Rythm's Gonna Getcha!

Many mothers are dismayed when their children become obsessed with Barney, the Teletubbies or other annoying children's characters. We spend hours and hours listening to these characters' high pitched sounds as they skip across the screen. Enough!

Indeed Max is a Barney fan, can say "Elmo" and loves when Alex plays Sesame Street video clips off the internet. However he's decided to take it one step further in the arena of annoying obsessions. My son loves...sigh....my son loves Aqua. "Aqua? What is that?" Let's take a trip down memory lane to 10ish years ago when you first heard the Barbie Girl song. "I'm a Barbie girl. In a Barbie world. Life in plastic. It's fantastic! Come on Barbie, let's go party" (insert techno beat here). Yeah, Aqua would be the group that sings this song.

In a strange sequence of blame...I mean events, my cousin Allie's Aqua CD ended up at my mom's house and Sydney would play it on occasion. Max thinks that anything Sydney does is super cool and this is no exception. Now every morning when I drop Max off, he immediately climbs up into the breakfast nook and points at the stereo. Mom turns it on for him and he begins his baby bop dance. The past 2 mornings he has decided that I may participate and he'll ask to be held so that I can bop to the beat with him. My poor, poor mother having to listen to this every day. She shared with me yesterday that the CD may go missing soon. Aqua will be so disappointed!

Merry Christmas!

Hooray, a cowboy doggy from Aunt Monika!

Max spent the evening with 3 lovely ladies showering him with attention.

Aunt Shelby is hilarious!

Max tries out the new Scoot About Nana bought him. He walks more than scoots.

Max learns the instruction "tear" when opening gifts.

I wish his tale manners were always this good.

Daddy and Max learning a new toy.

Diaper Houdini

My son is become more mischevious by the day. I received a call yesterday from my Mom who shared, "I have a story to tell you about your son...". I cringed hoping it didn't involve anything broken...be they household items, glassware, bones, etc.

The story goes....

"I walked into the bedroom to get Max up from his nap because I could hear him talking to himself. He had a really good nap from 10:30 until noon. Anyway, I walk in there and the first thing I see is bare buns. Your son had taken off his socks and pants, unbuttoned his onesie and then removed his diaper. I picked him up and discovered that the onesie flaps were wet and he had peed all over himself."

That's my boy! I'm only hoping he doesn't make a regular practice out of this. I'm not sure of a solution other than putting him down for a nap in footed jammies where the zipper top is buttoned off. Not that he couldn't figure that out. He's my Houdini!

An early Merry Christmas to you all! I hope you enjoy a wonderful, safe holiday with family and friends!

Snow....and lots of it

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow....okay we get it, it's snowing! Do you sense my frustration? We've been dumped on over the past week with over a foot of snow and a layer of frozen ice. I've only had to miss 2 days of work (last Monday and today) but my, oh my am I longing for life to get back to normal. The snow is beautiful and I love spending time with Alex and Max. However, I'm tired of anxiously watching the forecast throughout the day, hoping that I can make it to work so that I don't have to use up precious leave that we badly need for my maternity leave. That said, there's nothing I can do to control the weather. Enjoy these recent pictures. It will likely be a long time before we see this kind snow again.

Here is our sweet house a few days ago. I don't have to look at the date, I can tell by the snow level.

The view up our street from out living room window as of this morning.

Alex tossing sheets of snow and ice off his truck so that we can get out of the house. If you look between the tree top and the peak of the neighbors garage, you'll see my neighbor David's head (red hat). He was up on the roof, removing snow.

A cross -country skier speeds by as Alex finishes up. This has become the preferred method of transportation around our neighborhood.

Fortunately we returned safely from our outing. We weren't able to go to Albertson's as planned to due a jacknifed semi but Fred Meyer's was all the better. I have never been so grateful for one-stop-shopping.

Hope you're all warm and safe at home! Hot cocoa anyone?

1/2 Way

Today I am officially halfway through my second pregnancy. Can you believe it? I'm starting to. Just in the past week my belly has taken on a more round, pregnant shape vs. the "is-she-pregnant-or-just-a-thicky-thick" look. My midsection is taking on a life of its own.

We also made it through hail and snow to our ultrasound yesterday (photo above). Baby looked beautiful! The size was 2 days ahead, all the parts were accounted for and in the right place. One of the more memorable moments was when the tech zeroed in on his/her face to check the nose/mouth area for palate concerns. Baby had his/her arms criss-crossed over his/her face and just below that you could see a perfect tiny nose and upper lip. So sweet!

Alex and I stood by our decision to wait and find out gender at birth. The tech warned us when she had to view that area to make sure all was well. Other than a flash of temptation, I was happy to turn my head. Let's face it, I probably wouldn't get it right even if I had peeked. It's amazing to me how they can tell what any of the anatomy is on the screen. "See, these 2 grayish areas? Those are the kidneys. This black circle? That's the stomach." Ummm, sure!

20 more weeks to go and Baby 2 will be here. My, oh my, how life will change!

Say Cheese...or not!

Our other family activity on this snow day was to take a family photo for our Christmas card. We did come up with a winner but here are a few out takes that tell the real story...

Snow Day!

Max enjoyed his first snow of the year. He thought it was pretty interesting stuff!