Max is FOUR (and it is a BIG deal)

Months ago I asked Max what kind of party he wanted for his birthday. It was no surprise that he chose trains. Trains have been his main obsession for most of his life by now. However, we had also wanted to have a pool party, in hopes that this year it wouldn't rain for his party, and I wasn't really sure how to combine trains and a pool party. But then I realized that he's four, so he doesn't really care about anything other than playing with his friends. So I slapped up some train decor and we had a pool party. (Ok, the train tracks up to the front door and around the pool resulted in my quads being sore for days, and hanging the tunnel on the screen porch resulted in Chris's standard speech, "Why do YOUR projects always become MY projects?")

There was food, of course, but the beauty of a 2 PM party is not having to feed anyone a meal!

And it was definitely a good day for swimming. Hot hot hot...with a touch of humid. I think Max and his buds had fun, and at the end of the day, I'll call that a success.

 The gift opening was a wild affair. Thank goodness I wrote down what he got, because he opened those things faster than the eye could see.

And what's a party without subjecting these poor little girls to a forced photo op? Actually, this is the most docile they've ever been for pictures. I think it was the unbearable heat that had set in. 

MAX, 4 years old. 22 Questions
1. How old are you today?      "Four!"
2. How does it feel to be four?      "Good"
3. What's your favorite color?      "Red and Orange"
4. What's your favorite toy?      "My trains"
5. What's your favorite fruit?      "Carrots. I like Carrots, Mom. Are carrots fruits?  Are they?"
6. What is your favorite TV show?      "Um....Peppa Pig"
7. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?    "I don't know. I don't know!" (which makes sense, because he doesn't really like anything)
8. What is your favorite outfit?     "The car outfit, but it doesn't fit. It's too small for me" (he's talking about a hand-me-down of Natey's that was a cool Hawaii-style shirt with hot rods all over it.)
9. What is your favorite game?    "The car game on the iPad"
10. What is your favorite snack?   "Uhhh, Cookie Crisps"
11. What is your favorite animal?   "Elephants, but I never got to see an elephant cause we don't have elephants at the zoo cause they're moving tigers in and I don't like tigers" (He actually started crying while saying this! The Greenville Zoo had plans to get rid of both of their elephants this year as part of a long-range plan to get tigers or some other animals in their space. Sadly, both elephants died this year instead).
12. What is your favorite song?    "That apple song"
13. What is your favorite book?     "I like that train book that's in my room"
14. Who is your best friend?      "Colton and Eric and Jackson and Joseph" (all boys from school)
15. What is your favorite cereal?    "Cookie Crisps and I like Lucky Charms"
16. What is your favorite thing to do outside?   "I think swimming"
17. What is your favorite drink?     "Milk"
18. What is your favorite holiday?   "Um, I never get to go on a holiday. Daddy says so."
19. What do you like to take to bed with you at night?   "Teddy"
20. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?   "I like cro-sats" (croissants)
21. What do you want for dinner on your birthday?   "Lucky Charms"
22. What do you want to be when you grow up?  "A train engineer."

Shortly after Max's birthday, we got to take him to see his buddy Dr. Lookadoo. Unfortunately, we knew he was due for some shots this time. He did ok for all of the initial activities.

Stats:
Height: 41.25 inches, 73%
Weight: 42.6 pounds, 91%
BP 103/68
HR 68

I'm not totally convinced that the weight is correct. However, Dr. Lookadoo did advise us to cut back to skim milk and we are working on improving what he eats.
So, soon enough, time for shots. Thank goodness Chris was there. It was a tad dramatic.

Thank goodness kids are resilient! 5 minutes later, we were able to carry on with our day. I let him play hooky from school that day, but he totally could have gone. I love this big four year old!

Max is THREE!!!!

Ok, so I'm a few weeks late, but Max is three! THREE!? I can't believe it. It was literally yesterday that I was scared out of my wits about having a C-section on my birthday. Since then, well, my birthday no longer exists, but that's ok.

So, around Christmas we had found a great deal on this pirate ship online:

So we bought it to give to Max at some undetermined point in the future. Well, he had recently developed a renewed interest in pirates so we decided that his birthday would be a good time to give it to him. Based on the gift, and the renewed pirate-interest, I decided to have a pirate-themed birthday party for him. When I told him about it, he was really excited...for a few days. At some point, however, he decided that he wanted a train party...not a stretch since trains have been his obsession for quite some time now. But he grew more and more vehement about the train party. Everytime I mentioned his pirate party he would scream "NO! I want a train party!" So, needless to say, I was a little bit nervous that he would be really disappointed in his pirate party.

Nevertheless, I proceeded with my plan. We were also excited to be able to have his first official pool party. I've always been happy that he had a summer birthday because it's so fun to have pool parties for summer birthdays. This year , with our own pool, made that especially easy. Sadly, this has been the summer of rain, so swimming seemed somewhat unlikely. I was just praying that it wouldn't rain for the entire duration of the party.

The guests were welcomed to our pirate party with pirate hats, eye patches, pirate swords and tattoos. Some got into it more than others. I also had pirate-themed kiddy music playing on the speakers on the porch. PopPop almost made me walk the plank for that.

Out on the porch I set up Max's gift-opening station, complete with his very own "treasure chest" to hold his gifts.

Some of the spread, including ships and dip (chips and salsa), cannonballs (grapes), shark bait (goldfish), and pirate swords (celery sticks with dip)

All of the pirate lasses were in attendance, although at least one of them wasn't too happy about it.

After running around sword fighting, eating, and havoc-making, the decision was made (by some of the guests) to go for a swim. So, Max was able to have his pool party after all.

After swimming, the kids found some sweet treats waiting, including these (mostly devoured) Rice Krispy Pirate Ships.

And, what was probably the hit of the party, food-wise, the Old Pirate Bones. They were a beast to make, and didn't last long.

Finally Max got to open his gifts. More than one person commented on what a great "gift opener" he is. He was generally thrilled and excited about each gift he got and I can honestly say that he has played and played with each and every one of them.

Time to blow out the candles on his Red Velvet cupcake.

And one more of these, just because.

Max had a wonderful birthday. He talked about it for days afterwards and even now, every so often he'll ask "is it my birthday? is it my birthday party?" So I think he liked it. Even though it wasn't a train party.

 MAX, 3 Years Old. 22 Questions.
1. How old are you today? "Six!" (He consistenly said six when anyone asked.)
2. How does it feel to be three? "It feels funny to be 3."
3. What's your favorite color? "Purple" (this has also been a consistent answer for quite some time)
4. What is your favorite toy? "Monster trucks and airplane"
5. What is your favorite fruit? "Grapes"
6. What is your favorite TV Show? "UmiZoomi"
7. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? "Candy and I'll eat and then get CANDY! and no-sure nuggets." (dinosaur nuggets)
8. What is your favorite outfit? "The pirate hat and eye patch."
9. What is your favorite game? "ABCs" (no idea)
10. What is your favorite snack? "You eat something at the playground; Julie gave me those snacks."
11. What is your favorite animal? "Frog" (he constantly hops around the floor saying "ribbit" so this is no surprise)
12. What is your favorite song? "No Sa!"
13. What is your favorite book? "My favorite book is about dinosaurs. "
14. Who is your best friend? "Natey and Benny and Pop Pop"
15. What is your favorite cereal? "Lucky Charms"
16. What is your favorite thing to do outside? "Swim in the pool and jump in muddy puddles."
17. What is your favorite drink? "Milk! and juice"
18. What is your favorite holiday? "Happy Cow is my favorite"
19. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? "Mine teddy bear"
20. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? "Sandwiches. M&Ms"
21. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? "Cheerios"
22. What do you want to be when you grow up? "60. 60 units per hour"

*note: I think it's clear that I lost him around question #18.....

 Look how pitiful he looks at the doctor's office. You'd never know from this picture, but he LOVES going there. He loves Dr. Lookadoo, and in fact he will fake injuries and then tell me "I'm hurt, please take me to the doctor."

 Max's 3 year stats:
Height: 38" , which is 66%
Weight: 35.2, which is 83%
Uh oh, this doen't look so good. However, when we measured Max at home, he was an inch taller. I'm going to go with our measurement and assume that he's taller than the nurse measured. That doesn't look like very good technique in the picture above anyway :)



Growing like a weed! (Tessa's belated six month recap)

Six months

So Tessa is definitely suffering from Second-Child Disease. For those of you who aren't familiar with this affliction, it is the plight of the poor second child who doesn't get NEARLY the blog posts that her firstborn older brother had written in his honor. But this disease is really more of a illness of an over-worked and sleepy Mom who is doing all she can just to make it through each day...forget about blogging!

Anyhow, our sweet girl is already EIGHT MONTHS OLD!!!

She has really blossomed into a laid-back, quick-with-a-smile, extremely sweet baby who sleeps like a champ. Who would have dreamed that my little monster who refused to sleep for more than 2 hours at a time would miraculously tranform into a dream-child who goes to bed at 7 and sleeps for 11 to 12 straight hours. Amazing.

Tessa adores her big brother, and he likes to make her laugh. When we're in the car the two of them just giggle and giggle together. It reminds me of when Paul and I used to play our invented game "Happy/Sad" in the backseat of the car. I love it. They can't get enough of each other, and even when Max is being overly aggressive with his hugs and kisses, she seems to love it. Pop Pop claims that Tessa loves chaos. If that's true, she is living in the right family!

Tessa is also quite the eater. I started her on solids at six months and she was not a fan. She just really wouldn't open her mouth wide enough for me to even get anything in there. Then she went through a couple of weeks of incessant crying. She would cry from the moment she got up in the morning until she went to bed at night. Holding her sometimes helped, but sometimes not. One morning I had enough and I hauled her off to the doctor. He looked her over, took some blood, and determined....nothing. Strangely, though, she stopped doing that a few days later. I started feeding her regular foods around that time, starting with Cheerios. She ate them like a champ, nevermind that she has no teeth. Soon we moved on to other things...and now she eats pretty much anything. She'd probably find a way to wolf down a filet if I gave her some. It is rather tiring to eat with her, though. If she sees someone eating, she fusses until she gets some of what they're having. Then she eats it while saying "mmm, mmmm, mmmmm". Here she is yamming some banana bread:

 



So, here were her six month stats:

Height: 25 3/4" 50%

Weight: 15lb 11.5oz  48% (approx)

Head: 42.5 cm  60%

So I guess our girl is rather petite. She's probably going to be a shorty like her Mom. Lately I have been getting lots of comments about how small she is. Small is fine, as long as she doesn't spread outward! Perhaps I should not encourage the gorging!

She isn't crawling yet, and I wouldn't really say she has mastered sitting on her own. She can do it, but she also topples over quite frequently. She definitely is able to get around, though, with a combination of rolling and army crawling. And she keeps trying to get up on her knees, so I think it will be soon that she's off and away.

She's doing lots of babbling, and says "babababa" all day long. She also loves to blow bubbles and spit, which Max takes as license to run around spitting. She definitely tries to make you laugh, and if she succeeds she will continue doing whatever it was ad nauseum. Except it never gets old because she's so darn cute. I love that she has a sense of humor already.

Have I mentioned that she sleeps all night??? If that's not a perfect baby, I don't know what is!

New Blog Posts ... Coming Soon!

Contrary to popular belief, I have NOT abandoned this blog. Literally every evening I think about sitting down and writing a post. But then I opt instead for my bed and some sleep. The past 6 months have been NON STOP. I don't even know where to begin. So, for tonight...I won't. I've been too busy living (really just surviving) to do any blogging. But I'll be back. Because I want to record memories for Tessa, so that Pop Pop can't claim that she's suffering from 2nd-Child-Syndrome, with no pictures and no recording of milestones. I'll get there....and until then, we'll just keep living :)

Remember when the Bear ate Maxie's Grabber?

Remember when Max, Mimi and Pop Pop and I went to Dollywood back in November? Well, even if you don't remember, trust me, Maxie remembered. He had been talking about it ever since. "Remember Dollywood?" "Remember the roller coaster?" "Remember when Maxie rode the train?" In fact, Max was clearly the inspiration for this ad for Pigeon Forge!!




It made quite an impression on Maxie. So much so, in fact, that I waited until just about a week before our more recent trip to tell him that we were going again. And, even better, we were staying for several days!! A dream come true! AND, even BETTER, Daddy was going to come this time. And Tessa! And Mimi and Pop Pop! And the Rogers family! (And even Bailey and Lucy!)

We headed up to the mountains on a Wednesday afternoon, arriving at our cute little cabin just in time to settle the dogs in and head back out for dinner. But not just any dinner; Dixie Stampede dinner! I still have fond memories of going to Dixie Stampede when I was younger and of being chosen by a clown to take part in the show. I also have fond memories of eating with my hands and of the yummy creamy vegetable soup. I was interested to see if it was as fun as I remembered and if Max enjoyed it like I suspected he would. I was a bit nervous about what we would do with Tessa during the show, so we bought an extra seat. It worked out perfectly for putting her cat seat in the spot...but it did result in having a LOAD of extra food to take home.

Sadly, they don't allow photos during the show (although I'm sure I could have taken some if I hadn't had my hands full with a baby, sometimes Max crawling back and forth, and an entire baby chicken). Here he is before the show, getting excited:

And here is Max's review of the show:
Q: Max, do you remember Dixie Stampede?
A: Yes, Daddy and Maxie. Maxie sitting on Daddy's lap. Look at Daddy - ha!

Q: What did we see at Dixie Stampede?
A: Hmm...animals. Like birds, I don't know the other animals. hmm...yeah, horses, fast horses. And black things (those would be bison). And pigs!

Q: What did you eat at Dixie Stampede?
A: Hmm...those 2 yummy things. Pasta and just pasta. (well, close, but not really. see the menu here)

Q:Who went with us to Dixie Stampede?
A: Hmm. Mimi and Pop Pop!

Q: Do you want to go to Dixie Stampede again?
A: Mmm Hmm. Not right now.

I think that's pretty good for several weeks later. I'd say he gave it a 4 out of 5 stars. If I had asked him that day, it probably would have been 5 out of 5. I thought it was really fun, although it probably would have been more fun if Tessa was a little older and didn't require constant coddling. Oh, and the creamy vegetable soup WAS as good as I remembered.

When we left the Dixie Stampede it was pouring rain, which made me a hair nervous about the weather for the rest of the trip. While the weather turned out to be fine for the remainder of the trip (minus Saturday, when it rained ALL. DAY. LONG.), the clothes I packed were completely inappropriate. I'm not sure what I was smoking as I packed, but I neglected to bring anything warm. To the mountains. In April. Luckily I did pack some warm stuff for the kids, and Julie was able to bring along my fleece jacket when they arrived the next day. But I was NOT looking cute trolling around Dollywood the next day in Dad's big red sweatshirt.

So, Thursday morning (after a surprisingly successful night's sleep by Max in an unfamiliar bunk bed), we went bright and somewhat-early to Cade's Cove in search of some deer. We did see some deer here and there, but sadly not the hundreds that we probably would have seen had we gotten up early enough. We did, however, see some mating turkeys and we were also able to get Max to tell Mimi and Pop Pop (who were riding in the car in front of us) that we had seen a bear in the woods. Who wouldn't believe a 2 year old? Would this face lie?

See those turkeys in the background? They  just mated and are now smoking tiny cigarettes.

Later on we made our way over to Max's Disney World....Dollywood. It was a beautiful day and without further adieu, the thrill-seeking commenced. First stop was the little cars. Pop Pop sprinted off with Max to ensure he got the first ride of the day. Max was well-pleased with this adult to child ratio because it meant he was sure to get multiple turns on each ride.

Who is having more fun here?

So far so good...everyone was in a good mood and having fun. And then, this happened:

 



This, my friends, is the result of a key tactical error: riding a water ride WAY too early in the day and when it's not even really warm.

you MUST pull up this picture and look at Max's face.

 

Pop Pop claims that Max was at one point completely submerged under water. I can't recall if he said "Do it again" after riding this, but I would bet that he did.

 

Max's review of this ride:

Q: Max, did you like this ride?

A: Yes! Maxie got wet! And Pop Pop and Daddy came on there. And Mimi didn't come on there.

 

Lessons learned from this:

1. Listen to Robin when she says "I think you'll get pretty wet on this ride"

2. Bring a change of clothes and/or ride the water rides at the END of the day.

3. Don't bother wasting $5 on the family dryer. While it might warm you up temporarily, you're still going to be wet. And unless you're 2, you can't just take off your pants and wander around like this:

 

 

 

 

Although we were in Tennessee, so that might, in fact, be socially acceptable there. When we discovered that Max's pants were not going to dry in a reasonable amount of time, we were forced to commit a major theme-part no-no: purchasing clothing in a gift shop. The only thing Chris could find that was somewhat suitable was a size 5 swimsuit. I'm justifying this purchase to myself by realizing that he will at least get 3 good years of swimming out of it! Plus, he did look pretty cute in the shorts.

 

Tragedy averted, we were able to continue on to some more rides. Max has yet to find a ride he doesn't like. Chris, however, remembered his fear of heights at an inconvenient time: when we were at the top of the Ferris Wheel.

 

"Dad, seriously, there is nothing to be afraid of here. This is actually rather anti-climactic"

 



Max chatted and giggled with this little girl for the whole ride. I'm pretty sure he would have hugged her at the end (or at the very least gotten her number) if her Mom hadn't grabbed her immediately upon the ride's conclusion.



 

.And, of course, we rode the train. Max didn't know it though; within minutes of boarding, he was asleep. Hey, a busy boy's gotta nap somewhere.

 

 

At some point shortly after that, we had to call it a day. The Rogers had finally made it into town and we needed to let them into the cabin. And, hey, we had a season pass. See ya tomorrow, Dollywood!

Check out the sexy orange Dollywood shorts!



I think we were all extremely nervous about how the boys would sleep all together in the cabin. We were anticipating that they would stay up most of the night. We were pleasantly surprised that they all went to bed rather easily and slept really well. Miss Tessa, however, was another thing. That night my little lady cried and stayed awake longer than she ever had before. And the cabin walls were thin. Therefore, everyone had a rather rough night. But hey, at least we were all up early and ready to go at...oh, dawn.

So, Day 2 was more Dollywood fun...but this time with the Rogers. We were a hair nervous that Sam, who is a known nervous-nelly, wouldn't enjoy it as much as Max and Natey, and it wasn't looking good when he refused to ride the carousel. But, it turned out that he simply felt that the carousel was too babyish for him and he turned out to be quite a thrill-ride trooper!



Hello, chicken, my old friend!

Look at me, being all daring by holding up my arms on the kiddie-coaster.

 





Dollywood Express, Day 2: where Max took yet ANOTHER nap.

Of course, let's face it, these 3 don't need rides to be entertained.

 

 

 

Late in the afternoon, the Ludwigs splintered off from the Rogers and found ourselves at the River Battle ride. Now, there is little point to this ride other than getting wet. The riders hop in a boat and ride slowly around a course where they shoot water guns at bystanders on the walkways. In turn, the bystanders have water guns directed at the boats and the opportunity to soak the riders. It seemed that there was never a shortage of obnoxious teenagers with never-tiring arms standing around shooting water at the boats. Therefore, I elected to skip this ride. We were prepared with changes of clothes for Chris and Max, so they went for it. Max, of course, loved it. I think they rode it twice. Maybe they didn't, I can't remember, but I am positive that Max wanted to ride it twice.

 

 

 

 

After a change of clothes, the day took a turn for the Ludwigs. Some things went awry. First, I did something that I never dreamed I would do: I nursed in a public place. Sort of. Dollywood is nice enough to offer "nursing stations" and Tessa requested that we make use of one. So while I did that, I left Chris to change Max's dirty diaper and told him to go find everyone else and ride some rides until I was done. When I emerged about half an hour later, however, Max and Chris were right where I left them, and Chris was NOT looking happy. Max was the one who should have been looking unhappy, though, because he was wearing one of Tessa's diapers. Apparently, we had run out of Max's diapers. Parenting fail! Rather than spend another unbelievable sum at the Dollywood gift shops (which I feel certain offered diapers somewhere), we decided to call it a day at Dollywood and headed for the cabin. But let me just say, this girl was a trooper:

 

 

 

The next morning we discovered something very exciting. A BEAR had visited our front porch. His footprints were clearly visible in the water on the porch. He had knocked over the trash can and pulled out one of Max's apple sauce pouches, ripped it open with his claws, and eaten the left overs. Max was QUITE impressed that a bear wanted to eat his grabber. Periodically for the rest of the trip (and ever since), he would say "Remember when the bear ate Maxie's grabber?" The next night, when Chris and I were up tending to Tessa at about 1 AM, I heard the trash can fall over again. We darted out to the front door and opened it, convinced we were about to witness a huge bear helping himself to our trash. Sadly, this time the marauder was just a raccoon. Cute, but no bear. Maybe next time.

 

Coming soon: Dollywood at Thanksgiving!