Photo Catch-up

Chicken Max Hangin' out with my buddy Kaden

And tackling his brother Kiran

First Driving Lessons!

First Haircut!

Max had his first haircut at 19 months. I was so nervous... I love his cute little curls! However his bangs were in his eyes and bugging him. We wanted a trim... but didn't want a mullet! We took him to a great kids haircut place where they have a huge play area and little cars to ride in. Max had a great time and barely noticed that he was getting his hair cut. It looks perfect, too! You wouldn't know he even had a haircut if you hadn't seen him recently. His curls stayed, they're just shorter. Uncle Larry visited with his girlfriend Yvette. We had a nice visit and it was so hard to have them leave. Here's a sneak peek for Halloween!

Welcome Fall!

Happiest baby in the world! Can I still call him a baby??? He's soooo big! I did a trade with a couple of Etsy moms last month. These shirts he's wearing in all these pictures are from N is for Nate and Sycamore Baby. We love them!!!

Grandma Ammi came for a visit. He put his boots on all by himself.

We went on a few trips to the pumpkin patch. Good times! Max LOVED the hayride. He kept signing "more" and saying, "coooool." He's hangin' with his homeys, Madden, Jake, and Ruby.

Another day, another P-patch. there are a million funny caption possabilities for this picture! Post one in the comments. :-) P-patch with a boat. Max wasn't too sure about the boat part.

Next time... First haircut!

Crackers in Bed

Last night Max woke in the middle of the night and wouldn't be consoled with water or a binkie. I'm working hard to night-wean, so I was trying to think of other alternatives to nursing at 2am. Usually when I tell him "Mamas milk is sleeping." He gives a quick whine, takes a drink of water, and is back to sleep right away. Not last night.

Then I remembered our lactation consultants advice- Maybe he really is hungry. Try a high protein snack... maybe a hunk of cheese in the middle of the night will help him sleep. Hmmm... no cheese, but we have peanut butter cracker sandwiches that he loves. So, at 2am...Max is sobbing... signing "milk"

Mommy: I know you want milk, mamas milk is sleeping. You want some water? Or a binkie?
Max: nooooo no no no ... milk
Mommy: Are you hungry? You want a snack?
Max (still sobbing) : Yeeeeaaaaaahhhhh.
Mommy: You want some peanut butter crackers?
Max (sniff sniff): yeah. yeah... (sniffing subsides)

Dutiful Daddy goes downstairs to get crackers, meanwhile Max is pointing at the door asking for crackers. When daddy comes back and puts a cracker in his hand, Max stops sniffling altogether and lays back down to cuddle with mommy. Binkie in one hand, cracker in the other. He ate 4 peanut butter crackers, and drank a bunch of water. It was so cute to hear him chomping away at the crackers, half asleep. At one point he stopped eating and said, "Mommy!" I said, "Yep, mommy's here!" then he points at himself, "YOU!!!" I say, "Yep, you're here, too!" then he lifts his head and looks at Ron, "Daddy!" "Yep, that's daddy!" Max finally says, "Yeah..." and puts his head back down to finish his cracker. He signed "more" when he was done with one and wanted another. I thought he would fall asleep with a bite in his mouth, but sure enough he finished up, put his binkie in his mouth, and fell right to sleep. He slept for a good chunk of time, I think the snack definitely helped.

We have a bed full of crumbs, and we'll probably go out and get some cheese tonight, or other high protein snack... but last nights midnight half-asleep cracker crunching is something I want to remember!

Summertime Catch-Up

I've been so bad at blogging this summer. We've had a terrible time with our computer, and I haven't had much access to it. So here is a summary of our summer.

Max has a patch of exzema that will not go away. He is sensitive to a lot of foods, so we have been trying to determine which one is the cause of the eczema. The testing we did gave us a long list: dairy, wheat, sugar (any cane sugar), tomatoes, melon, apples, red pepper, and perfume. We eliminated all that for 6 weeks, then gradually added things back in. It's now narrowed down to dairy or wheat. Sooooo, we were planning a camping trip and wanted to bring a treat that Max could share. We made brownies- wheat free, gluten free, dairy free, nut free, egg free... and actually they were really good! I didn't make them from scratch... they were a bag mix from Whole Foods-The brand is The Cravings Place and they also have really good pancake mix. Max had his first "lick the bowl" experience. You can tell he liked it!

Then we went up to Mt.St.Helens to meet Dave, Chaos, and Fiona. Dave was biking in a race up there on Saturday. We had a great campground, Eco Park Resort. When we got there, it looked like rain, so we opted to stay in a yurt. It was perfect! Space for the kids to run around, a wood burning stove to keep us warm, and a propane lamp built in. We decided to pitch the tent anyhow so the kids could have a place to play. Fiona and Max helped.

Matching mama-knit ponchos. Soooo cute!

We spent a lot of time this summer at the Wilsonville Memorial Park-

We went to the Oregon Country Fair again. It was fun! Grandma Ammi flew up and came with us. We had planned on camping for 3 nights, and going to the fair 2 days. As it happened, Max got sick just a few days before we'd planned on going. We missed the first few days, and ended up driving down Saturday to camp, and only went to the fair Sunday. We camped with the Breana and Rich and the "K Crew", and Naked Jen and Dave. They had some friends drive up and join us, too. It was fun, but too quick! We didn't get to visit as much as we had wanted. Next year we'll try again for the full camping/multi day fair thing.

Heading off to the fair!

A nap in the midst of all the revelry...

Tree dude...One of my favorite pictures ever...
Crow Guy...
Then there was the LaLecheLeague Family Disco Dance Party. It took awhile for Max to warm up, he danced in my arms for awhile...then he joined right in and boogied! I knew I should've brought the video camera!

Grandma and Grandpa Brooks babysit a couple days a week while I work. Max loves it. They have started taking him out more often. They think of all kinds of fun adventures! They take him to the little airport nearby to watch the planes take off and land, they take him to the water park, last week they took him to a go-kart racing place and a farm. He also loves visiting with Great-Grandma. What a lucky boy! We are very lucky parents, too. They babysit on weekends so Ron and I can have a night out once in awhile. We went and saw our first movie in a looooong time- Harry Potter in 3D on IMAX screen. Fun!
Max has been going to swimming classes once a week at this tiny private pool called Children of the Sea. He LOVES it! He goes under water, has learned to kick, and loves to go down the slide.

Last weekend we went to Big Truck Day which is put on by a local Parks and Rec. It was AWESOME! Every truck you can imagine was there. From street sweepers, to cranes, to ambulances and school busses. The kids could climb inside the trucks, honk the horns, etc. Max was a little unnerved by the height of the big rig he went in, but he loved the school bus and the old fire truck. What a great idea this is! I can only imagine how much more he'll love it next year.

Lest you think we are gender stereotyping with all these big trucks and all, Max has a baby that he loves. I gave it to him in the store and he wouldn't let it go. He hugs it and says "Baby!" so of course we had to buy it.

And he's had his first painting experience. He was more interested in putting the brushes in the paint than the actual painting, but that's ok. Speaking of painting, he LOVES the artwork we have in our home. Max's Great-Grandpa, Fred E.Brooks was an artist and we have many of his paintings in our house. Max will stand by one, point at it and say "Tete" which means "painting" and gesture for you to pick him up. Then he just stares and points at the paintings. Then you put him sown and he goes around the house pointing at all of Great-Grandpas paintings wanting you to pick him up so he can get a close look. Pretty cool.
Whew! We're caught up! Next time I'll have some videos. And more about what he's doing, like talking and stuff. He's a pretty cool kid!

Riverdance, here he comes!

Move over Fred Astaire! Max has learned a new dance move. I was cooking breakfast on Father's Day and it was just one of those times when I needed a moment without a wee one hanging on my leg. So I popped in the Sesame Street 25th Anniversary video and let Max watch it. It's a fun video with all the classic songs I remember from my childhood. "Doin' the Pidgeon" and "It's Not Easy Being Green" to name a few. Apparently Elmo is now a Sesame Street classic, he's got a song on the video called "Happy Dancing". It's a snappy little tune about happy feet and tapping toes. Elmo tap dances down a flight of stairs on the video.

SO, Max was watching the video and saw the close up of Elmos feet and looked down at his own and started to tap dance. It was so cute! After I stopped giggling, I grabbed the video camera and rewound the DVD. Sure enough, Max didn't let me down and continued to happy dance away with Elmo. Video is below!

If you remember the old video of him bopping along to the music you can tell his moves have come a long way!

Recent Fun!

How cute is he?!? This is what Max looks like just before he reaches down to pull the plug out (for the 5th time in 2 minutes!). Sneaky, no?
Max listens intently while his dad shows him the new tools he recently bought and explains the variety of planes and their different uses.

It was HOT here a few weeks ago! Grandpa and I took Max to a local fountain park and it wasn't too long before he made his way through the fountains.

We had a much needed vacation to the Oregon Coast. It was beautiful! Each morning oneof us would get up with Max(6:30 if we were lucky) and take him for a walk on the beach while the other slept in. Then later we'd all hit the sand.Max had a great time. The last day we were there it was gorgous sunny weather and he got to take off his shoes and tiptoe in the water.

We had champagne and balloons waiting for us at the hotel to celebrate or 6 year anniversary. Max went crazy for the balloons (And we went crazy for the bubbly!)

Note the appropriate Oregon Coast outfit... no shorts and tank tops for Max!

We hiked around at a local fort, too.