Biking and football!

This morning I decided to haul Sophia's Strider bike up to the capitol for our daily walk. She got this bike for her 2nd birthday and has literally used it (maybe) 5 times. She just hasn't been able to get the hang of it. Although, living on a super steep hill doesn't give her much practice. Today, I was very impressed with her perseverance She rode it all the way around the capitol (which is almost a mile).  She even rode it up the hills and down the big one and was always working on her balance. I finally felt like this purchase was worth it! :)

She was funny because for some reason, she wouldn't ride it on the sidewalks. Every time we crossed a sidewalk, she got off and walked it. When I asked her why, she said, "sometimes my bike gets really fast".

At one point, I looked down at the stroller and saw this cute little face looking up at me. Hi, Max!

 Here is Sophia trying to balance as she rides down the hill. I'm so impressed that her feet are off the ground. Sometimes she would get going really fast and it made my heart race, but she did great.

We then went to the library for story time and then home for lunch and naps/quiet time. Then we ran some errands. I actually ran the van through a car wash, which Sophia usually loves watching, but today she fell asleep on the ride over. Max HATED the car wash today. I think he usually gets a little nervous but Sophia is awake to laugh and talk to him and I think it keeps him calm. As soon as we pulled in, he started screaming. I checked on him for a little bit and it broke my heart, how panicked he was. I could see the wild look in his eyes, poor kid! I held his hand and tried to calm him down, but he was a wreck until we were out.

Once we were home, the kids played quietly in the living room. Sophia kept running into the kitchen and getting towels. She said that today was my birthday and that she was decorating. When she was done I came and saw her creative work.  She was so proud of herself!

Tonight was the first football game of the season... I was so thrilled because I've been wanting to watch some football. And it was my Seahawks playing! Rich had a softball game so I told Sophia we would make popcorn and watch the game. She LOVES it when we make popcorn and couldn't wait to show dad. Here she is, taking the popcorn to him to show him what we made.

The kids were just so darn cute, watching it. I love how Sophia is shoving popcorn in her face. Max thought it was fun too.

The would both start clapping when they heard the crowd cheering.

And here we are. I wish Rich were here to watch with us, but he took one quick picture before he left. (Max knows the drill... see the camera and smile.)

A typical Wednesday

Today was Sophia's second day of dance class. All the parents are now banished to the hallway and can't watch anymore. I was able to snap this quick picture of the girls before I left. Aren't they cute in their little dance leotards!

After dance, we came home for Max's nap and lunch. I just recently learned of a new lunch idea from that website, chopchopmag.org. I think they call it a One Eye'd Jack. You take bread and cut out a hole (we used a bear shaped cookie cutter) and then fry it in a pan and crack an egg into the hole. Then you also toast the middle part of the bread you cut out. Sophia loved helping me make it and I was super excited because I have to stop feeding her ramen noodles.  Anyway, she ate the toasted middle part.

And took one tiny bite from the side and left the rest. *Sigh*. (Side note: Rich said he and his cousin thought up this idea years ago and called it Campers Egg... he should have copyrighted the idea!)

After naps and quiet time, we ran some errands and then had dinner and played outside for a bit. Max has been walking all day today. I'm so happy because I am so tired of walking him with my fingers! It only took him 16 months to figure it out... better late than never, right!

Sophia likes to photo bomb my pictures of Max. As soon as she sees the camera pointed at him she tried to jump in with a big smile.

Here we are playing on the trampoline. Sophia also jumped right into this photo. Silly girl!

Rich just got called into the Stake Young Men's and so we thought he'd be gone all night at an activity. They ended up not needing so many leaders, so he came home and mowed the lawn.  Sophia loves getting blown away with the blower.

She's super helpful too, blowing the grass for dad. Thanks, honey!

Jumping and ducks

Today was such a beautiful day. We were going to start out with a walk, but Sophia asked if she could go jump. What a good idea! Here she is... hair done, yet still in pajamas. This girl would wear pajamas every minute of every day if I let her!

Max is starting to get to the age where he does not like being left out of anything fun. He has to get on the trampoline if Sophia is on. It gets ugly if he can't.

After jumping, we went on a walk around the capitol. That is one of the things I love about living right here... I can go on this great walk, where I can let Rocco off the leash, and let Sophia run around safely. It's so nice!

When we got home, Max was ready for his nap. (He only takes one these days. He is just now making that transition. He will sleep for 2 or 3 hours, starting at 10:30 or 11:30.) Sophia is getting really good at entertaining herself. I was able to menu plan and make my shopping list for about an hour while Sophia did this... I swear I put those books back on the shelf every single day!  (It usually doesn't take me that long to menu plan, but today I was perusing a website I found that has tons of cool recipes that are "kid friendly". I don't really think they are "kid friendly" because it's all pretty fancy food, but they had pictures of kids eating it, so I'm hoping mine will too! The website is called chopchopmag.org)

While I was writing my menu on the chalk board, Sophia found a cool new coloring app that she wanted to play with. This kept her busy for another half hour and I cleaned the bathroom! Ahhh! It's a luxury to get some cleaning done uninterrupted! Thank you technology!

When Max woke up, Sophia was having "quiet time" downstairs. (This is where I force her to watch 2 hours of TV in the basement... is that good parenting, or what!!)  Anyway, Max is in love with this stuffed dog. Sophia's cousin, Kate, gave it to her when she was younger and Sophia would bite and tear out some of the dog's hair. It is bald on top and bald on the tail, but for some reason, Max thinks it's the coolest thing... right up there with his blanket!

Seriously... look at this!

When quiet time was over, we met up with some friends at the park. Sophia dressed herself and put on this "beautiful headband". She hates headbands and took it off as soon as we got to the park, but in the car, she loved it.

So, the "ducks" turned out to be geese. But it was fun, nonetheless. We met up with some friends and chatted, while trying to help our children avoid stepping in (or eating) poop. Blech!!

Max was loving it. He fed them the longest and also tried to get them to eat out of his fingers (scary!). He really likes birds and ducks. He will always point them out. We even have a block with a duck on it and he always knows where that exact block it. He will say, "du" and clap his hands while saying "qua, qua". It's pretty cute.

These friends are great to hang out with because my friend Kellie has a daughter Max's age, and Shawna has a daughter Sophia's age. Plus they are pretty cool girls themselves. :)

See, still feeding the geese, long after everyone else had lost interest. Cute boy!

Look at how brave these geese are. And Max, too! This is why he tried hand feeding them.

He was funny to watch because he was giving the geese a piece of bread and then would eat one himself. One for you... one for me. :)

The rest of the day was pretty mellow. I went grocery shopping and made dinner. I bought some straws today because I read that it's easier for kids to drink smoothies with straws. Sophia was pretty excited about them. When we got home, I gave her a cup of water with a straw and during dinner, she put the straw up her nose and sniffed. It was so sad, but also really funny because she got water up her nose and she was kinda shocked. She asked to be excused from dinner so she could "go get this out of my nose". I think it's one of those "you had to be there" moments, but I got a good laugh.

After dinner we went outside and visited with Rich's parents and played in the backyard. Rich and Sophia kicked the ball and then that turned into dodge ball. Rich would throw the ball at Sophia while she was running away and every time it hit her (most of the time) she would just laugh and laugh. What a good sport. I'm going to miss summer evenings!

A New Goal

This week I have made a goal to blog every day. I feel like maybe this will kick me into gear and I'll start taking more pictures and then posting them somewhere. 

Recently, Sophia has started a dance class with her two cute little cousins, Lucy and Hailey. Adults were able to watch on the first day and man, were they cute!!  Sophia had a hard time standing in her tap shoes... She interrupted her teachers a few times to say, "These shoes are really slippery!!" 

Max got to watch too. He was a trooper and sat on the sidelines, trying to do the moves too. I saw him lifting his arms up and kicking his feet when it he saw the girls doing it. What a cutie! (I wish I weren't so slow with the camera!)

Here are the little performers! Aren't they just the cutest! Sophia is so lucky to have so many cousins her age. They will be good friends forever, I'm sure!

This weekend was Labor Day weekend, so we went to Midway and watched the sheepdog competition. It was super fun for me. (Ahhh, sheep!) Here is a shot of the kids when they saw the dog herding the sheep. Max was especially excited. Sophia liked it for about 2 minutes and then said, "Can we go home!?" Apparently she doesn't share my love for and fascination with sheep.

The weather was kinda crummy as we got there. Rainy. Windy. A bit cold. I felt like a failure as a mom. Look at how my kids are dressed! At least I remembered the umbrellas. But by the end of our day there, the sun was out and we got hot. Then I was looking at all the other "prepared" moms hauling jackets and whatnot, and I felt a little bit better about my parenting abilities. :)

Today was a fun and busy day. We started out with a walk around the capitol. Then a trip to Ikea to stalk up on Christmas presents. (Ikea is the best!) Then home for "quiet time", which consisted of me forcing Sophia to watch Dora downstairs for an hour while I folded laundry. Max took a 1/2 hour nap on the way home from Ikea and would not fall back asleep, no matter how hard I tried to force him. By then, my dad and Bev came over and we met Jason at a restaurant for lunch. It's always fun when I get to see both my dad and my brother. Then we went to the zoo. The zoo was... well, a zoo. So many people were there today! It was kinda miserable to try to see any animals, but it was still a good time. The only picture I got, was when Sophia climbed onto this seal and said, "Take my picture!" I'm kicking myself that I didn't get any pictures of my dad, Bev, and Jason with the kids. (Max slept almost the whole time we were at the zoo, that little stinker! He'll be up until 10:30 tonight!)

April and Max's Birthday

Spring is finally here! And it has been so welcomed! I love walking around the capital with all the cherry blossoms in bloom. 

Here are Sophia and Max enjoying the weather, too.

Sophia likes imagine things while we are on our walks. She pretends there are alligators or elephants or some other "monster" and she has to run from them. I love her running form!

Speaking of running... Rich ran the Salt Lake City half marathon. He did great in his training and his run and we were very proud of him. We were standing at the finishing line, cheering him on, but sadly, he didn't see or hear us. I was screaming so loud and Sophia was laughing hard at all the noise I was making, but I guess it wasn't loud enough.

Sophia is enjoying the fruits of Rich's labor! What a nice dad!

Now, on to Max's birthday. A few friends of mine told me that there is a Chinese tradition that they do when babies turn one. You place several objects around them that represent certain professions and the one they choose, indicates what they'll be when they grow up. Max's options were a gavel (lawyer or judge), toothbrush (dentist), money (independently wealthy), orange (food industry), stethoscope (doctor), and hammer (engineer). He sat and stared at these objects for a loooonnng time. I think he was confused at why all the other kids and adults were just staring at him. He went to reach for the gavel, and Rich jokingly yelled out "NOOOO!" and it scared Max so he didn't touch anything. We sat and waited for maybe 5 more minutes and then decided he might choose something if nobody were watching him. We took him into the kitchen all by himself with the objects around him and he finally chose the stethoscope.  So what does this mean? I think it means he will want to be a lawyer, but his dad will talk him into being a doctor. :) 

We then sang to him but he hated wearing his birthday hat, so he didn't seem to happy.

He didn't eat his cupcake, only touched the frosting. Then he was done.

Here are some things that Max is doing lately:

• He wakes up around 6:30 or 7:30 in the mornings
• Eats some banana and toast
• Tries to play with Sophia, but he usually ends up crying because she won't share with him
• He loves his baths (we do these in the morning since I usually have more time in the morning)
• Takes about a 2 hour nap around 9. He is such a good little napper. When it's time for naps, he'll just lay down in the crib and go to sleep. He rarely ever fusses or cries. 
• Has lunch (usually some cheese based meal. So bad, I know!)
• He is crawling on all fours, but if he wants to go fast, he'll army crawl it.
• Pulls himself up on furniture and walks around
• He's started to climb on things, like shelves. SCARY!
• He is super cuddly and rests his head on my shoulder
• He weighs 19 lbs (which puts him the 5%) and is in the 25% for height. His head though... 90%! Also, at this check-up, he had to get 6 shots. Six! He was screaming so hard, it brought tears to my eyes. After about 15 minutes he was back to normal.
• Max loves to eat strawberries
• He takes a second nap around 1 or 2, and this one lasts for about an hour
• He loves when Sophia keeps him entertained at night. They are in the same room and if Sophia is not tired, Max stands up in his crib with his elbows resting on the rail and just watches and laughs. Sophia has been putting her unicorn on the floor, right next to his crib and sleeping there. Sometimes she'll show his pictures in her books or hands him toys.
• Max loves his little blankets. I will say, "Where is your blanket?" and he'll go get it. He likes to face plant in it and lie on it right next to his face.
• He likes when I brush his teeth (he has 4, 2 upper and 2 lower)
• He has the cutest smile. He'll scrunch up his whole face and his little nose wrinkles and he shows his 4 teeth. 
• He finally sleeps through the night. He goes down at 7:30 or 8 and doesn't wake up until morning. He didn't sleep through the night until I made him cry it out when he was 9 months old.
• I stopped nursing him at 11 months. It went pretty well but there were a few nights where he woke up wanting to nurse. It only lasted a couple nights, so not bad.

I love this little guy so much and can't imagine our family without him. He brings so much to our lives!... g.

March 2014

Happy March! This  month was Rich's birthday and we were able to go out to dinner. We have been wanting to try some fancy ramen noodles. We've seen lots of stuff on the food network about how ramen is making a comeback and we decided to find out where we could get some. We found a little hole in the wall place, that was actually pretty good (not to mention the enormous serving sizes!). Happy Birthday to Rich. :)

Here are some pictures of other things we did this month...

 We got some tickets to see the U of U basketball game. Sophia and Max did great. Sophia loved cheering!

Here is Max and me. He didn't know what to think with all the yelling and loud music and the band. 

Sophia is showing off her new backback. She likes to take it to church, stuffed full of all the books, crayons, and snacks that will keep her entertained during sacrament meeting. She'll even think of packing toys for Max. You'd be surprised at all that little bag can hold.

Here's another picture of Sophia lost in her books. And Max playing contentedly on the floor. Thankfully we got new rugs for our living room. Who knows what was lurking in the old one!

Zoo day! Max is about to pass out, he's so tired! But we had to see the giraffes! 

Sophia's book got ripped and she came up with the idea to "tape" it back together with these post-its. What a smart girl!

I wish I could explain these pictures, but I didn't take them. The first time I saw these were as I was just loading the pictures, I had to laugh at her expressions, as well as her outfit!

One Sunday, I took a nap and when I woke up, I found these two taking a nap of their own. They are such good buddies!