"Relax and Enjoy"

"Relax and Enjoy" was written on the chalkboard as you entered the house. We added a "...that's what she said" and really set the mood for the week!

After 2 long days in the car we arrived at "the ocean's house" as Taylor would call it. The house exceeded our expectations. It was a beautiful, modern, million dollar ocean house. And it was ours for a week. Now, 8 adults and 5 kids seems like a pretty good ratio. But when all but one of the kids is in diapers and only 2 are walking it made for a pretty exhausting week. The two big boys were always into something entertaining: climbing in laundry baskets, pushing empty strollers, hiding in closets and playing duck duck goose with anyone sitting on the floor. The two one year olds enjoyed playing with toys, "borrowing" sippy cups and binkies, sleeping and eating (well at least Josiah did this for sure!). They both were the easiest by far, with 2 naps a day and sleeping till 7 or 8 each morning they adjusted very well to "beach time" and owned up to there first vacation! Baby Rider was a typical 3 month old. He slept, ate, laid on the floor, sat in the shade, and cried a little. He made his momma happy with some good naps and a few good nights.

Overall we went to the pool the most: nearly every day. We went to the beach twice to swim (a few more times we walked but didn't get in). Max did NOT enjoy his first experience with his feet in the sand. He grew used to it by our last trip and sat playing with toys for quite a while. On day 2 of vacation we were headed to the pool when I noticed that Max was burning up. Clark and I got him out of the car and immediately decided to take him back to the house. Motrin, tylenol, and a nap later he was as good as new. Or not. His fever kept coming back for 3 long days. It must have been some virus because we started antibiotics hours after his first fever and it didn't budge. As long as we kept him drugged he was fine, and really he still slept well and when fever free didn't even act sick.

The adults had only one rule. Kids in bed NO later than 8. And it worked out every night. On a few occasions Taylor would come wandering down the hall dazed and confused. He had this look like "why are you all still up?!" After 8 we would cook dinner, eat in peace, play cards and games or just sit and relax. We played our own version of Chopped. Each day one couple would get a list of 4 secret ingredients and had to prepare a meal for everyone in around 2 hours. (The best catch was no clean up and no kid duties for that night!) Clark and I got lemon, garlic, sour cream, and spinach noodles. We made our take on Filet Oscar: Sirloin Oscar... the filet was &18 a pound (did I mention you also had to pay for the groceries?!). We made a delicious crab bearnaise sauce for the perfectly cooked sirloin and spinach noodles with a toasted garlic basil cream sauce. Fancy, huh? It was the winner by a hair, second to Shrimp Scampi with the best noodles and garlic lemon sauce. The other 2 runners up: Grouper with an avacado fruit salsa and smashed sweet potatoes & "Armadillo Eggs" (cream cheese stuffed jalapeno inside a chicken breast then wrapped in bacon) with a peanut butter adobo sauce (first place for creativity) and jalapeno spoonbread. We had no lack for delicious food or good company.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the trip:

"the ocean's house"



Max's first trip to the beach. His face is too far away to see the screaming.



Toes in the sand.



Second trip to the beach. Still kind of under the weather, so sleeping soundly in the stroller.



Third trip to the beach... finally warming up to it!!





Dinner at Toucan's. Max learned to feed other people and thought maybe Monkey wanted a puff. Aaahh!



Clark and I with our ocean view



Day 2, hour 18 of the 19+ hour car ride home. Max had EVERY toy in his lab... including daddy's police badge. Hope Chief Corwin doesn't see this :)



As far as the car ride goes, Max did surprisingly well. We brought along Baby Einstein, snacks, plenty of toys and lots of patience. Turns out we didn't need the patience. He was SO good. We maybe had 30 minutes total in the 4 days in the car where he was unhappy. Clark and I are not much for car rides so we plan on using the airport for any upcoming trips. But it's good to know our little man can make it both ways... as long as it's to somewhere fun!!!

Click here, here or here to read more about our trip as the other's post!

little sleep... lots of fun!

I hate working weekends. I hate working nights. I do love being a nurse, especially in the ER. But mostly I love being home during the week with my crazy little man. Monday is the worst day of the week, I usually sleep 3-4 hours before Max gets home.

This Monday was a lot of fun, however. A friend Carie and I took her daughter, Cooper, and Max to this great water park near our houses. It was surprisingly cheap to get in and it was so fun!!! Cooper is so stinking cute with her sassy swim cover up and her high pony tail (I can't wait for a girl!!). She and Max enjoyed staring at each other and sharing lunch- but aren't much for playmates yet. Mostly it was fun for Carie and I!!!






I especially love that Max was so worn out from the water park that he slept 2.5 hours when we got home!!

Monday was also Max's cousin's birthday. Josiah turned one!!! You can check out Crystal's blog by clicking here. The party was full of fun party hats, cousins, good food, presents, and a birthday boy with a shirt to prove it!!!





With only 3 days left before leaving for vacation the rest of this week is consumed with laundry, packing, trips to the store, and getting some things done around the house. As soon as Max wakes up from his nap we are going to Babies 'R Us and Target... 2 places I LOVE!!! (Ever notice how Bed Bath and Beyond is the "dangerous store" for newlyweds and Babies 'R Us for new parents?!) Daddy is mowing the yard later today and I am getting a pedicure... YAY! Then the rest of the night... packing. I am working friday night and sunday night, we are leaving town at 4am sunday morning. Hoping to drive while Max is still supposed to be asleep and maybe get some peace out of the first half of the trip!

One more picture, because I think it's colorful and probably one of the few family photos we have!

favorite toy + 13 months

Ok, second post today. I didn't feel like the topics fit together, so I made 2. Besides, Max is 13 months old today!!!! Back on track... Max clearly loves cars. Specifically car sounds. But he especially loves his police cars. He has 4 of them in all different sizes: S, M, L, XXL; and I find them pretty much all over the house. The day Max had his surgery Clark and I brought the large version, it has a few buttons on top that make siren and engine noises. When we went with him to the recovery room he was extremely irritable, I guess from all the drugs. He had gotten plenty of pain meds and was just feeling a little disoriented. If it was just me and him in our little curtain room he was ok, but as soon as he saw one of the nurses he would start to fuss. Clark tried to cheer him up by getting the car out and playing. Max was so pitifully cute. Mid-fuss he let out the most pathetic tthhpthffthpthf. You get the idea. Then back to crying. It was like he was saying, "I know I'm supposed to make this sound and I really want to- but I don't feel like it." We laughed so hard!! Anyway, here he is using the coaster as a tow truck and the windowsill as a racetrack. He's pretty innovative for a 13 month old.





So many blogs update with monthly milestones. I haven't done this to date but no better time to start than the present...

We are working SO hard to get him to walk. Vacation is a week and a half away and the beach will be much more fun upright. He will stand by himself as long as he doesn't realize it. And the other day he actually made a forward motion with one foot. Completely by accident because when he realized he was independently standing/moving he fell to his knees and took off. He will walk while holding my hands and sometimes will do it just holding one hand. Almost there buddy!

Morning time kept creeping earlier and earlier. Max is an excellent sleeper and would usually get up around 7. Well lately it was 6:30, 6:15, 5:55, so on... Well, I enjoy sleep entirely too much for this. We got some window tint to darken the room and voila. He has slept until 7:15 or later!!! (yes, Becki, I will probably jinx myself too). Nap time is even getting better, yesterday he took TWO 2-hour naps!!! YAY!!!

Eating and drinking is something I write about a lot. However, I need to point out that a couple weeks ago we went to a sippy cup, encouraged MANY more table foods and increased reflux meds. Since then we have had NO (knock on wood) projectile puking episodes. Whew!

Well, nap time for the morning is ending, thus is blogging. Enjoy the double posting and Happy 13 months MadMax!

fun with cousins on the fourth

I realize this is a few days late but I figure these pictures are too cute to not post!!! We sure missed seeing Max's other cousins, Brice and Rider, (and their parents) but we had fun playing and eating hot dogs with Taylor and Josiah. Clark and I missed out on fireworks due to that oh-so-fun thing called work. We hear Max did not enjoy them AT ALL. He's such a baby.

Aren't they precious...



...?



or trouble?



Taylor



Hot dogs!!!

"I'm better... and hungry!"

Well yesterday Max was still only about 85% himself. He slept amazing the night after surgery, I'm sure a combo of anesthesia meds and the pain medicine we gave him helped, but he slept more soundly than ever before. He didn't crack a smile until the afternoon but he was playful, crawling, and HUNGRY!!! He was a bottomless pit. To put it nicely. Before breakfast he drank some pedialyte, I was so worried to jump right into "normal" food and then get sick. Anyway, he normally eats breakfast at 8, well he woke up at 6 to a soaking wet bed (and a 15lb diaper) and by 6:30 he could wait no longer. He had banana, cereal, yogurt puffs and milk. Took a very early morning nap. Ate biscuit, egg, bacon and more milk. Went to the store with mom. Came home and ate his weight in puffs. Took another nap. Drank more milk. Went with mom to pick up his one year pictures (which are awesome!). Then ate hot dog, mashed potatoes, banana, peaches and cookies. Then more milk. Today was not much different, a little picky at lunch and only one breakfast, but still a very hungty little boy! And his table food aversion is much better! Here he is eating strawberries this morning. With a smile I might add.




Here are some pics from the day of surgery. He looked so stinking cute in the gown. It was too long so when playing in the waiting room (during our 4 hour wait) we tied it in the back in very 80's fashion!





And, "if you aren't going to feed me or get this surgery over with... I guess I'll sleep."



And because I happen to love this face...



I will share it.

Two for one

Well today was long, exhausting and frustrating but very succesful. Dr. T was unable to be there for the ear tubes but an ENT, Dr. N, from children's stepped and got the job done! He had his hernia repaired first followed by new tubes in both ears, "normal sized" tubes by the way! As you can tell from the last post we waited around a long time in pre-op. Four hours to be exact. Max slept a little, played a little and fussed a little. He was actually very patient and super sweet and cuddly! At 3:30 he was taken in and at 4:30 his surgery was finished. He had his IV placed after 3 sticks and they drew his one year labs for us so we could avoid another poke at an outside lab. He was awake and pretty much ready to go by 5:30. In recovery he chugged water and sprite, came home to applesauce, bananas and yogurt puffs followed by a sponge bath and kisses. We didn't give him milk because, well, we didn't want puke. He fell right to sleep and despite some fussiness he did great! His pain meds are helping him sleep and we hope tomorrow he'll be a little perkier. I'll post pictures from today when I get them loaded.

In other BIG and EXCITING news... Max is totally off a bottle!!!! After a few weeks of bad reflux and increasing his meds we decided to start really encouraging table foods and less milk (oh yeah we switched to whole milk...shhh don't tell his ped:)). So I decided that we would give him bottles at night but during the day he could only have a cup. Now up until this point he has thought of sippy cups as play toys. Well he did great, so great we gave it to him the first night, too. And so on. And now... He's a pro!! Good job baby boy! You make me proud!

I'm so glad the day is over and hope it's the last time we have to give our baby to a stranger in a hallway nurse going to the OR.

We love you Max!

Waiting game

I hate that phrase because a game should be fun, and waiting is not. We arrived here at children's in the same day surgery area at 11:15 today after keeping our one year old away from milk, cheerios, bananas, and everything else he loves in the morning. It is now 1:10. Max is doing surprisingly well and in fact just fell asleep in his stroller, a seemingly impossible task any other day. So as we sit and wait - I blog. I will update when he is out.