December is here!

Not quite a milk mustache...but a whipped-cream-on-top-of-egg nog mustache :)

Woah - - putting up the Christmas tree at the beginning of December?  I must be on the ball this year.

Emmalyn put up a few ornaments... and took down a bunch...and put up a few...and took down a bunch...

Maxwell helped out almost the whole time.  It was funny having him help this year instead of just stressful.

Maxwell calls this our "fake Christmas tree".  He's very specific.  Ha!

Putting the star on the top

Emmalyn playing at the little playground at the mall with Brittany during the day

Waiting for his flu shot

Video - (Even if you don't normally watch my videos, you should watch this one!) Max is initially happy about getting his flu shot... until he connects the dots and realizes it will be like the *4* shots he had to get during his 4 year check up.  I think he's still traumatized from that.

He did a good job, whimpered and cried just a little but got over it very quickly!

I had an end of the year meeting for work in Cincinnati.  We had our celebration at the MLB park.  It was very cool.

They welcomed us up on the jumbotron

"Oscar" the airhead came to visit us during the meeting.  This is me and Michelle.

Nana arrived to my house while I was traveling home.   The kids were very excited to see her!

Eating ice cream with nana

Another day, playing in the sun at the park

Silly kids

Nana taught a painting class in the neighborhood.  We did these really cute trees.  She's such a great teacher!

Emmalyn is talking more and more..  she now says, "Um, I don't know" and then one night this week I told her goodnight and she responded with "Goodnight, Momma".

It's funny because she LOVES the little Christmas animated musical toys (looks like a stuffed penguin, for example).  They scared Max, even up until last year.

She can find the app on the iPad that has the animals sounds (the first app we ever got Maxwell).

Emmalyn lately has not been going to sleep often during her second nap.  She will just lay there for awhile and eventually call for us without falling asleep.  She has started sleeping with the purple puppy dog that Grandpa and Nana gave to her when they were here last.  Sleeping with the puppy dog only started because she threw a fit one night when I made her stop watching videos of puppies with daddy on his phone.  And now she will grab him at night to cuddle with him.

She still has that little rash on her face around her mouth.  I have tried washing it frequently and putting lotion on it, I've tried Vaseline, lavender, etc.  So many things and nothing has cleared it up for good.  I still think it's from all her drool and I sure hope it doesn't stick around util she fully stop drooling.


When I started to say "good night, sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite..." as part of our routine Max told me to say it at night because it gives him a headache.

He is so sweet and so smart but still not very social.  We were at our friends Andrea and Jeff's home this week and their daughter Sadie (age 6) was so frustrated because Maxwell wouldn't play with her.  I have be trying to get him more time with kids other than just his cousins.

Maxwell can count to 100!

First night away from Emmalyn

I had been able to avoid any overnight travel for work until this point but I couldn't avoid it any longer.  I finally had to spend my first night away from Emmalyn (hey, I made it 7 1/2 months).  I had a team meeting with my entire team and my clients that would require 2 nights away.  It was incredibly hard to leave.  I had planned to pump the entire time so that my milk supply wouldn't be affected but once I got into that hotel bed, I lost all drive to get up in the middle of the night and pump when she would normally eat.  A good night's sleep totally won out.  Luckily when I got back, my supply was still okay.

The first night we had an appreciation dinner right off the river front in Cincinnati at the aquarium.  

This is the cute pic Peter sent me of Max ready for bed.  I missed him so much!

They brought in a penguin for us to pet.

I tried it.

One of my clients, Ted was all about it.

Mike and Dave (client contacts for another client) presenting an award

Ted's commonly used phrase

Britt sent me this pic the next day of my cute baby.  It was nice to get pictures of what my kids were doing even though it made me miss them.  I tried to Facetime with them every night.

After a long day of meetings, the next night we went out for another team activity.

These characters were excited to wear the Kool-Aid shirts we all got

I thought this centerpiece was festive, pretty, and super simple.  I need to remember this!

Facetime with Emmalyn.  She was so happy to see me.

The meeting went well.  The clients were pleased, my team was pleased, and I was pleased.  AND I was super excited to come home even though it was nice to get away from it all and have a little break.  I really do enjoy work travel but I don't enjoy it enough to sacrifice time at home unless I have to.

This is what the clouds looked like on my way home from the airport.  It's like someone up in the sky was watching me....kind of creepy.

Yeah for being back with my kids!  Here's some of what they are up to lately:

Max is certainly keeping me doing what I "should" like when I am driving with one hand he will remind me to keep two hands on the wheel.  Or, if I cough he will tell me to cough into my elbow.

He's whiny more and more and has started throwing more fits (with tears!).  His whining really gets to Peter.

He continues to shock me with what he remembers and will bring up something from awhile ago.

I don't like his hair short but you do see his dimple more when it's short...

He will make comments on the weather.

He knows when his birthday is.

He still hasn't learned how to recognize a compliment and so I have to prompt him by saying" so and so just paid you a compliment, what do you say?" and then he will say thank you.

He is really polite.

He has no interest in being pushed to play with someone or pushed to play a certain way if he doesn't want to.  He is stubborn in that.

His independence is growing.

We make Maxwell only use the big potty now, where before we would let him pee in the little training potty and poop in the big potty.

He's not tall enough to reach light switches yet.

He's a timid boy.

I love them I catch him singing to himself.

He really wanted us to put up the Christmas decorations, which was fun.

On the plane right home from Utah he asked then the girl was going to bring him food (He was referring to the flight attendant...we might regret having him fly first class if he expects flight attendants to always bring him food!)

Since we got back, Maxwell has been really focused on Utah and says things like, "I want to go to the other Utah" or "Are we still in Utah?" or "We have a Utah car" - - referring to the rental car with the Utah license plates.

Emmalyn is moving all over now.

She will pull up to standing on me.

She has big smiles for everyone but that doesn't mean she wants them to hold her.  She was super clingy to me in Utah.

I learned, in Utah, that she really needs time to just play by herself with her toys rather than having to engage with people constantly.

She is banging things.

Emmalyn does a great job swallowing pureed food.

She HATES it when other people are eating and she isn't.

She wakes up multiple times every night but usually I can pop the binky in and she will go right to sleep.  She has been getting up to nurse at 11 pm and 4 am every night.

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...