Easter Day with Grandma and Grandpa Schultz

Easter was a very nice, low key day. We went to church with my parents and spent time together before we had to fly back to Nashville.


Liam had been demonstrating such intense interest in our vibrating toothbrushes that we got him a kiddy one of his own for Easter


We went for Easter brunch at my parent's church. Liam wasted no time crawling around the little play gym they had, and making friends with an older girl who quite sweetly took him down the slide as often as he wanted


Playing on the gym gives Liam crazy hair just before church


Their church has a great soundproof childrens room where you can see the service


Liam was determined to unload all the toys from the big toy bin at church


Back home with Grandma and Grandpa


Liam giving Mama some snuggles


Getting friendly with Harley the dog


After changing out of his church clothes, Liam plays with Grandma. How does this triangle fit in here?


With great persuasion, we get the bunny ears on him. Briefly.


Learning about being gentle when petting Harley

Getting an Easter Basket

This year Liam's Easter basket was put together special for him by his Aunt Robyn. It was a completely sweet surprise when she came up the walkway with a stunning basket full of thoughtful things for Liam.




Liam wastes no time exploring his basket of goodies. It included some delicious organic yogurt melts, plastic eggs with goldfish crackers in them, and some organic baby smoothies (which came in real handy on the flight).


After shaking the eggs and popping all their contents out on the lawn, he was interested in the edible pink "grass" at the bottom of the basket


I love how he looks like a farmer chewing a blade of grass in this one


Grandma's keys are not nearly as tasty


Looking sassy in Aunt Robyn's glasses

Visiting Grandma and Grandpa Schultz

After we finished up in Evanston, we took the train up to Wisconsin to spend the rest of the weekend with my parents for Easter. Liam and my parents have a mutual love affair going, so they pretty much spent the whole time loving on each other. It really makes my heart sing to see my mother playing with Liam.


Playing with Grandma with pots and pans


Raiding Grandma's well ordered pantry


Grandma gave me a frozen yogurt ice cream sandwich and it was delicious

Then we took the dog for a walk and I helped!


We went to a park with slides that were just my size! Wheeee!


The park had cool rocking cars. I took a blue sports car for a ride.


Hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa

A day in the life of Evanston...

We were only in Evanston briefly, just about two days, but it was a wonderful drink for the soul to be around all our old friends again. We tried to both be easy going and to make sure we got to spend quality time with lots of folks. All together, it was a lovely visit, and I am really looking forward to our next one.

Breakfast started out with a visit from Uncle Brian, Terry's old friend from high school and college


Liam liked him right away


For lunch Mom and Dad took me to Flattop Grill where I got my own bowl of tasty stir fried veggies


This weird wooden fork does not work well at all


My afternoon nap got all screwed up, so I wound up falling asleep in the stroller on my campus tour


We stop by the Sociology Department party, where I charm grad students and professors with my cute smile.


That's a funny looking bottle you got there lady. Can I have some?


For dinner we went with some of Mama and Daddy's friends to Dave's Italian Kitchen. Excuse me! Waiter?


Liam gets to meet his baby friend Zeke now that they are both big boys


At night we all go to spend time with Uncle Keith and Aunt Emily. They are super fun!


Especially that Aunt Emily, she really knows how to get me giggling!

Dining al fresco

I think years from now, when I look back on our time in this house, what I will remember most fondly is our back deck. More evenings than not, we wind up eating together on the back deck. Most mornings Liam also takes his breakfast out on the back porch. It is my favorite living space, and the beautiful Tennessee spring weather makes sure we get good use out of it.


He has been fascinated by doors and door knobs for a while, but if the door has any heft he still cant get it open by himself




Liam's favorite vegan sesame noodles from our local health foods grocer, the Turnip Truck. Watching him slurp up noodles is a comedy show


Eating cut up omelet on the back porch for breakfast


Early morning light on our neighbor's flowering tree and storage shed


For a while we were letting the yard go wild (because our lawn mower got stolen). It had a really beautiful meadow look to it.

The close up view


Liam in the meadow with a daffodil that grew wild

Enjoying the Evanston beach

The first week of April Terry and I were fortunate to both be flown back to Northwestern to give talks at the Sociology prospective students week. We managed to visit Evanston during an unseasonably warm week. While Terry was giving his presentation (and I was on Liam duty), I met up with our good friend Lori, another grad student, for "coffee" which turned out to be walking around downtown Evanston before we headed down to enjoy some time on the beach. Because we don't exactly have large lakes in Nashville, this was Liam's first time on a beach since we moved from Chicago, and probably the first time he explored the beach sand as a conscious and curious little individual.

It was very fun to see him try to understand the sand. He dug his hands and feet into it, seeming to enjoy how the temperature varied as he dug down below the sun-warmed top sand.

It was a completely lovely way to spend a morning, and as much as anything, it made me feel homesick for the community we had in Chicago.









Liam hanging out with our dear friend Lori and her daughter Anna. There was much swapping of dried cereal snacks between Anna and Liam, and in the end everyone wound up satisfied (and having eaten a teaspoon of sand).

Friend's birthday party

Just before Easter, Liam was invited to the one year birthday party of one of his friends from playgroup. It was a beautiful spring day out in a pavilion in the park right by our house. The babies chased balloons around and then we all hung out on blankets and picnic tables enjoying sandwiches and fruits. Well, actually Liam decided he wanted to eat off of everyone else's plate rather than his own, even though the food was identical!


Liam loved the baby balloon tent


Liam plays balloons with the birthday boy


Liam's friend Asher hangs out in the field of Easter eggs.


Asher's brother Evan works with the bigger kids to find all the eggs


Liam just found two eggs and occupied himself with them completely


He was mostly interested in taking the two halves apart and trying to put them back together


Liam and his friend Rowan, another January baby, discuss the finer points of Easter eggs


Liam really wanted to get the noisemakers to toot, but mostly he just made Darth Vader breathing sounds into it