You've Gotta Start Somewhere!

Of course every parent believes their child is destined for greatness. We are no exceptions. We, of course, strongly believe that Max is the smartest, wittiest, most charming, funniest little guy on Earth and we are certain that he will do great things one day, resulting in his inevitable fame and fortune.

But, everyone has to start somewhere. And Max's start came in the form of a Barbecue festival in good ole Greenwood, SC. On July 12th, we packed up and headed to Greenwood in hopes of accomplishing 2 things: catching up with Chris's "American family", the Bosarges, who live in Greenwood; and checking out the SC Festival of Discovery, where Chris hoped to see some bigwig barbecue king (sorry, Chris, I don't remember the guy's name...epic failure on my part).

Task #1 was a success. We got to spend some time at the Bosarges' house, catching up with Fed and Bev, as well as their daughter and her family. Max had a grand time playing with her boys and with all the toys Bev hauled downstairs for him.

Task #2 was semi-successful. It was about 4:30 or so by the time we got to the downtown location where the festival was being held. I quickly realized that I had been living with the misconception that Columbia, SC was the "armpit of the state" (ie, the hottest and muggiest place on Earth). Oh how wrong I was. Downtown Greenwood, SC in mid July is hotter than the surface of the Sun. It was so hot that I literally felt as if the backs of my legs were frying as we walked from booth to booth. I had NO interest in eating any barbecue; and in fact, it was so bad that I didn't even have any interest in stopping at a ice cream booth! (That's bad!)

Chris was dismayed to discover that most of the booths were closing up shop for the day already; and we could not locate the guy he really wanted to check out. However, we did find this cute guy, and Max made a friend:

There also happened to be a newspaper photographer hanging out under the awning at this booth, and he took some shots of Max and asked if Max would like to be in the newspaper. Max said yes and the photog told us to check out the Greenwood paper the next day because Max might be in there. I mean, look at Max Hollywood here: of course you would put that sweet face in the paper!

Shortly thereafter, we headed on out of Greenwood without having tasted so much as a shred of pork (get it? probably not). We did stop at the McDonald's on the way out of town for some blizzards, however. Day complete.

Thanks to the Bosarges and a coworker of Chris's, we did manage to find out that Max made the paper! A star is born! Watch out world! Oh, you've never heard of the Greenwood Index-Journal? That's ok, everyone's gotta start somewhere.

And They* Said it Wouldn't Last....

5 years ago today, at this very moment Chris and I were exhanging vows. I still remember like it was yesterday waiting nervously to walk down the aisle, Chris stumbling over "till death us do part", being driven to the reception by Jan and Nina, and Chris pulling his cousin's undergarments out from under my dress when he retrieved the garter (yes, odd).

A lot has happened in the five years since: our little family has grown to include our little wild-man Max and is continuing to grow with another little miracle on the way in December, Chris has become an American citizen, and we've become the type of people (adults, I guess they're called) who spend their anniversary looking at houses, eating the early-bird lunch special at a restaurant so as to avoid the crowds, shopping at Costco, and doing yard work. And you know what? I'm quite fine with that. In fact, there's nothing I'd rather do on my anniversary than spend the day with my family, including Bailey who is napping in the floor at my feet as I type.

5 years in, I still think I made a good decision in accepting that first date with the smart-aleck German kid I met in my MBA capstone class who told me he was going to be the President of BMW one day. And he tells me he's glad I "forced" him to ask him to marry me :)

I wonder where we'll be in 5 more years...if the next 5 years are as good as these past 5, and if we spend our 10 year anniversary together as a family doing mundane activities, I know I'll be happy.

*and a big "take that" to our jaded (divorced) wedding photographer; we'll invite you to our 50th anniversary party and you can bring your 4th wife along with you.

Mice on Main & Fun in the Rain

Last weekend our constant quest to entertain and exhaust Max led us to downtown Greenville to hunt for the Mice on Main. I wasn't really sure how interested Max would be in locating bronze mice....he doesn't exactly have the longest attention span. But, we set off on our hunt and, lo and behold, he actually got pretty into it. And he was good at spotting the mice too!

Max was a champion statue-spotter by the end of our hunt. Some were easier to spot than others:

Even though it wasn't as ungodly hot as it has been, it was still plenty warm, so after a quick-change of clothing in a semi-private location, Max was really for a cool-down. (Well, we thought he was ready, but evidently this water was a little cool for his liking)

One last stop on our way to the car for some geese and a cuddle:

We had full intentions of ending our Main Street prowl with some ice cream, but 2 hot parents, 1 little boy with a blister, and uncooperative opening times at the ice cream shops resulted in the employment of Plan B....COSTCO! Always a good way to end an outing...and where we were nominated for "Parents of the Year" as we fed our child pizza AND ice cream for lunch. At one point Chris even uttered these un-nutritionally impressive words "Stop eating your ice cream and eat a bite of pizza." Seriously. (Oh, and adding to our qualifications as Parents of the Year, we took Max into Costco wearing his swimming gear and NO shoes - see aforementioned blister).

The morning was wrapped up with a lovely ride home during which Max cried unceasingly at top volume about his blister. But after the application of multiple bandaids with trucks on them, he was ready for a nice long nap. And since no day is complete without an appropriate amount of water-play, we conluded the day in Max's favorite way:

Now, since it's been concluded that Max has a thing (ok, obsession) for water, you can probably surmise that a day of nonstop rain would be his idea of heaven. You would be correct. He had the joy of experiencing just such a day on Tuesday. The rain started while we were out on our morning walk, and continued pretty much through dinnertime with only a few breaks throughout the day. I have no problem with my kid playing in the rain: in fact, I have great memories of playing in the rain as a kid myself. However, he insists that I stay outside with him - he even went to my closet and brought out my galoshes (or, as Max calls them "rain doots"):

By my calculations, we spent a total of around 6 hours outside in the rain (which was, at times, a downpour) before the day was over. We came inside for good around 5 pm and when Chris got home close to 7, my fingers were still quite prune-like! Some of the highlights:

Biking in the rain!!! Rain boots add necessary required height! Now rain boots must ALWAYS be worn while biking.

Modeling the latest in hip and attractive rain-wear.

Dancing like a deranged person in the rain!

Self portraits in the rain - always great for Mommy's can't-make-up-it's-mind-if-it-wants-to-be-curly hair.

Self portrait after SIX HOURS in the rain....looking like some drowned rats.

I think if you asked Max he would say it was, hands down, one of his favorite days of all time. (All time being approximately 2 years). Maybe we should move to Seattle...or the rainforest.

(Please remember that ah-oo is "water" in Maxinese)


And since NO day is complete without a swim...in a fresh rainwater pool....