Third week of February 2017

Maxwell posing before school.  It was school class picture day so he dressed up a little bit.  It was a Wednesday

The night before he seemed sweaty at night and was complaining about headaches but in the morning he seemed to have energy so I sent him to school.

A couple hours later, I get a call from the school nurse saying that he has a fever of 101.  So I went to pick him up and take him to see his doctor.   (Luckily pictures had already happened so he didn't miss them.)

He weighed 42.4 lbs

I let him eat his snack because he was hungry (they have lunch at school at 10:30 am).  His snack was apple slices and seaweed (He loves it!).

At the doctor's, he had a fever of 101.6 and was diagnosed with an ear infection. 

He quickly went downhill.   On way home said he wanted to lay down, and then by the time we got home, he couldn't even change his clothes into something more comfortable.  So I helped him then brought his medicine.   

Sad sick face

He quickly fell asleep and took a 3 1/2 hour nap!!!

Not feeling good at all

That tooth was soooooo ready to come out.  We finally had enough of the drama around getting the tooth out and Peter pinned him down and just pulled it out.  

He survived! (And the next morning got $1 for his tooth.)  Two bottom teeth - gone!

Brushing her teeth while wearing my shoes

Look at that rash!

Poor max was just not having a good go of it.  I keep him home from school the next day since the rule states that they have to be fever free for 24 hours without medicine before they can go back.

At work, the Network of Women put on a bunco night with our Executive Leadership Team.  It was a huge success!

On Friday, I wasn't sure whether to keep him home or send him.  I decided to keep him home which was a good thing because he said he was tired and he proceeded to lay down all day except for lunch and dinner. 

I prepped all my stuff to drop off at the consignment sale that I like to sell/shop at.

I did the smaller site this time and it was still totally packed with items.

On Saturday, we had our friend Andrea's son Carter's third birthday party.  Maxwell seemed up to going.  He didn't jump long in the bouncy house which was a sign that he wasn't yet 100%.

Enjoying cake

Emmalyn was my grocery shopping helper.  She pushed the little cart, loaded things on the belt, and helped me pay.

Enjoying a snack outside while Maxwell was in Kindermusik.

Knocked out after a birthday party plus playing in the sun.  I gave her a wipe to clean her face but she was clearly too tired to get that done.

Sunday was the 5th day of Maxwell being sick and he still was acting tired!  Luckily there was no school on Monday so he had one more day to get better.

Maxwell wrote a story/drew pictures about making Smores next door.  He drew the process and included Mr. Chris too.  (I'll correct the spelling--) "A couple days ago, I asked to go toast marshmallows with Ms. Mary Ann.  With my cousins..."

Fun Sunday breakfast - thanks Dad!

I love this note Maxwell wrote to me and Peter

Emmalyn going potty on the big potty!

Trying to teach her how much toilet paper to use

Every time she goes potty in the potty, she gets a sticker.  (Trying to staying away from candy as the reward.)  Yay for potty training!

Emmalyn has been in panties on Saturday and Sunday at home. No accidents other than one early on Saturday when she was trying to get there and didn't go fast enough. Then Monday did great with Britt. No accidents at home - even pooping. I put pull-up on her outside the house though because I don't want to deal with extra changes of clothes and accidents outside the house and she poops in it of course.  She is not yet staying dry during nap. 

When tucking Max in he this week, he was talking about being awesome so I asked him what he was awesome at and he said "addition". Then he asked a question about negative numbers so I tried to explain them a little to him and he goes "you are really good at teaching me. You should be a teacher" Then later when cuddling, he said "you are good at being a mom". Melted my heart. 

Signed Emmalyn up to start at Castle Montessori in the fall today. Excited for her to go - she's ready for it! Her new thing at bedtime is once you lay her down, she gets one blanket, puppy, and turtle and bunches them together and lays on top of them. Then you put her peppa pig blanket on her and go to leave and she goes," mom. I have just one thing to tell you." Every time. Sometimes she tries to sneak more things in but always has something else to say. Often she will tell me how excited she is that in the morning she will get to have cereal and milk and play on her iPad.

First week of January 2016 - a 20 year Anniversary!

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.

3rd week of December 2015

Here's the "smile" I frequently get when taking a picture...

I caught him picking his nose while his class was in the library reading books.  :)  whoops

The kids love ringing the door bell to get daddy to come to the door

She LOVES these animated animals and plays with them all the time.  She pushes all the buttons and keeps them going at the same time.  (Even up until last year, Maxwell was afraid of some of them...not this brave little girl.  She is certainly more bold than her timid brother.)

Dog piling on momma

My kids love watching Frosty the Snowman

Playing at the park

Some of the cute notes that Maxwell is demanding get put up on the fridge.

Notes with some pumpkins

Not my birthday, but still a fun note

Playing with Landen

Max's progress at swimming lessons is going well.  He is doing so well at swimming.

His coach, Coach Katie, thinks wants to move him up to level 7 with the 6 and 7 year olds.  In level 7 he will learn the butterfly stroke and swim the whole length of the pool and lots more!  They won't move him up though so she is going to start having him swim whole length sometimes anyway. 

Landen and Emmalyn

All dressed up for the holiday party at school

They did a book exchange (it went much better this year!)

The "feast"

The ladies in our neighborhood had our first annual ornament exchange.  These girls can get crazy but I'm grateful to live in a neighborhood where there is a large group of friendship.

Max is having fun going to soccer skills class each week.  This was my first time getting to watch him because usually Peter takes him because I'm with Emmalyn in Kindermusik.  It was fun seeing him do more things and improving his skills.  It was hard a little to watch though because the coach is hard on the kids.  He yelled a ton, sometimes acted out of spite (like BOOTING a kid's ball across the field because they weren't doing what they should have been).  He may have been an awesome coach for 17 year olds but for 3 and 4 year olds?  Not so much.  

At one point Maxwell came crying over to me and I had to pep talk him back into it.  Peter never shared how tough the coach was.  It was cause for me to ponder how I felt about the situation.  I don't want people to baby my child but I also don't think I should just stand by and not say something when it appeared that someone wasn't equipped to be leading children.

Max's alphabet 

Writing his numbers until he ran out of room

Maxwell and a snowman

I didn't put out all the Christmas decorations this year, just most of them.  I also have started a new trend of putting holiday pictures on canvas and using those as decorations.  I want to keep doing that each year rather than buy new stuff.

Playing around outside

playing puppy dog

Emmalyn loves the German Shepard Raider that lives across the street.  She always wants to go over and say hello.

We were "elf'd" by one of our neighbors

Homemade popcorn with dad

Maxwell and I went out on a "date" to a Japanese restaurant and he tried using chopsticks for the first time (he didn't like it very much)

It seems like Emmalyn has jumped into the "terrible two's" a little early.  She NEVER leaves her shoes and socks on in the car.  As soon as we are buckled in, off they come.  She cries or whines immediately when she doesn't get her way.  "Stop it" is her favorite thing to say. She hits and throw things when she's mad and overall has lots of attitude right now!