What a Lazy Husband!

Here are a few shots of what my lazy-a$$ husband has been up to lately... you know, in between his day job and trying to spend time with the kids and I. This one above is from a couple of weeks ago when he was still in the process of removing all of the old wall board, insulation, and floorboards. Kickin' coveralls, eh?
The next two shots below are from this morning. All of the debris has been removed and the space is now ready for new insulation and subfloor.

This is the huge pile of debris in the back yard before Dada sorted it all into the trailers to take to the recycler and the dump. Note the small open window through which all debris was tossed to get it outside!

This next one was taken when we were first looking at the house. Dada removed all of that wall board, and the wall and door separating the far room. The guy is some other house hunter there during an open house.

Story Time

Dada spent the vast majority of the day working upstairs and when he was done for the day, he was really DONE. Max, on the other hand, was so excited to see his father he was jumping all over the place. Dada suggested the two of them go out to the front porch where Dada could sit and rest and Max could run around on the porch. All Max wanted to do, though, was sit right next to Dada and started talking animatedly and waving his arms all around. Most of what he said was his own little language, with a few words we could understand interspersed. I was peering through the front window at them and caught this priceless picture.

New Toy

Dada brought home a new toy for Max today - a mini LED flashlight. Max immediately ran into the dark bathroom and started waving it around. I discovered a function on my camera that I had never used before - if I turn the flash off, the exposure time lengthens, creating this cool effect with Max waving the light around. I'll have to play with that some more...

New V-day Tradition

I decided that since Max is old enough to start helping me with certain things in the kitchen that we would institute a new Valentine's Day tradition - the making of sugar cookies. I made the cookie dough while Max was napping and when he woke up, he helped me roll out the dough and use the cookie cutters. He had a blast! He was so engrossed that he wouldn't even look up at me for the picture. He wasn't all that interested in the finished product (is he really my kid?!?) but had so much fun rolling and stamping. In future years we will add the frosting and decorating, but for this first time just the making of the cookies was enough (for both of us). I even managed to get him to help me clean up the counter afterward!

6 Months Already!

Yesterday, Charlie and I went to her 6 month checkup at the pediatrician's office. Here are her current stats:
Weight: 15 lbs 14.5 oz - 50th percentile
Head Circ: 43.2 cm - 90th percentile
Length: (drum roll please) 28-1/4 inches - 110th percentile!

She is definitely long and thin like her brother!

She has a slightly "slow" tear duct (fairly common with children this age) which the doctor showed me how to massage to alleviate the crusties that have been forming in the corner of her eye. No worries - we will take proper care of it. Other than that, she is in excellent shape and looking good.

My, What Big Teeth You Have!

Yesterday afternoon Charlie and I were sitting together, me trying to keep her quiet so Max didn't wake up early from his nap. I let her chew on my finger, and what did I feel? Both bottom front teeth have broken through!! I had no idea they were so close. No wonder she has been chewing on things and crying lately! I just thought she was hungry and fed her more. You'd think I'd know better with her being my 2nd. Just goes to show how different each child is!

Good job with da knead, Mama

Max and I decided we should make bread again this morning. We went through the whole cycle of adding all of the ingredients together and watching it mix and knead, and then let the machine do the first rise. When the dough comes out of the machine, Max stands on the stool next to me and watches me do the 2nd knead on the counter. In the middle of the kneading, he pats me on the shoulder and says, "Good job with da knead, Mama." Thanks, Max.

Who is this?

I was looking at this photo a little bit ago when Max came over to see what I was doing. I asked him, "Who is this?" He says, "Chahwee." "It's Max." "Chahwee." "Max". He looks at the picture a little longer, smiled, and just looked at me for a bit. I don't think he believed me.
Just for reference, take a look at this picture of Charlie from about a month ago:

What's Cookin'?

Max has been interested in all of the goings on in the kitchen since he was big enough to be in his excersaucer (maybe 3 months old or thereabout). He constantly asks to be picked up so that he can see what I'm doing in there. I read recipes out loud to him and talk through things, and he repeats as much as he can. He was being such a good boy on Monday, and Charlie was napping so Max had my undivided attention. I decided that we should make pancakes for lunch. My friend Marcy told me a while back that she lets her son help her with pancakes because who cares if they have a little less flour from overzealous stirring?!

The photo above is Max mixing the batter - very happily mixing and mixing!
The one below is him continuing to stir and stir in between me putting it into the pan to cook up. Needless to say, the pancakes got more and more crepe-like as the batches went on! They sure were good though, with a little bit of peanut butter and maple syrup.

Dada's Helper Part II

A couple of nights ago, Dada needed to change a cable behind the stereo cabinet, requiring him to move the cabinet out from the wall just a bit. Max saw his opportunity to help...

So, using his cat-like crawling abilities...

Got right back there so that he could supervise the activity.
Looks like Dada has some serious work to do with the tidying up of the cables, doesn't it? Don't worry, Dada! Max will be there to help you out every step of the way!

Mama's Helper Part II

Max is obsessed with the bread machine. Loves it. Yesterday I pulled the machine down from the cupboard and got out the recipe book, and because Max is very interested in most things in the kitchen, started reading the recipe out loud. Here is an example of the dialog, starting with Max:

"Bwead dough makah! Bwead dough makah!"
"Yes, we are going to make bread. OK, we need 1 and 1/4 cups of water."
"A cup-a watah!"
"And 1 tablespoon of butter."
"A cup-a buttah!"
"Now we need 3 and 1/4 cups of flour."
"A cup-a flou-ah!"
"And 3/4 of a teaspoon of salt."
"A cup-a salt!"
"And 1 and 1/4 teaspoons of yeast."
"A cup-a yeast!"

(As you can see, Max may be better suited for pound cake; A pound-a butter! A pound-a sugar!)

Then, once everything has been added and the machine turned on, Max insists on being picked up so that he can look down inside the machine to watch it mixing and kneading all of the ingredients - multiple times. Even after all of the mixing and kneading has stopped and he can no longer look inside (the heat needs to be kept inside while it is rising so it isn't good to lift the lid during that portion of the dough cycle) he still runs into the kitchen every couple of minutes to point at the machine and tell me something about the 'bwead dough, Mama!'

Days later, he still points at the cupboard where the machine is kept and tells me 'There's da bwead dough makah, Mama!'

Side note: He calls it the bread dough maker instead of the bread machine because I like to make the bread either in a traditional bread loaf pan or in different shapes - bread sticks, rustic loaf, or pizza dough. Since the pan in the machine is one of those tall oddly shaped things, I run the machine on the dough cycle which takes care of the mixing, kneading, and first rise so all I need to do is pull it out, do a quick knead, shape it how I want it, and go from there. Cheating, I know, but otherwise I won't do any homemade bread! Which would be a shame because there isn't anything better than fresh bread warm from the oven for dinner!

What's Up, Chahwee?

Big brother Max decided yesterday that he needed to get down and have a conversation with Charlie. She was happy on her tummy for much longer with him there!

Messy Face

Here is a shot of Charlie's messy sweet potato face. Looks remarkably like the pic I posted a year and a half ago of Max's messy mac-n-cheese face, doesn't it?

Someone Needs a New Marketing Person...

This is the truck delivering a load of bark to the house across the street yesterday!
I'm guessing they're from the town of Boring, Oregon, but it doesn't speak too highly of their product, does it?

Bye bye water!

This is one of those shots that will send Max to therapy one day, but is too cute for Mama to keep to herself! This is long, skinny Max waving bye-bye to the bath water as it finishes draining from the tub.

My boys

Dada spent a good deal of time this past weekend either upstairs demoing the second floor in preparation for adding bedrooms for the kids up there, and outside cutting down a tree. Needless to say, he got both really dirty and really tired! Here he is taking a lunch break and talking with Max.

Animal Crackers

This is too adorable to not share with the class.
Today I was preparing lunch for Max and he decided he wanted soup, which is all of the chunks of veggies and noodles from a can of veggie soup (Mama gets the broth). I asked him if he would like crackers with it, and he said, "Yes, cracka's!" So then I asked him what kind of crackers he would like. He promptly said, "Animal cracka's." Well, the kind of animal crackers we have are a little sweet, so I asked him if he would like fish crackers instead. His reply: "Animal cracka's in my soup!" (Guess what song Mama sings to him to get him to laugh?!?)

Naughty Dada

There is Max in the background running around, happy that his parents are in the room with him while he is playing, oblivious to...

The naughty poses in which his father is positioning his figurines.

Snow Day

We woke up this morning to snow falling, and falling, and falling. Completely unusual for us here in the valley! We have probably a good 3 inches accumulated of a nice powdery dry snow. Max liked the idea of snow when he was looking out the window, but once he and Dada were outside he wasn't so sure!

He kept looking at the snow hitting his sleeve and mitten, and stood there for a long time before Dada finally walked over and took his hand for their walk.

There go my boys! It was about 1 block later that Max insisted Dada pick him up and continue the walk on Dada's shoulders! Such a tough little outdoorsman.

Trains

We managed to fit Max's new train table in his room, and he loves to ask us, "Fix the track?" Which in Max language means, "Will you play trains with me?" Lucky for Max both Dada and I like figuring out new formations for the tracks. In both pics Max was happily playing with the trains and I had to holler at him to say cheese until he looked at me - and he refused to smile! But photogenic Dada smiled until I took the picture, and although Charlie was also not smiling, at least she went with the flow for the sake of the pictures.