April/May 2017 - Notes from my phone

I'm so far behind in blogging that I'm just going to post the notes from my phone so they are documented somehow even though there are no pictures...

April!

1st- Emmalyn says "restauronk" instead of "restaurant".  Maxwell loves soft things like fleece shirts, soft blankets, soft stuffed animals, sweat pants...he's all about soft. He asked his little friend at school, Brooklyn, if he could marry her and she said yes. They are pretty cute together - she's a head taller than him.  Emmalyn is throwing tantrums with kicking feet if she doesn't get her way. I remind her it works better to use her words.

27th - Emmalyn has had an awful week for potty training... Has gone pee in front of the toilet many times and had many accidents.  It's so frustrating!

May!

8th - At the dentist appointment last week, Emmalyn did awesome. She watched me during my cleaning/exam and chatted the whole time.  She was totally up and looking in my mouth.  Then it was her turn and she was a little nervous but did great.  She was really excited about "mr slurpee" and the sugar bugs. She was even able to do the fluoride treatment!  Then it was Maxwell's turn.  He wasn't as nervous but when things touched his tongue started coughing and would cough randomly. Could tell he was nervous but he was strong through it.  Then today Maxwell had a visit with the pediatric opthalmologist.   He did awesome during the visit.  The doctor said his eye is improving - it's almost as good as his other eye.

Emmalyn back to doing good on potty.  She can get herself into the big potty and so she goes there most of the time.  She sings Kindermusik songs all the time. She does pretend play with toys more often- will see her sitting there pretending and talking to her Minnie Mouse for example. She is riding her bike with training wheels!  And we have moved Maxwell's seat on his bike higher.

Second Week of November - Shannon's yearly trip! and Maxwell takes on the stage

I was pretty impressed with this painting Maxwell did.

Trying out my new charcoal mask

I had cavities.  :(  I haven't had them in years.  It was weird to have that numb face feeling again.

Maxwell decorated his turkey for school like Super Mario

Time for another visit to the pediatric optomologist

He always does a great job and is a super patient.

His eyes are improving but not enough that we need to get new glasses unless the ones we have break.

I think I've finally found a hairstylist I'm happy with here!  Her name is Karen.

It was Maxwell's kinder teacher, Mrs. Garza's birthday so the other room mom and I took her a little cake and the kids sang Happy Birthday.  We wanted to do more (nothing crazy) but the principle put out a really strict set of guidelines about what could be done for teacher's birthdays...could only take 10 minutes at the end of a day, couldn't collect money for a present, etc.  It was obnoxious and overboard in my opinion but I followed the rules.

Play-do fun.

Tennis practice

I took the kids to JC Penney to get their Christmas card pictures.  They are going to be so cute.  I give myself brownie points because I did it all by myself - neither Peter nor Brittany were there.  The worst part is after the pictures have been taken when you are going through them all at the computer and trying to look at the pictures but also keep the kids entertained.

She really is this precious and sweet (just with a little spunk sometimes)

Being a silly kid

Donna moved out this week.  It just wasn't working out so she packed up her stuff and Peter took her to the airport to fly back to Utah.

Yay!  My friend Shannon came to town for her yearly trip.  We ALL love having her here.

I took her to a new foodtruck park in town.  I was thrilled to see that my favorite sliders foodtruck was there!

2 sweet and lowdown please!

Maxwell was invited to his friend Preston's birthday party at a kid's theater place.  The kids were going to practice and put on a show for the parents.  Maxwell wanted none of it and was super scared and crying.  I was at Kindermusik with Emmalyn while it was going down and he texted me that Max was doing the super hard-can't-catch-your-breath cry.  The Teacher guy was kind to Max and tried to help him calm down.

Talking and getting ready for the performance.  I wonder if Max will end up doing it?

He did!!!

Whew - that went okay!

Maxwell and Preston (who was the star of the show and a born performer)

We hit up Sam Moon, as always!

Delicious Mexican food for dinner

Spa night and staying up late talking

Maxwell slept in our room on the floor so Shannon could have his bed since Donna's room wasn't fully cleared out.  He thought it was pretty cool.

Shannon and I finished off our fun, but short, weekend with a pedicure where I let Emmalyn pick the color before I left.  She chose orange.

Maxwell loves Shannon.  He only wanted to cuddle with Shannon on the couch, not me.

Daylight savings happened which is awful!  The kids wake up so early, it's painful. Emmalyn keeps waking up early (like before 6:30 am) and only wants milk or milk and cereal.  She doesn't want to go back to sleep.

Love that cute bum in the air.

Emmalyn is progressing on the potty training.  She's had multiple accidents for both pee and poop.  We need to be better facilitators of this process but I'm just no ready yet for her to go out of the house in panties and she won't treat pull-ups like panties but just like a diaper.

Dentist, Halloween Fun, and Neon Run

Emmalyn, Maxwell, and I all had dentist appts.  I checked Maxwell out of school early and then Brittany brought Emmalyn a little later.

Maxwell getting his first x-rays

He was nervous.  He did help by holding "mr slurpee" but he kept doing this nervous coughing thing.

Emmalyn got to see Maxwell go a little bit.

Maxwell has some adult teeth coming in.  The dentist doesn't think he will lose any baby teeth though until he is 6.

While I went, they were pretty well behaved.  It was super stressful to me though because I'm laying there with my mouth open, not really able to respond or prompt/direct them, etc.  Thank goodness they are good kids!

After watching Maxwell and I, Emmlyn was comfortable and ready to go.  She's been excited about this!

Emmalyn just had a quick teeth check by the dentist - no cleaning this time.

After the dentist, I took the kids to my work for the annual kids trick-or-treating

Maxwell and Donna

They came home with a ton of candy

My blue ninja and little Asian girl

She loved the section that was decorated like Halloween

He was wiped out and fell asleep on the way home.

Woke up for a huge yawn..

...and then back to sleep

The stuff Maxwell did on my board in my office.  Definitely not Kinder Curriculum level here.

Maxwell's elementary did a Neon Run fundraiser that I was able to attend.

Emmalyn came with Brittany.  She loves her "flag shirt" and would wear it every day if she could.

Getting the "rules"

Starting out strong!  Even when the other kids were walking.  He wore two wrist bands to school today but let one of his friends wear one.

Still running!

One of the neighborhood ladies was running it and kindly gave Emmalyn her own shirt.

Landen running

Hot, tired, yet still so focused!

Her stash she brought with her is spread all over.

The  kids got a few breaks to get a drink and dance a little.  It helped to break it up rather than having them run for 45 minutes or so straight (which would never work with Kinder kids!)

I don't know the kid on the left, Maxwell, Julien, and Landen

During one of the dance breaks

All the kids and the teachers

The school is largely Indian so my little pale boy with glasses is easy to spot in a crowd.

Taking a picture with her fake phone

Still trying to go potty on the potty every once in awhile.  She was successful this time.

We swam next door (for maybe the last time this season)  the kids braved both the hot tub and the pool.

Mary Ann brought out the skeletons from the Halloween decorations for the kids to play with.

Maxwell jumping from the rock

HAHA!  Maxwell put his goggles on his skeleton.

Emmalyn hugging the alien skeleton was just creepy but they all had a lot of fun.

We finished the night off with roasting marshmallows and some smores.  I think this is the first time my kids have ever roasted marshmallows.

sugar happy

Maxwell's School Picture.  I love it.  It's not his genuine smile but it sure the smile he puts on whenever you ask him to smile so in that way, it's genuine Maxwell.

The picture Maxwell drew at school.  I was impressed with the colors and detail of the water park.  This is certainly an improvement for him.  

Wearing her Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader costume to Kindermusik

waiting for her sticker

Class picture

Everly, the twins, Emmalyn, Max, Luca, and Brennan

We love Mrs. Carolyn!

The YMCA next to Kindermusik was have a festival thing so Emmalyn and I checked it out.  She got her face painted.

She loved the obstacle course

She got quite a few goodies including a free t-shirt!

Wahoo - Peter's car key arrived from California.  Now we have two keys again.

Blue Ninja Maxwell at his Kindermusik class.

Maxwell's class

They were still doing the pumpkin patch at the church Kindermusik is held in, so I let Maxwell get his face painted there since Emmalyn came home with her face painted.  This is the first time that I can ever remember Maxwell REALLY wanting to get his face painted.  He has always not been interested in it.  He was super excited about getting a smiley face.

We played some of the games.

She found some lotion and got it all over herself

She loved looking at her face paint in the mirror.

We carved pumpkins.  This was the first time Maxwell has helped scraped a pumpkin.  He was, naturally, disgusted but did a good job.  A lot of firsts today!

He's making the same face as his pumpkin.