Cheap Thrills

Here in Washington you might know that we have quite a few days of rainy weather. Lately we have not allowed that to stop us from having a good time. Just up the road from us in North Bend is the Outlet Mall. It is a sprawling open air mall with a covered walk area that circles the entire mall. Strategically located throughout the mall are what I call "Cheap Thrills." When the weather is to ugly and we can't get out and take our normal walk we drive over to the mall and have some fun. For exactly $6 we can ride all of the rides, walk the mall and get throughly exhausted and ready for a nap.

The pictures are not the greatest quality because the ride is moving and they were taken with a cell phone, but you get the general idea. He loves it. It is sometimes hard to get him to walk on to the next ride because he does not realize or remember that there are more. The carousel was a little bit of a challenge in the beginning but now he likes it also.

So that is what we do here for fun on rainy or snowy days when we are tired of being cooped up in the house and need to stretch our legs. Who knew that $6 dollars could bring so much happiness? Money well spent!

Ximena Salas Sibley 1922-2011

Yesterday morning at 10:30 my Gueli finally passed. After years of suffering she is finally at peace. It will be a long time before I can say the same. I am so sad that I could not have been with her for the final years of her life after being so close in the past. She finally moves closer to us all in California and I move away. Oh the injustice! The smartest, bravest, most beautiful woman I have ever known. I was so lucky to have her as my grandmother. She alone was the reason I fell in love with History and The Arts. I can remember countless trips to museums, art galleries, theatre and the ballet when I would visit her in New York. 90 years is a long time, but not nearly long enough. I only hope that I can grow up to have her courage and strength.

Aunty Dixie!!!!!

Aunty Dixie came to visit! Yippie! She is the greatest! Though she really isn't mommies sister, she is mommies bestest friend and she was there the day I was born. Mommy and daddy really enjoy spending time with her and so do I!

I really wish that she could have stayed longer and I really wish we lived closer together so that we could see each other on a more regular basis.

 I really don't remember the day I was born or the few days that we all spent together when I was only 6 weeks old, but I will remember how much she loved on me this time!

Here is a picture of me and Aunty Dixie on our camping road trip through Zion National Park when I was just a peanut.

You can just see how much she loves me! I can't wait to see her again. Mommy and daddy are planning another camping road trip to Idaho and Utah at the end of this summer. 

I love you Aunty Dixie! Mommy, daddy and I miss you already!

Snow Day!!!

So I did not see the outcome of Groundhog Day. I can only assume that cute little guy did not see his shadow and we are currently in the grip of a Winter Wonderland. We have taken advantage of the snowy weather and gone out to play several times.

This new waterproof suit is great for rainy days and snowy weather and it keeps him snuggly warm. Though when he walks he looks like a big waddling duck. Super cute!

Play date with Jake

We had a play date with Jake "The Snake" this week. Bridgette and I always laugh that we never get to talk to each other whenever we get together. The boys each have their own agenda. This time I got proof that they were actually within a 2 feet of each other. Though they really didn't even know that the other was even there. Both boys are really, do it yourself kind of kids. They don't wait to see what anyone else is doing they just go for it.

We started out looking at a huge train track and played a little until Max spotted something far more interesting.

A rabbit hutch, at just his level. I swear I did not put him in there. Bridgette can vouch for me. She saw him climb in. He climbed in all by himself. And once inside he took out all the stuffed bunnies and other stuff that was taking up the space. You can even see the debris on the bottom left of the picture.

We spent the majority of our time in the toddler area, until the boys separately discovered the door out to the big kids area.

There was also a huge big rig truck with a sleeper cab for the kids to climb in and check out from the inside. Max obviously can not wait to drive.

I think the best part was a huge Lite Brite board. Bridgette and I agreed that we both loved them as kids. The boys seemed to like them also. That was when I got some shots of the two of them standing right next to each other, paying no attention to the other.

I think the boys had a good time and Bridgette and I want to get them together more often so they can play together and we can actually talk and catch up on stuff. It sure was fun though. Thanks for treating us, Bridgette. We will have to go back there soon.

Max goes shopping

Max has begun to use words. He doesn't know very many but once he figures out they get a reaction he says them all the time. Lately his new favorite is "see ya!" Which has only narrowly replaced his old favorite of "Hi!" He says hi to everybody and everything, 2 or 4 legged. He is ever so happy when people respond and say hi back.

Now if you couple this behavior with his favorite thing, doors, it can become quite comical. At the library for storytime he is like the hall monitor letting people in and out saying "hi" the whole time. Anywhere we go he says hi.

So Max and daddy baked a cake yesterday while I was at work. They had almost everything they needed except frosting so they went to the grocery store. Daddy carried him into the store and put him down to get out some energy and he promptly turned around and headed back to the door. He stood there saying "hi" to the people coming in and giggling when they said hi back. Finally Terry was able to coax him away from the door by giving him a job to do. Carrying the basket!

Okay so maybe he is draging the basket, but isn't he cute??

Terry says that he walked all over the store checking things out like a little shopper.

Terry tried putting in something light weight but Max kept tripping over the basket. So Terry walked around with his arms full of stuff, taking pictures with his camera phone and trying to stay ahead of Max.

That is my little man! He is getting so big and strong. He now clmbs and plays alot by himself at the indoor play park. He only sometimes puts out his hands for help. He always keeps an eye out for either Terry or myself, just making sure that we are still there. Every day he gets better at stuff, more sure footed and independent.

New Year's Resolutions

Well, I made it through a full year as a mother. I look at Maxwell everyday and think, WOW! I made that. The motherhood thing has gotten a little more difficult has Max has gotten older. He has begun to test the limits and we are trying to stand up to those tests. Terry and I have formed a united front and have decided that when we say no, it means no!! Even if he cries, and swings his arms around looking for something or someone to hit! It is often hard not to laugh when he gets frustrated at us. We don't laugh in front of him though. One of these days I will get a picture of Max's "mean mug." It is angry face with a scrunched up nose and wrinkled brow. Super cute!

Santa brought Max an early Christmas present this year. A really wicked sinus infection! When Max was done with it he passed it on to me and I lovingly gave it to Terry. We like to share in this house. Max is much better now, I am almost back to my normal self and Terry is suffering through with only a little bit of complaining. Santa also brought Max his other bottom front tooth. After 4 months of waiting and an $80 trip to the dentist, it showed up the day before Christmas. I should have known it was coming based on the quantity of drool.

But the best gift Santa brought was a new Radio Flyer Tricycle for the little man. We have had it in the box since my baby shower and we thought Max would appreciate it now that he is a little bigger and LOVES anything with wheels.

Sure enough, he loved it!! He only had eyes for the tricycle. We had to distract him to put it outside so we could open the rest of his presents. Between Gramma and I, Max now has a nice library of books and has really begun to enjoy reading them. He regularly pulls them out and brings them to daddy or myself to read. Thanks to Gramma and Grandpa for all the great Mathew Van Fleet books. Max loves them!!  Here is a little video of Max. Daddy snuck up on him unnoticed, at first!

Ever the camera hog, as soon as Max realizes that someone is filming he stops what he is doing and tries to grab the camera. By the way, another big thank you to Gramma and Grandpa for the video camera. It took us about a week to figure everything out, but the videos are finally clear enough to post.

I have decided for my New Year's Resolution that I would stop stressing out about feeding Max solid foods. It has been a difficult transition and he regularly spits out what he doesn't care for, which is quite a bit. He has a few foods he will feed himself, and we are sticking to those. I occasionally throw in something new and sometimes he suprises me and actually eats it. Here is a picture of my little rabbit trying a spinach leaf.

He was watching daddy eat his salad and pointed and whined until Terry gave him a leaf. We were both so totally suprised when he actually ate it! He did great taking little bites until he tried to swallow it. It was flat and stringy and it gagged him going down. After that he was done with the leaf. I think that is how we are going to get him to try new stuff from now on. Hopefully he won't gag on everything.

After almost 17 months, Max finally decided to try cat food. It has been sitting on the floor, outside the kitchen, his entire life. It remains one of the only things we can't baby proof because the cat can't jump up cause she is so old. So tonight after dinner, we thought he was full, he just walked right up and tried some. I don't usually watch him around the food because he hasn't really showed an interest in months. I thought he was over it. Apparently he wasn't over it and he wasn't full after dinner. I gave him a graham cracker and some water to wash it down and now I will have to start watching him around the cat food again.

There is one more video clip I want to share. It is just Max cuteness in the bath playing with one of his new Christmas presents. Pay close attention to when Terry pans to the side and look at the toilet paper roll. Before his bath, Terry lets Max walk around to "air out" his parts. During that time he causes all kinds of trouble. Just like a bad puppy, he goes after the toilet paper.

Okay, I lied! One more video of Max making himself laugh silly!

So that is all for now. Stay tuned for more video fun!

I hope everyone had a great Holiday.