Celebrating Max's first 4th of July

We got up early on the 4th of July to go run in a 5k race.  At 7:30 it was already over 80 degrees. I have to remember that the summer months are NOT the best time to do 5k's in Texas.  (And who in their right minds picks a route with a big hill at the END of the race?!)  We did the race with our friends Jess and John (and C).  Mainly we saw them before the race and after the race.  They were faster during the race than we were.  :)

Max is all ready to go

Kinda sleepy

Peter's ready to crush this thing!  Okay, not really.  He was a good husband and stuck with his slower paced wife.

It ended up being a good race for me.  I beat the goal I'd set, which made me happy.  Especially because I thought my goal was aggressive based on my limited training.  Max was a trooper and was happier than last time but that was probably because Peter fed him bread throughout the race.  Our time was 44:16.

It was hot at the end of the race but we found some shade and visited with our friends.  We enjoyed Gatorade and yogurt while we recovered.  Max enjoys yogurt so he got most of that.  :)

Yogurt face

Family picture - whoops, Max got shy

There we go!

We went home and enjoy hanging out together for awhile.  Then for dinner we went over to Brittany's house.

Sneeze!  Right when Momma went in for a kiss

Max is playing catch.  This is him about to "throw" it.  He will tilt his hand forward until the balls rolls out of it.  So cute.  :)

Hayden's crazy face!

Landen's crazy face!

Max enjoyed some watermelon for dinner

Ahhhhhh dinner was amazing.  Brittany made BBQ chicken (with Grandma Nelson's fantastic BBQ sauce), baked beans, corn on the cob, watermelon, and garlic bread.

 After dinner both families headed out to FC Dallas stadium for soccer and fireworks!

We had GREAT seats on the side of the stadium that doesn't face the setting sun which helped a little with the temperature.  The bad part of our seats was that #1 we were close to the loud speakers and #2 every seat around us was filled with screaming, excited fans.  These two things meant that our great seats were horrible for Max.  I bought wax ear plugs for his ears but they didn't work and kept falling out.  So every time something was said over the loud speakers or the crowd cheered (i.e. screamed), Max was terrified and would cling to us and scream.  It was so sad.  :(  I felt awful that he was so affected by it.  To be fair, it was past his bedtime.  Eventually I just nursed him and he fell asleep.  When he woke up later in the game, he did better with the noises.

Scared, crying Max

Landen, Britt, Hayden, and Joe

Peter, Kallie, Wiggle-Max

Note the kid in the row in front of us with the pink hair?  Max kept trying to grab at his hair.

After the game they did firework.  It was a fantastic display!  We watch these firework last year but from outside the stadium.  It was fun to be inside the stadium this year.  Unfortunately the fireworks terrified Max again.  He kept turning to look at them and then would get scared again.  He was so scared he would grab onto you and try to climb up you in an effort to get away.  Again, eventually it was so awful seeing him scared like that without being able to calm him down so again I resorted to nursing.  Thank goodness for that!!

:(  Poor scared Max

Watching a little bit

He crashed as soon as we got in the car to drive away.  It's hard because I want him to be able to experience some things that require him to be up past his bedtime but on the flip side I feel bad keeping him up when I know he just wants to go to sleep.  If I was a better parent, I guess I would stay home so that could go to bed and just plan on doing these sorts of things when he's older.  But I'm not a better parent.  I still want to feel like we, not Max's schedule, have control of our lives.  So what ends up happening is most of the time, the schedule reigns.  But we do make exceptions!

Splish Splash

Before we get to the cutest pictures ever, here's a couple from Brittany's.

Max pulling his sad, pouty face

Max and his aunt Brittany

Bath time is getting more and more fun.  (That is until the point when I was the soap out of Max's hair and he freaks out no matter how I do it.)  Look how stinking cute this boy is!!!

Our usual bathtime routine is to play for a little bit, usually with the bath toys and sometimes with splashing.  Then I wash him up.  He loves touching the bubbles on my hand when I rub them together with the soap.  His hair comes last and I've tried multiple methods for rinsing it out but nothing has worked yet.  He still gets upset about any water getting in his face or me holding him so that I can keep the water out of his face.  When I'm done, we call for Dad and Peter comes to get Max out of the bath.  I help Max jump up to his dad and Peter wraps him in the towel and takes him off to put on his PJs while I drain the tub and clean up the toys.

21st Century Torture

If you are looking for an effective way to torture someone, I have your solution!  Take a 10 month old to a design center and try to keep him happy, entertained, and away from anything he could break FOR THREE HOURS!!!  aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh

Thank goodness for my amazing husband.  I can not sing his praises enough.  While I sat there trying to decide big choices like which granite I wanted in my kitchen to little things like what grout to use for the tile in the upstairs bathroom he took care of Max and offered opinions on my choices.  It was a LONG appointment and by the end I had a hard time caring anymore, I just wanted it to be done.  I had enough of making choices about tile, grout, paint, carpet, etc.  Thank you, Babe!!!

This are the samples for our media room - carpet, cabinets, paint color, and the darker corian color will be on the snack bar.

Our hand scraped hardwood floors

Our kitchen - the tile on the floor will be on the floor, the granite, the cabinets, and then the tumbled marble 4x4 sample will be the back splash with the cigar shaped piece on the right framing the marble tile behind the range.  (this may totally confuse you -sorry)

Our master bed/bathroom - tumbled marble around the tub, tile on the floor and shower, and carpet for the bedroom

 After all that drama (and headache) we came home and made dinner.  Tilapia with steamed broccoli and quinoa.  YUM!  I took some of the quinoa and blended it with the broccoli for Max's dinner.  It's fun that he can eat more of the things we eat.

Hello, July!

We went back to look at the house again and for the third day in a row there were changes.  I am really amazed at how fast things move!!  On this visit they had painted the base boards.

The entry hallway looking toward the family room.

Max being a good sport.  Especially since it is warm and there's no A/C yet!

Little boy on a wood floor.

The columns on the back patio are all bricked now.

We came home and got ready to go enjoy the hot summer day by taking a dip in the pool. 

Swimsuit on and ready to go!

Oh no!  What's that??? RAIN!  So much for our sunny day visit to the pool.

Max fell asleep in the car holding onto the tag of his toy.

Taking a nap, always with the arm out to the side

He rolled over and stuck his bum in the air

Cheese!

Movie - Two things I love that this video captures...#1 - the way his hands slap on the tile when he crawls, #2 - how he "throws" (or lets the ball roll from his hands)