Max and I are getting over being sick. I thought I'd give a short update with a video clip of Maximus. This was taken last week at the park.

Max Talkin' on the Patio

This was taken the morning of Jared's birthday. Right before we left for Disneyland, hence the mouse ears.

....a dope beat to step to. Step to, step to, step to. Step to. Step to.

Disneyland Fun!!!

So I guess no one knew the lyrics. It was an Aaliyah song featuring Timbaland. Anyhoo, here is how Max steps to dope beats.

SO...last Thursday was Jared's birthday. Luckily, he was able to get the day off and we all went to Disneyland. It was Jared's first time going with Max. We had so much fun! Jared got in free, Max always gets in free and I have an annual pass. So besides the cost of food it was free. When we first go there we headed over to Fantasyland and hit up the little kid rides. Max loves the carousel. It amazes me how dark and spooky most of the kid rides there are. Max did fine, no crying. If he got scared he would simply turn his head into Jared's chest; an out of sight out of mind thing I guess. After Fantasyland we went to Max's favorite area of the park...Toon Town. Max absolutely loves running around this area, sitting in the car and "driving" them. He played at Goofy's house for a good half an hour.

Brett, Mimi and Shane met us at this point and we headed over to Autopia. Max is over 32 inches so he was able to ride with Jared on Autopia. We also went on Astroblasters; Max rode with Uncle Brett and out scored him. (Brett was preoccupied with making sure Max didn't fall; Max enjoyed the joystick and making the car spin.) We were able to go on some big rides, while Mimi watched Max. Unfortunately we didn't get to go on the Haunted Mansion as it was closed for redecorating. We ended up leaving at 7:30 pm after a fabulous day with family. We even get to go to California Adventure with Jared within the next month because of the Two-fer. Hopefully it won't be raining when we go because Max loves the water features in the Bug's Life area.

All of us just outside of Pooh's ride. This would be a good pic to brighten up via photoshop, if you can do that. Maybe someday.

We (Max and I) love Jared so much and are so grateful to have him as the head of our household. Max even picked out a card for Jared all by himself. It is a Cars one that plays music when you open it.

It's been a long time, I shouldn't have left you without...

Max in his Christmas outfit from Grandpa and G.G. (He's a deer.)

Max is the king of the world


Grandpa, Max and Shane keeping it real in a cave at the zoo.

Mommy, Max and Grandpa

Max still stalks cats. Luckily neither G.G. or Tucker mind.

(Can anyone fill in the rest of these song lyrics? They popped into my head when I was thinking how long it's been since I blogged last.) So obviously a lot has happened over the past month. In brief our main events were: Max and I went to Az to visit grandpa and G.G., we moved to a new apartment, and went to Disneyland for Jared's birthday. I'll start with Az.

Jared had to work but Max and I drove out to Arizona to spend time with Grandpa and G.G., as a nice added bonus Shane and Gina's mother, Jill, were both there as well. The drive out was fabulous. I left around 9:30 am Max slept until right before Blythe, we stopped, ate at McDonald's played for a bit, loaded back up and Max napped until we arrived. It was nice. We had a lot of fun while we were there. We went with Shane and Grandpa to the zoo; Max loved running around in the bird aviary and getting rides on Uncle Shane's shoulders. We had some good eats. G.G. and Jill even watched Max so my dad and I could go see a hockey game. (The Coyotes rocked it in sudden death shoot-out) We even got to stay at the Woods' home for a few nights. Max loved Emily and cried when it was time for her to go to bed or school. She was very sweet to him; it was quite endearing. We had a lovely time.

When we got back it was time to start packing. Luckily, Mimi came to Riverside a few times to help get it all done. Moving sucked (doesn't it always?). But it went pretty well. We like our new place minus a few quirks...like the fact that there is absolutely no uncovered parking after 6 pm. I still haven't unpacked yet.

We made it through 2 years!

It was mine and Jared's anniversary on the 30th. My mom came down and watched Max. We went to dinner at Flemming's Steakhouse in Rancho. We had received $150 in gift certificates and thought this an appropriate time to use them. For an appetizer I ordered the calamari with a sweet chili glaze; it was quite amazing. We each got steaks and Jared ordered lobster tail to boot. He wondered what all the hype about lobster tail was...he is still wondering. It was a nice dinner, but I don't know if it was worth the $170 dollar tab. Jared brought me flowers and the "Tales of Beadle Bard", which I read last night and enjoyed. It was a nice evening...oh yeah, we also saw "Seven Pounds". I liked it, but found it too predictable. I am grateful my mom watched Max so we could get some time away. I am grateful for Jared and all he does. I know I made the correct choice in marrying him. When I think of him I smile...I'm smiling now.

Christmas Fun!

Max and Daddy

New p.j.s; new truck.

The Fam

Hanging w/ Uncle Brett, eating my fire truck.

I love Mimi...pre massive meltdown

We had a lovely holiday! We spent Christmas Eve with Jared's family. We even got to talk to Jackie which was nice. Jackie is on her mission in Guatemala; so I kept it short and sweet knowing that she probably really wanted to talk to her mom. We spent Christmas morning at Mimi's house raking in awesome presents. Max was spoiled, of course. His favorite presents are these 3 dump trucks that can be stacked on top of one another. He also really likes some new books, specifically ones that involve dogs, lifting or pulling flaps. He already ripped "Max the Clownfish" from one of the books. We went back to Gilda's on Christmas Day Evening to spend more time with the fam. On Friday afternoon we headed out to Bakersfield to spend time with my mom's extended family. Although it was a short trip (we came back Sat. night), we had a blast. Especially, when we played "Werewolf" this card game where you try to figure out who the werewolves are as they kill off the villagers. I found out I was an okay villager but a horrible wolf. What can I say, I'm a bad liar...I guess that's a good thing. Hayley hitched a ride back with us Sat. night and I took her to the airport Sunday morning :( Tomorrow Mimi is coming to spend more time with us. And on Saturday we are going down to San Diego to see my dad and G.G. We have loved spending time with so much family, but also can't wait 'till we have our own house. When those who want to see us (okay mainly Max) will have to brave the traffic.

Disneyland and Beach Fun

This will be my last post until after Christmas. Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays! Last week Max and I went down to Torrance for a quick visit. We went to Disneyland on Thurs with Uncle Brett. We had a fabulous time even though we didn't hit up many rides. For the first time Max got scared on Pirates. He was not a fan of the drops in the beginning of the ride and even whimpered a bit, but there were no tears. The ride was quickly redeemed by all of the animals. You know the pigs, donkey, dog and cat. Max even meowed at the cat when he saw it. Mimi bought Max an early Christmas present that night, a nice warm coat. Max has a warm 12 month coat but he is too big for it. I can barely zip it up and he kind of looks like a Vienna sausage in it. The new one is a 2T and a much better fit. On Fri morning Brett, Max and I headed off to the beach. Here's a little clip of that.

All Max wanted to do was run into the water. We had to keep chasing him. As soon as we put him down he would stand for a moment, look towards the water and run like a spaz towards it.

Oh no!...Uncle Brett caught him.

Have you ever seen such an excited expression?

It was really cute, but quite exhausting so after a few times we headed up to Riviera Village for lunch. After lunch we headed home. On Saturday night we went to Jared's boss' holiday party. It was very nice. We took Max with us which meant we weren't able to stay too long. Here is a cute picture of Jared and Max. Max wore his Christmas outfit.

Here are some new things Max has been up to:

• Likes to point at things
  


• Pushes his cars/trucks/strollers (pretty much anything with wheels) around
  


• Climb into/on top of boxes
  


• Sing Baby Beluga or the theme song to Baby Signing Time. His version goes bebe ba bebe bebe, etc.
  


• Has become a very picky eater. All he ever really wants is fruit. Right now he's really into Cuties. He will also eat chicken nuggets and hot dogs as long as they are first drenched in ketchup.
  


• He no longer uses a bottle. I just stopped using it one day, no problems.