Party Time

What a memorable first birthday. Max started his day with projectile vomit around 4:00 a.m. and this uncontrollable tummy bug continued until about 2:00 p.m. The strange part was he didn't seem bothered by it. He didn't cry and his attitude remained pretty happy throughout the day. He would randomly vomit, give hugs for a few minutes, then everything was normal again. Also, he had a black eye emerging from a fall the day before. But don't worry, the day did improve. Despite smelling slightly funky, we decided to carry on with the party and cake smash. I'm glad we did. Can't let a little vomit hold us back. Today is the one year anniversary of Max being born and he deserved to celebrate. However, due to the unanticipated visit from the vomit fairy we decided to cancel our plans to the zoo.

I'm not sure Max got the chance to realize the presents were for him to open because he has such a great sister who was so eager to help him out. Lyla is completely enthralled with the idea of birthdays. The decorations. balloons. presents. people. singing, oh she loves the singing. cake & how could we forget the ice cream. There were several moments today of reminding Lyla that it was Max's birthday. That's okay though. Can't expect anything but excitement out of a two year old. 

We ended the celebration in typical American fashion by encouraging diabetes---aka the first birthday cake smash. Max seemed pleased to have the spotlight and he began practicing his cave man movements on his cake right away. It took him some time to realize he could actually eat it and shortly after that he was ready to be done. I blame the tummy issue from earlier for not allowing him to enjoy it more. 

Max has so many people --- both near and far --- who love him so so much. My family is a fortunate bunch and I'm so grateful to be surrounded by such wonderful, generous, caring people. 

Max, I hope you had a wonderful first birthday. I hope your belly is feeling better tomorrow. 

And lastly, I hope you don't see vomit on your birthday again until your 21st birthday. [hehe]

 I love you & I can't wait for year #2.

 

Max: One Year Old

maxwell. you are one. it is hard to believe you were born one whole year ago.
it seems forever ago, yet it went by so fast.

you are curious about the world around you.
infatuated with your busy big sister.
and always willing to give hugs & kisses.
I adore everything about you and
it's perfectly fine with me if you never change.
but we all know that isn't going to happen. :(

you are the sweetest little soul.
i am honored i get to be your momma!

the skills & life experience of a one year old:

1. walking is the next big milestone for this guy.
30 steps is his record so far.
in the meantime, he manages to
crawl around like a spider monkey.

2. he loves food. all of it & any of it.
in fact, he doesn't mind dog food either. 

3. he loves anything with wheels. he likes to hammer stuff. he climbs on everything.
i've considered that maybe i'm noticing these qualities cause i'm expecting them from a boy,
but even when i try to have a gender neutral mentality, max is constantly being a 'boy.'

3 1/2. he climbs up the slide and goes down the slide all by himself. 

4. he's been making a grunting noise as a confirmation to 
something he wants or as a way to say "yes"
[it's like i speak cave man or something]

5. reaching & pointing to the direction he would like to be carried is a new thing.
it's a pretty smart method he came up with, but if you don't comply with
 his commands then watch out for his rage!

6. says 'quack quack' when he sees a duck.
however, he also makes this noise for any animal he sees.
sooo we have some work to do on animal noises.
he does make a 'rawr' noise for a dinosaur.

7. his first time saying "more" was asking for lime salt.
[blaming grandma for that one.]

8. he mimics some sounds & just recently started saying "no no" while pointing his finger.
[blaming uncle kurt for that one]

8. he has two bottom teeth. two top teeth. and tooth #5 just made its grand entrance.

9. he recently upgraded to a front facing car seat and he's loving the change of scenery.
i also enjoy the change of looking in my rear view mirror to find two baby faces.

10. he  begins his night in his crib and finishes curled up in his momma's bed.

this might be frowned upon by some, but he's my baby. and he's one. 
 i simply disagree with anyone who believes snuggling a baby
 too much will leave a negative impact. 
 i'm his source of comfort and at this point,
 i'm not worried about him lacking independence for it.
life is too short. time is cruel. i will cuddle my son as long as i want, as long as he'll let me.
[end rant.]

to check out max's previous lists click here or here or here!

compare for fun, not to compete, by pressing here.

Baby Pilot

Max had a little impromptu birthday photo shoot on Tuesday.

I found a super cheap Groupon offer to a photo studio near our house.

 I wanted to take some pictures for his one year old birthday anyway, so I figured why not!

I felt a little bad for Lyla because during the session because 

she was really interested in all the props they had available.

She kept posing and asking for her picture to be taken.

Her behavior was quite adorable, actually.

She has been so camera shy lately that I figured she wouldn't be into it.

 I didn't plan on her wanting to participate. [I was wrong.]

 I intended on it being a little thing for Max the one year old.

She was dressed in play clothes and was sporting the homeless kid hairstyle.

[my energy level wasn't up for the hair battle earlier in the morning.]

Despite heavy considerations of fixing her hair with my spit, I did not.

The photo shoot remained to feature only Max and 

I'm okay with it cause he is the birthday boy.

He deserves some spot light!

 I promised her that someday she can pick out a party dress and have her own turn.

I did manage to sneak one picture of her with my phone. I think this is illegal in all 50 states.

I hope the photography police will let this one slide...

Happy Birthday to Bya

happy birthday to this special lady.

our world is a little brighter with olivia [aka "bya"] in it. 

she is a loyal friend. an awesome cook.

and helps my children look a little less homeless on a daily basis.

we love her so much!

Granny Visits

My mom and dear old grandpa drove to Texas just to see us! It took them five days to get here, they spent five nights at my house, and I'm guessing it will take them five days to get home. I wish someone would invent a teleportation machine already so they could spend all 15 days with us. 

Grandpa is broken and fragile on the exterior, but he doesn't let that get him down. His spirit is just as fiery as ever! I think he enjoyed his time in Texas and he kept commenting on how beautiful it is here. Yes grandpa, I was equally surprised to find something other than sand and cactus  too.

Grandpa is a pretty low-maintenance house guest. [with the exception of making several trips to the pharmacy---remind me to never get old.] He is pretty much on the same schedule as Lyla and Max --- requires a a nap around 2:00 p.m. and is ready for bed by 8:00 p.m. So this made our daily adventures short and sweet. His only request was to find a hat with "Texas" on it and some postcards to send his friends. Easy enough. In typical grandpa fashion, he brought four boxes of Idaho potatoes to spread among the people of Texas. Oh! Max took six steps during their visit, beating his old record of four steps on his eleven month birthday. 

The pictures below are of the crew at Old Town Spring. If you remember our last visit to OTS then you remember Max had his first real meltdown. Clearly he was having a better day this time around. It must have been the whiskey. 

As they pulled away and drove down the street, Lyla looked up at me. Her lip started quivering as she said, "I'm going to miss grandma." Lyla makes a lot of witty/clever/sweet comments, but sometimes she is coached into saying these things. This phrase came directly from my little girl and it slammed into my heart reaaaaal hard. It was such a sad & sweet moment. I'm glad to see Lyla is growing attached to her grandparents. It's something I feared would be impossible after moving to Texas.

The only reason I'm sad to see my mom go is that I can finally throw away the left over fast food she insisted on keeping in the fridge. Seriously. Saving fast food is just weird and I know way too many people that do it. When she initially put it in the fridge, I kept my mouth shut about it. But by the third day of it going untouched, I asked if we could toss it. "No!" She proclaimed. "I will take it with us on the drive home so grandpa has something to snack on." 

Yum. Five day old fried chicken. Cold chicken, I might add. It probably grew legs by now or started sprouting feathers. I tried to save grandpa by offering her $10.00 to stop and get him fresh & hot chicken, but no...they.must.not.be.wasteful.

She knows I tease her about this, so it's okay to write about it on my blog. I just don't understand it. I'm a self-admitted food waster. Maybe it's a mentality that will change in me as I grow older.  But for now, I will stick to being a left-over-saving hater. Especially fast food. 

We will miss my momma, and her chicken saving ways.

Oh, and we will also miss her sleeping with Lyla. It prevented her sneaking down to our room.
The family of four sleeping arrangement can be a little too cozy.

Recharged

For the first time in forever... [ <-- frozen reference. mom moment.]

Anyway, yes really, for the first time in forever we used a non-family babysitter. a stranger. an unfamiliar face.
 This was a little bit of a scary experience because

1. There are some freaks out there
 and 2. I was completely unsure how these babies of mine would behave. 

They aren't away from their momma very often! 

However,  it was a perfect evening and I'm so happy we ventured into the world of babysitters.

I will start by explaining how I discovered our sitter. I would like to believe she was a god-sent angel.

 She was actually referred to me by a friend who nicknamed her "the baby whisperer." 

She had nothing but good things to say about her and 

promised that once I met her my nerves would be instantly calmed. She was so right. 

The moment I met her I knew everything would be totally fine. 

Keri has this warm and welcoming energy about her.  

She is a mom of two girls and started sitting for younger

 families cause she missed her girls being babies. 

Plus, her name is Keri and since all the other Keri's [Kari] in

 my life are wonderful, I knew we were already off to a good start. 

 I spent all day preparing Lyla for the evening away from her mom and dad. 

This is arguably a bad idea, but that's generally how I roll when it comes

 to exposing Lyla to new experiences. I like for her to know what's coming next in her little world. 

I remained optimistic throughout the day because she initially seemed excited about the idea. 

Then, Keri arrived and Lyla clung to me like I was suddenly going to disappear forever. 

Surprisingly, Max acted similarly. I need to remember that he listens and

 understands more than I realize sometimes.

 Luckily Kirk was stuck in traffic and I was able to hang out for about 45 minutes 

before sneaking out the door. That gave the kids enough time to relax and warm up to Keri. 

Their first time meeting her was only the day prior, so I can't blame them for shedding a few tears.

 Once they were interacting with Keri and showing signs of happiness, 

it helped to ease my undeniable guilt that was creepin' through my bones.

We went to the Dave Matthews concert, only a ten minute drive from the house, but somehow I was still nervous about leaving my babies. We arrived to the concert and as we were waiting in line I started noticing all the fashionable people surrounding me. cute clothes, cute shoes, cute hair styles. 

I commented to my mom that it was weird seeing people outside my typical mom community.

 It was sorta as if time stood still, as my eyes wandered around in shock wondering where all the strollers and yoga pants were. There were no babies to be found! 

I made a point to soak it all in---because although I love my babies with every bone in my body,

 it felt so good to just breathe. I think Kirk and I even remembered to hold hands.

 We got to step outside of our parent bubble for an evening. I really enjoyed it. 

We were long overdue for a date night and I think keeping that balance in any relationship is important.

 The concert rocked and I enjoyed every sip of my $11.00 beer. 

Keri offered to come again for a second visit, so the kids must have charmed her at least least a little. 

I pumped a bottle for Max before we left, but Keri said he seemed

 very offended that she would even offer it to him. Ha! I found this very hilarious. 

Max is a boob lover and it's going to be a hard habit to break.

My mom batteries feel recharged. 

I can't wait to give Keri a call next time we need a night out of the house.

Grocery Store Expert

I am basically an expert at taking two kiddos to the grocery store by myself.
However, taking both babies to the grocery store six months ago was an absolute last resort.
Six months ago my grocery store trips either happened at night after Kirk got home from work,
 or only after several hours of begging Olivia to join me for a "lesbian outing." I'm kidding.
Olivia surrenders herself to my children at all times, as if they were her own.

Anywho. Taking kids to the grocery store is little like what I imagine herding cattle is like.
It's an art and science that requires a little bit of creativity and a whole lot of patience.
Letting Lyla be involved in the shopping experience seems to help a lot.
She likes to picks out snacks, even knows how to use the weight scale in the produce section.

I typically just open random bags of grapes, blueberries, and cookies to keep them quiet.
It's probably a bad habit to allow, but there is no screaming. no crying.
everyone stays in the cart the entire time.

hmm. this is not a grocery cart. oh well.

It's really really amazing and if you aren't a mom you probably don't
understand why this is such a huge accomplishment.
I'm patting myself on the back. Yep. "Nice job, Kaili..."

Frozen Friday

If you don't know by now, Lyla is obsessed with the movie Frozen. [aka "Elsa"]

I will admit, we did watch it three times in one day. That happened once.

We are in a 12 step recovery program though. Don't worry about us.

I personally love any good Disney movie that I can memorize the words to all the songs. 

However, Lyla has already crushed my dreams of becoming a Broadway singer. 

The moment I sing even one word it's, "don't sing like that." or "that's my song, mommy." 

Anyway, Charli and Taylor invented the idea of having "Frozen Friday"

Lyla brought her Elsa dress, but refused to wear it. Dress up usually has to be her idea.

We enjoyed some Frozen themed snacks. The girls had a Frozen scavenger hunt.

"Do you want to build a snowman?" Yes. We did that too.

Oh yes, and watched the movie of course.

This last picture was captured during a scary part in the movie.

Lyla claimed she was saving Max from the monsters. LOL.

It's A Good Day To Be A Mom

These first years of being a mom are flying by and I'm cherishing each day as much as I can.

It's non-stop job and I constantly find myself worrying, planning, & preparing.

Sometimes I have to stop and remind myself that I am doing an OK job.

I occasionally get down on myself for making mistakes or 
not being as enthusiastic about daily activities as I would like.
 Then I put myself in the shoes of my babies. They live a great life.

My kids are healthy & happy and all the other stuff will fall into place as necessary.

Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful moms in my life.

 You all inspire me, encourage me, & help me maintain my sanity. 

I've never appreciated my own mom more than I do now.