Tate and Adria

It is seriously going to kill me the first time Max asks for Tate and "Dida" when we're in Dubuque. We see these guys at least 3 times a week and many weeks it's more than that. Tate will be 4 in June and Max thinks he's best thing in the world. I'm sure Tate gets annoyed with how many times Max can say the name "Tate" in a 2 minute span, but he puts up with it:) Adria is 8 weeks younger than Max and is this sweet little girl who gets thrown in with the boys, but she can hold her own!

Joe and Tracy have been good friends of ours since the Quad City days playing softball and partying it up. We moved to CF in February of '06 and they moved here just a few months later. (Joe also works for JD) I have bounced millions of parenting questions off of Tracy, we have gone on hundreds of walks around the 1.1 mile loop, and had countless play dates and venting sessions! (and trips to Panera, but we keep those a secret from Chris and Joe:) I know we'll stay in touch because I don't want Max to ever forget about his first friends!

Happy Birthday Grandpa David!

We hope you have a wonderful birthday Grandpa! Here are a few of our favorite pictures with you! We Love You! Max and Mya

Bankie

What would parents do without security objects such as blankets, pacifiers, stuffed animals, silkies, etc. I for one would be in a world of hurt if Max's blanket ever disappeared. Chris has voiced several times that he wishes it would go away or "accidentally" get left somewhere. However, when it comes down to is, I know he would do anything to recover it if something ever happened to it.

The problem with the blanket at our house is that it stinks so so bad! Max chews on it whenever he is holding it (which is most of the time) If it is sitting on the floor and you walk on it, your socks will get wet if you hit it in the right part. Do you know how much I hate wet socks?? I can't even read a book to him without holding my breath so I don't smell it. I was thinking in the shower this morning that I have washed it at least 3 times a week for 1 year. That's over 150 washings!! I have tried numerous stain sticks and bleach, but nothing can get the smell entirely out. You're probably wondering why we don't have a second one as back up? Well, we do, but Max wants no part of it. He knows exactly which one is his blanket and if we try to trick him, he cries.

Maybe the worst part of this blanket is that Mya wants it now! She'll do anything to get her hands on that blanket. She and Max have had many laughs playing tug-o-war with this disgusting blanket. She even puts it in her mouth!! We have since given her the back-up blanket and she seems happy with it. She hasn't yet attached herself to one particular security object, but when she does, I just hope she doesn't suck on it!!

Here are a few pictures of the infamous bankie!

Mouse in the couch?

No, we do not have a mouse in our couch, but Max seems to think so! We have had lots of mice out in the yard and Chloe has found each and every one of them. They have also found their way into our egress (sp?) windows so we can look at them from inside. This has triggered an obsession with mice from Max. He now thinks there is a mouse in the couch! It is the first thing he says to Chris each night when he walks in the door from work! Just when we think he has forgotten, he remembers and brings it back up and won't stop talking about it! I guess this means he has an imagination...
UPDATE on the mouse: Max is feeding the mouse now. This morning he asked me if he could give the mouse a piece of his banana and this afternoon I found a piece of cereal by the couch. this is crazy...

My parents just got back from a trip to Panama and brought Max some new underwear along with other souvenirs. No..he is not close to being potty trained, but Grandma Pat couldn't resist. We got a picture of him modeling, so I thought I'd share!



Mya is just like any second born in that she wears lots of hand-me-downs from Max. I got out some bigger clothes the other day and found the old "Go Tara" shirt. My mom had them made for us when my sister Tara ran the twin cities marathon. I put it on Mya today and it fits! Some friends have been asking me to run a half marathon in Des Moines at the end of May and so I thought digging this shirt out might inspire me, but it didn't:(



In other news... I guess Chloe thought that I should be done breastfeeding, because this morning she ate part of my pump! (she didn't just chew it up...actually ate it)I was teetering on being done anyway, but I didn't really want Chloe to decide!

Also, I didn't realize that I had control on changing the settings on the blog to allow everyone to leave comments..not just those with google accounts. So...now anyone can leave a comment if you wish! One more thing...a friend told me about this website blurb.com where you can download your blog into a book and get it printed off either in hard cover or soft cover. Maybe you bloggers out there already knew about this, but in case you didn't, I thought I'd share!

Will you be our Valentine??

Random update

This week has flown by even though it doesn't seem like we have been doing much! This update is sort of random, so here goes:

Chloe figured out a couple weeks ago that her invisible fence collar wasn't working. We changed the battery, but she was still getting out of the yard. We knew we had someone coming to fix it, so we would just keep our eye on her when she went out. Well, yesterday I sort of forgot about her for awhile and when we went out to get her, she was gone. I packed up the kids and drove around, but didn't have any luck. So, I called Chris to come home and he went driving around also. We ended up talking to some utility workers who said they saw her up by some new construction near our house. When we drove up there, she just sat and stared at us. I was starting to panic a little...wasn't sure what I'd tell little Max where she was the next time he asked for "toey." So, last night the guy came and fixed the fence. She received some corrections, but at least she'll be staying in the yard now! Here is a picture of Chloe the first night we brought her home.

One of the things I will miss a lot about Cedar Falls is this thing called indoor park at the rec center. Tuesdays and Thursdays they open up the gym and you can pay $2.50 per child to run and play with all of the equipment. Max loves it there and it's a great way to burn energy in the winter! Here are a couple pics.



Little Mya Pat has been a stinker the last few nights waking up every couple of hours and needing someone to come and hold her to get her back to sleep. This morning I felt inside her mouth and sure enough, there are some teeth coming in. She's a bit behind her big brother in the teeth category. At this point, he had 6 teeth and 2 more starting to cut through!Mya has been enjoying the johnny jump up and Max loves to spin her around. Here is a video. Sorry it's the wrong way.