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...

Classy activities...you know... like going to places and eating brunch

All of this is from Sept 8 - Sept 14, 2014.

Video - She coos herself to sleep at night just like this.  It's crazy adorable to me.  Sometimes she will even coo while I am getting her all swaddled.

Video - Maxwell is doing so great at swimming lessons.  In this video he jumps in, swims towards his teacher, then rolls to his back and swims around the pool on his back then rolls back over and swims towards his teacher on by a step at the edge of the pool.  He does all this without the help of his teacher!

She is always so happy

Story time at night

This is how she sleeps with her head pushed back and turned to the side

It looks like he's wearing tights to school but it's just his dark socks that he wanted pulled all the way up.

After I dropped him off at school, I watched again.  I wanted to see how long he'd be sitting there until he either got up to do work on his own or was directed to do something by the teacher.  

Nearly 10 minutes later, he's still just sitting there.  I don't get it?!  Why is his teacher oblivious?  I know Montessori focuses on child driven choices but this was frustrating to me.  He's still new to this routine so why wasn't he getting more help?

Finally he was prompted to go get these blocks that he worked on stacking in order of size.

All worn out after school.

He's not falling asleep during nap time (hopefully he'll catch on to the routine soon) so he's exhausted at the end of the day.

Giving Britt her b-day present - Tortilla warmer and crispy shell taco holder

Cowboy up

Practicing sitting up

How ridiculously cute is Emmalyn!?!

Love that tongue

video - what would you call that sound?? A gurgle?

Rockin' his track suit

We took Maxwell to his first play - it was a local children's theater production of "Once upon this island".  He did a great job of staying interested.  It was a tough story line to follow and he could have easily tuned out.  I nursed the baby so that she'd sleep and be quiet.  

We ended up telling Maxwell the show was over during intermission.  While he did a good job of staying interested, that also meant that he was asking a ton of questions during the show and he was only so quiet.  There were lots of kids in the audience so it wasn't like we totally stood out but I was so hyper conscious of every little noise he made and it was getting later in the evening.  

It's important to me that Maxwell gets experiences like going to plays and things like that.  I want him to be exposed to cultural activities like plays, musicals, the symphony and museums.  This was a good start with the plays.

I can't think of another thing as tender for a Momma as to have your baby sweetly sleeping on you.

Peter and his kiddos (boy, Emmalyn looks chunky!)

All dressed up to go to brunch

She slept for a little bit

If you look in the top left corner, you will see the musician playing the violin.  Maxwell was enthralled with him and loved watching.  He would turn shy whenever he came close but we did get him to wave to the guy once.  :)

One of the, maybe, 5 bites Max ate.

The baby didn't sleep for long...so yup, that's me nursing in the fancy restaurant.  (The lady at the table next to us also had a baby and she nursed first so I didn't feel uncomfortable.)  I'm game to nurse everywhere.  I can't think of anywhere I WOULDN'T nurse, especially with the nursing cover.  I'm grateful that Peter supports me in this and doesn't have issues with it.

All dressed up

Trying on her pumpkin hat

Gotta love that drool

Here's what my front room looked like after I went to a consignment sale and some clothes from the neighbors.  I think I've got everything the kids could need.  I have no problem with second hand clothes.  If it's in good condition, can be used again, and doesn't cost me full price?  I'm there.  

Emmalyn is 5 months old now!  

She will only be quiet during her diaper change if you give her the binky.  

She's arching her back which  makes her hard to hold onto.

She has the BEST BIG SMILES!!! and they come really easily.  Her laughs, however, she will make you work really hard for.

When she smiles, she smiles with her tongue out.

Her hair seems to be coming in lighter.

She is drawn to watching the TV or iPad if they are on.

Commonly now, when she's nursing in the middle of the night, I will fall asleep and then wake up like 45 minutes later and she'll still be nursing or asleep too.  I am using a nursing pillow so it's not like I'm going to drop her if I fall asleep.  It's just interesting because I've completely lost my ability to make myself stay awake.  I am just so completely exhausted that I can't help it.

Hair today...gone tomorrow

I can feel the end of my maternity leave creeping closer each day so I'm trying to get out of the house more and do things with my buddy, Max.

While Hayden was in summer school, we took the boys to the park (Emmalyn slept in the shade).

Silly Landen, Stylin' Max (with stickers on his shirt).  See Max's nice long hair?  It was wet with sweat by the time we left.

It was fun to play at the park with Max.  For awhile I pushed him on the swing and even did the thing where you push them high and then run around him.  It made him nervous but he laughed.

After the park we went to Kohl's so Max could pick out some presents for Father's Day.  I let Max pick a few things all by himself.  I thought he did a great job!  Peter's going to like what he gets.

Apparently being a new mom is tiring!

We hit up the neighborhood pool.  Max is doing great with his swimming and getting quite brave.  He loves jumping into the pool and swimming to dad.

Sweet girl just has to hang out while everyone else swims

I don't mind keeping her entertained.  :)

She's so much more fun now that she's smiling and cooing.  She tries so hard to talk and sometimes nothing comes out and you can see how frustrated she gets with that.

Her onesie says "I'm the little sister"

We started a new curriculum at Kindermusik.  Max was excited to read the new book...

...and play with his new castanets and blow up beach ball.

Peter had asked him earlier if he wanted to get a haircut and he immediately said yes and then continued to talk about it on the way to Kindermusik and back.  He REALLY wanted to go.  So, momma took him to get his hair cut (although I know what he really wanted was the sucker he gets after the hair cut).  I decided to try a shorter hairstyle for the summer.  I picked out a style in the style book and crossed my fingers.

Before...such beautiful hair!

Yikes!  Look how much hair is on that cape.

He was AMAZING and sat there with no problems.  So proud of him!

The after is so dramatic that he stopped outside to look at himself some more in the reflection.  He called the spiky part at the front a "hat".

Enjoying his sucker

And the after picture....ugh, it's so dramatically different.  I really miss his longer hair.  Why did I do this!?

Washing some fruit in water and vinegar.  I thought it was a beautiful thing.

Hanging out more by the pool while daddy, Maxwell, and the Mejias swim

Dinner at Mooyah means he gets to write on the wall

The 3 ninjas 

(They were all dancing to the music)

Max is certainly growing up.  I went it to check in on him when he was sleeping and he was sleeping with his HEAD on the pillow instead of laying, with his whole body, on top of the pillow.  Sad.  :(  Plus he wasn't sleeping all curled up with a stuffed animal or blanket.  It's such a weird contradiction to enjoy seeing your child grow but to also hate it at the same time and want to keep them just the way they are today.

Max has gotten the hang of using feminine pronouns when referring to Emmalyn and will now say "she" and "her".

One of the things I love about Emmalyn is how after I'm done nursing her and she's fallen asleep, I will lift her up to burp her and she will keep her feet all tucked in to her body like they were when she was nursing.  I find it so sweet.

Good news - she has only pooped on me once in a few weeks so I think we are finally past that stage!