Tattoos!

This weekend, Max got his first TATTOO!

Not REAL tattoos -- airbrushed ones, but still! He was so proud of them, and loved to show them off to people before they faded away.

He got the tattoo at Max's company picnic -- an event designed specifically with the employee's family in mind -- a wonderful catered BBQ lunch, a tent with airbrush tattoos, another tent with cotton candy, sno-cones and popcorn, and then a big inflatable slide! Max was too little to play on the slide (and the other Max was a bit too big)...

We had spent the morning tooling around at the Brookfield Farmer's market. I love seeing all the fresh goodness they have to offer. Most days, I just amble around and purchase whatever strikes my fancy. This time, I had a plan -- to buy cucumbers -- PICKLING cucumbers! My garden has produced a bounty of cucumbers, but not enough for a full batch of pickles, so I supplemented with some local cucumbers and dill. I hope they turn out!

Afterwards, we headed towards the picnic. Max and I were busy talking in the front seat, when all of a sudden we both commented on how quiet it had gotten in the back -- normally, Max shouts out the things he sees as we drive "big truck, GREEN (which leads you to look around to see if you can discover the green...or red...or yellow object he has discovered, etc. etc.) We turned around to see this:



I can't even begin to tell you the last time lil Max fell asleep in the car when it was in the mid-morning! He slept for about 45 mins before we finally woke him up so we could partake in the picnic festivities. Luckily...he didn't mind.

Instead, he had a blast unpacking (and repacking) the bocce ball set. He was a bit obsessed with organizing the balls by color. If you look close enough, you might be able to make out the tattoos on his arms!





I know you're worried that you can't make out those tattoos....you think you might be able to ID it, but you're not SURE. Rest assured, we took pictures of them at home...for posterity.



Do you see that? A TURTLE!!! Mom couldn't have been PROUDER. This was the first tattoo he got, and he picked it out ALL.BY.HIMSELF....no prodding or cajoling from mom. I seriously got a rush of adrenaline and pride...

Daddy got one after Max did (a martini glass), so lil Max had to have another one. He picked this one out too (that was after I did a bit of convincing that the unicorn wasn't a good idea...LOL).

21 months!

Can you believe that 21 MONTHS have passed since lil Max came into our lives? 21 MONTHS!

That is 91 weeks.

639 days.

15, 336 hours.

And yet, it seems like just YESTERDAY!

So much has happened in the last 21 months, and so little of the baby remains...

Instead, now we have a wonderfully opinionated, talented, stubborn, loud and adorable little BOY on our hands. If I had to pick 15 (I could go ON AND ON) of my most favorite NOW moments, they would be:

1. A BOY who has a fascination with all animals -- alternating between calling them by their real names and referring to them by the sound they make. A BOY who loves to give 'his animals' lots of hugs and kisses...



Sometimes he hugs the wrong end...



2. A healthy MALE obsession with bugs...and squishing them (EEWWW...).
3. A particulary LOUD voice which often gets him into trouble or into a time-out. Screaming often included. Here he is playing with Payton and Rowan at Auntie Amanda's surprise party (sorry it's so dark)...



4. A healthy obsession with watching NEMO (this too is often shouted at the top of his lungs...especially if you **didn't** hear him the first time).
5. A love for dancing along to music, and attempting to sing along to his favorite songs: Old MacDonald, the Wheels on the Bus, Twinkle Twinkle.
6. A love for the use of identifying words "Mom's, Dad's, mine or Max's"
7. A love for bossing us around "Sit Down, Dad Brush Teeth, Mom Juice!"
8. A new phrase that makes us laugh every time he uses it: "walk away", said with an australian type accent (video to be posted soon). E.g. "NO! Walk away, woof!"... said when the dog got too close to where Mom and Max were playing...
9. A love for shouting out and identifying objects as we see them -- "Big Truck" "red" "STOP/GO" "bike" "beep beep"
10. A curiousity with using the potty. We've successfully used it a number of times already. He isn't able to tell us when he needs to use it, but if we ask him and he says 'yes' then we go upstairs and he goes on the potty! We have a special chart in the bathroom now so we can give him a sticker everytime he uses the potty. Let's pray for an early learner!!
11. A wavering between being social and being shy. He will yell out "HI!" "BYE" to people we pass by in the stroller, but as soon as they RESPOND to him, he gets all shy and tucks his head...
12. A mastering of the word "NO"...usually said in above mentioned LOUD voice and usually to something where "No" is not an appropriate response. We are trying to teach Max when it is not appropriate to use "no"...this might take awhile...
13. A healthy HEALTHY appetite. This kids eat A LOT. And, I can't complain about WHAT he eats, because he eats EVERYTHING...but especially his vegetables! His latest favorite is 'dip' -- he likes to dip his food into something. Syrup for his pancakes, ketchup...you name it.



14. An awesome sleeper. Down at 7-7:30, up at 6:30 -7am overnight. Takes 2-3 hr naps (sometimes 4 on the weekend).
15. A newfound love for swimming -- complete with leg kicking and arm flailing. I think we'll be signing up for winter swim lessons instead of music lessons...he enjoys it THAT much.

Our lives have been busy, but enriched with this special lil guy. He keeps us on our toes all the time, but it amazes me every day what new things he has learned or picked up on.

Harvest Time!

The garden has been bountiful this year!

We're done harvesting the lettuce and sugar snap pease (second round of lettuce is growing now).

Harvested the last of the Kohlrabi this week -- it has become a favorite of lil Max's -- who would've thought that?

The beans, tomatoes, squash, peppers and cucumbers have just started their bounty -- we will be up to our eyeballs soon.

See?!!

WI State Fair

Last Sunday, we went to the WI State Fair.

We had the obligatory WI Cream Puff...

YUMMY!

MMMMM!

Max thoroughly enjoyed seeing all the animals. He gets such a kick out of them!! As we walked through the Dairy barns, he kept yelling "MOO MOO MOO!" as if we didn't know that was the sound a cow made, and he had to make sure that we knew it. And that we saw them (there were hundreds of cows). He didn't get cow-licked this year...

Again with the horses, Max very loudly repeated NEIGH NEIGH NEIGH over and over. I don't know what it is about horses and kids, but all the horses at the Fair LOVE the kids. They could be standing at the very back of their stall and as soon as you walk up with a little one, they come right up to have their nose petted. Max was loving it until one horse decided to playfully NEIGH at him -- that kinda scared him a little bit. Another horse was so tall, he could stretch his neck OVER the front gate. He was having fun snorting on all the people underneath him. It made Max giggle! Just for size scale, see how big this Clydesdale was???

Things we didn't do at the fair this year: chocolate covered bacon (umm..yeah), deep fried peanut butter and jelly, funnel cakes, corn on the cob (no one had corn ready when we were there in the AM). We did try: pork burger (my fave), cheese curds, grilled cheese, bison stick, and cream puffs. YUM YUM.

Oh yeah...mom moment of the day? We got all the way to the Fair and realized that we had forgotten to put shoes on lil Max. NICE. Luckily, he was content sitting in his stroller or being held. WHEW. Crisis averted....

Meet me in St. Louis

Two weekends ago, I drove to St. Louis to spend time with these ladies -- most of whom I had never met before in my life, other than online.

My grandmother told me to bring mace with me (a lot of it). My mom worried.

And I had a BLAST!!

11 women -- with one thing in common -- all of us had babies born in November 2007. Two of us had babies born on the same day (maybe more...). Each of us have a love for life, cupcakes, crafting and fun.

Much of the weekend was spent getting to know each other. There was a lot of talking, a lot of giggling, a lot of late night coffee drinking. Perhaps not as much crafting as we had originally intended or wished for.

I spent the weekend with this wonderful machine:

The Cricut... a dangerously wonderful machine that I may have to put on my Christmas wish list for this year....

All in all, in was a wonderful weekend. Much too short -- next time, I'll be sure to work in a long weekend so I can enjoy more time with the ladies!!

Thanks for the great time, and to Emily for opening up her home and her city for us!

Chocolate Face

Max got a treat after dinner tonight.

He only KINDA enjoyed it... :)

While Mom's away...the boys will play

This is what daddy and Max do while mommy is away.





Flowers courtesy Grandma Jan

Photo-RRIFIC!

This post has been a LLLLOOOONNNGG time in coming. My apologies that it took me so long!

Back in May, two mommy friends I met through BabyCenter came to visit us in WI. It was a long weekend of hanging out, and we got the added perk of getting some family photos taken by Emily!

Remember when I posted about her sneak peaks??

I am embarrassed to say that my dear friend Emily Southerland finished the HUGE task of processing the rest of that massive pile of photos back in June, and posted them on her website. (Go to Clients and use the password WISCONSIN)...and I am finally blogging about it NOW. Boo on me.

Our photos are mixed in with all of Mel's family's photos, and there are close to 300 of them!! I adore every one in a special way. They are truly AMAZING, but if you're too time crunched to go through them all, here are a few of my favorites:






This first series of photos in the grass just makes me so happy. I love them all.




I asked Amanda to come over so I could get a few photos with her. She is such an awesome friend and truly my soul sister.

Poor monkey was feeling a little under the weather, but Em managed to still capture some wonderful shots of him!


Amanda and Max go for a walk up the hill. He loves his Auntie Amanda!!


Friends for life (just not right now). :)


The colors in the door series knocks my socks off. I posted others from the door series in my sneak peak post, so check them out there, or on Em's blog!

Auntie Amanda can coax a smile out of lil Max when no one else can!

I included this one for fun, but it is one of my favorite photos from the shoot! I have a little version of this photo taped to my monitor at work!

Mel and I...mustache pals!




The three amigas...

Hopefully this will tease you into looking at the rest. . . Emily is a genius and her work should be viewed at every opportunity. :) She's also posted a great post on her blog with more pictures (so you can see a few great ones of Mel's family too)

Thank you, Em, for a WONDERFUL photo taking experience!!! The biggest challenge is now to narrow it down to only a few!!!

July Fitness Challenge

July was a busy month again, and I struggled for most of it to fit in my fitness challenge. Some of the exercises were easy to fit in during my normal routine -- others were more difficult -- like pushups. Sounds familiar, eh?

Overall, I met all of my goals for the month, and even exceeded some. Except for those darn pushups -- I was 100 short! (beats the 150 short from June though!)

Here is the summary:

Situps: 1600 (1550 goal) = 103%
Pushups: 830 (930 goal) = 89%
Squats: 1475 (1550 goal) = 95%
Lunges: 1550 (1550 goal) - 100%
Miles (walk or run): 93 miles -- which breaks down to 3 miles a day.

Not bad.....and, oh yeah, did I mention -- I ran my first 5k!!! Read about it here!

Goals will stay the same for next month, I'm not going to add any new activities, except a concerted effort to do more yoga -- I find I am losing the flexibility I once had! But, that is just a personal goal, I am not going to track that on here...

So: August's Fitness Goals
Situps = 1550
Pushups = 930
Squats (with shoulder press) = 1550
Lunges (with bicep curl) = 1550
Plank Jacks = 930

Wish me luck!