A four year old?? How did THAT happen??

Seriously. Max is four. Our little bitty boy is four years old. FOUR. No matter how much I say it I still can't believe it. Four is kind of a sad age. It's when he really starts to grow up. At three he was still little. Still more like a baby then a big kid. Now, he's lost his baby chubby cheeks and looks like a boy. He's starting to learn to read and write and do big kid stuff. He sits in a booster seat now in the car! He talks more grown up, has more grown up thoughts. He's got one year left at home with me and then it's off into the big big world -- kindergarten.

He was seriously excited to turn four. He'd been talking about his birthday for about 11 months. When the day finally came he was SO excited to come out of his room and find his chair and the kitchen was decorated just for him!





Tyler did a great job on the decorations. We even got a cheap helium tank so we could blow up some balloons for him.



Since his pirate costume no longer fits him he's been growing out of the pirate stage (although still sits and plays with his pirate toys all the time) and into the superhero phase. He's REALLY into Buzz Lightyear and Superman and Spiderman and Batman and all the other "mans" that wear capes or have super powers or rescue people. So his birthday was centered around that.





He got some great presents for his birthday, too. We got him a baseball bat and ball (and he got a glove from Danielle), Spiderman underwear, a Batman t-shirt, a few board games, some coloring books and crayons and some stickers. And the BIG present this year was a...



BUZZ LIGHTYEAR!! A real talking movie sized version. He was shocked he got one and so so excited. I swear there is nothing better than giving your kid a special present, something he's truly wanted for a LONG time. It was priceless!

Lia got a few things, too, since we knew there would be tears if we didn't. And not because she expects presents, she just doesn't understand that it's not her birthday, too. So she got a Tinkerbell doll, some candy and a bowl with a bird in it. She was pretty stoked.



We then decided to spend the day at the Children's Museum in downtown San Diego and we thought Max would love to ride the train down there. So we parked at the Trolley station and rode it down there. It drops you off right in front so it was perfect and Max and Lia both thought it was pretty cool.









The kids had a blast exploring the museum and their favorite part was definitely the clay. Max made a bear, then a snowman, then a bear again and then something else that I can't remember, a rocket I think.



Tyler made a cobra.


And then a bear.


On the way home we stopped at Max's favorite place, In-N-Out, for lunch. I'm pretty sure he thought it was the perfect day.





Especially because he got to wear a hat and eat his birthday m&m's while he waited for his food.

And then that night we had the Bakers and Danielle over for some cake and more presents. His birthday was really really nice. And while I went to bed kind of sad that I had a four year old and that he is growing up so quickly and he's becoming such a grown up kind of kid I was also very very grateful for that little man. We've always called him "little man" because that's how he's always acted. I think growing up makes him really really happy and for that I'm happy, too. He's a great kid. He's sweet and funny and smart and loving and just so so cute. I'm excited to see him grow and become an adult and see what amazing things he'll do, because I know he'll be amazing.



HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAX!!

Finally a beach day!!

This summer has been very weird here in San Diego. It's been cold. Well, it's all relative right? But cold enough that we haven't had a single good beach day. It's usually pretty warm by now and instead it hovers in the mid 60's with overcast skies. I think it actually even sprinkled once which is unheard of!! But finally we had a day that was close to 80 and we took full advantage and went to the beach.



The kids had a blast! And so did we. We went early enough that we got good parking, too.




Tyler built a pretty good sand castle city type thing with a moat around the outside that the kids enjoyed decorating.





Then we buried the kids in the sand. They liked it.



Until Max realized what it meant to be buried in the sand.


Then someone dug a hole for Lia to sit in and she was pretty happy. It's funny, but she's not too into the water right now. Max loves the water. He went through a phase where he didn't like it either, but now he plays and jumps and runs in it. It's awesome. Lia not so much. She tends to cling to us and run away from the waves screaming. I'm pretty sure next summer she'll be over it.

Camouflage

Helicropter

We hadn't been to the zoo in a while so we decided to go one Saturday when we had nothing going on. We usually try to stay away in the summer because it gets so busy with tourists but it was a nice cool day out so we braved it. It actually wasn't that bad! The nice thing about the zoo is that we've been there so many times that the kids have their favorite things to see and we see those things and then we go. We don't ever feel like we have to stay for hours and hours.

They have a new polar bear exhibit there that the kids love. Their favorite part is the "helicropter" there. Helicropter, you say? Yes, that's Lia says it.









One of my favorite things to do is just spend time with the 4 of us doing something, anything. I truly truly treasure the time we have together as a little family. I think Tyler and I have the most fun together with the kids when we're just bumming around and taking it easy.

The Baker

Max loves to bake. I'm pretty sure he only really likes it because he can lick the spoon and eat cookies after. This day we made chocolate ice cream. Not just any chocolate ice cream, it was so rich and dense it was like frozen chocolate custard. We have no pictures of the actual ice cream because we ate it all, it was so good. But here's Max licking the chocolate pre-frozen. He thought it was pretty awesome that we could make ice cream at home. I pretty much agree.

Funny

Who would have thought that getting water dumped on your head in the bathtub was so funny.

Daredevil

Lia is what we like to call our daredevil child. She's not outrageously crazy, but compared to Max, she's less inhibited by potential injury than him. She'll jump right off the bed without hesitation or climb up almost anything if there is something at the top that she really wants. She'll flip and jump and run and she likes to be tossed around for the thrill.

We often find ourselves calling her crazy and insane because she's just kind of wild like that. We sure do love her though.




This is her preparing to jump off the top of Tyler's shoulders onto the ground. There are no pictures of her actually doing it because we stopped her before she even tried to launch herself.

Random iPhone Photos

Here are some more random iPhone photos, some taken by Max himself.


Max has been asking lately for Tyler to read to him longer chapter books with no pictures. He wanted to hear "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" for a while and he's since moved on to one of the Harry Potter books.


Sometimes they do love each other. Actually, more often then not they get along great. Max is always helping Lia out and Lia is always trying to give Max hugs. It's really nice that they like each other. I have to admit, I was a bit worried before I had Lia because I hated my sister growing up.

Here are some random ones taken by Max that I kind of liked.

















He really likes the fake polaroid app on my iPhone because you have to shake it to make the picture appear like a real polaroid.