Don't grow up...

There are times that I want Max and Mya to grow up quickly. Like when I think about how fun it would be to take them to the tennis courts, out to a movie or to Disney World. However, there are also times that I wish they could stay young forever. A few of Max's sayings are so cute right now that catch myself saying them the wrong way too and not correcting him! Here are some of my favorites:

dinosaur = dysinor

hamburger = hangerber

if he wants to be rocked, he says "rock you" instead of rock me. He does the same with "carry you" and "hold you."

When referring to Mya, he uses her instead of she. For example one day we were in the car and Mya was crying. I asked Max what was wrong with Mya and he said, "her hurt her hand." It was so darn cute.

Just tonight he showed his first signs of being Mr. Funny guy. I was playing catch with him. I looked away for a second and this is the conversation that followed:

Max: Here Gamma!
Me: Grandma? I'm not Grandma!!
Max: (smiling) Here Mommy
(He throws it to me and I throw it back to him)
Max: (smiling even more) Here Roger! (that's grandpa roger)

We busted out laughing.

On a much different note: Please keep our good friends Joe and Tracy in your prayers as well as everyone associated with Coach Thomas in Parkersburg. Tracy is good friends with Ellie Thomas (daughter-in-law of Ed)so she is taking it very hard. Both her and Joe had him as a teacher. I'm having a hard time comprehending how something like this could happen. You just never know what the day will bring.

Not me! Monday!

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I most certainly did not allow Max to bring his blanket in the van AND inside Target because I knew I needed a lot of things and that the blanket would make him sit in the cart quietly. I would never have done this because we are trying to enforce the rule that the blanket stays in his room and is for naps and bedtime only.

While stopped at a red light recently, I did not reach back and dig some cheerios out of the corners of Mya's carseat and proceed to feed them to her in order to stop the crying! I would never give my child food that has been sitting in a carseat for quite some time. That's gross.

I did not give Max monster cookies for breakfast just because I wanted one and didn't want to hear the whining as to why he couldn't have one also. I also did not justify it to myself by the fact that there is oatmeal in those cookies and oatmeal is a healthy breakfast option.

It was not me who texted my sister-in-law throughout the wedding service on Saturday trying to make plans for her surprise arrival at the reception. It was also not me who dropped my phone in the grass outside the car at the church. I am WAY more responsible than that. It was not my sister who insisted on driving to the church and found it for me. Whew!!

So, what did you not do this week?

5 years!!

Friday Chris and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary! We got a night alone in Decorah staying at the Hotel Winneshiek. It was fun to reflect on our 5 years and talk about what the next 5 may bring! Here's a photo of the Luther gang at our reception. When I came upon this picture, I had to laugh at how many children would be in the picture if we took it today.



Happy Father's day to all of you dads out there! I'd especially like to wish Chris, my dad, Chris's dad, and my brother a Happy Father's Day! Mya said her first word besides mama and dada this Father's Day weekend. It was "ball" and Chris couldn't be more proud of her:)

11 months and "climbing"

Our 11 month old Mya has been doing some new things lately. She is not walking yet, but has started to push herself to a standing position from crawling or sitting, so hopefully it's not far away. I don't really care when she starts walking, but for her knees sake, I hope it's soon. They are starting to get pretty beat up from crawling on cement. Here are a couple of new videos I took yesterday when she should have been napping, but instead wanted some extra one-on-one time with mom.


My favorite part of that video has to be the little dance at the end:) And yes...that is hair you see standing up on her head!! Bows and clippies, here I come!!



I don't know about you guys, but I was pretty impressed with the whole going up the stairs of the slide and then going down by herself. Then again, I am easily impressed by my kids...
(side note for Grandparents: Yes, I was standing close enough to rescue her if she started to fall:)

She is also starting to become quite the social butterfly. Yesterday we were at the ENT waiting for a blood draw to see if she is allergic to eggs (we don't find out for a couple weeks) and she was waving at everyone and going up to them asking to be picked up. Since Mya and I were the only two in the office under the age of 60, you can imagine that she was the life of the party waiting room:) She has also taken to eating popsicles and strawberries. They are definitely her favorite these days. One more month until the big birthday. Hard to believe.

Pool time!

Today Chris and I took the kids to the pool for the first time this year. Max picked up right where he left off last year loving it. Mya was a little tentative at first (okay...a lot tentative. She hung onto our necks like a monkey for awhile) However, she soon got the hang of it and by the end wanted to crawl around in the water and splash with the other kids! Max went under the water twice. Both times by accident and both times with his eyes and mouth open. It didn't bother him for long, because he was willing to keep going within 30 seconds each time.

The good part about the pool was that the kids had a great time. The bad part is that I don't think I'm going to be able to take them by myself. Maybe by the end of the summer when Mya can walk it will be easier, but for now I'm going to have to have another adult along. The best part about the pool was that we went out for ice cream afterwards! Hope you guys have a great week.

MDH

Maxwell David has been quite the little turkey lately. His favorite things to say these days are: Look at me, Watch this, Huh?, My turn, I want to do it, Go away Mya, Let go Mya, Get back here, and that's MINE! He has figured out the meaning of the word "sorry" and now knows exactly when to use it. When he gets put in time out, he immediately starts saying sorry over and over again until the time out is over. I'm pretty sure he is hoping to get the time out shortened by saying this. He has also figured out the phrase excuse me. He has been saying it after he burps for awhile, but last night at the store he almost ran into a lady and looked up and said excuse me (which comes out sus me)It was pretty cute and the lady was laughing so hard tears were in her eyes! I have a really hard time getting him to leave a place where he is having fun. Up until recently, I would say it was time to go and he would cry, but would come with me. Lately, he has started to run away when I tell him it's time to go. I imagine it's a pretty funny sight to see me chasing a 2 year old while holding a 10 month old and usually a diaper bag too.

We gave potty training a go a couple weeks ago. He did really well when I put him on the potty at the right time. However, in 5 straight days, he let me know he had to go once. I decided he wasn't ready, but after talking to some friends, I maybe should have kept going. Apparently you can be in that stage for weeks or months. This is a case of wishing I had daycare so they could potty train him for me!

Here are a couple recent pictures of him. One is when I walked into my bathroom and he was putting on my deodorant. The other is how I found him after a nap. It's probably getting close to big boy bed time. Uh oh. That's all I have to say about that.

Sleep

Maxwell is a pretty good sleeper. He sleeps close to 12 hours at night and normally naps 1 1/2 hours in the afternoon. However, in his short 27 months of life, he has only fallen asleep in a place other than a bed or carseat twice. Twice!! I have pictures for each time. Once was when he had just turned a year old and I had to wake him up to go to daycare everyday. He fell asleep in my closet while I was in the shower. The other time was just the other day when he fell alseep on the couch. Check out the blanket in both pictures. Ugh. I hate that blanket.




My sister on the other hand was the exact opposite - she had no problems sleeping in any random spot. See pics below...





I hope she doesn't kill me for that pic on the potty!
Also while you're looking at those pictures of my sister, check out the carpet and wall paper...pretty cool huh:)

Day 3

Beth is home and the kids are safe and sound. I'd say mission accomplished. I wish I could have snapped a picture of Max when he saw Beth driving down the street. He was the happier than he had been all weekend - that's for sure. Of course that can't be a reflection of his time with good ol Dad now. Can it?

I now relinquish control of blog posts to the real blogger in the family... We can get back to funny stories now instead of a running account of what it's like to be home alone with two kids like it's never been done before!

Day 2

Sat AM - 2 kid wake-up call at 6:30. Long gone are the days on sleeping in on Saturdays! Mya and I had a nice little breakfast of fruit/baggle/cheerios. Max decided not to join us. Given the choice of staying in his room and sucking on his blanket and coming out with us, he chose the former. Definite power struggle between us with that thing. I realize that he finds comfort in it, but it reeks from sucking on it so much! So I don't think it's too big of a "rule" to only allow it in the bedroom. Maybe I'm just no fun. Eventually he gave in and left it in there. Strangely enough, after he ate he wanted to go in his bedroom and he said he was tired. I thought it was just so he could suck on that nasty blanket some more, so I put him in the crib and low and behold the kid falls asleep! Max stopped taking morning naps a long time ago, so this was a pleasant surprise. I thought for sure I was getting a two-fer. Didn't happen.

Sat PM - No nap for Max. I put him in there and kept hearing the banging sound of him kicking the rails on his crib. Thought I'd try once to go tell him to simmer down so he didn't wake Mya up. After I left the room, I look at the video monitor and see Max standing up now and deliberately kicking the railing. That was followed by a loud yell "DAD!". Apparently I helped him figure out how to get my attention. So that was that. Once Mya got up, I thought we could use a car ride so we drove around Asbury by the ski hill and checked out all the gigantic houses. I wonder who lives in those things? Just got done putting the kids to sleep. As I was rocking Mya for a little bit, it made me think that if I could bottle up a feeling, that would be one of them. What's the saying? A picture says a thousand words? Even if I had a picture of those moments, I know it couldn't describe those feelings. Sappy, I know.

And then, as I'm deep in reflection and pretty sure Mya is sleeping already, she let's out a solid burp followed by a toot that could clear out a room full of people... Chloe even followed when I left. And I'm sure every part of her wanted to stay in there to keep away from crazy man Max who chased her all day long with the popper, swiffer, lawn mower and laundry basket! Nice Mya...

Dad+Max+Mya+3 days without Mom=pandamonium?

Beth went out of town for the weekend with some friends, so I took Friday off and am hanging out with the kids for a few days. Here's a running log of our time together:

Friday AM - Max and I played outside in the sprinkler for an hour while Mya slept. Chloe decided it was too hot and not fun to have Max chase her with the mower, so she went inside to enjoy the a/c. Mya woke up after an hour and we all played for awhile while I got lunch together (all meals have been planned and indexed by Beth). So far so good.

Friday PM - Took Mya awhile to fall asleep, but I think I got a solid hour with both kids dreaming away at the same time. Found myself wondering what to do! I was almost ready for them to wake up after awhile. Thought about just sticking put and playing it safe at home. Instead, we went to the park. Max loves it there. Going on the slides, playing in the sand, asking all the kids to play with him... He has no problem staying busy. Another favorite thing also kept him occupied - chasing birds. No matter how many times he'd get within 50 feet of them and they would fly away, he still kept trying. Over and over again. That's persistence! Talked him into leaving without a big fuss because Chloe was in the car. Seeing that she just sat through some heat, we went to a pond nearby with a walking path around it. Pitstop halfway through for Max to throw rocks in the water and Chloe to swim for the first time this year. Of course, Max wanted to swim also. Dad said no. Got the kids home and fed, put to sleep, and that's that! Even though I've been busy all day with them, it's still lonely here without Beth. Max hasn't seemed to mind it being just me around (he's asked for her once, Grandpa and Grandma once and Brian and "Beva" once :), and Mya is Daddy's little girl anyway, so the first day has been pretty smooth sailing.

Here's some pics of playing in the backyard and Chloe (haven't posted a pic of her in a long time):