Can we fly it?

My mom sent Max this book about building paper planes and flying them. It came with a few that you could build. So of course Max had to rip it open and start right away. He was pretty happy about the whole thing, and pretty proud of his purple plane.

A Little Foodie

I think our little Lia is going to be quite the foodie. It started with a her first taste of banana. She was seriously digging it. She kept reaching out and grabbing for it.





In this video she's eating banana again with one of those little mesh feeders. These things are great!


Then came her first taste of actual baby food. At first she was a little unsure (check out the face).







But eventually she smiled and wanted more and more. We started with apples and have so far tried pears, bananas and sweet potatoes. She wasn't too fond of peas.



Whenever she sees us eating things she just stares and stares at the food. She'll even try to grab for it if you aren't careful. This is how she got a hold of this pickle.



Yes, that is a real pickle. A sour one. This girl could not get enough of it! She cried when we finally took it away from her because she was making a huge mess. I have a feeling she's going to be one of those kids that enjoys table foods way more than baby foods. Only time can tell.

Family Time

Lately I've been making a very honest effort to spend a lot of time together as a little family. Each weekend I try to plan something on Saturday where we can go out together and just enjoy each other. I've been working really hard to make dinner early enough that we can all sit around the table and eat together (yes, even Amelia). Max has really been loving this time. Sad I know that it wasn't really a priority before -- we tried so hard just to get Max to eat that eating at the table wasn't really effective. But now it's much easier for Max and he is seriously loving it. He gets all of our attention and eats all of his dinner and because we eat so much earlier now (Tyler and I used to wait until after the kids went to bed to eat) we go out for walks and to the park before bedtime. It's made such a huge difference in the dynamic of our family. It has really made us feel closer and we love it!



Recently we found this little park and had a good time feeding the ducks some goldfish crackers (that was all we had) and running around and going on "adventures" (what Max calls them). It's really fun for him to do stuff like this because it gives him the chance to do whatever he wants really. I try to give him very few rules and limits when he is outside. It's the one place he is able to explore and play and run as much as he wants.





He had fun climbing on all the rocks and playing hide and seek. Here's one spot he decided to hide -- under a park bench. He seriously thought he was so clever. His head was pretty hidden... feet, not so much.



Lia was pretty excited about this M&M wrapper. After we had eaten dinner we went to Longs and got some candy as a treat. Amelia saw this wrapper and did not let go until we got in the car and she fell asleep. She loved it.







I am loving our new "family time" together. I have to say, it's a lot of work. It's much easier to let Max eat in front of the TV and wait until the kids go to bed so Tyler and I can eat. I've missed cooking and loving that I get to do it again, try out new recipes and experiment. It's been good for all of us!

Disneyland: Happy Birthday Tyler!

Tyler turned a ripe old age of 28 and we celebrated by getting him in for free at Disneyland. I know, not his first choice to spend a birthday. But we had been (well, really I had been wanting to -- Tyler wasn't all that in to it) wanting to take Max to Disneyland for a while. And I'm so glad we finally did! He had a seriously fun time with just mom and dad paying all kinds of attention to him and letting him do whatever he wanted and eat whatever he wanted. My sister stayed home and watched Lia for us (which ended up being soooo awesome because it would have been really hard with her there). I won 2 $50 gift cards with Mickey Dollars from a radio station so we got to eat at the Blue Bayou which was so fun. Max loved watching the pirate boats go by.

The park, unfortunately, was seriously packed the day we went (being the first day of spring break and a Saturday didn't really help). So Max didn't get to go on all that many rides. And I was feeling all stressed about it until I realized that he had no idea what he was missing. So, here are the pictures...

Eating snacks waiting to get in.


Trying to get him to pose for a picture in front of the castle.


Dumbo ride -- waited a good 45mins to get on.


Tom Sawyer's pirate lair island thingy... you take a little raft out to this fun island where you can run around and climb and stuff. Max thought it was really fun. He really liked the pirate stuff.








We bought Max a pirate sword and a telescope and they have become his favorite toys of all time. He LOVES that telescope.



Max thought it was also his birthday. He kept asking for a cake and to blow up the candles.


We stayed the whole day and rode as many rides as we could. We went on Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion (where Max got a little freaked out at first, and then he saw a ghost thing pop up out of the ground that reminded him of my grandmother so he felt a lot better and kept laughing at "Grandma coming up out of the ground!!") We went on It's a Small World twice. He LOVED that ride. He kept waving and saying "hi!!" to all the little dolls. I myself find that ride a bit creepy, so I focus on Max's enthusiasm to get me through it. With all the lines and massive amounts of people that's about all we had time for. We left around 9 and by the time we did Max was begging to go home and go to sleep. He actually fell asleep in the car on the way home -- he hasn't done that literally since he was like 9 months old. The kid had the time of his life. I wish we lived a little closer because we would definitely get season passes.



We waited in line for over an hour to see Mickey Mouse. We had no idea it was going to take that long (the line looks deceptively short). When we finally fought off all the grandmas and kids who tried to cut us in line and got in to see Mickey, they let us stand with him for all of 5 seconds, take a picture and then they kicked us out. Max was trying to say goodbye to Mickey and Mickey just ignored him. I was a little annoyed. But Max didn't really seem to care.

Our Bunny: Lia Month 4

That's right. Lia is four months old already. Time seriously flies with baby #2. It seems like just yesterday we had brought her home from the hospital and my family was here visiting and she was spitting up buckets all over everyone. Sigh...



Well now she's four months and chubby and happy and just pure joy in our house. She smiles constantly, laughs all the time, rolls all over the place, plays with toys (a lot, she loves them) jumps in her jumperoo. She loves walks in the stroller. She loves the stroller period. She often falls asleep on walks. She's finally got a good schedule with eating and naps. She still only eats every five hours during the day (a huge 6-7 ounce bottle) and is just growing and thriving. At four months she's already almost 15 pounds (she's surpassing her brother by A LOT) and has these adorable little leg rolls and tummy rolls.



Whenever she is crying to be held or is done with her naps, as soon as you pick her up she will give you the HUGEST smile. It's so different to have a baby who wakes up happy (we are used to cranky Max who wakes up seriously ticked about something every day).



We love this little darling girl so so much. And while I'd like to freeze her as a little little for a while, I'll be glad when she sits up and crawls. That's probably my favorite stage. But for now I'm happy with my cuddly little bunny.



P.S. Isn't this the cutest outfit ever? Thanks dad!

The Kids Lately...

I know I say it a lot on here, but Max is incredibly awesome with his sister. He is kind and always worried about her. He plays with her and wants to sit with her and spend time with her. Whenever he goes out with only one of us (no Lia) he always asks where she is and when she'll be able to come with us. He's the best big brother I've ever seen. Seriously.



He has this musical card (from Grandma Seibert) that plays "What a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong. He calls it "Lia's Song" and will sit and play it for her over and over again.





They take baths together now, too. Lia in her little tub and Max in the big tub. He tries to play with her and make her laugh. It's really cute. And Lia just stares and stares at him, smiling big all the time. You can tell she really wants to run around with him and play.

Potties and Undies

The other day Max came in from his room and told me he didn't want to wear diapers anymore. He wanted to wear his underwears. So... we did it. For two days. And he had two accidents. And then he was done.



I haven't even begun the journey of potty training him. He does his own little version of it himself. He goes on the potty before bath every night. And whenever I ask him if he wants to go, he'll go. But I'm not pushing it. He's slowly making himself ready and I'm fine with that progress for now. I have all confidence that when he is truly ready he'll just do it. But for now, we have fun hanging out sometime in big boy underwears.

Jumping Off Cliffs

For some reason I had never been to the Gliderport here in La Jolla so we decided to head out there one weekend. It's actually a pretty cool place. The view of the Pacific is amazing -- it just stretches out in front of you forever.



And a little further up the hill is where you can see those few brave souls jump off the cliffs and float around in their parachutes. It's really neat to watch. Max thought it was really fun (but really, anything outside without a lot of limits is fun to him).



He really enjoyed this resident black lab and sat for a while just petting her.



Lia of course was her normal smiley self, just happy to be hanging out with her daddy. It was a very fun little family outing.

The Weekenders

Yes, that's me and Tyler. Thanks to Tyler's mom for coming down and staying the weekend with the kids, Tyler and I did a little overnight trip in San Diego. We didn't go far just in case Lia needed us at home (we really weren't sure how she'd be for someone else). We had a great time. We stayed downtown in the Westin Grand at Horton Plaza, played Rock Band until the wee hours of the night (11:30 -- sad), had an amazing dinner at an Italian place downtown and an even more amazing breakfast at The Hash House.



Seriously people. Go here. You will wait a long time, but you will devour every single wonderful bite and not regret it. Tyler's plate was so pretty! That's basted eggs on top of mashed potatoes, spinach, tomatoes... a roasted red pepper cream sauce... OH MAN. Sooo good!!


I got an egg scramble with ground turkey, swiss cheese and broccoli, a homemade biscuit... okay, I need to stop writing about it because it's making me SOOO hungry!!


Funny how the only pictures I have are of the food we ate. We had a great little weekend just hanging out the two of us, without kids and nap times and meltdowns. We definitely need to do it again soon. (Obviously I'm not one of those moms who feels guilty about leaving my kids to have a little time for myself. More moms should be like this.)