remember because Mason taught it to Brody who is hilarious when he sings it)
"I'm a bunny..and its not funny...people think its all about hunting eggs...I'm a bunny...and its not funny...listen, sunny...Easter is all about J.E.S.U.S...JESUS!"

I had heard about Resurrection Eggs and thought we would give them a try. It turned out to be a great, simple way for the boys to learn about different aspects of the Easter story. They would look forward to seeing what was in the egg each night. We also used The Jesus Storybook Bible (which I HIGHLY recommend to anyone looking for a kids Bible) as we went through the story.

finding out the last egg is empty...

Here are some other pics of our fun Easter holiday...