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.

War of the Words

Dada and I have not been agreeing what body part names to teach the kids. Dada has 'special' names for things and I prefer the actual names. One day this past week I was changing Max's diaper and was in the midst of refastening his pants when he started poking at the front of his diaper with his hand. I asked him if he needed to adjust himself up there, and he looked up at me and said, "pecker." Wonder who is winning the war?!?

Jammies!

Dada typically puts Max's jammies on him, and Mama puts Charlie's on her. Last night after we had each gotten them changed, they were in the same jammies! Charlie is fitting into some of Max's hand-me-downs, and he has bigger ones in the same print. How cute are they?!?
Max is telling Charlie a story above and Charlie is cooing back at him.

Max decided he needed to lay on the floor the same way as Charlie.
Do you think he'll have the same smile on his face when Charlie is bigger and stealing his toys? ;)

Movin 'n groovin

Two nights ago I had Charlie on the floor to kick her legs and wave her hands and such, and she surprised me (and herself) by rolling over onto her tummy. I let her play like that until she was tired of it and then put her back onto her back next to me. She continued to pull up her legs and before long had rolled back over to her tummy again. She only spent about 10 seconds on her tummy before rolling over onto her back again the other way - like she was going to roll across the room or something. I was really wishing I'd had the video camera on her! My little girl is getting so big! Now, we just need to work on the whole sleeping through the night thing...

Dada's Helper

Last week, Dada sold our glider chair on craigslist, and needed to clean up the chair and make sure it was all in working order, including tightening all of the screws and bolts. Of course, as soon as Max saw the tools out he had to help Dada with the project. He pretty much pushed Dada out of the way and actually knew what to do with the allen keys!

What a good helper. Dada can't wait until Max is old enough to mow the lawn, clean the gutters, take out the trash.....

Presents!

Dada and I were up kinda late last night (I mean, Santa was up late...) assembling Max's new train table. When he came out of his room this morning, he headed toward me sitting in the living room, and then did a double take at the table and immediately changed course! He and Dada have already changed the layout of the tracks a couple of times this morning. Looking forward to having his tracks up off of the floor in his room!
Oh - it is a little hard to see in this picture, but notice that there are almost no ornaments on the lower half of the tree! Max helped me put some of the ornaments up, but every time he took one off of the tree I put it up where he couldn't reach it - slowly but surely all of the ones he put on the tree migrated upward. We'll try again next year to keep little fingers off of the tree! (Just in time for Charlie to start grabbing at it) ;P

Look at that expression of concentration on his face! What a cutie.

Christmas Eve

We spent a lovely evening at Grandma and Grandpa M's house

(or as Max calls them, Grandma and Grandma)
for Christmas Eve. This picture is toward the end of the gift opening. The kids really made a haul off of Grandma & Grandma! It was a lot of fun watching Max open presents and play with all of his new toys. Next year Charlie will get in on the action!

Dada thought it was hilarious to put the discarded bows on Max's back because Max didn't know they were there and when he realized there was something there, he couldn't reach them! I just think he is adorable in his little dress shirt and sweater vest.

True Friends

We went to the annual party Saturday night of a group of friends that Dada grew up with, and now the youngest generation is becoming another group of friends - Here is Max with Frank watching a movie during the party. They had a great time playing together the whole evening.

Another shot of Max and Frank, with Frank's grandpa David all watching the movie together. Watching Frosty the Snowman is serious stuff!

Charlie-girl at 4 months

Charlie had her 4 month checkup yesterday and has been declared 'a very healthy little girl' by the pediatrician. Here are her stats:
Weight 14 lbs 5 oz - 75th percentile
Height 25-3/4" - 95th percentile
Head 42.4 cm - 90th percentile

After having such huge measurements at 2 months, she is now much more in line with how big Max was at this age. She is also now figuring out that she has hands, blowing raspberries, and talking and squealing more and more. Such joyful sounds! She and Max are also discovering each other more each day. Max is spending more time talking to Charlie, and Charlie thinks that Max is pretty fascinating and watches him any time he is within her view. I'm sure lots of laughter is just around the corner between the two of them.

Speaking of laughter, Charlie had her first laugh a couple of days ago! What an exciting thing to hear. I'll try my best to get a video of it to post. Until next time...

More of Charlie Smiling

Got lucky yesterday with a couple of good shots of Charlie smiling and laughing. They are off-center because I still have to hold the camera away from my face and hope it is pointed in the right direction!
Charlie's big smiles are huge open mouth smiles, and I have seen pictures of myself at that age with the same smile so she comes by it honestly.
Here is the cute girl:

I Can Read!

The morning of Thanksgiving day 2006 has Dada picking up the house so that Mama can stay in the kitchen all day (happily). Just after picking up the boys' room, we find him in there 'reading' a book in his little rocking chair. What a good boy! Say, do they make footy pajamas in Mama's size?!?

Messy Art

Max had his very first 'messy art' class this past week. This picture shows Max and the other children playing with playdough while waiting for the project table to be readied. The project this week was to paint a turkey using the outline of their hands and embellish with feathers, sequins, googly eyes and other fun items. Unfortunately I have no pictures of the project process because I was too busy trying to keep Max from alternating between stealing the other kids paint brushes and painting the other kids!

More and more...

Every time we rediscover either pictures or videos of Max from his first year, we find more and more that Charlie really does look like Max! Case in point:


This is Max at 7 months. Isn't that hilarious?!

Charlie Smiles!

This past weekend the kids and I went down to my parents house for the weekend, and were able to help their cousin Brad celebrate his 7th birthday!

Brad decided to have a bowling party for his birthday. Here are Max along with 6 of his cousins and 3 friends at the bowling alley. Note that both Max and his cousin Benny had to be held back until the picture was taken!

Another cool thing that happened was Charlie discovering that it is OK to hang out in her bouncy seat and had quite a few smiles for Mama! It is very difficult to get a picture of her smile because they disappear so quickly and she doesn't want to smile for the camera, so I have to hold it away from my face, get her to smile, and hope I have the camera pointed in the right direction! This is the best I could get over the weekend. Looking more and more like her brother, eh?

Costumes

I have been meaning to get these pictures up for two weeks now! Well, here they are (finally).Somehow I didn't manage to get a picture of Max's entire costume, but here he is as a train engineer. The rest of it was a Thomas the train ("Thomas the tank engine" as Max would say) that went around his midsection with suspender style straps. Boy, he sure doesn't look too thrilled to have his picture taken!

Charlie got to wear the Winnie the Pooh costume that Max wore two years ago. I just love the little ears on the hood!

Which one is which?

One of these pictures is Max, and one is Charlie. Can you tell which is which?

Punkins!

Our playgroup went to the pumpkin patch out in North Plains yesterday morning. Max and Wolfie had fun following each other around the field, each taking turns tripping over the vines and getting muddy. Fun!

Luckily, Charlie fell asleep pretty quickly in the front pack so that I could concentrate on following Max around the field and finding pumpkins for the kids. Max didn't want to pose for this picture - he wanted to keep running!

This punkin Mama!

I was a little worried about how I could possibly carry a baby in the front pack, hold a 2yo's hand and carry punkin's back from the field... but Max sat very well in a wheelbarrow with the punkin's and even my purse! Thank heaven for wheelbarrows! (Who would have ever thought I would utter those words?!?)

Silly kids!

Here are a few random pictures of the kids:
Charlie is having a quiet moment sitting in the high chair.

Max has carried his lovey, Wallace (the dog), around with him for about a year and a half. A recent addition to Wallace is George (the monkey). Wallace is still #1, but George goes around with Max most of the time too and is now a requirement at nap and bedtime!

Max has a lot of fun stealing our shoes and clomping around the house. Here he is in Dada's house shoes, with the requisite George, Wallace, and sippy cup.

Boys Will Be Boys

We've been trying to get outside as much as possible, but with the wet PNW autumn starting, the yard is beginning to have some muddy areas (where, when it was dry, were simply dust bowls before). The other day I was out in the yard with the kids working on calming a crying Charlie and looked up to see Max climbing the stairs to the back door in this condition. Needless to say, there are not enough baby wipes in the house to get the mud off, so as soon as I could get Charlie asleep it was bath time! Luckily Max is just as happy playing in bath water as he is in puddles and mud holes!

Well-Baby

Charlie had her 2 month checkup this morning, and everything has checked out just fine:
weight 12lb 1.5oz - 95th percentile
length 23-3/4 inches - Off the chart!
Head 15-3/4 inches - 97th percentile

We are already switching her to size 2 diapers because of her chubby little thighs.
So, she's big, but at least she's proportionate!

Here is a video of the kids the other day:

Note that Charlie isn't screaming!