3rd week of August 2017 - Maxwell Turns 5

We are almost at the end of summer.  The days until school are rushing by and I'm not ready yet!

Playing at our little neighborhood park.  She's big enough to climb up to the tall slides.

Maxwell's preferred method of swinging.

Adorable heart part to match her heart dress, courtesy of Aunt Britt.

The kids hung out with me at work.  I love having them there, but get no work done when they are!

She quickly found my bag and determined it was a perfect purse.

Playing with the calculator

Maxwell hiding the rocks in my zen garden from himself.

This should be an ad.  Who wouldn't want to buy NOWMints with a cute face like that staring at them?

Well, my green pepper finally was "picked".  It just wasn't going to go any further than this.  Sad.  I did eat a bite but there wasn't much to it.  I'm still going strong on my cucumbers (with help from me to mate the male and the female flowers).

Little drummer girl

A note from Maxwell

The kids LOVE to play with this play house and all the contents.

Maxwell had meet the teacher night so we all went to the school to see his classroom and meet his teacher - Mrs. Garza.

The names of all the students were on the board.  Clearly Maxwell isn't the majority demographic in this classroom.

For Maxwell's birthday, I did a little decorating.

Last sleeping picture of my 4 year old

We all went to McDonalds for lunch on Maxwell's birthday.  It seems to be his number choice always - thanks to that silly toy in the happy meal.

Getting chocolate milk was a must.

They were out of toys! (How does that happen?!) To make it up to him, he got an ice cream cone instead.

He's acting older already - - he climbed all the way to the top (he's on the top right side) of the playground.  That's not common for him.  

We had his well-child check up with his pediatrician.

Past 40 lbs!

Emmalyn came along for the doctor's appointment.  She loves going to all doctor's appointments.

Working on balancing on one foot

Page 1 of his questionnaire.  You use the same questionaire for ages 4-6 and you are supposed to keep going until you get a certain amount of "no's".  He got through both pages with all yes's.

Second page.  

Maxwell's 5 year old stats:

Weight - 41.6 lbs 57th %

Height - 40.25 in 7th %

BP 99/50

Heart rate 89

Very little change from last year.

After the doctor we went to Little Caesars to pick up pizza (maxwell's choice) for dinner.  It was POURING rain and we all got wet!!

Poor girls was soaked

Enjoying his pizza on his "you are special" plate.

The rain sure made her curls stand out though - - I'm still in shock over them!

BOING!  Those curls!!!

The cousins waiting on the cake.

Woo!  Way to go Maxwell!

Licking the candle

Sweet curly hair framing that sweet face.

The baby is slowing fading out of this face.  :( 

After cake, we opened some presents.

Kids update:

Emmalyn loves having Grandma Donna around.  Max calls her Donna.  

When doing kisses at bedtime, Emmalyn gets off bed and runs away saying "I'll be right back!"

So many questions from her..."why" "why" "why"

2nd week of July 2015

I moved out of the office I've been in for nearly 3 years and into another office so I could be closer to the rest of my team.  I'm sad about it, it was a great office, great location, by great people.  Oh well, it's for the "good of the team". 

Picture of the drawings from Maxwell on my white board

Maxwell having a play date with Owen and Avery

Derek and Julianne's tour was streaming live on Yahoo so we let Maxwell watch it until bedtime.  This was how he stayed forever - just watching it.  He LOVED it.  (It made me sad that I hadn't brought him with me to the show.)

Another week, another indoor soccer game

This boy scored his first goal for the Bear today!!

Best treats ever - Rita's Italian water ice.  Yummmmmmmmm (Swedish flavor plus some custard = heaven!)  

Derek and Julianne's show replayed for the next day or so and Maxwell wanted to constantly watch the show over and over.  Can't blame him, the dancing was amazing and it was incredibly entertaining.

When it's 7/11 and you are sitting at Goodyear waiting for you car to be serviced, what do you do for fun?  Walk next door to 7 Eleven of course!  Free small slurpees plus a couple big bites is totally a normal dinner, right? :)

Slurpee selfie

Ha!  I think they were all watching Wheel of Fortune.

Her hair curling over her ears, it's nice to finally have some more hair to talk about other than that curl on her forehead.

Bowling

I've been walking a ton and trying to hit 10,000 steps per day.  It's hard in the summer when it's so hot but I've been enjoying it.

EMMALYN UPDATE:

Emmalyn's been fussy I think because of her teeth coming in.  She hasn't been sleeping fitfully.

Emmalyn likes to sneak Max's bag of cereal in the morning (which makes him so mad)

She's wanted to climb on things.

She says "thank you" all the time.

She's been taking 3 naps lately but not all of them are very long.

She will nurse sometimes in the morning.  I'm still pumping at work and at home to try and get 3 oz of breast milk a day.  However, I have finally stopped all the little things that are supposed to help like mother's tea, fenugreek pills, etc.  I'm just tired of all the hoops I've been jumping through.  I will pump twice at work and once at home to get the 3 oz.

MAXWELL:

Maxwell is focused on winning and has been getting really upset anytime he loses something (like bowling) so we are trying to teach him it's about having fun, not winning.

Oh man...kids and bathroom behaviors can be rough!  Lately I have to remind Maxwell to check to see if he wiped all the poop away with toilet paper, not with his hand.  Ew!!!  Not just that but he just wants to adjust his penis all the time.  I've had to set some rules and tell him he can adjust his penis but needs to either be in his bedroom or the bathroom.  And it feels like it's constant reminding to flush the toilet.

He's been doing great on reading.

He doesn't always want to go to Brittany's in the morning...

We are always working on not whining, 

I've been scratching his back at bedtime the last week and he loves it.

He always wants to go to McDonalds.

He picks the wii over iPad at bedtime (he will specify that he gets to play with three players which means he wants mom and dad to play too).

He is talking like a cat a lot (I have no idea why)

And he has been calling names at Brittany's.

BOY!  Three years old is fun, eh??