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!

December 2013

Sophia discovered how much fun it is to be a dog. She insisted that I force Rocco in the kennel with her and close the door. It was a lot of fun for him, I'm sure!

I love pictures of Sophia and her books. She got into reading books right before bed and nap times and I would find her like this a lot.

You may have noticed that Sophia is now in a big bed. She had a hard time letting Max take over her crib. Sometimes I would find her like this. And Max's blankets and puppy was on the floor. I thought it was so funny that she would throw all his stuff out and fill the crib with every stuffed animal she has.

She found a new use for her underwear.

More books and one happy girl!

I love when they play together. They both thought it was so funny to sit on the chair under the blanket.

Look at that smile! Such a happy kid!

For Christmas Eve, my mom came and stayed the night. She and Sophia made cookies together. My mom is so fun and Sophia just loves her. She thought it was really funny to pose together the same way and insisted my mom bend her head "like this".

So she did.

And more posing. Notice my mom's legs. Sophia put our stockings on her. Those are some massive stockings, huh!

The big Christmas present for us was a new fridge. Goodbye ugly, leaking, old fridge.

Hello, new, fancy fridge! I love that the freezer is on the bottom. It is wonderful to be able to open the fridge and see everything that's in there without bending over.  Plus, it's great when you have crawlers in the house. 

Every Christmas, my grandparents on my dad's side, throw a Christmas party like none other. There is a Christmas pageant that all the grand kids participate in. The highlight of the party is when they bring in their donkey for Mary to ride on. After the pageant, all the kids can ride it. Sophia loved it!

Family Pictures

I'm always happy when our family pictures are OVER. I hate the stress of planning outfits and scheduling a time that *hopefully* won't interfere with naps, lunch, or work.  We used Fotofly On The Spot, where they came to our house and did a photo shoot. I am pretty happy with the way they turned out. It is so nice to have professional pictures of the kids.

In these pictures, Sophia is 2 and Max is 10 months.  

I love that Rocco got to sit in a few shots with us. He is 9 years old now, and such a great family dog.