Two Old!

On Friday, May 9th, my baby boy turned two. Aaagh! And if you ask him how old he is, he'll respond, "Two old!" Every once in a while he'll throw the "years" in there, but I quite prefer it without.

It was a grand day! We started the day off with blue pancakes and red milk. Why, you ask? Because colored pancakes and milk are much more exciting than a boring pancake breakfast that he could have any day of the year. And this wasn't just another day...it was his birthday! So to celebrate we spiced up the colors a bit. He even got to put the blue food coloring into the pancake batter. Thrilling!



Then we opened three presents - two shirts that he got to choose between for the day and a new pair of shoes. We've been stuffing his poor feet into shoes that were getting WAY too small. I just kept thinking that he should last until his birthday because he would be excited to get shoes for his birthday. And he didn't disappoint. When I put him down for his nap that afternoon, he really wanted to sleep in them and since it was his special day, I obliged. All throughout the morning I sang him all of the Happy Birthday songs I knew.Mid-morning we headed to our favorite park to meet Reyes and Marcela for some good slide/teeter-totter/throw rocks in the water time.
Then we went to buy some new PJ's at Old Navy. Max is no longer a fan of footie pajamas and he only has 4 pair without so I thought we should get some more. That evening was a ward musical talent show (more on that later) and afterward we came home and opened his presents. I think he felt pretty loved and special. And rightfully so since he's a very lovable and special kid!
I didn't plan on being awake at the exact time of his birth (12:09 a.m.), but we had watched LOST and then I still had to decorate the living room. I was taking off my makeup when I looked at the clock and it read 12:08. So I walked into my little man's bedroom, stared at him for a bit and then kissed him on his head. I was overcome by the memory and emotion of his birth and how it completely changed my life; every little detail came flooding into my mind. Max was so alert when he was born. They put him on my chest and I started to talk to him as they were cleaning and doing what doctors and nurses do to a mom and baby right after a birth. As soon as I started speaking, he looked up right into my face and was completely still. Not a sound, not a movement. Just a mom and her new baby meeting for the first time in mortality. I recalled at that moment something that had been said in a blessing when I was pregnant with Max - something to the effect of us being able to continue a relationship here that we began as spirits before we came to earth. And at that moment, I knew it was true. It seemed like so much was communicated between us in that moment - like nobody else was around and our spirits were connecting. They finally took Max to weigh and measure him. The doctor asked Ty if he could pinch him or something because he wanted to hear him cry. I turned to the nurse and said, "I want to do this again!" One of the most incredible moments of my life. I will never forget it. I was forever changed. The memory came to a close and I walked out of Max's room, shut the door and wept. I absolutely love being his mom!

No creative title, just read on...

Luscious Lashes
I was worried that because Max's eyelashes look like this......Kelly would be jipped; like somehow Max had taken all of the long 'lash genes for himself. However, I am happy to report that my worrying was for naught. Pictures don't totally capture it for either one of the kiddos, but I am in love with their pretty eyelashes!

Latest 'Do

I cut and dyed my hair...I like it a lot!

Homemade Creamsicles...yum!
I keep hearing about fun play groups, so I started one in my ward. One of the days we decorated popsicle sticks and then I made posicles from a recipe I found. At our next play group we ate them and they were a total hit! (see recipe below)

Frozen Fruit Pops
3 cups juice (I used grape and berry juices - not mixed)
14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup lemon juice
12 3 oz. paper cups
12 wooden popsicle sticks

1. Mix juices & sweetened condensed milk with a wire whisk. Transfer the mixture to a container with a pouring spout. Put the paper cups into a square pan and fill the cups, almost to the top, with the juice mixture. Put in freezer for 1 hour.
2. After 1 hour, remove the cups from the freezer and place a wooden stick in the middle of each "pop". Return to the freezer for 5 hours. To serve, peel off the paper cup. Frozen pops will keep in the freezer for up to 2 weeks if kept in a plastic bag.

Love my little people

I am really digging this two-kid business. We are DEFINITELY not done having kids!

What a hoot!
I came downstairs and found this....Max had cleared off the shelf of all books and toys, climbed through into a really tight space, had a seat and picked up a great read. I love this kid!

A growin' gal

2 months old!

10 lbs. 8 oz. (48th percentile)
23 " long (75th percentile)
35" head circumference (49th percentile)
Did great with the shots
Laughed for the first time on the same day (before shots were administered)

Today...

...as I put my screaming, tantrum-throwing, overtired son down for his nap, my sleeping daughter woke up and started to cry. I closed the doors to both rooms and sat on the stairs to shed a few tears myself. It felt really good. My daughter had fallen back asleep by the time I was done, so I went in to hug and kiss my son and sing him a few songs. He fell asleep easily after that. I had about 20 minutes to myself (eat lunch and mop the floors - you know, real exciting "me" time :) ) until Kelly woke up and was ready to eat. But, you know, those 20 minutes were just what I needed to like being a mom again. I am grateful to be a mom - to be their mom. Sometimes 2o minutes and a good mopping session is all you need. I think naps are Heavenly Father's gift to moms. I'm ready to love on my kids again.

aaannnnd...Action!

A few videos...probably most entertaining to grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins...but anyone is welcome to watch! Max loves the alphabet and knows all of his letters so now we're working on the ABC song. He went through the whole thing perfectly with me several times, but wouldn't totally do it for the video. He's also big on playing the guitar and singing, although you don't get a full flavor of his songs on this video. A funny story: Max sings super LOUD when he plays his guitar. He sings songs about Kelly, Dad, Mom, and any other object he sees around the room. The songs have great lyrics. Like his Kelly song goes, "Kelly, Kelly, Kellllyyyy!" with all sorts of inflection and adjustment to volume. But the majority of each song is really loud, as I said. When my mom was visiting she and I were trying to have a conversation while Max was beltin' it out. I finally asked him if he could please sing a quiet song so that I could hear Grammy talk. He agreed to sing a quiet song. It went a little something like this, "Quiet, quiet, QUIIIIETTT!" in his normal LOUD volume. Nice. Love this boy! And I just took a short video of the Kellster because I think she's super cute! She's starting to make little "oooh" noises pretty often now and we have conversations with variations of oooh's. It makes her smile a ton. She melts my heart.

Triathlon Training - Two Kids - Towers and More!

I have to admit that I've been less enthusiastic about blogging lately...but then I take all of these pictures of my kids and the enthusiasm returns. :) Here's a bit of life lately...

Triathlon training has begun! I run my first tri of the summer on June 21st. The second will be in August and then I'm going to attempt my first half marathon on October 3rd. The kids do well in the double stroller together (good thing since they'll be spending a lot of time in there the next few months); Max thinks that it's a real hoot.

Just some cute pictures of some cute kids

We're all about building cool towers in this family! Usually dad does the best, but I have to say that I thought my elephant tower was pretty awesome.



Last night we took Max to his first movie ever. I've never even put on a movie for him at home, so we had no idea how he would do. We got to the theater and bought the tickets and they had to call back that someone had bought tickets for Horton Hears a Who, so that meant the theater was all ours! Nice. We walked in and Max was walking in behind us. I went to sit down and realized that Max had stopped just inside the door, so I went around the corner and found him standing with his hands all tense. He looked at me with huge eyes and said, "Scary!" I should have realized what a shock to the system it would be to see your first movie theater - a HUGE TV in Max's mind - and to have it played in such volume. Anyway, he did great and only toward the end did he start to wander (as shown in the last picture below if you can see it). Kelly slept the entire time...love this age!

This morning Max and his dad have been watching basketball. Max just came upstairs and said, "Need headband!" He went to the drawer where I have the cloth headbands I wear when I wash my face, put one on and then announced he needed to go downstairs and "shoop the basketball". Ty started laughing when he came down because Max had obviously seen all of the players wearing them and that's why he decided he needed one for himself. Forget Mike, Max wants to be like Lebron!
Man, Max is on a roll this morning. He must know that I'm blogging about his cuteness. I'm sitting here doing this post and I hear Max say, "Kelly's bath - Max have a bath!" I went in and found this:

Binkyfier

We haven't chosen a specific name for this and go between pacifier and binky. This week Max made us realize how confusing it can be for a little man like him when one object has two names...to Max this is a Binkyfier. :)

I'm willing to bet...

...that you can't keep from smiling when you look at these pictures (especially the last one)! I had Ty take pictures while I got a smile out of her since every time I tried holding the camera to the side of my head - or above - while coaxing out a smile she would stop. Here you see the whole process, but we've spared you from having to listen or see me and all of the crazy things that I do to get such a cute look on her face. Man, we love this little lady!