Seriously, can you believe this cuteness?!

Jeff and my mom and I were laughing the other day that the kids probably think “Okay, this family is really nice and I love them a lot, but I’m not sure how smart they are.” Poor Anna keeps telling us she hates the bottle and we are not picking up on her not-so-subtle cues. Max also must think we are not the brightest bulbs on the Christmas tree…Monday my mom was getting ready to take him to her house and explained that she was going to change his diaper (we use cloth at home but usually use disposables when we go out and about). Max said “It’s still dry” (he’s pretty accurate about that these days). She replied, “Okay, but I want to put a different kind of diaper on you before we leave.” Max looked at her for a minute and then explained, “We call that a disposable diaper, Grandma.” And his parents aren’t any better, recently Jeff picked Anna up and said, “Hi Punkin!” and Maxwell quickly corrected him–“Daddy, that’s Anna.”  Nor do I escape, yesterday Max said that something “falled down.” I replied, “Oh it fell?” and Max said “No Mama, it falled.”

Last Sunday our friends Angel and Eric and their girls came over. The big kids had fun with the toys and the babies slept and ate and observed. We are so lucky to have good friends like them close by!

Sharing Chester bear:

This picture makes me laugh. Anna is assessing Penelope.

Okay, she’s cool. I’ll hold her hand.

Here are some other pictures from our week. Tummy time success!

Max coaching Anna on the finer points of tummy time. Note that Chester is doing it as well:

Daddy-daughter snuggle!

Maxwell wanted to help give Anna a bottle the other night when she was having a hard time. I’m sorry to say she still wasn’t interested, but it was awfully cute:

We had spaghetti one night this week. Max ate it with both his fork and his hands, and I had to get a picture of the results:

Tummy time again!

Yesterday we went to a park on the lake near our house. Jeff and Max threw rocks in the water:

Enjoying the view of the water and the mountains:

I don’t know what Max is doing here, but it’s pretty cute:

Wheee!

The weekend before this one was a great “last hurrah” to summer, as we had sunshine and temps in the 80s. On Saturday we had Jeff’s work picnic at the zoo. We packed up the car and headed out for a day of fun. Max loved feeding the giraffes and the birds and riding the carousel. He also loved the fact that at the picnic they had ice cream sandwiches.

Sunday found us heading north to my Grandma’s house. We hadn’t been up there in far too long, and Great-Grandma was itching to see the kids again. It was wonderful to spend the day with family and Max loved the toys Great-Grandma has. When we told him we were going up there that day, he said right away that he was going to play with the mailbox toy. It has been quite a while since we were up there, so we were impressed that he remembered that.

I went back to work on Wednesday last week. I can’t say I was looking forward to going back, I have loved these months at home with Max and Anna. But I’m trying to focus on the positives, like the fact that I can bring Anna with me until she’s six months old (amazing benefit!) and that I am part-time and get one day a week at home. The first few days went well and I think I’m now caught up on my email. Monday did come around awfully quickly though!

I have a few pictures from when Oma and Opa and Greg, Leah and the girls were here that didn’t make it up last time, so I wanted to be sure to post them now. Here are Leah, Elizabeth and Emma making s’mores on the grill:

Reading a story to Anna:

Max is a fan of corn on the cob:

I’ve mentioned that Anna doesn’t love tummy time. Our friends Rain and Wes sent this cute owl toy for her and she loves to stare at it. We’ve had some improvement on tummy time with propping her on the Boppy and letting her look at the owl:

Taking pictures of a toddler and a baby together is hard. I don’t know how my friend Justine gets such great pictures of kids all the time. So when I do get a shot where both kids are looking in the general direction of the camera, I’m thrilled. Here Max was sharing Chester with Anna, which was quite impressive since Chester is his very special friend.

The zoo! For $5 you can feed the giraffes, and it is money well spent. Max holds out the leaves and says, “Here you go, giraffe!”

Climbing around:

Feeding the birds, another hit:

Anna staying cool in the shade at the picnic:

Carousel ride!

Our trip to Great-Grandma’s house:

Four generations:

My aunt Wendy is an amazing baker, and was kind enough to make pie for us. Max was a big fan!

On the porch swing:

Cousin Trinity was so happy to hold the baby!

Max is very much two and a half–he had a meltdown yesterday over the fact that I couldn’t put his banana back into its peel. All part of the age and we roll with it. It is such fun listening to him talk. He’s still working on figuring out when its appropriate to say “I” vs “Me” vs “You.” He used to almost always say “you” or “Max” when referring to himself. Now he does that about half the time, and the other times he usually says “I.” For example, when playing hide and seek yesterday with Jeff he said, “Daddy, more looking for I?” So cute! And let’s face it, the English language is not an easy one to figure out.

We had a great time
for the rest of Oma and Opa’s visit, and we were so happy to have Greg
and Leah and the girls here also. I have some more pictures of our time
together, plus some assorted shots from our week.

I took this self-portrait the other day because I want to be sure to memorialize the Moby wrap. Now here’s a baby product I wish I’d invented: It’s just a big piece of fabric folded in half! I had this with Max and used it a bit, but it has gotten a lot of use with Anna. Moms of two or more, get thee some type of baby carrier! It’s a lifesaver to be able to have two hands free while holding the baby, and Anna will nap in there really well.

Some more pictures from our time with family:

First thing in the morning, please excuse my crazy hair:

Anna sleeps great in her crib at night, but during the day she prefers to nap on me. We can lay her down all swaddled up and snoozing:

But that quickly turns to this:

Fun times with kitchen bowls!

Cousins

We celebrated Greg and Elizabeth’s birthdays while they were here:

Mmmmm, frosting…