The new style

Yesterday morning Max's friend Mary Kate came over to play (and her mom Kristin was here to talk mother-talk with the Mama) and Max figured out that the crawler track off of his little tractor almost fits on his head. Yes, that's right, a crawler track. He was SO proud of himself and vamped it up quite a bit for the cameras. Mary Kate just looked at him in wonder and smiled. What a trend setter.
Side note: Aren't Mary Kate's pigtails so cute?!? I am so looking forward to Charlie having enough hair for them! Well, at this point even enough for a barrette would be a huge improvement for bald little Charlie... ;)

Olives

Another quirky thing that Max just loves is green olives. Dada enjoys them in his martini and thought it would be funny to see Max make a face from eating an olive, but just the opposite happened! Now it is assumed by all that if Dada is having a martini, Max gets a little plate of olives all to himself. He eats them right up and usually asks for 'more ovilsa pwease!'

Pay attention, Mama!

This morning as I was changing Max's diaper I was talking to him about going in the potty like a big boy and went on and on about when he needed to go he should tell me and we can run to the bathroom, and I guess I should have been paying better attention to what I was doing when putting his pants back on him...

It's a little hard to walk when both legs are in the same pants leg! He didn't say a word to me about it. I set him down and he toppled over when he tried to walk. I was laughing so hard I had tears streaming down my face! (Good thing he was laughing too!)
Of course, what would any person do upon discovering this? You mean you wouldn't say, 'Stand up Max - Mama has to go get the camera!'

'The' House Revisited

Isn't it amazing what can be accomplished in one week? The sign went out front of the house on Friday. Whew. Now we just need some nice people to move in!

Charlie-girl

The kids and I were up at Grandma & Grandpa's house yesterday and I was working really hard to try to get a photo of Charlie smiling. She would look at me and smile, I would bring the camera up and try to get her to smile again, but she just looked at the camera like it was an alien. Then she would look away and smile, as the photo below.

'The' House

I took this one this morning of the house across the street - that has been in the process of being built since we first began looking at our house last January (yes, 14 months ago) - because I had to document the huge mess that is directly across the street from us. The latest on the mistake list is the ripping up of the front walk because it was poured too narrow. So the excavator was brought in, the walkway ripped up and then, on an extremely rainy day, plastic sheeting was rigged up so that the new one could be poured the same day. This after no work at all was done 3 out of 5 days last week. The entire project has been like this. No work for days, weeks, months on end, and then crews are there over the weekend and in horrible weather to get things done last minute. Also of note is the trailer full of trash to overflowing just to the right of the house in the driveway that has been there for at least a month. We are really looking forward to the house being done and some new neighbors moving in!

Face Shot

I was trying really hard yesterday to get a shot of Charlie smiling to see if I could get her new teeth. She would smile until I brought the camera up to my face. No dice. But I did manage to get a great shot of her beautiful blue eyes!

2 of a Kind

I found the boys looking at a truck parts catalog. Not something the Mama would willingly look at, but the two boys seem to be fascinated by it!

Bathtime Fun

To say that Max is an enthusiastic bath taker would be an understatement... Dada ends up this drenched every time!

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!