3rd Week of March 2015

Even when nothing big and special is going on, life is still full of fun and surprises because of our two cute kids.

Uh oh - - - lil miss trouble is getting into stuff

Britt took the kids to a skate park.  Max was all padded up for his belly ride on the skateboard.

Emmalyn was happy to be outside and watch

Her hair is long enough that the perfect little curl on her forehead is gone but you can clearly still see where her hair is curling in one direction

Silly face selfies... never gets old for a 3 year old.

This kid is lucky enough to have silly parents too

All ready for bed

Playing pat-a-cake

Story time

Cuddle time.  Maxwell has learned that the only safe way to ensure Emmalyn doesn't mess with his cuddles is to be on top of mom

St. Patrick's day! Can't pinch this dude!

Soooo frustrating to get only 1.5 oz during my first pump of the day.  I'm trying so hard to keep this thing going...if effort and desire = output, I'd have enough milk to give to Emmalyn and to donate to a milk bank.  The only thing I haven't done this time is pay the extra money to rent a hospital grade pump.  I just don't think it would make enough of a difference.

Look at those curls around her ears.  I wonder how curly her hair will be - - - my kind of curly or Peter's kind of curly?

You can see the curls on both sides of her head

I made roasted bananas and blueberries baby food.  Emmalyn loves it but man, it looks gross when it comes out of the oven.

Look at this boy!  Where did my little kid go?

I forgot to put her in her St. Patrick's Day shirt on the 17th so she wore it a couple days later.  "Kiss me, I'm Irish".

I gave her asparagus spears for the first time and she LOOOOOOVED it.

Video - Emmalyn has the hiccups

Peter and I had plans and needed a babysitter but didn't want to ask Brittany (still trying to give her some space and a break since they moved out) since we were needing her the next night, so we tried a new one who our neighbor suggested.  She is a friend of their son.  Her name is Bridgette.  Joe and Brittany also wanted to go out and asked if we would watch their kids but obviously we already had plans.  So we asked Bridgette if she'd be okay watching all the boys.  She said sure.  Emmalyn was asleep before we left and Maxwell was nearly ready for bed.

It was great -- Maxwell clearly loved his short time with her and she did good with Britt's boys.  I really liked her too.  I am so glad to have found someone we like!  We will use her again!

Maxwell had Bridgette leave the light on in his closest so we could turn it off when we got home.

Making chocolate milk (thanks Grandma Nelson for introducing him to the world of chocolate syrup and milk)

Max wanted to help get Emmalyn ready so he tried to comb her hair (see above).  He was very clear that he wanted to comb her hair, not brush it.  

He got so frustrated that she kept moving away from him.  Then he also wanted to help brush her teeth.  So he put on her little finger toothbrush (looks like a rubber thimble with plastic bristles) and goes to brush her teeth...well, she bit him while he was trying to brush her teeth and he got so upset about it.  He goes "I'm not her big brother anymore".  :( He was so dejected and hurt that she had bit him...Like she didn't love him because he bit her. It was so sad.

Maxwell is saying "dad" and "daddy" more than "Peter" now.  (See? Take that all you people who judged me for not making him stop calling him "Peter".  He eventually switched and it didn't have to become a big deal!) :)

I love hearing the way he thinks - -

• For example...Peter was reading a book and Maxwell asked if he was reading it in his forehead?  (Meaning was Peter reading it in his mind)
• On Friday, I picked him up at Brittany's after work and in the car he said "Momma, when I had my great nap at Brittany's, I thought about my cruise."  I asked what he thought bout (dreamed about) and he told me he thought about having fun with me. And I said "doing what?" and he said "eating black cupcakes". 
• Peter said that when he woke him up to leave Brittany's (from being babysat after Chad's receiption), Maxwell asked if we were going to our ship so he must have been dreaming about the cruise. I think it's so cool because it's the first time he has talked about his dreams. 

He has started asking for things when it's his next birthday.
He still says "demember" instead of "remember".
He said "Oh my god".  And this Momma inwardly threw a fit.  No way is that an okay thing for my 3 year old son to say.  We have coached him to use the phrase "oh my goodness" and lately he's been saying "oh my gosh" to everything.  We are also trying to get him to just say "wow" as another alternative. 
He does a great job writing his numbers and can count by 10's to 100.
He came home with a math worksheet from school.  I wish I knew how they were teaching him so I could enforce that method at home and practice it more.

Emmalyn waves and points but not really at things.  She does it more to get attention from people.
We are starting to hear a differentiation from when she says "dada" and "mamuh".  It's a small difference but it's there.
She will let you wipe boogers from her nose - a win!

My friend Chad (used to work with me at CROSSMARK) got married to a guy named Jason.  Their first date was a double date with us to go see a play so it's fun to have been a part of their relationship from the very beginning.  Chad and I haven't been very close since he stopped working at CROSSMARK so I was surprised to get an invitation to their wedding reception.  It was fun going and reconnecting with both of them.  It was a great reception and we had a fantastic time enjoying the great food, music, dancing, and fun people at the wedding even though we only knew a handful.

Wish every morning could be a Sunday morning

Sunday mornings are the best best best best time ever.  We don't have to get up and go to work or go to Kindermusik class.  Instead we can just wake up whenever Max won't sleep anymore and wakes us up.  :)  He is so sweet and cute in the mornings.  He is still a morning person.  Which I love watching through my half closed eyes.  HA!

Video - Max talking in the morning

I wanted to capture how beautiful his eyes are.  They are brown in the center surrounded by green with dark blue around the edge.

Another picture of Max's eyes. 

Someday, the girls are going to chase after him for his gorgeous eyes and his dimple.

He's hanging out like this more often - on one knee

...always crossing his feet in the car seat or in the high chair

Uh oh...Max discovered the fun of the toilet paper roll.  Now I am in for it!

Hanging out with dada

Since he likes his arms to escape the swaddle I did a test one night and put him in the swaddle blanket with his arms already out.  He did fine with it (even though he looks silly).

In a trance thanks to Baby Einstein

Caught him in the act of coughing

Sweet boy sitting so sweetly

mmmmmmm

He's my son - happy because he's eating spaghetti

Video - Max practicing standing on his own for the first time.  It was so awesome to see him trying this.  I love how excited he gets about it.

Video - Max laughing which causes the hiccups.

A couple things about Max lately:

• Usually in the mornings, I bring him into the bathroom while I shower and he plays with toys on the ground.  However, recently he DOES NOT like it when I am in the shower and he stands there crying.  Goodbye short moments of relaxation.
• At our apartment building, he often talks or screams when we are going down the hallway in order to hear his own echo.  He does the same thing when we go visit the house - there's lot of echoes there since it's so open and empty.
• He is starting to stand up a little his own.
• He still gets the hiccups most of the time when he laughs.

Max's third week

Max's third week was much more calm.  It was mainly filled with days at home with mom.

Lookin' good in the onesie LeeAnn S.  made

Here's Peter in action - being a good dad and trying to help his son with his hiccups.

This crazy kid loves to tilt his head to his right...he does it in the bouncy seat and his car seat.

On Saturday the rest of Max's umbilical cord fell off, so 2 weeks after he was born.  I was glad to finally see a "normal" bellybutton and know that he wasn't damaged by his intense crying from last week.

Umbilical cord is gone!

Sweetly Sleeping

Now that his umbilical cord had come off, I wanted to give Max a bath but wanted approval from the urologist first.  I checked with his urologist when the office called to remind us of Max's follow up visit.  I wanted to know if we could give him a "real" bath now.  The Dr. said yes, so we were excited to move past the hassle of sponge baths.

Getting ready for the bath

Sweet face

You are going to put me in there?!

This is awesome!

He loved the bath and calmly enjoyed the warm water.  (I know his belly looks really big in the above picture, he had just eaten and his full belly tends to spread out to the sides instead of out to the front.)

I love this outfit

On Tuesday we had Max's follow up with his urologist.  At this point Peter and I still only had one car and it was at work with him.  Thank goodness for Brittany!  She came to my rescue.  And luckily we were able to fit 3 car seat in her back seat.  Today was the first day that I carried Max's car seat by myself.  Up to now, either Brittany or Peter had carried it.  It is totally awkward for me!  If I try and carry it by holding the handle with my arm at my side, the car seat basically drags on the ground.  And then if I wrap my arm around the handle (like at my elbow), then it puts too much pressure on my midsection and causes me pain.  There was really no easy way to do it.  I wish I was taller!

3 sleepin' boys - Hayden (can't see him), Max, and Landen

After the Dr's (which went fine - he said Max was healing well), I took Brittany out for some lunch - Mexican food!  It was fun to eat with just us and the kids.  At one point, I checked my phone to see what time it was.  Knowing what time it is had always been important when I was out to lunch during the week because there was always some conference call or meeting that I needed to get back for.  When I looked at my phone this time, it hit me that I had NOTHING that I had to get home for.  I could stay out and enjoy lunch or whatever else I wanted to do for as long as I wanted.  That was a really weird realization for me.  I felt like a real stay at home mom.  Since I had such a free afternoon, Britt and I also ran errands, unplanned.  How awesome to be able to just add outings into your day that weren't scheduled there!  Even though I'm now tied to a person (Max), I am also experiencing a new type of freedom.

Mom, stop it with the paparazzi pics!

Going from calm to upset...

I love it when he sleeps on me, it is such a tender time.

Loving the bouncy seat.

Later in the week, I was feeling pretty adventurous.  So Brittany came over and we took all the boys for a walk at the park next to our apartment.  I walked further than I'd walked since Max was born and only stopped a couple times to sit down and rest.  It was good improvement and felt good to be able to get moving.  (Although I was in pain later in the evening for it.)

Sleeping on his first walk at the park

That night, we went with Brittany to try Smash Burger for the first time.  I thought it was pretty good but still not as good as my favorite In-n-Out!

Hayden, Brittany, and Landen

Peter, Max, Kallie - Peter struggles to not pull a face in pictures

The shirt says it all "Mommy's Little Cutie"