Music Class

On Wednesdays Max and my mom go to music class. Since I’m at work when they go, I haven’t gotten to take pictures yet. This week I had a shorter workday on Wednesday so I was able to get away from the office and join them at class. Here are the pictures:

This was the first class of a new session, so they had name tags out. Max didn’t think they belonged on his shirt (or on mine, for that matter) so we put it on his back when he wasn’t looking:

Sitting in a circle, watching the teacher:

They did a new song that involved rolling over. Here’s Grandma helping Max try it:

Maxwell thought it was really funny when the teacher rolled over:

Saying and signing “More” when she stopped:

Fun with Grandma:

Bells!

And quite possibly Max’s favorite part of music class: Snack time afterward! For the last 10 minutes or so of class he would sign “Eat” every so often, and we’d explain that snack time would be coming soon.

Max didn’t want to do much rolling over in class, but since then he’s very interested in it. He’ll say “Wo ober” and have one of us do it. Very cute. He still does lots of saying “hi” and “bye” to things. The other day I was giving him some string cheese, which was a big hit. After he finished a piece he would say “More chee” and I’d pass him another piece. When it was gone I explained the cheese was all done. He thought for a minute and then said, “Bye-bye, chee.” It is so fun listening to him talk and try out new words. Maxwell’s current favorite thing to play is Hide and Seek (“Hi-See”). He gets the general idea but not always the fine points of the execution. Sometimes he’ll hide under his coloring table or behind the rocking chair, and other times he’ll stand in the middle of the living room and we pretend not to see him as we hunt all around. As soon as we find him he’ll immediately say, “More!”

I’ve entered week 19 of pregnancy and am feeling good. I am feeling the baby move every day, which is always wonderful. So far the flutters aren’t strong enough to be felt from the outside, so Jeff is still waiting to feel it. We find out this week if the baby is a boy or a girl….or should I say, we get confirmation that it is a boy. Hopefully baby is not shy and shows off the goods!

Coming In June…

….or potentially in early July: A baby! We are thrilled to share that our family will grow by one this summer. I’m due June 26 with Maxwell’s little brother or sister (though I’d bet you money it’s a brother, I’m positive it’s a boy).   I’m in that wonderful second trimester, where I no longer want to gag at the thought of a salad but don’t yet have constant back pain. We know how blessed we are to have one healthy son and another baby on the way. Here’s a current belly picture:

We had a fun and busy weekend. Max started another session of swim lessons on Saturday. I didn’t get pictures this time, but we’ll get some soon. Max enjoyed being back in the water and thought it was hilarious when Jeff would put his face in the water and blow bubbles with force. From swim we headed south to a birthday party for Maxwell’s friend Holden. The party was a robot theme and I wish I’d taken pictures of the decorations, everything was so cute and well done. I didn’t get too many pictures, but I have a few to share. Here’s Max handing me my lens cap back:

Then they got out the bubbles, which were a big hit:

Let’s not forget the cupcakes! Max chose one with orange frosting. I wish I had gotten a picture of him practically face-planting into the thing, but he moved so fast I missed it. Here’s a bit of the evidence on his face afterward (there was more, but he helpfully wiped his mouth with his sleeve):

Maxwell was so hopped up on party excitement that he didn’t nap, even though the drive home was just over an hour. So by early evening he was pretty tired. We enjoyed some snuggle time on the couch, checking out the Penzey’s catalog together:

I may have mentioned in an earlier post that we’re pretty sure Maxwell is working on his two-year molars. He’s been doing a lot of this lately:

Saturday night some friends and I had a moms’ night out. I stayed up later than I have in I don’t know how long and had fun talking with everyone who came. And I have to give a shout out for the chicken sandwich and fries…simply amazing. I’m still longing for those fries and their homemade ranch for dipping. Locals, you must visit Roosevelt Ale House in north Seattle.

Today I got to meet my friend Laura for coffee, and then Max’s friend Emmeline came over to play for a couple hours, while her mom and dad got time to relax. Emmeline is about two months older than Max, and her mom is due about three weeks after me this summer! It’s fun to have kids so close in age. They had a great time today, here are a couple pictures:

We wound down the weekend with a little football. Sadly, neither the Vikings nor the Seahawks made it this far, but we still wanted to see the games. Max spent quite a while laying on our glider chair with his feet hanging over the side, holding onto the colored sugar shakers he’d been playing with, watching the game:

A most excellent weekend!

Ordinary Week

We had an ordinary week this week. I don’t take that lightly, our ordinary life is pretty amazing. This week we had time with friends, Max had gymnastics class, and we’ve had time to relax and play at home. Max’s music class that Grandma takes him to was cancelled this week because of snow…we got a few inches of snow here on Tuesday night. It was still around Wednesday morning, which is enough to cancel school around here, but it changed to rain by that afternoon.

Maxwell is showing us his opinion on things lately, just as an almost-two-year-old should. For a long time his “No” has sounded more like “Nyeh”….almost as if he had a bit of a Russian accent. But now he’s mastered the “o” sound and very clearly says “No.” Even though he’s sometimes saying it when we’d rather he didn’t, it’s so cute to hear his little voice. Max also has formed new opinions about what he wants to eat. Gone are the days when he would happily gobble broccoli and spinach. Now he’ll either just not open his mouth at all, or open his mouth and then spit the offending item out. As I write this, Max is in his crib, not napping, because he threw his Chester Bear out of the bed. He did this yesterday too, both times we retrieved Chester once and warned that we wouldn’t pick him up again. No Chester equals no nap, so it will be an early bedtime tonight! I will say that Chester has very good manners, Maxwell likes to give Chester a pretend drink or bite of snack, and then he always has Chester sign “Thank you” (sometimes using Max’s own chin for the sign). It’s really cute to see.

A few pictures from our week:

Max while playing at a friend’s house on Friday:

Saturday we went to gymnastics and then took Maxwell to get his hair cut. I don’t have any pictures of the hair cut, because it required both Jeff and me to be on our toes distracting Max so he’d stay in the chair. But the place we go has a small creek and a bunch of ducks, so we did get to see the ducks first. Max was enthralled and said “Quack quack quack” and waved to the ducks:

After the hair cut we went out to lunch at a restaurant that has a train running on a track suspended from the ceiling. Max loved watching it and saying “Choo choo” every time it went by.

We have a couple small leather boxes with removable lids in our entryway. Maxwell recently discovered that he can take the lids off, take the blankets out, and sit inside. This has provided lots of entertainment lately.

It’s even more fun when Daddy peeks over the railing from the landing above.

Christmas 2010

We had a wonderful time with visiting family this Christmas. We love having everyone here and having lots of time together. Max enjoyed the company as well and definitely got the concept of opening presents this year. We ate lots of good food, played with our new presents, and did some fun projects with the girls. I’ll keep my text short this time since I have lots of pictures to share. Enjoy!

Opening the blanket his cousin Elizabeth made for him:

Can I fit in this box?

Mmmmm, ketchup!

Cathie helped the girls sew pajama pants. They turned out really cute!

The girls and I made “melted snowman” cookies. They had fun decorating them, and we all enjoyed the finished product.

We had booked J. Shelton Photography to take a family picture while everyone was here. The appointed day was cold but clear and sunny, and Justine captured everyone wonderfully as always. Here’s the sneak peek on her blog. We love them and can’t wait to see the rest!

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas, and wish you a happy 2011!