Max the Builder

Max is pretty impressive when he sets his mind to building stuff. Should we have named him Bob? (As in Bob the Builder -- for those of you who didn't get my joke). Anyway, check out some of the stuff he's built with the squishy blocks we have.


I think this was Sienna and Chloe's house.


This one I think was either the Golden Pyramid or the Temple.



He does these all by himself, with a lot of thought, too. It'll take him a while sometimes for him to build one as he figures out where every block will go.


He even builds stuff with playdough!

Terrible Mother

Yup. That's me! What was I thinking when I put my sweet little girl up on our counter in her little seat to have some lunch while I stayed within arms reach of her to put the groceries away? Hmm... I think I thought, since I'm right here she'll be fine. She's eating so she's concentrating. The counter is really low. And then I turned my back. And I heard a sickening crash and turned around and saw Lia was no longer on the counter, but smooshed underneath her little highchair all twisted and screaming. Boy did I want to panic!! But I didn't. I picked her up, checked for bleeding, and tried to calm her down, all while trying to get Tyler on the phone and calling my neighbor to ask her if I should take her into the ER. I eventually got a hold of her pediatrician and he said we should have her checked out. Long story short, she was totally fine, not even a bruise or bump!! She's a tough little thing! She has to be to have a mom like me.

Taken right before the fall.

After a few hours in the ER.

Max Lately

Oh our Max -- he's such a determined stubborn thing! Most of the time I love it. I love that he has his own opinions and ideas and convictions. Sometimes I'm pulling my hair out trying to get him to do anything!! He's usually a pretty well-behaved kid (threatening works wonders for him -- which is nice for me since I don't have to punish much, just say I'm going to!) and loves to just spend time with us. He's still obsessed with Halloween, loves that Santa is going to bring him presents this year, and is starting school soon which he is beyond excited about.



He loves pirates. Anything to do with them! He likes collecting all his pirate stuff and playing pirates with his pirate ships (he has 3). By far his most favorite thing to do is play outside with his friends. He loves having friends! He gets so sad when we go out after naps and no one comes out to play. His best friend I think is Sienna -- who he regularly says he is going to marry someday. It's pretty cute, the other day Max was looking at Sienna's hair and said, "Sienna, you are so beautiful!" Wow, right? I don't know if I should think it's really cute, or be really scared!

He is really into getting new shoes lately. He loves new shoes, especially tie ones that he can run super fast in. Don't you love how he's sticking his tongue out in this first picture?







He loves playing super-heroes. He puts on his super hero cape and runs around asking if I have any "special missions" for him. It's a great way to get him to clean up his toys. He also loves taking all his clothes off and hanging out in his underwear. When we put him down for bed or nap he usually wakes up with just his underwear on.



He's still a stinker about eating. Will chew and chew and chew the same bite for seriously over 10 minutes, if not longer and then he will barely swallow it. We've tried a lot of things, a lot of yelling, threatening, treats -- nothing works. I think it's a phase, but it's the MOST annoying one. Now, we give him a certain amount of time to eat his food, and if he doesn't finish, we pick up his plate and throw it away. I used to be afraid he would wake up hungry, but oh well. It's gotten ridiculous! But he likes olives. What kid doesn't?



And candy.


Anyway, Max is an amazing kid. I seriously can't believe how blessed we were with such a crazy, full-of-life, inquisitive, smart, thoughtful, sweet little boy. He's the BEST!!! I wouldn't trade him ever (at times I'm tempted, but would I ever really go through with it?)

Amelia Lately

It's funny to see the name Amelia there since we rarely call her that. It's so pretty written out though! Anyway... Lia is growing like crazy. Although, I think at this point she's evened out pretty well. She's not so chunky anymore (sad!) or lazy (sadder!).



She's given up baby food altogether. Won't touch it. She has to eat exactly what we're eating or she gets really really mad -- yells even! The minute she hears anything that sounds like a wrapper she comes as fast as she can and begs for food. We all share of course, and it's pretty cute watching her get so excited about food (I can definitely relate to that). She loves meat. Beef. Anything beefy. She loves rice and macaronis and fruit. The kid will try anything. She's not too fond of lunch meat. She's obsessed with drinking. She loves water and juice (the only two things she can really drink) but she'll sit there and drink an entire sippy cup full of it. She learned to use a sippy cup a lot faster than Max. I don't know if she's always thirsty or if she just likes to drink.







At her 9 month check up she was 23 pounds (Max at his 3 year appointment on the same day was 28 pounds). She's a crazy little girl, full of life and always happy -- unless you do something to make her mad, then she yells at you, loud. She rarely cries, but she sure does know how to shriek and scream.





Now that she's almost 11 months old, her personality is coming out even more! She's a little pistol! She's funny, too. She likes to be a clown, laughing and hugging and crawling around. She loves her bath, doesn't care about getting water poured onto her head, hates getting dressed, loves her bed, loves being outside, LOVES snacks, hates being ignored. She's a wild little sweetie!

Waking Up

Max loves to wake Lia up from her nap. Usually she's already awake when we go in, but if I dare go in to get her without Max I can expect a lot of tears. Lia likes it just as much as he does and gets so excited when she sees him come in. These two have such a special bond! It's so fun to watch them interact and play together as Lia gets older. She idolizes her big brother, and I hope it stays that way! He's a great brother!


Her wake-up face!


He likes to get in with her and play for a few minutes.


She is just so cute!

Excuse Us

Our continuing lack of posts is not a direct reflection of how boring our lives our. Oh no. They are quite exciting to say the least! We've been busy busy busy. Okay, maybe not three busies, but pretty busy. These next few posts won't be in all the right order, but I just want to make sure I get it all down! Before I get TOO behind.

We had a visit from Grammie right before Max's birthday party. We did the usual PF Changs and Cheesecake Factory and we even met up with Linda and Grandpa Tony. Max was pretty into Grandpa Tony -- he walked all the way around the whole table at PF Changs to sit next to him. And Linda got Max the best pirate presents! He thought it was so cool.







Grammie brought Max an awesome pirate costume, too. Well, we thought it was awesome before we realized he would want to wear it 24 hours a day, to the grocery store, to the park, to the doctors, to bed, to Target... clothing is not one of those things I fight about with him, I let him decide for the most part, as long as it's not dangerous, what he wants to wear. So if you've seen a little pirate running around, that's my three year old. He likes it when strangers say "aarrrgh."



Which brings me to another new Max development. He LOVES to talk to people. Any people. Especially people the checkers at grocery stores and Target. And if they don't pay attention to him, he throws a tantrum. He likes them to say hi, ask him his name, how old he is. But on his terms only. If they approach him first, forget it. He gets mad and shy. He likes to initiate the conversation. Crazy kid.

Milkshakin' Party!

We finally had a birthday party for Max (two weeks late). We did so much traveling and so much visiting that there was no way I could throw a party on his birthday.



We had a milkshake and potato chip party since those are two of his favorite things to eat. We set up down in the community room, brought blenders and handed out shakes.



We rented a bounce house (thanks to grandpa) and Max pretty much thought it was the greatest thing EVER. Not only was it his party FINALLY (I made the mistake of telling him about it two weeks ago) but he also got a BOUNCE HOUSE!! They set it up at 9 in the morning and Max didn't get out of it until it was time to open presents. That kid loves to bounce!





Max requested a pinata for the party so we went to Party City and he picked out the number 3. He didn't really like the idea of whacking Diego or a turtle. He also picked out the candy that went inside and helped fill it. And he was ALL about whacking that thing to get the candy out! At one point we thought Tyler could help him and he'd be able to whack the thing open -- oh no -- that caused a meltdown. He wanted to do it all by himself.



Max got tons of awesome presents (a water slide, a fire engine, a dinosaur car, a pirate guy, puzzles, a cape with an M on it, a car that shoots out when you press a button...)





And of course his most favorite part was when everyone sang happy birthday to him. His face was so lit up and happy! I made cupcake pirate ships for all the kids and a mini pirate cake for Max (with a treasure chest and gold dabloons).





Lia successfully convinced her dad that she needed her own cupcake. She had no problem digging in and eating it all. Cute girl!





And of course Max wouldn't even touch his cake or cupcakes. Until we got home, he grabbed a spoon and scrapped off the homemade buttercream frosting and ate it.







I think Max had a great party. He was so sad when we started cleaning up and people started leaving. He kept saying, "but I'm not done with my party yet!" Poor kid. He wanted to party all day long. We ended just in time for naps. Max kept saying, "thank you mom for my awesome party!!" He really did have a great day. My sweet boy!

Why are they so excited?

Who knows. But they are cute, aren't they?

We LOVE our daddy!

Tyler decided to have a little fun. He never does this. So I decided to document it. I think he's pretty cute :)



We were getting ready to play country rock band with Danielle. He thought this was appropriate attire. I do, too.

Look What She Can Do!

I'm way behind on Amelia milestones on this blog. I swear with Max I blogged about every little burp and squeal. Can I just tell how how sweet and sassy this little girl of ours is though? She's awesome. She always wakes up with a smile on her face. She still loves to cuddle (for like 30 seconds... I KNOW!) and she still obsessively loves her daddy.



She went from army crawling to regular crawling pretty quickly and it wasn't long until she was pulling herself up on everything. When she crawls she puts her head down and crawls to where she wants to go as fast as she can. She's only just started to cruise a little around the couch and stuff. But when I see her doing it I grab her and sit her down. I don't want this little one walking yet!! She really doesn't have much interest in doing it anyway. When we try to get her to take steps between us she kinda goes limp like a little noodle or tries to jump.



Max and her now share a room together and it's so funny to hear them in the morning growling at each other. Lia loves to growl. She sounds like an angry dinosaur. It's really cute! Lia has also learned what "NO" means -- and she does not like it one bit. When you tell her no she'll try to do the same thing again and when you say no the second time she just bursts into tears. She really never cries, unless you tell her no. It's so so sad!



Anyway, she's about 21 pounds now and still chubby and squishy and oh so cute! I can't imagine our little family without her -- I can't believe we used to be just the three of us. She's fits in just perfectly!