Balloons...endless fun

Family Party

(I forgot a bib so we MacGyvered one using a Target bag)

SO yes I've been a blog slacker again. Sometimes I just don't want to use my precious alone time (when Max is napping) to blog. I've been trying to keep a tidier house, cleaning while he's sleeping, but honestly by the time Jared gets home it looks the same as when he left. Anyways, Max is sleeping now so here is an update.

Last Saturday we had a splendid time at the park. Mimi went all out. She got a sandwich tray from Subway, a Cars cake, and Cars place settings. Max is really into Cars. I think it's because Lightning McQueen is so shiny and red. Max kept grabbing at the cars on the tablecloth. It ended up just being a family party: Jared, Mimi, Brett, Shane, Gilda, Sam, Michael, Bob Leila and R.J. It was very nice and stress free. Max got completely spoiled with presents. He especially love the balloons and spent about 20 minutes chasing them all around. We were so grateful that Mimi threw him the party, because I didn't want to do another one after all the stress of the friend party.

We went back to Mimi's and Max took a nap. Jared and I went to a movie while Max napped...don't worry Mimi watched him. whilst we were away. This week has been busy. We went to mom group a couple times and gymboree. Max got his one year shots. He did fine, even slept 12 1/2 hours that night. three days after his shots I notice some pimple-looking bite on his tummy. It started out as one, then two, then I saw a third one forming. I took him in and the doctor thought it was some sort of bug bite, possibly chiggers...aka bed bugs. Yuck! So I stripped his bed and looked for the culprits, but alas they were no where to be found. The doctor gave us a prescription for bactroban. I put that on last night and it looks better already.

Today we were going to go down to Orange County and run some errands like go to the law bookstore for Jared to pick up some books. However, in lieu of the fires we have decided to take a lazy day at home. You can see a big billow of smoke on the horizon from the fire in Corona. We went to the UCR botanical gardens this morning to take family pictures, but didn't stay long due to Max's sour mood. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention he's teething. His upper incisors (not the front ones, the ones next to those) are breaking through the skin. I feel like there are two stages of crankiness for each tooth or sets of teeth that come in. First, they get grumpy when they are coming down. Then, they get grumpy when the tooth actually comes though. Anyways, when we were at the mall this morning I saw the Twilight pic in the window of Hot Topic. I'm so excited to see the movie, even though I feel I will be disappointed. Although, I haven't seen the movie yet I wasn't happy with the casting for so many reasons...but we'll see hopefully my unhappiness is premature.

Pumpkin Patch Pics

Above: Pumpkin patch pics from when we went with Brett and Mimi

Below: Pumpkin patch pics from when we went with our mom group

The Happy Birthday Song

Here is a little clip from Max's party. Can you see the pin the nose on the pumpkin in the background? I love that all the noses were placed right between the eyes. (No blindfolds were used in this game, the kids were ages 1-3)

Happy 1st Birthday Maximus!

Happy Birthday to my beautiful, little boy! Wow, I can't believe a year has gone by. I am so grateful to have you in my life. You enrich my life and bring me joy every single day. I love your little smile and watching you grow and learn in this big, beautiful world. Here is a list of things you can do at one year of age:

• walk and run


• wave bye-bye
  
• clap his hands
  
• spin in a circle


• throw a ball (you just did that for the first time last night)


• sleep through the night


• make noises as you push around your cars/trains


• you love to look at books and to have them read to you


• can open doors with handles (not knobs yet...)


• love parks, especially the swings


• get excited when you see someone you know


• freak out when you see animals, specifically dogs. You get so excited you sometimes scare the dog.


• get sad when daddy leaves for work in the morning


• love other kids


• sleep with about 5 binkies and your blankie


• usually take 2 naps a day


• love things with wheels, baths, singing and other children


• are a really happy, lovable little boy!

We Are Sick :(

Sorry that there haven't been any updates for a while. We have been quite busy and now we are sick. Max and I have been doing lots of fun things: we went to Disneyland with Uncle Brett, two visits to the pumpkin patch (once with the mommy gang and once with Mimi and Brett), various park and play dates. Oh and I almost forgot...Max's 1st Birthday Party.

So about this birthday party thing, so much more work than I anticipated. For those of you who don't know me well, procrastination is my middle name. One might think that motherhood would change this but it hasn't. So Thursday night I made a mad dash to Target to get some last minute items. (The one thing I did not procrastinate were the goodie bags; I had those ready to go on Sunday night.) I planned out the games and got them ready. I managed to get to bed by 11:30 pm.

The next morning Oct. 31st was madness. I ran to the grocery store to get some party trays. Then I had to get to the venue (the community center at my friends house) to get everything ready. Thank goodness for Erin and Paula who came and helped me set up. The major stressor was the parking situation. Because this is the community center for the "Family Housing of UCR" you need parking permits. Kind of inconvenient but not really a big deal I just needed to get everyone's license plate number. Well the night before I found out I only get 2 parking permits, due to new policy. Fabulous, just my kind of luck. So long story short. I found a parking lot on UCR that gave out 90 min parking permits, I then had people follow me over to the lot I paid for their parking ticket and then shuttled them back to the party. Luckily all the party goers were good sports and all went well.

So we had games: pumpkin bowling, pin the nose on the pumpkin, and find the pumpkins. I made a cake from cupcakes in the shape of a pumpkin, it didn't turn out like the picture (don't ask me why but for some reason I thought it would). Max got some nice presents. It really was a blur and you would think Max would nap well after a crazy party, but he didn't. Oh well.

Halloween night we went trick-or-treating with Cesar Lindy and their kids. I was really fun. Max liked to go up to the doors and grab candy which he would immediately shove in his mouth wrapper and all. We went to Torrance on Sat morning to hang with the fam and came back home on Sun. We were all sick yesterday. I thought Max had given us the bug, but now I think we gave it to him. Jared and I were pretty sick yesterday and Max seemed to be fine except for a runny nose. Then today he has a temp of 101, I took him to the doc who said to bring him back tomorrow if it gets worse.

To get Max to bed I laid beside him on the floor, resting his little feverish head in the crook of my arm and sang him to sleep. The song I sang him was on my great-grandma Ruth's mom sang to her it's kind of morbid, but has a pretty tune. Here are the lyrics:

Oh do you remember a long time ago
When two little babes whose names I don't know
Were stolen away on a bright summers day
And lost in the woods I heard people say.

When the night came, oh sad was their plight
The sun had gone down and the stars gave no light
They plead and they sighed and they bitterly cried
Then the poor little babes they lay down and died.

When they were dead the robins so red
Brought strawberry leaves and over them spread
And all the night long they sang their sweet song
To the poor little babes to the poor little babes.

SO this is the song I sang to him when he was really little and I rocked him to sleep. Since then we have learned many other ones. I tried "Baby Beluga" to get him to settle down tonight, but he wasn't having it. He was all about the sad, morbid, dead babe song. He fell asleep that's what matters most.