Maxwell finally gets his flu shot

I wondered if he would be excited once it actually happened... He handled it better than I would have ever imagined.  Way to go bud!

Video - Maxwell got his flu shot and he was awesome!

Who is this little boy and where did my baby go???

The Halloween fun continues!!

We have had so much fun in October.  As I am going back to blog all about it, I am reminded about what a full month it was.  I don't think we've ever done so many fall/Halloween activities!

Maxwell has achieved all the skills in his current swim level - that means he's going to graduate to the next level!

Ready to go to class

Max and the best swim coach ever - Coach Katie.  She was annoying to me (it makes sense when I learned that she was 16 because her approach in communicating with me was what irritated me the most - she just didn't know any different) when we first started lessons but I have grown to love her and she and Maxwell have a special relationship.  Can't have anyone else but her teach Maxwell!

Maxwell with his certificate of graduation!  He's moving on to Level 5!! We are quite excited that he didn't get stuck in level 4 for a long time.  Katie's done a great job of continuing to challenge him even though he was a pro at the needed skills.

All handsome for school picture day

Here's how the pictures turned out.  I didn't like them enough to buy any so all I have is the proof sheet.

Every once in awhile we have a little fun at work.  I was out at retail and lunch with some of my team and my Perfetti client and we some how came up with the crazy idea of doing a little food eating competition.  So we all tried to eat as many of the cheese puff balls in a minute as we could.  I don't remember who won, but I know it wasn't me.  I laugh too much at what everyone else is doing to focus only on what I'm doing.

Back at work we had our annual Halloween celebrations with people dressing up in costumes and decorating their work areas/departments.  For the first time, we also were able to bring in our kids to "trick or treat" through the office.  So Brittany brought all the kids up after Maxwell got out of preschool and they got LOADED up with goodies.  We had so much stuff that we had to empty everyone's bags out in my office at one point and then kept going.

Landen the farmer, Hayden the bat, Maxwell the pirate, Momma the daily, and Emmalyn the cute Halloween baby

Trick or treat!

Cute kids!

It takes like 10 pictures that look like this with only one kid looking before you get one that is decent.

  

I thought we'd only be there for a short bit but the office is big and the kids kept wanting to do more... plus my kiddos are so cute that we were frequently slowed down by my friendly co-workers wanting to gush over their cuteness to me.  :)  We ended up finally getting out of there after 5:00.

But the fun didn't end there...that night there was a carnival at Maxwell's preschool.  They had lots of games for the kids to play with a bunch of non-candy prizes/treats.

Racing cars

Throwing the rings onto the pirate hooks

I think the adults were pretty impressed with his skills.  :)

Emmalyn got to expand her solid food choices to pears, which she enjoyed.  She is back to cooing and talking to herself before she goes to sleep.  I'm glad she's doing it because I enjoy laying there and listening to her after she nurses in the middle of the night.  Such a sweet girl...

Halloween Carnival and other fun festivities

 We enjoyed a Halloween Carnival, especially Maxwell.  He had a blast playing all the games and getting candy, of course.

Maxwell and I enjoying the Hayride.  He thought it was pretty cool.

So we were about done but we had bought some tickets to use and hadn't used them.  Maxwell had ZERO interest in riding rides (maybe he remembered when we made him do a ride last year?).   He had zero interest in doing a bounce house...the cotton candy machine was down...so the only thing we were left with was the cake walk.  

I had no idea what a cake walk was until we moved to Texas.  I think it's pretty silly but oh well.  For anyone who doesn't know, it's basically musical chairs but instead of taking a chair away, when the music stops the seats are all numbered and they pick a number.  The person sitting in that seat wins a cake or some type of dessert like brownies or a pie.

At first Maxwell wouldn't do it alone and I had to walk with him but after a couple times (and he wanted to keep going until we won) his confidence was up and he started doing it all alone.

Intently listening for who the winner was

Video - Maxwell doing the cake walk.  He's so little!!

He wasn't disturbed by the other costumes, he was so intent on winning.  Unfortunately we went through all 10 tickets and never won.  :(

At home the baby wasn't too happy that I was trying to give her avocados.  She does NOT like them.  She is so tiny in the high chair!

The 3 boys decorated their pumpkins.

Dad, Maxwell, and his pumpkin - - - a pirate for my little pirate.

Speaking of dressing up, can you find my cute husband in this pic?  

(from when he plays paintball)

Maxwell likes to pull my hair over my shoulder on one side and then say "you look like Elsa, Momma". :)  I sort of love it.

Maxwell has been struggling with staying dry during nap time at school the past 2 weeks and has had two accidents each week.  It's frustrating that they won't put a pull up on him and instead have to deal with completely changing his clothes and bagging up his wet clothes and nap mat (and then I have to wash everything so that it's clean for the next day).  Why not just let him use a pull up!?  ugh

At least he seems to be learning at school.  He is now writing some of his letters and as I've talked about, can write "MAX".  I think his experiences at school helped him do great at the carnival when we were standing in so many lines and he was so patient and well behaved each time.


Emmalyn is struggling with her naps during the day.  It's so frustrating and can take so much effort to keep trying to get her down.  The good news though is that she has no issues at night.  She is still up 2 - 3 times between 11 pm and 7 am to nurse.

She's solid in her ability to sit.  I'll let her just sit there and play for quite a long time.  She will move to her belly if she's done.  She also has the army crawl down.

A good day to go on a "date"

Emmalyn had her first baby play date with baby C, Andrea's son.  He's a couple months older than her but much bigger.  Most of the time I don't realize how small she is until she is around another baby.  

After Kindermusik class, I took Maxwell out for a Momma/Son lunch date.

 

We ate at Chipotle.  This is the first time he's ever eaten here and I was pretty impressed with their kid's meal!  He ate quite a bit of it.  I had so much fun just sitting and talking with Maxwell.  He's such a fun kid and I hearing how he is thinking.

We finished off with some Italian Water Ice at Rita's.  

That night we got "Boo'd" from a neighbor.

The kids were all excited.  Thank you kind neighbor!

I want a flu shot NOW!

On October 24th, Brittany brought the kids to my work so we could have lunch together and so that Maxwell and I could get a flu shot.  They were doing a flu shot clinic and the email said "family member welcome".  Great!  Maxwell and I can both be done at the same time.  

In anticipation of what would happen, I had been prepping Maxwell for his flu shot.  We talked about what would happen and how he could say "Ow" if it hurt.  He knew that when he came to visit Momma he would get a flu shot and he also knew (at least I thought he did) that it would hurt.

It was hard to get a chance to eat, so many people were stopping to coo over my darling little baby girl.  She was a big hit.  :)

Maxwell's lunch was more a group of things I knew he'd eat like strawberries, pickles, chicken, and cucumbers.

It is a really nice break from the regular work day to get to see the kids and have them come visit me.

Britt and Landen

So when it was time for our appt, Maxwell and I went to get our shots.  Well, as I was signing the paperwork the nurse let me know that they were only giving flu shots to adults.  (That was super irritating to me because the email said "FAMILY MEMBERS" welcome, not "Adult family members welcome".  Who would read that and not think that kids could come too?)  Anyway, Maxwell was extremely upset with the news and started crying and saying, "but I wanted a flu shot".  There were a couple other women in the room that were watching this transpire and I could see the shock on their faces that this little boy was devastated that he didn't get a flu shot.  Poor Maxwell was so sad.  He got a sucker from the nurse and that helped a little while he watched me get one (and he did watch the whole thing.  He laughed when he saw it...silly kid...).

Video - His reaction was so unexpected that when we walked out of the room, I had to capture it.  This is the best video EVER.

When he started throwing a fit I had to stop videoing so I could stop the fit since we WERE still at my work.  :)  The rest of our lunch was spent trying to cajole Maxwell.  I told him I would call his doctor and we would make an appt to get a flu shot.  I called right there when we were at the table so he KNEW he would be able to get a flu shot.  I love Maxwell, he makes me smile and his personality is so great.  I mean, what kid wants to get a flu shot?  My silly kid!

How many times can I talk about how cute Emmalyn is?

Normal life with my cute family - - Mid October 2014

Maxwell enjoying the accessories when we were out shopping for Halloween costumes.  Sometimes he is such a "boy" it catches me off guard.

Hanging with Daddy at the library

Daddy trying to read to them both.

Perfection

He caught one of the bubbles he blew!

Enjoying the warm fall weather

Those cheeks are something else

One of those major baby milestones - eating your feet

Video - She's so good at sitting up and spitting up.  It's disgusting and amazing all at the same time.

Nighttime routine - reading stories

Video - Maxwell has been doing awesome at swimming lessons.  After class, his coach asked if she could take him into the bigger section to see how he'd do with it.  He did awesome at swimming far!  I was impressed.  

She is so smiley but still doesn't laugh very much

It's nice to have clients who make great snacky food but not always good when you find yourself hungry because there's usually something within reach.  I've got my Perfetti Van Melle Airheads Bites, my General Mills Chex Mix, and all I needed to complete the picture would have been some Kraft peanuts!

Video - She's just so happy, even after midnight.  It's hard when she's engaging and being cute like this to turn off the light and go to bed.

I was working from home so I got to be around when she got a bottle (which usually doesn't happen)

I'm sure she was like, "you aren't supposed to be here right now"

Updates:
Maxwell actually did his own glue at school on a project!  This is a big deal since he hates getting his hands dirty.

He still stays in his bed even when he wakes up.  He will just sit there and call for us until we come and get him.

Maxwell can almost to showers by himself, he just needs a little help with his hair.  This feels like a huge accomplishment, to me!

He has staying dry during his nap for 2 days in a row at home.  That hasn't happened for a long time.  He gets to choose a prize out of the "prize bucket" if he stays dry but we haven't had to give out many prizes lately.  (And that's why we still put him in pull-ups at home during nap time and nighttime.)  He stays dry most of the time during nap time at school, I don't know why he can't do it at home!  Lately he has been saying that he will keep his pull-up dry when he is 16.  I sure hope it's not that long!

Instead of saying the word "Disgusting" he says "Bisgusting" and instead of "Remember" he said "Demember"

He is really excited about going to school in the morning, which I love!

He is so polite!

Emmalyn used to suck my face (cheeks) when she was hungry and now she nose dives towards my boobs.  When Maxwell was nursing, he used to draw circles almost with his fists and then would punch my boobs.  Emmalyn however will grab them and squeeze.   I'm just a punching bag. :)

On Oct 17 Emmalyn really started getting up on her knees often and she does it a ton.  She ends up pushing forward a little and getting to what she wants but it's not full on crawling yet.

She has a horrendous mad scream.  It makes Peter nuts.

I gave Emmalyn some avocado to eat and she did NOT like it.  She DID like it when I gave her a little drink of water though.

She can finally take her vitamin drops without choking when they go in her mouth (which is nice because they smell like the iron in them and stain everything)

She's big enough that I gave her a bath in the baby bathtub without the infant sling.

She's not a cuddler unless she is really tired.

She's great at going to sleep at night and will sometimes roll to her belly when she's sleeping but not always.

Right now, she's not as talkative as she used to be.