Tiny, but tough

My sister-in-law Amanda and niece Olivia (Biva or Liverpool are her more common names around our house) came to spend the weekend with us. Brian was in Florida with the Luther tennis teams on Spring Break. Olivia was born 9 days earlier than Mya, so we're really looking forward to the girls growing up together! We get to see them pretty often, but I never feel like I get to spend much quality time with her. It was really nice to get to spend a little more time with her this weekend without tons of people around!


(Check out the cute outfit on Olivia...Chloe thought it was pretty cute too, so she decided to eat the sleeve and the puke it up 2 days later:(



Mya is pretty small, but she's going to be a brut I think:) Here are a few pictures of her "mauling" Olivia during a diaper change. It was pretty funny.

03-26-03

6 years ago today, Chris and I got engaged! We were on a trip to Breckenridge skiing and during one of our runs down we decided to take a little break. A few minutes into the break, Chris proposed! I was shocked. Most people discuss the possibility of getting married sometime along the way, but not us! We had a fun trip in the mountains and then spent a few days with Simon and Kelly in Denver celebrating! I told Chris this morning that we've done quite a bit in 6 years. I'd be okay if we slowed down a bit...he agreed:)

Shopping with kids

I used to enjoy shopping...even grocery shopping. Nowadays, I dread it completely. There are a few things that help matters though. HyVee offers a complimentary cookie to little kids to eat while their mom shops. We only have to walk in the door and Max knows this now. I can get my produce shopping done and then we get the cookie. It usually lasts until the end of the trip if I have my list organized like the store is organized. That is one positive to shopping at HyVee.

The best part about shopping at Sam's Club is that they have double carts.I can put both kids in there and still fill it up with diapers, formula, etc. Mya drives Max absolutely nuts, but at least I can contain both of them and still have some room for shopping.



I can put both kids in the cart at HyVee or Target (one up front in the main cart and one in the seat)while I shop, but for some reason there isn't enough room for both of them after my groceries are in bags, so Max has to walk out to the car. This is when we run into some terrible two tantrums. Max does not think he needs to hold my hand in the parking lot. Most of the time I end up literally holding him up by the hand and dragging him to the van. People just stop at the crosswalk and stare. I try not to make eye contact. Today we had a break through and that's the main reason for this post. We were walking out of HyVee...Mya in the cart and Max walking beside me. We were just about to the parking lot and he stopped, reached for my hand and said, "car hit you." Yep..I have been drilling it into his head for months now that if he doesn't hold my hand, the cars will hit you. I just looked up and said, "halleluia...he does listen!"

Anybody need a Spanish teacher?

Yep...been one of those days. Around 4:30 I started watching the Mediacom channel advertising for job openings. I tell you..if I had a degree in HVAC, I'd be money right now. Nothing seemed to go my way today. Chloe was naughty, Max had as many time outs today as he has had in 3 months combined and Mya was into everything! When Max earns himself a time out, he sits on the rug in the entry way and we set the microwave timer for 2 minutes. This afternoon, I was in the kitchen during a time out and when it was over, I went to get him only to find that he moved the rug in front of the TV. I turned around and laughed and then let him know that was not okay.

I should have known better, but I went and got Max's haircut today. He wasn't a fan of the clippers, so he screamed bloody murder and I ended up sitting him on my lap, holding him down and getting gobs of hair in my mouth. Meanwhile, Mya had to be handed off to some stranger in the salon only to cry b/c that's what she does...we were quite the sight.

Mya has been giving us fits lately. She was 8 months old yesterday and still won't eat solid foods. Once in a great while we can get some cereal and/or baby food in her tummy, but not very often. Most of the time she shuts her lips, looks away and pushes my hand away. I'm not sure what to do. We've tried every flavor of food, given it to her at every possible time of day, level of hunger, consistency, temperature, etc. and nothing has worked. Anybody have any ideas? Similar stories? She's getting up in the night to eat a couple times. We give in and feed her b/c we're worried she's not getting enough calories during the day. For some reason it has really started to bother me now that she is 8 months old. I looked back at Max's baby book and I know it's not fair to compare kids, but he was eating 3 meals a day at this point. I'm lucky if she'll eat 3 bites per day.

We have a beautiful front door at our house in Dubuque. Well, we HAD a beautiful front door. Chloe scratched it up today when we were downstairs and couldn't hear her wanting in. That didn't help....

So, that was my day today. I hope tomorrow will be better, but I'm not going to lie and say I'm not thrilled it's Friday. Tonight Max is getting to stay up a little later because the Gophers are playing in the NCAA tournament. Chris doesn't even have to prompt him anymore and he yells, "Go Gophers!" I'll leave you with a pic of Max in his gopher outfit.

Here goes...

It has been awhile since my last blog, so get ready to read!

Once our house in CF got all packed up, the kids and I went to Decorah for a few days. While we were there, we had a little birthday party for Max. He absolutely loved all of the presents and since then has been asking for presents every time someone comes to our house! He mastered blowing out candles very quickly. We re-lit them many times so he could keep blowing them out! He also loved us singing "Happy Birthday." He kept saying "again" each time we were done singing it! Here is a video.





On Max's birthday (the 3rd) Mya decided to add to the excitement and start crawling! Now just a week and a half later she is starting to pull up and can easily go from a crawling position to a sitting one. We spy on her in the video monitor as she sits up and peeks over her crib to see if we're coming to rescue her. She has developed quite the personality in the last few weeks as well. She only wants to play with whatever Max has. She just follows him around and bugs him to no end! Luckily, he has been a trooper through it all. I just keep telling him how much Mya loves him and wants to be like him. Not sure if he gets it, but so far he hasn't shown any aggression towards her.





She'll kill us someday for posting this picture:)



A week ago Friday (Mar 6th) we closed on our house here in Dubuque. My parents brought the kids down late morning so we got a jump on unpacking before they got here. All went smoothly. At 4:00 that afternoon, we jumped in the van and went to Wisconsin Dells for the weekend! It probably wasn't the best decision we've ever made, but we had a great time in the Dells with Brian, Amanda and Olivia. No pics there...not sure what I was thinking not getting a picture of Max in the water park. Guess we'll have to go back!

This past Wednesday was my birthday. I turned the age I will be forever...29! My friend from Luther, Rachel, was in town on Spring Break visiting her parents. She was going to take me out on Tuesday night to a new Brew Pub here in Dbq. Not only did Rachel take me out, but Bree and Kindel (more Luther girls) came to surprise me as well! We had a great time and then on Wednesday we spent the day down in Bellevue (sp?) at her parents condo on the river. It was a great birthday. Here's a pic of all the girls at the restaurant.



Max and Mya are doing great here at our new house. Max is already saying "home" when we drive in the driveway. We have met a few neighbors and hope to meet more when the weather gets nice. I already have a play date lined up for sometime next week, so we're looking forward to that. I also decided to join MOPS here in Dbq so that is on Wednesday.

That is what we've been up to lately! Enjoy what is left of the weekend!!

03-03

Happy 2nd Birthday Maxwell David!! I can't believe my little Max is 2 today. I'm no longer a member of the 2 under 2 club:) Of course I got thinking about this day 2 years ago and decided to write a blog about it.

On Friday March 2nd, I was home for the 5th consecutive day from school due to the big ice storm. I cleaned all day long and then we went out to eat with some friends for dinner. I don't like spicy food (pregnant or not), but that night I decided to give some buffalo wings a try. I only had a few, but I think that's what got things going...

Chris was working on our basement trying frantically to get it done before the baby arrived (I was due March 13th) so he was up until 1am working on the sheet rock. Around 4 I woke up and didn't feel very well and thought my water might have broken. At 5 I called and they said to come in. I was having some contractions, but I had been having them for weeks by this time. When I got in to the hospital, we walked and walked and walked and walked until the contractions picked up. At 9, they put us in a room and we called our parents. At 9:30 I sat up to get some blood drawn and felt a pop. Water broke and the poor kid drawing my blood didn't know what the heck was going on!

I started pushing around 2:30 and at 4:30 I was still pushing and there was no one at the bottom of the bed. Doesn't take a genius to figure out something wasn't quite right. The doctor came in and said she'd try forceps and if they didn't work, we were going to do a C-section. Stupid me had never even thought about the possibility so I was a bit upset. Forceps didn't work (the only thing they did was to make a big gash on Max's head) so we ended up with a C-section and an 8 lb 14 oz baby boy! We didn't know if the baby was a boy or a girl so it was a great surprise. Both of our parents and Uncle Jeff were out in the waiting room, so it was fun for Chris to run out and share the news!

This post is getting a bit long, so I'll wrap it up. Max has been a super kid (once we got to 6 months:) His smile is enough to make me melt. We're really looking forward to the next year and all of the fun we will have with that little guy.

March 3rd, 2007


March 3rd, 2008


March 3rd, 2009

March 3rd - Dad's post

Max is two now-unbelievable... I wrote the following last year and it's funny how the best part of my day is still walking in the door when I get home from work...

3/4/2008 –

Another first is in the books – your first birthday! It’s unbelievable how fast you continue to grow up and change. Of course you are walking all over the place and getting into trouble however little 1 year olds can. It’s getting harder to keep track of you as you explore a whole new world standing up. We had a birthday party for you this weekend. Lots of family and friends attended and it was a fun time. I’m not sure you will ever be able to get to all the new toys you got, but it’s worth the challenge. Everyone loves you so much and you are so social. Open mouth kisses (yep – you like to lay it on people) are your favorite and your hugs make my heart melt. We’re especially happy you made it to your first birthday after all the medical fun you’ve been through! First it was all the ear infections and having surgery to put tubes in your ears. Then it was falling down an entire flight of stairs and Grandma and Grandpa Hoden’s house. That deserved a trip to the ER in Minneapolis to make sure the nice shiner you had and cut over your eye wasn’t anything worse. Then it was waking up in the middle of the night gasping for air! We called 911 and you got an ambulance ride to another ER room at 12:30am where they diagnosed you with something called croup and pneumonia. For a good week or two, your breathing was labored and your cough sounded horrible! But now you are all better. Your first scar over your eye before even one year… That’s my boy…

More than anything, we’re just so lucky to have such a cute and lovable son to be thankful to be around every day. The highlight of my days are walking through the door in the garage when I get home and seeing you waiting for me with a big smile or hearing you come around the corner to see if it’s me. There can’t be much better in life. The little things are the ones that mean the most. Always make your family and friends first in life and it will bring you joy. Just like you have to us. Happy Birthday and here is to many more! -Dad