Gorgeous winter days - End of January 2016

Peter took Maxwell to school because I had some early meetings at work and apparently they forgot to brush his teeth.  Well, he remembered on the way to school and was really upset about it and didn't want to have bad breath at school.  Peter texted me about it and so when I was out of my meetings, I went over to Max's school and brought him some mints that could make his breath fresher and learned that his dad had given him a couple mints to eat before school too.  I was sad that Maxwell was so upset about it but also had a little bit of a proud mom moment that brushing his teeth was so important to him.  

Hanging out playing with chalk along with Landen and Logan, our next door neighbor

Maxwell upset about something.  He gets very good sad faces when he's upset.  

The house behind us isn't progressing at all. It's nice to not have someone living there but annoying to keep looking at it like this.

I tried to get them to hold hands.  ha!

Max blew bubbles for his sister

We put Emmalyn's big convertible car seat into the car.  It seems so big compared to the infant carrier.  It will be nice to not have to carry the infant seat all the time.  Now, Emmalyn will use a big seat in my car and Brittany's car and then use the infant carrier in Peter's car.  Up to this point, she's gone with Peter in the mornings in the carrier and then I bring her home in it from Brittany's.  It's been sort of a pain.

We went out to dinner at BJs.  It wasn't torture.  Eating out it starting to be a little bit enjoyable.

We let Emmalyn play on the ipad to keep herself entertained.  Max was good just engaging with us.

video - Emmalyn counts to 13

Playing video games while rocking his beanie, tie, and stylin' socks.  :)

Max got to try tang for the first time and loved it

We went to our neighbor Michael's 2nd birthday party.

She loved the cake

Emmalyn wanted to right next to the birthday boy when he opened his presents.

I watched Julianne on "Grease, Live!" with Mary Ann.  It was fantastic and fun to watch with a friend.  Julianne did a great job.

Another one of the cute things max has said... we were in his bed doing the bedtime routine and he wanted his dad to come in and called for him.  I asked if he wanted to cuddle with me and he goes, "I'll cuddle with you until dad arrives."

4th week of January 2016

So January is almost over but in some ways the Christmas Holidays are still going on in my house.  Emmalyn LOVES to sing Jingle Bells and watch Frosty the Snowman.  (Max loves the movie too.)  It's all about the Christmas songs in January!  We listen to Jingle Bells over and over and over in the car.

I was out doing yard work and found this not-so-awesome break in the drip line for my sprinklers.  Some stinking bunny just HAD to see how it tasted.  But huge kudos to Peter who saw it, was immediately confident on how to fix it, and got it handled like it was nothing!

I finally took down the Christmas decorations... sad to put the holidays away but such a relief to have my house all nice and clean again.

When I was putting away the ornaments, I realized that this beautiful ornament my mom made for me and my siblings in 2010 was cracked.  This was the last ornament I got from her before she passed and I was super bummed to see it had cracked (maybe from the heat in the attic where I keep all the decorations?).  :(  I've separated it and will need to figure out how to save it before I use it again.  I'm super sad.

Good bye stocking and animated animals

Goodbye Christmas card door that was a fun reminder of how many great people we have in our lives.

Take 1

I tried to get a cute picture of both of the kids at Home Depot but it's never easy to get them both looking at the same time and smiling and looking cute.  :)

Take 2

Take 3

Take 4 - I give up!

Rockin' her shades

I took Maxwell shopping with me at Gymboree.  For the most part he did great and it wasn't as painful as I was expecting.  He was excited to pick out a shirt for Valentine's Day.

That hair in the morning!

We went shoe shopping as a family and I handed Little Miss my phone and she took a few pictures and a video that I found later.  

Maxwell graduated to the next level at his swimming lessons!  I wanted to get a picture of his card all filled out with his accomplishments but they had already cleaned it off when we got there.  (They were clearly planning on him moving up today.)  Here we come Level 7!

Getting to ring the bell and getting his certificate

Playing on the indoor playground...

(There are two days a week when Max and Landen are both in preschool, Hayden is in elementary school, and it's just Brittany and Emmalyn.)

... and playing outside too.  

It's awesome when days are sunny and warm in winter and you don't need a jacket!

Video - Emmalyn throwing a fit over her food.  Sometimes she isn't cute and fun.

We started Kindermusik again this week.  We are going to a different location with a new teacher, Ms Carolyn.  She's awesome.  In some ways she looks like my mom and she's so fantastic with the kids.  I really, really like her and her style of teaching.  Both Maxwell and Emmalyn are taking classes now.  Max still has his KiddieKeys piano lessons during the week with one of our old Kindermusik teachers, Ms. Leah.

This week, Max had a rare accident at school.  It's been a really long time since he had an accident.  Poor kid.
Max sometime struggles to look through his glasses, he lets them fall down his nose and looks over them since they are blurry to him.
We have added something to my nighttime routine with Maxwell.  I now ask him 3 questions at night.  #1 - What was your favorite part of the day #2 - What was your least favorite part of the day #3 - What is one nice thing you did for someone today.  He rarely comes up with an answer, but I keep asking because I'm trying to build a behavior with him and emphasize the importance of helping others.

I think Emmalyn may be teething again because the drooling is picking back up again.
She will say, "why momma" or "why daddy" when asking why.
She hasn't had much dinner lately.
Emmalyn is tired super early lately.  In face, I put her down at 5 this past weekend thinking that she would take short nap and she never woke up and stayed asleep all night.
Emmalyn is strong at being wiggly when she wants to escape, so strong willed!!!

3rd week of January 2016

Pretty normal, non-exciting winter week

Rockin a puffer vest to school

Emmalyn and I went and enjoyed some delicious scone and candied bacon at Tida's shop.  They do it once a month on a Saturday but we never get to go because there's always Kindermusik.  But, we had a break so we went!

It was fun to visit with both Tida and Jason while we were there.

cousins

Maxwell is doing awesome at swimming lessons.  He's swimming the whole length of the pool, no problem and really working on improving his strokes.  He does freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, and his coach just introduced the kicks for the butterfly.  He did awesome with them and she was pretty stunned.  He just seems to have a natural talent for swimming

We went to Max's pediatrician because he's been having problems with his bum being irritated, red, itchy, and hurty... to the point that he doesn't want to sit on it and we've tried oils, making sure he wipes his bottom well, and diaper cream and it's not getting better.  Turns out he had rectal strep.  Did you know you could get a strep infection in places other than your throat?  Yup... you can.  One of the great little things I've learned in motherhood.

He weighs 38.8 lbs.  Growing up!

I took him to lunch after the doctors.  It sure is fun spending time with him.

The other day, Max was pooping (which can be a 15 minute process) and he called to me, so I go in there an ask if he's done pooping yet and he says, "not yet, I just wanted to tell you I love you."  :)  ...and my heart melted.  He is an affectionate boy and has no problem giving hugs and telling people that are important to him that he loves them.