The Life of a Boy

Guess who has pictures tomorrow?  Yeah, this little boy!!

He had a crash today while I was at work.  He was busy exploring and probably attempting to climb on something that wasn’t climbable.  I saw this huge bandage on his head and got a little scared.  But it looks worse then it is.

I had to go to the bank today and I took Max in with me (Mally was sleeping) and my banker looks at Max and says… he has pictures soon doesn’t he?  *GASP*  Your right!!  I completely forgot about Max’s pictures he has tomorrow until the banker said it!  He says, my kids always did that too – bumped, bruised, scrapes, scratches the day before pictures.  They are teenagers now, and they still do it.  : ) 

Mally is very much in the “Max Stage” I am going to call it.  She acts like Max.  She grunts and squawks like Max.  She crawls around like Max.  She eats with her fingers.  Needs a drink when he does.

I know it has to be just a stage for her.  Because she has gone threw many stages and they last about 2 weeks.  So I’m hoping this one goes away real quick!  : )  She went threw a “what stage” where she said “what” after everything I said to her.  And I thought that was frustrating.  The Max Stage might beat the What Stage. 

But they are so dang cute you can’t stay frustrated for long!

Maxwell–10 & 11 Months

I missed Max’s 10 month post and that gets me – but moving on.  : )

He started sitting up, crawling, pulling to standing all in a matter of days it felt like – shortly after 10 months old. 

He has started waving bye and giving high fives.  He claps his hands when we sing patty-cake and itsy bitsy spider.

He is always crawling to what ever room I am in.  Then climbs up my legs.  I don’t remember Mally climbing up my legs – so this is a whole new world for me.  I’m afraid for shorts season because there have been a few days already where I have had shorts on and he comes to climb my legs and attempts to grab fist fulls of my skin!  Ouch! 

Along with crawling up my legs – he also likes to sit at my feet and wave his arms and start to whine/cry.  He loves to be held!  He is such a snuggler too!  There are moments where he will be fussy so I will grab him, his blanket, his nuk and rock and he will just lay his head on my chest and not wiggle.  He just lets me rock him.  But then there are complete opposite moments where he pushes with both hands on my chest to get away and get down. 

He says.. Momma.  Daddy.  Naggie (Maggie).  He also has some consistent sounds that he makes for ball (bah) and book (boo).  Every once in awhile when I say “what does a cow say?” he will let a Mmmm.   Speaking of cows.  I have started showing him the Baby Einstein Farm DVD and he loves it!  If I ask him “Do you want to watch the cows?” and he will whip his head at the TV and get a big smile and just wait for it to come on. 

He loves to be entertained at all times.  : )  However, he doesn’t want anything to do with learning.  I have been trying to teach him about noses and every time he crawls away or won’t look at me.  Then the shape blocks – yah, not interested.  I’m starting to get him into books as long as there is a flap for him to flip or something fuzzy to touch.  Otherwise, he closes the books and looks for a different one.

He likes to yell at Maggie.  He will stand at the gate and yell “Naggie” and squeals when Maggie comes.  If Maggie is outside and barks – Max will look at a window and yell “Naggie”.  Mrs. Carolyn took him to the library a few weeks ago and he stood at the library window yelling “Naggie” the whole time. 

When Mally and I have our dance parties and start dancing around the living room… Max will sit on his butt with his arms in the air grunting at me for me to pick him up.  He wants me to hold him while I dance.  I can hold him and dance for a long time he doesn’t mind.  He doesn’t wiggle to get down at all.  If I put him down (because lets face it – the kid is 22 pounds of baby love and he gets heavy!) and I start dancing without him – his arms go up and the grunting begins. 

I’ve transferred him to whole milk already.  So far it is going okay – he is taking it like a champ.  Cold and even in a sippy cup.  He seems to be happier/satisfied with the switch because he can get a lot more then what I was able to give him.  However, he has horrible diapers right now and diaper rash.  Not sure if they go hand and hand with the whole milk or if we have another tooth coming.  Speaking of teeth he has 5 already!

Mally at 10 Months.

Mally at 11 Months.

Play Ball

My sister and her kids came to visit last Friday.  Her kids love it when we walk down to the baseball diamond.  It’s a highlight of their visit to Tia’s house.  However, they are not a fan of Tia’s house when they want snacks.  I don’t keep snacks in my house – because I eat them!  When I busted out the raisons and fruit snacks for snack time I got a wrinkled up nose from my Miss El.

The only time I can get Max to wear his hat is when I say “wanna go outside, Buddy?” he likes to go outside.

This little boy loves to throw things.  Anything.  Especially balls.  So these pictures are kind of fitting for him – maybe some day we will have a little slugger and we will be watching him guard first base.

And he has an arm already.  He can really throw.  And every once in awhile he catches them too.  Max was at the library with Mrs. Carolyn a few weeks ago and he must have been throwing toys around and a guy stops and says, “that kid is going to be a baseball player.”  

Being a little boy that likes to throw means he throws everything! 

Later in the day we were in the sandbox – which he thought was the best thing since sliced bread… and the kid loves his bread.  He started grabbing handfuls of the sand and throwing it!  Squeal!  Throw sand!  Squeal! 

Then I started squealing – NO!  Because it is going directly into Mally’s hair!  Ick!  Sand in hair is so not my favorite!

Ellyn wanted me to take pictures of her pretending to play.  But Mally is always by her side.

Except when she runs – then Maggie is there.

Because Pokey-Malokey (that’s what we call her) can’t keep up.

Ellyn made it home.

These two… or three… lost focus on what the task was and started doing their own thing.

Max made it to second base… SAFE!

Then we had to pitch.  Mally caught up with her again.

Mr. G found the mega puddle. 

Mally went in and got her pants wet – she was done and wanted to take them off.  Right here on the ball diamond.  Thankfully I got her to wait until we got home.

Boys will be boys!  Splash away G-Man!

Very Early Summer

I couple posts ago I talked about a big snow storm.  Today my sister and I walked out of a store and it felt like July!  The truck thermometer read 79 and it even felt humid out already!

We have been spending lots of time outside and both of my kids are huge fans of the great outdoors. 

We grilled out this week and Mallory had convinced Jesse to get out her swing set from under the deck.

Max loves to play ball.

Mally came home!  She went for a ride in the Jeep with Jesse. 

She couldn’t wait to play on the slide and swing in the swing.

While she was eating supper she wanted to keep looking out the window to make sure that it was still out there.

Max went on the slide.

And Mally went in the swing.  She must be buckled.  Not my rule.  Her rule. 

I think she was a little disappointed in her swing this year.  She kept wanting me to push her faster.  And this swing is a bit too small for her.  She grew a lot since last summer when she would swing in here.

Max has lots of crashes, scratches, scrapes, and blood at this stage.  He is a brave little boy and likes to climb up onto unsteady things.  He has already figured out the stairs and started climbing up the stairs!  His cheek is all banged up this day because he climbed up the rocking chair and fell into it.

Mallory is still 100% girl when it comes to some things…BUGS!  She is still very afraid of bugs.  I have to rescue her a lot already from bugs and it is only March!  Today a little bee landed on her finger and OMG!  Scream and shake and scream and shake and cry!  She flips!  She doesn’t ever react like that – except when a bug touches her!

She may or may not get it from me…

Got Nutella?

Mally had Nutella toast and a banana for breakfast one morning.  I left her at the table, went to get Max dressed, came back and saw her and yelped!  Then got my camera!

The next morning I cut her toast in 4s instead of just in half.

A New Schedule

On the last day of the year that our business was open we reached a sales goal that we set for ourselves.  This sales goal was met within hours of closing for 2011.  Jesse paged me in the house with the great news!  We were so jazzed!  Meeting this goal meant we were going to hire our first employee!  Which we were so ready for, but we needed to meet this goal first.

Mid January we hired our guy and he is what I would call a perfect match!  It has been fantastic.  Anyway, he is doing so well that I have gone down to 4 days a week… Fridays off!  : )  These kids are not going to be little forever – I need all that time I can get!  Plus, I was starting to notice some behavior issues (nothing major) with Mallory, which I chalked up to needing more Mommy Time.  I was so stressed and busy at work that I wasn’t able to leave work at work and I wasn’t being the best parent I could be.  With our new guy – I don’t worry about work (as much) when I am home and I have the energy and attention to give to the kids that they deserve. 

My first Friday was spent with a sick baby girl and a teething baby boy!  Dumped me headfirst to mommy days.  I tried to make them forget that they were sick or in pain by busting out the pudding and having them paint with pudding.  No go!  Mally looked at me like I grew wings and antlers and said, this isn’t paint this is pudding.  You eat pudding momma.  She asked for a spoon and refused to paint with it.  Max looked at it for a bit, stuck his finger in it, tasted it, then grunted and wanted a spoon too. 

So this is my second Friday off and today I was in total weekend mode already and was feeling kind of lazy.  We had a snack this afternoon and it reminded me of a post I did on Mally when she was about this age.  I grabbed my camera and took a few pictures.

Keeping it real here… my kids need baths!  I braided Mally’s hair yesterday so it is crimpy and then I ran her humidifier at nap today (she is still battling that head cold) and she woke up a sweaty sticky hot mess.

Max sits so frumpy sometimes.  Cracks me up!

I had to get supper started… well we were having a lazy supper of frozen pizza fries and pasta salad… and Max follows me EVERYWHERE and climbs up my pant legs or he sits at my feet and flaps his arms like a baby bird and cries at me.  So I tossed him a few kitchen tools that he hadn’t ever seen before.  He likes new things to explore.

While I am taking these – my pot of water is boiling over on my stove.  It must be the end of the week.  : )

And Mally is in the bathroom taking herself potty and washing her hands by herself.  Every once in a while she has to do that whole process by herself – she insists.

It took her forever!  She was in there almost 15 minutes!  Then she came out with her high heels on. 

Here is to more “momma days”!