Sally the Salamander

Daddy brought home a salamander he found at school a couple of weeks ago and Maxwell thoroughly enjoyed looking at it and touch it before letting him go in the pond across the street. Here are a couple of pictures of the little man and his repitilian friend.

 Maxwell is still pretty much a no fear kind of kid when it comes to touching stuff.

He did however, start to panic a little when Sally started to move quickly up his arm. All in all he enjoys critters and if he keeps up not having any accidents, daddy has promised him a fish tank. And bonus for me...he promises to keep it clean to. I don't have to do anything! Yippee for me!

Maxwell the Baker

The Holidays are rapidly approaching and we are hard at work on baking yummy treats. Since the rain has been coming down pretty hard lately, Maxwell and I have taken to baking instead of outdoor activities. We started the day by making daddies favorite, Chocolate Chip Banana Bread. I have started to make it healthier by adding flax meal and using whole wheat flour. It tastes incredible! 

Maxwell loves eating the chocolate chips as we work. I try to keep it to a minimum, but he is such a good helper, he deserves a treat.

 Look at how intently he is checking out those chocolate chips! I am sure in his little mind he is thinking, if I just look hard enough maybe she will give them ALL to me!

 Wait, you want me to put them all in there?!? What the heck!

 Okay, I guess.

 There were a few that fell on the counter and he picked them up and put them in the bowl...all except one.

What a delicious baker!

After the banana bread and a nap we made pumpkin and turkey shaped pumpkin cookies for his preschool friends feast on the day before Thanksgiving. We roasted a pumpkin, from the preschool pumpkin patch outing and used some for the cookies. Maxwell and daddy put the icing on them and they were great. He had a blast rolling out the dough and using cookie cutters. Our next little moms group actvity is Christmas cookies, so he will be very prepared.
Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We sure did!

Uber Cuteness

Here is our sweet uber cutey!!

She is regularly cooing and smiling at us. She even yells to get our attention. She is a super happy baby and I am happy to report that Maxwell still adores her. The other day she was in this same spot when Maxwell came around the other side of the couch and gave her kisses on her head. It melted my heart! I am so happy the love affair continues.

Music Lessons

Maxwell loves it when daddy gets his guitars down and plays. Lately he has been wanting to play a little to. Daddy is working with him to be gentle with the strings and not tweak the tuning. The other night they had a blast together jamming. Maxwell usually plays a mean air guitar, da na na, da na na. He rocks out all the time. We forget that he is a little more dominate with his left hand. So we seem to start out on the right and then turn everything around. It doesn't seem to matter to Maxwell. He is happy just to be jamming!

 This is daddies bass guitar. A little big and heavy, but he loves it.

 Daddy has a tune in mind, so he starts and Maxwell just strums along.

 Terry is also trying to show him how to use the pick.

After we finally turn the guitar around Maxwell does really well with strumming with the proper hand. A little challenging for Terry being right handed, but when Maxwell is ready we'll get him a proper teacher. Probably Uncle Loren, who plays as well as Andre Segovia. Translation...he is awesome! We will see if Maxwell is still interested in a year or so.

Motorcycle Rider

Maxwell has been making the most of his indoor play space. Somedays he gets out everything and plays with it all. Other days he is toy specific. While I am making dinner I let him go crazy so he is tired and ready for dinner then bed. Lately he has been enamoured with one of daddies helmets. It is obvioulsy to big for him but he loves to wear it and ride around the house. It just so happens he was also playing with his tunnel that day too. Never one to let stuff get in his way... he keeps right on playing, around his own mess.

 Our place was perfect for just Terry and I, but now we are experiencing growing pains. Not sure where Terry will end up getting a job after he graduates, so we aren't making any moves to find something bigger just yet.

 Getting ready to park his ride before he comes to dinner.

Such a happy boy!

Play Day Fun

Across the street from where we live is a little play park with a big field. Maxwell and some friends had a great play date last week when the weather was warm and ran themselves ragged!

 That is Brayden in the lead, with Sage, Maxwell and Ellie bringing up the rear.

He was pooped and ready for a nap by the time the play date was over.

 Here is is doing is favorite thing...hanging!

My handsome boy! I love him more everyday and I am so lucky to have him in my life!



Cougar Mountain Zoo

In the hills overlooking Issaquah is the Cougar Mountain Zoo. I have been meaning to go there and check it out for a while. We finally got around to it last week. It is a rather small zoo and there is ALOT of stainless steel bars everywhere, but the habitats are nice and spacious and they have some cool animals. My friend Ashley works there as a volunteer. So that is the other reason we went, just to say hi!

Anyway, they have cougars in an exhibit right when you walk into the zoo. You can practically reach out and touch them. They sat watching Maxwell and making chirping noises, then started pacing, following him walking in front of the enclosure. Amazing big kitties. They also have some Bengal tigers. Their enclosure is quite impressive and there are warning signs everywhere about their spraying habit. It was awesome to see them so up close and personal. The only time I have been that close to a tiger was at the zoo in Santiago, Chile. I could have reached through the enclosure there and felt their fur if I felt like losing a hand!

They have lots of exotic birds, some wallabies, alpacas and lemurs. Like I said, kind of small but a really nice little excursion for Maxwell.

 Here is Maxwell inspecting a Crowned Crane or vice versa. This is an example of how close you can be to all the animals. It was very personal.

What they lack in actual animals they make up for in bronze sculpture. There are bronze animal everywhere, especially in this one area at the center of the zoo. Of course there are signs saying not to climb on the bronzes, but I couldn't resist and obviously neither could Maxwell.

We had a great time and will probably do it again when daddy is off of school for winter break. They have a reindeer festival with Santa. Should be loads of fun.