Now that Maxwell has moved up to Level 7 at his swimming classes, here are the skills he's going to be working on.
She likes to sneak and grab her dad and brother's glasses
Maxwell is so little compared to the other kids in his class (some are two heads taller!)
What a good dad - brushing Emmalyn's hair
He wanted to wear a tie to school... so of course, I helped make that happen. :)
Maxwell in Kindermusik - he's wearing the red hat. We have a new teacher - Ms. Carolyn. She reminds me a lot of my mom in her energy and passion. I really, really, really like her and her teaching style. It's fun for Maxwell to be back in Kindermusik (last semester there weren't enough kids to have the class).
Soccer skills class
Nice strong kick
Again, he's on the short end in his class. This is going to be his life - sorry Maxwell!
Running the obstacle course
It was fun watching how his skills have grown. I still don't like the coach and think he's too harsh on these little kids but at least Maxwell is improving.
Her morning set up - ipad, cereal in a bag, and sippy cup with milk - - also known as "Bibad", "Cereal" and "Moak"
Peter and I went out so our favorite babysitter Bridgette came over. The kids were happy to see her.
Maxwell is such a boy - - poop, "bottom", and farts are funny. He sang jingle bells with "poop" replacing every single word and thought it was the best thing ever.
He has a crush on his aassistant teacher Miss. Shauna, He told her when she gets married her last name will be Millar and he loves to help her and draws her pictures. It's pretty sweet.
Emmalyn counts to 13, She's really communicating what she wants. For example: Jingle Bells is her favorite song and she asks for it continuously in the car. She asks for "Frosty" on the tv, also asks for the iPad
Ah...The fun when you come home from vacation... you know, unpacking, getting back to a normal routine. THEN, add in the craziness of a Christmas morning tornado that has been waiting for you for a week. UGH!
Can you even find the little girl in this messy picture? :)
Peter put his new pancake batter bottle to work and made some special pancakes for breakfast (see Max's smiley face?)
Emmalyn loves her new castle
Back to school
Visiting with Maxwell at school (I don't remember why I was there...reading to his class? bringing his glasses he forgot? who knows)
I made homemade chicken noodle soup and rolls! I was proud of it. :) That's more cooking than I normally do.
Little miss hanging out on her new chair
Maxwell's 2015 year in review
Max's self-portrait "A Litl Boy Maxwell"
I love all the little notes he comes home with or makes for us at home
Working on his math workbook
Cheerios - - good for many things including math
video - Max doing addition and subtraction
On January 7, Peter and I celebrated 20 years of being together. On January 7, 1996, Peter asked me to be his girlfriend for the last time and the rest is history... To celebrate, let's remember what we looked like back then.
Here are the two of us before we went to his Homecoming that fall.
Us at Husky Howl - the girl's choice dance around Halloween at my high school
Brittany picked Maxwell up from school because he was sick. He had a 101.8 fever and ended up throwing up at school while he was at the front desk. (He wasn't eating his lunch and that isn't normal for him so his teacher asked if he was okay, felt his head and he was hot and she sent him to the front desk to be checked for a fever. He had one and while he was up there, got sick. ) I had small little signals that should have added up and I should have known he was sick, but of course I didn't put them all together and figure it out beforehand. He had a small fever the night before (he felt a little warm to me) and then this morning he wanted to cuddle with me in bed, which never happen. And then as we were leaving to school he said he was cold. I thought, "hm...he might have the chills" but he was acting fine other than that so I took him to school.
Video - Emmalyn playing while counting with dad
Emmalyn is talking soooo much! In her bath she talked basically non-stop. It's fun to see what she says. She was playing with balls and said "ready go" when she was throwing them.
Maxwell gets annoyed she she copies what he says. She's really skilled at annoying him when they are in the car. She will annoy him just by looking at him or she will keep saying his name over and over.
She now calls him "Mass" which also bothers him. He wants her to call him MaX. I explained to him that she can't say "x" yet.
Emmalyn can count to 10. She will sing all the time and most of the time you can understand what she's singing. She likes to sing ABCs, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bell Rock, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Shoo Fly - Don't Bother Me, and the songs in our Kindermusik Animal Serenade book (She also says the words that go along with it). She will also say some of the words when reading her favorite books.
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.
These cuties were holding hands in my bed this morning. (Max covered his face because the flash was too bright)
I went in to check on Emmalyn when she was supposed to be sleeping. Instead I found that she had pulled out a bunch of clothes from her hampers and was having fun. Naughty!
Video - Emmalyn loves to sing
Working on legos together
Dad took Max on a daddy/son date to the movies. They saw the Peanuts movie and had a great time. (Although Max was quick to point out that they didn't always talk nicely to each other which is usually our gauge for whether a show is appropriate for him to watch or not.)
Notice her hand tucked in her PJs? It's like she needs to be touching her skin to be comforted. (She tucks her hand into my shirt when she's cuddling with me or tired.) It's similar to what Maxwell did when he would self sooth by touching his nipples but she's just got her hand tucked into her shirt.
Video - daddy continues to get the best giggles
We had a fun birthday party for one of Max's classmates at a local place called Play Street Museum. Both kids had a lot of fun pretending (usually Max isn't that into it but he had a lot of fun).
Driving the bus
I guess her bed wasn't comfy enough tonight?
She's been sleeping on top of her pillow sometimes!
I had Maxwell's fall parent/teacher conference. Ms. Cynthia loves him, you can tell. She said that he is a happy boy but that he can get upset/emotional if something goes wrong. For example, he was working on some math and the tools spilled all over and he started tearing up rather than just cleaning up the mess. He also gets emotional when he doesn't know the answer. He sometimes doesn't pay attention when he walks. He doesn't like coloring.
In Math, he is moving from doing math problems horizontally to doing them vertically. He has gained a lot of confidence on math and is going to start working on subtraction.
He pairs well with others but is afraid to be the big leader of a group and looks for reassurance. His teacher is going to have him start reading to the class to help with that confidence. She also suggested that I set up some playdates with the more bold-leader boys in the class.
We talked about having him become a "non-napper" before he is 4 1/2 because he's not sleeping any more during naps.
His teacher's notes "Max is a happy boy. He is working on his counting ability from 1-100 and counting by tens. In language we are working on blends and compound words. He enjoys reading books. We enjoy having him."
As part of the conference, there is a full assessment on many areas. (The whole thing is 7 pages long!) Highlights: He needs development in hopping on one foot but is age appropriate for all other physical development assessments. His oral language skills are all age appropriate. As far as his personal development, he needs development in applying a variety of strategies to solve problems and tying/lacing shoes. He has improved in handling transition well and resolving conflict appropriately. He has mastered his sizes, colors, sounds, weight differentiation, some of his 2 dimensional shapes/polygons, etc, and most of his 3 dimensional shapes. He has mastered all but one of his skills in word building and has steady progressing in reading.
Our pantry door is starting to fill up with Max's notes/drawings that he wants put up.
He drew a map from "master" to "africa" (where did he get that from?)
A note to dad showing how he can count by 10's
Maxwell had his first soccer skills class. We decided to not play on a team right now but instead to try this soccer skills class and see if that helps him improve.
We didn't know it but showed up one week early... they still let Maxwell play and the coach kindly gave him a medal like the other kids who were finishing up that class.
both kids had fun playing in the play place at chik-fil-a
Emmalyn makes animal noises for duck, cat, dog, bear, cow, monkey, and frog.
She was so into Kindermusik this past week. She sang every song and did the actions.
Walks on her tippy toes sometimes
I've heard her call her daddy "peter" a few times but nothing like what Maxwell used to do.
She asks for pizza nearly every night and Maxwell's nightly request is Mac-n-cheese.
Max is really into counting to 100 by 10's and he showed me that now he's learned to count to 100 by 5's. (He says Hayden taught him!)
He cleaned up his room by himself when I sent him to put on his PJs and I didn't have to ask him. I was so impressed and proud!
Wife, Mom, and Career Woman. Trying to succeed at all three. Enjoy cruising, time with friends and family, and sleeping. Busy life doesn't leave time for as much fun as in the past but that's okay, it's still a good life.
