July 4, 2010

Weather.com lied to me this week and the 80's and sunny I had hoped for turned into a mere 56 and cloudy. Nonetheless we gathered the troops and headed out for what is bound to become a bad tradition. Kirkland holds a 4th of July parade every year. There are swarms of people clad in red, white and blue out by the lake, plastic duck counting contests (see picture below), crafts, fake tattoos, bad food and a really horrible parade. Well, the truth is we don't actually know what happens for the whole parade because we have left early both times we have attended it. But, we still go. Here are some pictures.














We called it quits and went home for a solid naptime today. Both of you slept for a full 1.5 hours. It was a miracle. Then we went out and raced cars (your new favorite activity). "Faster daddy"... Max, when did you become such a daredevil? You must have been inspired by the trapezists.

Alexander, you were such a dear tonight. You needed a little TLC - I just held you and sang to you and you sat still in my arms. It was wonderful having that time together. We have so little of it. You are understanding more and more everyday. What a sweet little man you are.

Kisses to both my boys!

A typical Saturday...

Ok, Maximus and Alexander, I am going to make more of an effort to write you on a regular basis starting tonight...

What a day! Pop goes the cork and the bubbles rise. Your father is pouring me a tall glass of Prosecco that is well-deserved if I don't say so myself....

Okay, I will begin the recap at 6am this morning when you woke up (it was a late day - usually you wake at 5am). Nugget, you wake up crying and happily plop into bed with mommy to eat. 15 minutes later, you, Maximus, come and proclaim that it is 6am and "time for carrot juice"! Yes, that is the morning excitement. We have banned requests for carrot juice and anything else that requires us to go downstairs until 6am - so, you have learned to tell time (or at least 6am). We dress and head out for our morning coffee and croissant at French Bakery. Yum. Max, you quickly ask for "treat" and shove almond, chocolate croissant down your gullet and then the ham and cheese. We read books and then head out to make a stop at home before going to the gym. Today we walk the mile there and amazingly you guys held out on the meltdowns until the gym. As Doug and I try to workout, we listen Nugget's howls and Maile's barks in the background. I ignore them.

Fast forward to 11am when we leave the gym, head home for the car and go to the Farmers Market. Spinach and cheese crepes, a folk band playing in the background, a full bag of English peas and many more veggies are some of the many treasures we find there. We arrive home at 1pm with our loot.

NAPTIME.

This is a treasured time in our house on Saturdays and it is a ritual that both of you seem to fight. Nugget, you often fall asleep in the car and then want to wake up and play during naptime and Max, well, you just never want to miss the party. We go through the naptime ritual (in vain) and when we come upstairs 20 minutes later to find you both in the crib and cackling with glee. Yep. 20 minutes. That's all we got. Nugget comes downstairs to play with me and Doug sits upstairs with you until you goes to sleep.

3pm.

After an hour, it is already time to wake you up and head to the Cirque de Soleil performance Kazoo at Marymoore park in Redmond. The center is awesome. Huge tents are set up and there are two women walking around on stilts. The performance begins and I have never seen you so excited before. Nugget, you, however, are not as excited. I guess these shows are not designed with a 9-month-old in mind so I am carrying you around and have to leave a few times. Max, you were so excited you kicked the girl in front of you in the back... whoops. Intermission comes and means long lines for kid's face painting. Max, you tried to cut so often and climb into the chair on your own, that by the time we got to the front of the line, the artist already knew your name. We'll just say that you are a fan of the arts.

Act 2.

Nugget, fortunately you sleep for most of the performance. Max, you are still excited but instruct daddy that he is not allowed to clap. You are very bossy these days.

The end.

Nugget, you sense that there will be traffic if we leave later and decide to start on another meltdown so we leave and Max, you and daddy follow shortly after. It is time for dinner, bath and bed. By the time you get to bed it is 8:30. Your exhausted parents put you both down and wait. Quiet? That's strange. The minutes pass. And then we hear it - two little boys giggling in the crib. Maximus Burger, this must be your new favorite trick! Back to bed we go.

Then quiet. It's 9:20pm. Doug is playing Nethack. I am writing you. The house is quiet and there are still some bubbles in my glass. It was a good day. I love my boys!

More Kisses...

Max... for all your mischieviousness and testing of my patience, it is so easy for you to win my heart over. When I went to pick you up from daycare today, you asked for "more kisses". It was the first time in awhile that you indicated the need for my affection. Lately, you have been much more into showing your independence so it was really wonderful to have that emotional connection again - if only for an instant. It goes quickly... I am watching you now take all the wipes out of the box and then trying to shove them back in. It is driving me crazy. Love you sugar

Time Flies

I signed up for this blog with great ambitions of writing you on a regular basis and keeping track of all those little milestones that constitute your development. Your father might say that this ambition has fallen into the same category as kickboxing, squash, biking, rollerblader and soon-to-be fishing. At least my closet of failed endeavors is large. :)

You are almost two years old now; a precocious, curious, destructive, loving toddler. You are talking non-stop, constructing more and more complex sentences. This does not stop short of repeating the profanities that your mother and father say occassionaly. Your love of sports clearly a sign of what is to come - you love your football, basketball and golf clubs and repeatedly ask for "remote" "turn football on". You are your Bapa's great grandson. The terrible twos have definitely reared its head and you continue to demonstrate your independence and likes/dislikes with great vigor (i.e. yelling and throwing tantrums). You are a master of puzzles and blocks; as long as you can have the satisfaction of destroying what you have built. Clearly, your propensity for order (inherited from your father's side) is at war with your love of chaos (inherited from your mother's side). Your understanding of humor is also developing - from abstractions in books (like in your gorilla books), to playing with your parents "One More", to sneaking around (need to get this on video). You continue to make me laugh.

All these characteristics are begininning to define your character. However, the thing that I love most about you is your big heart. You love to snuggle and are needy for affection. Much to my chagrin, the first time you expressed your love, it was "I love you, dada", but I've since forgiven you (though it required a "I love you, mama" and many kisses). Recently, we were in Dallas for Christmas and your empathy became more apparent. You took good care of your Nana and Bapa bringing them toys and food, and as Bapa left, you hugged him and said, "I love you, Bapa".

You are also eager to shower (smother) your brother with kisses. On September 29, 2009, we introduced you to the newest member of the family, Alexander Augustus. The 2 weeks after Alex's birth (via cesarean) were the hardest for me because I could hold Alex but could not hold you. You did not understand this and acted out of jealousy and anger. Since then, you have acclimated well to having a brother - you kiss him and sing to him. Of course, there are still the occassions where you hit him and try to strangle him but I'm sure this will get better with time!?! :)

I love you, Maximus Sterling Burger (aka Max, Maxican, Little Man, Bubba, Little Bug, etc.). Can't wait to see you grow even more in the new year!

Ain't you a sweet...

Max, I haven't written in awhile and sooo much has changed. You are now almost 15 months and your learning and communication skills have accelerated exponentially. You are doing the signs for every animal we know, also signing more and milk, have learned a lot of body parts, and are saying "ma ma" on a regular basis. You LOVE your books and can't get enough of them and your flash cards. You are a learning machine - I am so proud of you.

You are also a very loving child. You give me hugs and kisses and love rolling around on the ground with me playing. My favorite time with you is first thing in the morning. You come to bed with me, have your bottle and then we get a little snuggle time before you decide it is time to get up and harrass the cat, usually sleeping on the foot of the bed. But for a few minutes, you are the sweetest thing... You finish your bottle, turn towards me, put your arms around my neck and you pull my face in to give you kisses. It's so funny - you do this multiple times until you've decided that you've gotten enough kisses for the morning and then you lay there, with your arms around my neck, and doze off for maybe 15 minutes. It is the favorite part of my day.

A day in the life...

How do stay-at-home moms do it? I still haven't figured it out and I am supposed to be one. I've come to the conclusion that when you are home with me alone (MWF), I am not going to get any work done on the computer or around the house (sorry Doug). So, I am trying to develop some sort of routine. Here is how today went:

3:30am - You woke up screaming. Doug brought you to bed and we give you a bottle.
4:00am - You went back asleep.
5:30am - You wake up again screaming. One of us (no idea who) puts warm water in the bottle from the bathroom sink.
6:00am - You are back asleep.
7:00am - You wake up again screaming. I wake up, try to force you to drink more water, and put earplugs in to see if I can drown you out. It doesn't work. I think you have my lungs.
7:30am - We are up.
8:00am - I offer to take Doug to work just so he will buy me a cup of coffee. Yes, I am cheap.
9:00am - Put in your sign language dvd. This is the ONLY educational thing that will give me an hour to do my stuff. I make breakfast and feed you.
10:00am - get ready for walk.
10:30am - Walk with Max, Maile, and my neighbor Ellie, her kid and dog. Talk about husbands and children and the trouble they cause for 1 hour.
11:30am - home and prepare lunch
12:00pm - feed you (and myself standing up in the kitchen)
12:30pm - decide that you should learn his colors so we (I) draw for an hour and show you the different colored crayons and the sign for that color. You sit there and eat the crayons.
1:30pm - New approach. We go outside to draw with chalk on the deck. I draw. You dip the chalk in Maile's water bowl.
2:30pm - New game trying to teach you shapes. You get angry when you try to shove the shapes in the wrong hole. You scream and make me put the shapes in for you.
3:00pm - Back to food - can't go wrong with that.
3:30pm - I realize that I just have to kill 30 more minutes until I go to run errands. I lay on the carpet with you and occassionally run over to check my Facebook before you notice I'm on the computer.
4:00pm - Finally, time to go to FedEx and Microsoft.
5:15pm - Home and getting dinner ready.
6:15pm - feed you dinner. Doug and I eat standing up in the kitchen next to you. My laundry is all over the breakfast table.
6:45pm - Yes! Bath time! You get in bath and play for a good 20 minutes.
7:30pm - Arghhh... time to try and get you to sleep.
7:50pm - Yea! ASLEEP! Tonight it was quick.
8:45pm - finish Blog entry and go to sleep...

It's time to get a job :)

It's been 3 months...

It's been 3 months since the last blog entry, 1 month since you started walking, 2 weeks since I weened you off the tit, 1 day since you've been drinking cow milk and at least 15 months since I've had a solid night sleep. Those are the facts. Other facts are that you are a short, fat and big-headed toddler. You are 29 inches long putting you in the 25th percentile, 22lbs 7 ounces putting you in the 50th percentile and I don't remember how big your head is but it is in the 50th-75th percentile. I'm really not criticizing you, Bubba, just stating factual information... like, you will most likely eat 8 spiders in your lifetime (based on factual averages) and if you turn out to be right-handed, you will most likely live 9 years longer than the lefties do. Also your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks or it will digest itself . How crazy is that? I wonder if anyone has ever died because from their own stomach digesting them. Oh, and on average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents every day. Sometimes I wonder if that might have happened and then I look at your father and realize that at least one parent was involved in your conception. Although, it may be just as likely that aliens came down and gathered your father's sperm, combined it with an alien creature's egg and implanted it in my belly. I knew that knawing sensation was you trying to chew your way out. At least that is what happened to Bella when she conceived a half-vampire baby and then had to be turned into a vampire to survive the birth. Hmmm... maybe I've been reading to many vampire books.

Oh, yeah, this is supposed to be about you. So, you are walking around which is pretty cute. Though I can't say you have progressed much beyond that. You continue to try to eat the dog's food and only say Da Da (which gets you actually nowhere since he is not around all that much). If you knew what was good for you, you would learn to say, "Goddess mother, I love you so much more than that absentee father of mine" - just kidding Doug. But seriously, we've been working on your sign language (and by working, I mean you've been watching sign dvds) and all you do is clap your hands. For some reason you are confusing clapping with the sign for "finished" but everytime you do it you seem so proud of yourself that I have to congratulate you. What else... you have learned to play fetch which might make you on par with Maile since she refuses to play catch, but does go to the bathroom outside which you have yet to learn how to do. I suppose you spend what's left of the day playing with your weiner. Now that you have slimmed down enough to be able to see it, you have become obsessed. Yes, it is attached. Yes, it is stretchy. No, it will not come off. Yes, it is still there. Yes, it grows when you play with it. So many unsaid questions, so little time.

So, that's the update for now. More later this week... stay tuned.