Meet the Teacher

Max is starting Mother's Day Out on Monday. Today we took him to the school to meet his teacher and see the classroom. He got to stay for about an hour and play, and we had a chance to talk to the teachers and ask all the questions I've come up with since we registered him. 

Trying out some of the toys with Daddy

He liked fingerpainting a lot more than
the last time we tried it.

Max picked pizza for lunch afterward.

Hoping Monday goes as well as today did!

What happens when you play in your room for 2.5 hours instead of sleeping

And then spend about an hour playing outside in the sprinkler

Days 6 and 7

Too late to post last night! Friday morning - Max has been waking up early since being in his new bed. After breakfast, he wanted to watch Cars so I turned it on while I did some things. He ended up watching the whole thing because he was playing while he watched so we just left it on. He's funny because when it gets close to the end he starts saying "it's not over yet" and likes to keep it on through all the credits. I decided I needed to take some things up to the administration building for school so we went by there before going to pick up Matt for lunch. After lunch we headed to the ballpark. We signed Max up for the Astros Buddies Club this year and one of the benefits is an autograph party. Matt's sister and the kids were also going so we met them there. We had to wait outside for about 30 minutes before it started and as everyone knows it's soooo hot! But we finally went in and they had several players to give autographs so we lined up for those. Conner loves baseball and the Astros so he had fun getting the autographs. Max had fun too. He took his hat up to the table and gave it to the players. Besides the autographs they had some inflatables set up and a few other activities too. It was fun; I'm sure we'll do it again. Then Jennifer had tickets for a tour before the game, and we all had tickets for the game also. We went on the tour with them. Max was pretty tired by that point and kept saying he wanted to go home. The tour was interesting, and we got to sit in the expensive seats and watch some batting practice. When that was over Max was really hungry so we decided just to find our seats and get him something to eat. He had been asking for a hot dog from the time I told him we were going to a baseball game. We had 2 extra tickets for the game and our friends who are living in England right now have been here for the summer and are Astros fans so we had asked them if they wanted to meet us there. They go back next week so it was nice to be able to see them one more time before they leave. We made it to the end of the game and left just before the fireworks they have after every Friday game. We watched them as we walked back to the car. Max fell asleep in the car and thankfully stayed asleep when we got home and put on his pajamas.

One of Max's autographs - I don't remember who this is because I currently only know about 3 Astros and probably only could identify 1 since they traded their 2 best players last weekend

But I do know who this is! Craig Biggio was giving autographs when we were watching batting practice

Saturday - 6:11 am - Max is awake. He knocked down the gate but at least came to our room instead of wandering the house. We tried to convince him to get in our bed for a little while but he didn't want that. So our day started early. We didn't have much to do today. After we had all eaten breakfast, had coffee, played with cars, and read the newspaper, Max wanted to go outside. He and Matt went out for a little while, and he rode his Power Wheel. Matt needs new shoes so we decided to go look. We went to JCPenneys where he found what he wanted but not in his size. We stopped at Academy but they didn't have any either. So we ended up ordering them online. Guess we didn't need to leave the house! We came home and ate lunch, then tried to get Max to nap. He was really tired, he actually fell asleep in the car, and he went in his room pretty willingly but then played for about an hour. Our newest solution to keeping the door closed is to wrap a bungee cord around the doorknob and hook it to the doorknob of the room beside his so he can't get it open. It worked! He finally fell asleep and about 10 minutes later the doorbell rang and Annie barked, so he woke up. He stayed in there for a while longer playing more and by that time, it was too late for a nap so Matt just got him up. I pretty much finished a sewing project finally and also did some laundry. Matt took Max outside and let him play in the sprinkler. They came in and Max took a bath because we were going to church tonight. For Saturday night services in the summer, our church has been doing a fun thing every week, like movie nights, after the service. Tonight they had a bunch of inflatables and I had volunteered to help for a while. The service was good. After, Max played in one of the bounce houses while I helped. We went to dinner after with some friends, then came home and put Max to bed. He was so tired; it's been a long couple of days. He wasn't in bed when we left the room but I'm pretty sure he's asleep now. Psych on Netflix, here we come.

And my week of posts is done! If you made it through without getting too bored - congrats! :) If I had remembered to take pictures with my phone, I would've posted those but maybe I'll do it again. Actually next time, maybe I'll just do a week of pictures and you can make up your own story...

Day 5

Nanny, Grampa, and Great-Nanny came to visit today. Grampa was busy - he put up an extra shelf in our pantry and a towel rack in Max's bathroom and fixed my sewing machine (at least for now - hopefully it will stop being temperamental and let me finish). We got Chinese carry-out for lunch and later I had to run to Kroger so we had our favorite iced coffees. Nanny and Great spent the day playing with Max. He loves having them here. So much so that he didn't nap. I tried for an hour and decided that was long enough. I tried the holding the doorknob trick but he'd quiet down and I'd leave and then he'd come out. A couple times he'd come to the end of the hall, see me looking at him and run back to his room. I think we might try on of those locks you can put at the top of the door and see if that will work. Hopefully once he gets the idea that we're not letting him out he'll give it up and just go to sleep. Really I don't even care that much if he plays for a while before he goes to bed; I just want him in the room! This afternoon I cooked supper early so I could take some to a friend who's on partial bed rest. I visited with her and her husband for a few minutes when I dropped it off and then came home. It was time for the grandparents to leave and we had to go outside to watch them drive away. After supper, we went for a bike ride. There's a lake in our neighborhood and a sidewalk that goes partway around it, and there are lots of trees there so it's really shady. It was actually nice there, with a breeze and the sun going down. When we got back, Max was tired but fighting bed time of course. He didn't last too long though. I have work to do and TV to watch, oh and a book I really need to finish. And that was Thursday!

Day 4

Today was a fun day! We spent most of the day swimming with Matt's sister and her kids and Mawmaw. We went to the pool in her new neighborhood first for a couple hours, then went and grabbed lunch and went to the pool in our neighborhood. Max had a great time swimming. His favorite thing to do today was jump off the side and have me catch him. At the first pool, there is a splash area that has maybe 1 foot of water in it and he likes that a lot. There's also a little bit deeper area that has a structure with a small slide on it, and he really likes the slide now too. At our pool the kids area has a bigger structure with a huge bucket on top that dumps water every so often. It's a lot of water and a little too intense for Max so he likes to climb up there but if the water comes down when he's on it, he gets scared. He did go down one of the slides on that one today, which is the first time he's done that. I had to leave to go to work before they were done, so he stayed a little longer and then went to Mawmaw's house. I picked him up with plenty of time to cook supper - I'm on Pioneer Woman kick apparently and tonight it was Taco Pizza. It was pretty tasty. We decided to hit the yogurt shop after supper. Matt wanted to ride our bikes but I was too tired after being in the sun all day so we just drove. Bedtime was about the same as last night. I cleaned up the kitchen and attempted to make progress on my sewing but I really need to find that manual! So I gave up for tonight. Maybe I'll crochet instead...I'm so domestic. Ha. Good night! 

Day 3

Max is screaming as I write this, as he did at nap time too. We'll see how long until he falls asleep. He did fall asleep on the floor last night and at nap time today too; I guess he took his whole nap on the floor. These are the days I wish for a video monitor!

Anyway we didn't do much today.  Max woke up really early after being up for a while last night. I'm not sure if that was the new bed because every once in a while he has nights where he doesn't sleep well. We decided to run some errands this morning and went to Target and Hobby Lobby. Then since Max was great in the stores we went to the library so he could play on the computer and do puzzles. We had signed up for the summer reading program earlier, and we've read enough books that today he got a trophy. I don't think he know why he got the trophy exactly but he likes it a lot. He carried it around the library, took it in his room for nap time, and then took it to Kroger this afternoon. By the time we finished our errands it was lunch time and Max got to eat his sandwich while he watched part of Cars (again). Then we attempted a nap. He was able to take the doorknob cover off; so much for that. I stood outside his door and held it while he tried to open it and screamed and after a few minutes of that he quieted down. I heard a little more crying but that was it. I decided to put a gate in the hall so he at least can't get to the bathroom or the rest of the house. I'm sure he can climb over it or just knock it down, but it would at least give me some warning that the lion is out of his cage. He took a decent nap and I tried to finish my sewing project. But I'm having trouble with my sewing machine and I can't find my manual which is a problem since the sewing machine is nowhere close to new. I decided to make pizza crust instead while I thought about where the manual might be. I looked up how to thread the needle, which is what I'm having trouble with, and tried a few different things. It's somewhat better now but I didn't have time to finish playing with it before Max woke up. It was a little frustrating because I have 2 things I'm in the middle of and want to finish and 2 more things I'd like to try. When I heard Max waking up, I went in his room and he was laying on the floor. I could tell by the carpet indentions on his knees that he must have slept on the floor. We played for a while and then I convinced him to go to Kroger by telling him we needed milk for supper. I had used up all my flour on the pizza dough and needed some for supper so I didn't want to wait for Matt to stop on his way home. We got home and I let Max finish Cars while I cooked supper. It was a pretty good one too - fried round steak courtesy of The Pioneer Woman, green beans and potatoes. I even made gravy. After supper Matt and Max went on a short bike ride and I don't know what I did. We got Max ready for bed, and now as I finish, he is quiet. Time for TV and crocheting and probably a glass of wine....

A Week in the Life - Days 1 & 2

I read this blog pretty regularly and earlier in the summer she did a week of posts simply about her day with her 2 girls.  I liked the idea and since it's my last whole week of summer (tear) I thought I'd do it. So here goes...(sorry if I bore you)

Yesterday (Sunday) we went to church. I stayed for the second service to volunteer with the kindergarteners. Matt brought Max home, gave him lunch and put him down for his nap. The baby whisperer (Matt) actually did have trouble getting him to take a nap, like I do almost every day. I stopped at Sonic to get burgers for us. After eating, I vacuumed the never-ending dog hair, did some laundry and probably spent some time on my computer until Max woke up. We had decided it was time to make Max's crib into a toddler bed. I would have been perfectly content to keep him in the crib until he was like 5 but he climbed out twice last week. Snuck up on me both times too. Anyway since I'll be going back to work next week and he'll be starting school a couple weeks after that we figured now was probably the best time to go ahead and do it. The conversion was really easy; Matt just had to take the front off.
It was also Matt's dad's birthday. We didn't do anything big because they moved into a new house over the weekend. After fixing the bed, we went over to say happy birthday and ended up going to eat supper at Panera with them. We stopped at Target after to let Max pick out a new blanket or pillow for his "big boy bed". Unfortunately they were out of Cars pillows but he found a Thomas the Train pillow he wanted. We went home and by that time it was bedtime. We got him ready for bed and he climbed in. I think that's why he likes it - he can get in and out himself and maybe he feels like he some control. Because as much as I had been dreading this it was actually one of his best bedtimes in a while. He yelled for us for a few minutes and then we didn't hear from him again. I was very surprised. After Max went to bed, we watched Psych on Netflix. I highly recommend it if you're looking for something to watch. And that was Sunday.

Today Max and I got up and ate a quick breakfast. I had told Matt's mom we would come over and help her unpack some things before gymnastics. Max played and ate a snack while we unpacked a few boxes. Then we went to gymnastics. Max has been going to a mommy and me class since the beginning of the summer and he seems to like it. He was a crazy man for some reason this morning and didn't listen or participate as well as he usually does. I actually made him leave without getting stamps because he wouldn't join the class for the goodbye song and when his teacher started doing stamps he still didn't want to go sit in the circle. So he was mad about that for a minute. But usually he has a lot of fun and it's neat to watch him learn to do new things and get better at them. On the way to gymnastics Max had said he wanted to eat lunch with daddy, so we called Matt when we were done to see if he wanted to meet us. We ate at Quiznos (thanks Groupon) and then went home. Max went in his bed very easily again for nap time. I could hear him talking for a while but then he started calling me and trying to open the door. We put one of those doorknob lock cover thingys on his door for now, so he couldn't get out, but then I heard him say "poopoo". So then I had to check on him and by that time it was too late for him to nap. Even though he didn't sleep this afternoon in his bed, I feel that it was fairly successful since he stayed in his room without getting upset and I think he probably would have fallen asleep if he hadn't pooped and we'd had more time. Anyway, I had to go to work at 3 and Max goes to a friend's house when I work on Mondays. I dropped him off and he was excited to see them. I went to work from 3-5:30. Matt picked up Max and I actually beat them home today so I warmed up fajitas from last week for supper.  We ate and Max asked to watch Cars. Since he hadn't watched TV today we let him watch some before bed. Tonight was bath night, which Matt almost always does so I cleaned up some things and got his room ready for bed time while they were doing that. Max was ready again for his big boy bed so after reading a few books he climbed in. We said good night and left him in there. He yelled again a few times and then I heard him knocking on his door and calling. But now all is quiet. He could possibly be sleeping on the floor but oh well. We're on the couch watching TV, and I may start crocheting a scarf when I finish this.

Stay tuned for Tuesday...