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

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.