Lion Family Picnic

Every Fall Jo Ann and Tom host a lovely picnic at their home in Bealeton.   Kenny and I went when we were either dating or first married and really had a great time.  Since then it seems it's always been a home VT football game weekend that we'd planned to attend or we've had tiny kids who desperately needed naps in the afternoon, so we haven't made it.  Our kids are great sleepers and need a lot of sleep, but they are not portable sleepers.  They really only sleep well at home.  At any rate, this year we really wanted to get there, no matter what, so we planned to delay naps a bit and headed on up to catch up with everyone.  

Lexi rang the dinner bell and did a great job!

I sat right here for most of the day I think, chatting with Mandy.  She's about to deliver us another cousin - we're so excited!  Lexi is probably the most excited!

These boys played together all day.  I just love watching cousins play!  Dylan is a bit older than Jack but did a great job playing football and such with him.  Owen and Max are just a few months apart and it's going to be fun to see what they get into together as they get a little older.  

It's so nice to see Tom doing so well after his long battle with his foot!  And Richard is not only about to deliver us that sweet baby girl I mentioned earlier, but he's also recently become an interim pastor at a church near Harrisonburg.  We're really excited for him!

 

It was a gloriously beautiful day and it felt good to be there with everyone, for a happy occasion!  Thanks for having us Tom and Jo Ann!  Looking forward to next year...

Max's 2nd birthday party

I used some of the best photos in his 2 year post, but just for posterity, here's a few more pictures of his celebration. He had a great time, and so did we!  It hadn't rained all week and didn't rain the entire week afterward, but did rain for 2 of the 3 hours or so of the party, so our plans for a backyard bash were squashed, but he didn't care at all...

Max loves balls and lions, so we tried to incorporate them both, and I think he loved it all!

 Jack picked out this indoor "hoop ball" set and Max has played and played with it.  That night, I don't think he stopped for more than a minute or two to check out the other presents, that Jack was opening for him!

 I'm not all too happy with the pictures...it's hard to entertain and be the photographer, but I'm glad I got at least one picture of Sammy in his crown.  He was so cute!  I don't seem to have any pictures of Ansley or Franklin? Boo! It was really nice to have the Higginbothams and Jen join us.  Thanks ladies (and gentlemen)!  It was also nice of Granny to make the drive, as usual. She never misses anything...thanks Granny!

 Thanks to everyone who helped to make his day special!  Love you all!

TWO!

Oh me.  It happened...he turned two and we officially don't have any more babies in the house!  It feels pretty good actually.  I will always miss tiny toes and babies sleeping in your arms and all of the wonderfulness that a baby brings, but these two kids are really awesome and every day they say or do something more amazing than the day before.  I really couldn't ask for more!

Max is such a happy kid.  He just loves everything and smiles and giggles all the time.  He's definitely not above throwing a good tantrum,  but he's 2...what do you expect?  He's smart and funny and just really seems to love his life.  He's going through a bit of a Momma phase where he doesn't really want me out of his sight or for anyone else to change his diaper or clothes or anything, but Jack went through a lot of these phases too and they never last very long.

He wants to play hoop ball 24 hours a day.  That's basketball to you and me, but definitely hoop ball to him.  We have 3 ball hoops (one outside on the amazing new patio, one in the playroom and one in the bathtub) and he has 2 at school.  He is literally never more than a few feet from a hoop and he plays constantly.  And, I must admit...he's pretty good.  Kenny guesses he makes it about 40% of the time.  He will either yell "MISS" if he misses or throw both hands in the air and yell "I DID IT" if he gets it in.  I could watch him all day!  Add this to Jack's new obsession with football and I am quickly realizing how outnumbered I am around here.

The stats:

Height: 35" (60-70 percentile)
Weight: 28 lbs 8 ounces  (60 - 70 percentile)
I can't seem to find the stats for Jack at 2...I'm having a hard time accepting this too...but what I recall is that his wonderful pediatrician advised us to keep Jack on whole milk, even after he turned 2 because he was so skinny and falling off the growth chart.  This was very different from what she said about Max...move him and everyone else to skim milk asap.  In fact she said that there is a new movement to never put toddlers on whole milk but to go straight to skim at 1.  Anyway, I digress, but I found it interesting.  Jack wore 2T clothes for about 2 years.  Max is already in them and we have a LOT of them, but I am guessing come next summer he'll be moving to 3T.  That is if he will wear clothes next year.  This year he's really much more interested in being naked.  His favorite food right now is probably apples with peanut butter for dipping.  And ice cream!  He loves ice cream!  He is also currently obsessed with orange juice.  I wish I had recorded his scene last night at dinner when he begged for orange juice that we didn't have.  It was worthy of an Oscar.  He had to have juice in the morning as a toddler with his iron drops and breaking the habit has been impossible.  He really isn't interested in milk at all.  We water it down a lot, but I still am not really excited about how much juice he seems to want.

He sleeps well.  Takes great naps - 3-4 hours on the weekends and 2-3 at school each day.  He goes to bed very easily and sleeps all night, most of the time.  Sometimes I hear him make a fuss for a minute but most of the time he goes back to sleep without anyone coming to help him.

He goes potty anytime you put him on the potty and on occasion will ask before he goes in his diaper. He has pooped on the potty a couple of times too.  I'll fully admit that I find potty training miserable.  And I think he's a long ways off from being fully trained, so I'm not trying very hard at all.  His teacher is pretty gung-ho and it seems to be going well for her at school.

He's talking more, though he is probably still a bit behind in this department.  He's stringing along 2-3 words and some are clear.  His pediatrician said we could put him in speech therapy and they'd get him talking more or we could not put him in speech therapy and he'd talk more soon anyway.   This is why I love her.  (This and the fact that when I asked what one could do if their child's lead levels came back too high she said "Move to Short Pump, and then you'll want to hang yourself!"  She did give me the real answer after we stopped laughing, but she gets us...)  He clearly understands what you say and has a lot to tell you, in his own way.  He's getting there.  After his shots at his last appointment he got a lollipop at the doctor's office.  He only had a few blocks to eat it before he got back to school and it was blue which meant it was all over his face when they arrived.  Max started acting goofy, spinning in circles and such when Kenny was dropping him back off and his teacher asked Max if the lollipop went to his head.  Without skipping a beat he turned and looked at her and said "no, mouf!"  Clearly one doesn't put a lollipop on their head, they put it in their mouth Miss Helena! :)!

He's obsessed with stickers and band-aids.  He knows what drawer I keep the stickers in and he'll go in there and blindly, because he isn't tall enough to see in the drawer, grab for a sheet of them and then put them all over his body.  I will not be surprised if he's heavily tattooed one day.  He prefers to play with a bandaid at night in bed rather than baby's tag anymore.  He uses them the same ways, just moves them between his fingers.  Perhaps he'll grow up to be a doctor? 

He's often scared of stuffed animals, like big dinos or monkeys.  I'm not entirely sure what that's about because others, like his Curious George stuffed animal, he loves.  But he'll cry and make you hold him until the offending animal is out of sight.  He is not scared of falling or anything physical though.  The other day I was in the kitchen and felt the house shake, only to later find that Max was walking up a few steps and jumping off.  I don't think he made it past step 2 before he was caught, but he's just fearless when it comes to things like that.  He loves to jump.  He falls on occasion but his balance and agility is pretty good for his age.

He and Jack play together a lot these days.  They chase one another around the house and play catch and baseball.  They giggle up a storm which makes me just want to melt.  There's nothing sweeter than the sound of your children's laughter.   On occasion they fuss over things, but it's usually short-lived and usually rooted in Max being 2.  He's not sure how to share or play with big kid toys which frustrates Jack at times.  But Jack is learning how to help Max through those situations and doing a great job being patient.  He really loves being a big brother.

Outside of the occasional tantrum or showing off his independence when we're in a hurry, he's an absolute delight.  Thanks for helping us all to smile a little more sweet pea...