Maxi-Moo 11 months

Oh my, how the time does fly! I was just working on last year's blog book this morning, and I was reading July posts. Last year at this time I was MISERABLE. I must say, life is much easier this summer! And I have another cutie to boot!

Max is learning new things all the time. He is SO PROUD of himself when he pulls himself to stand on things. It's his favorite. He's a pretty fast scooter (finally), he has little callouses on the insides of his big toes from pushing his little body around. Just this evening he did his first crawling on his knees, but he's not quite all the way there yet. He's still mellow and happy (except when he's getting humongous front teeth in) and still in LOVE with his brother and sister. He will not go to bed unless Sam does too!

His favorite foods are watermelon and sliced olives, and he loves books and Sam's Buzz Lightyear doll. He uses a walker when I'm in the shower - any other time he rams into ankles too hard!
Sweet baby, we love you!

Friends

I had the special opportunity this week to meet my very best friend from elementary school at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It was so fun to see her again! It made me remember so many things...

Beth's house was the first place I spent the night at. It was magical. She had only one brother, I remember it was so nice and peaceful. Plus, they had ice cream:)

I remember us pulling weeds in my Grandma's neighborhood for $1.50 an hour, then going to Pic N Save (a dollar store, or something like it) and spending it on strange things like porcelain kitties (which is funny, because I remember thinking they must be worth something because they were REAL PORCELAIN, and must be worth more than I was paying. Even funnier, is that Pearl picks that same thing out on her trips to the dollar store with her dad:).

Beth was FUN. This evening when I told my mom and sisters that we met at the aquarium, Mara said she remembered that Beth was so funny and she loved hanging out with us.

I remember Beth's mom, Lenora. She was so COOL!!! She would sometimes pick me up when I was walking the 100 blocks (or whatever it was) home and give me a ride... awesome. She was always fun too, I remember I loved talking to her and being with her almost as much as my friend. I always knew that mother and daughter were best friends as well, you could just tell!

It was just this year that Beth found me on facebook, and now we get to keep tabs on each other through blogs and such. What a blessing! It was so fun to see you again, Beth!

Bad Mom of the Year

Worst Mom, or best Mom? Well, I guess that all depends on your point of view... Max sure approved!

Cousins

So, here it is! The Hulbert Family Cousin Explosion!! That's a lot of kids - and to think Pearl was the only one for 3 1/2 years! They have a wonderful time together, we are so lucky to have most of them close by. Maya, you need to move to California!

Sam's words of Wisdom

On automatic flushing toilets: Mom, is this the one that's going to smell me or is there a button?

No, Sam, it will SENSE you, not SMELL you.

I guess smell is one of the five senses, it must be what he has on the brain when going to the bathroom...

Girl Scout Campout

A few weekends ago, Pearl and I hosted the Brownie Girl Scout campout on our property. It was a smashing success, the girls had a great time. I don't think we're really ready for real camping yet, as the girls ended up in the mommy tent at 11:30 pm, but they sure thought it was cool!

Pearl and her bandana. She learned from a Junior girl scout all of the uses for her bandanna, and so it was an integral part of her campout outfit!
The Biffy (Bathroom in the Forrest for You). Turned out, this was the favorite part for a bunch of the girls. There was a biffy song, biffy dances, and it is now one of Pearl's favorite silly words. Go figure.
Me and my bonnet, which I must say, works quite nicely and is light and comfy. I do get teased a bit, but hey, I don't mind being the nerd. It's cool.

Go girl scouts!

Mouse

Jared is out of town, and when I woke up this morning there was a mouse drinking out of the toilet bowl in the kids bathroom. Gross. I flushed it down (after I called Sherry in panic). The funny part was that Pearl discovered it... and she went to consult Sam about it instead of getting me. What does that say about me? Either she thinks Sam is more capable of dealing with that problem (I probably should have let him flush it, he would have been so gleeful about it), or she's REALLY afraid of my wrath if she wakes me up. Either picture is pretty unflattering.

Rocket Man

Jared is out of town again. Korea this time. Fortunately, I am WAY behind in my blog posting, we have done so much in the past week or two, I'm going to try to post every day so he can see his kids.

It's late, we just got back from Monterey, but my awesome brother in law John drove so I got a nap. So I'm downloading pictures. This is not the post I had planned to do tonight, but sometimes the pictures are in charge.

We had a family reunion last weekend, all of Jared's grandparents progeny was present. It was fairly impressive, and a lot of fun. Well, I took a lot of snapshots, and most of them are just that, snapshots. But, sometimes fate conspires to give you a perfect picture even when you weren't looking for it. The kids did a treasure hunt (more on that later) so we were out on the property when Sam decided to try out his prize. He's in cute clothes and his face was clean because family pictures were planned for the next half hour, and the background and colors couldn't have been cooler. I love the story these pictures tell.

The last two were my favorite... I launched it, I know it went somewhere and was cool, but where did it go?

All I can say is, (after dragging him around by his leash at the aquarium all day) good thing he's so dang adorable!

Wedding Reception

Peter and Roxy, we're so glad you got married! And that we could come celebrate!

With PONIES!!!!! (The reception was so an excuse for Mom to do something cool for the grandkids... it worked, they had a BLAST!)


...and FOOD!!!



Fun times! This was the last of them, and that's probably a good thing, because I don't know how she could have topped this one!

Sammy's birthday party

First, the cake. Sam requested exactly this... chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and candy on top. I suggested a bug theme.... but then we found the gummy sharks in the bulk bins. So we had to make a pond too. That was the most requested corner of the cake. I had Sam, Jack, and Liz decorate the cake the day before. It was totally awesome... the perfect cake for a 4 year old!

Jared and I took him to birthday breakfast at IHOP... it was fun. The part I loved the most was when he started talking about the butter pecan syrup... hey mom, I know what sounds like butter pecan... leprechaun!
Then off to Preschool "celebration" because we're not actually graduating. Apparently it was a big deal, but we were 10 minutes late. Just in time for Sam to have his turn, and I was standing there juggling the baby and the camera, thus the out of focus picture. Apparently he wants to be a zookeeper when he grows up and his favorite food is eggs. Who knew?
Then, it was off to Chuck E Cheese with his cousins and friends the Larsens. Fun times!
This is the perfect situation for Daddy. I think they were crushing dinosaurs or something.


Max was happy to be part of the gang:)
Then we headed back to Grandma Weir's for pizza and cake.
He seems so much older to me now. We told him that 4 year olds don't wipe their mouths on their sleeves, they use a napkin. He is now a religious napkin requester. What a big boy!

Rocket Launch

Ok, I have a serious backlog of pictures. Here we go!

Jared had a work party here at the ranch, and one of the activities was soda bottle rockets. Sam highly approved:)

There was a very kind teenage girl there who let Pearl and Cumorah be on her team, which they LOVED!
This was the launcher. Something about an air compressor and a cork and a needle and some water... too complicated for me. I only understood the "push the button" part.
Sam, you really do have to back away!
And up she goes!
Here are the girls with their launch
So much fun! I think it was a hit! Let's do it again!

Questions.

Sam has been asking questions lately. Deep, philosophical questions. Like, "Mom, why do we use the words we do?" Or, looking at grandma's house "Mom, why are those two brown houses squished together?" (I'm assuming he was referring to Great Grandma's apartment, but who knows!). Most of the time, I try the I don't know, but that doesn't always work. Today, he asked "Why do we call it die when people die?" "When will I die?" "What does it look like when you die?" This line of questioning led to a conversation about how when you die your body stays here and your spirit goes to heaven, and ended in tears "But I like my body!!! I want to stay here on earth!" Sigh.

The funniest conversation lately started "Mom, when I get older will I still like the things I like?"

"Well, Sam, I hope when you get older you like more things. Like beans, for example"

"No mom, I mean will I like dinosaurs and dragons and skinny things (his own animal category, that includes sharks, snakes, lizards, eels, you know, skinny things)."

"Yes Sam, I'm sure you will."

Cousins

I know, it's been like 3 days since I've blogged. And, I should have continued my every day streak, I have so many pictures I need to put up. I just wanted to take one minute to post these pictures of the Weir cousins. We tried. We really did. But Scott was sleeping, and Katie was unhappy, and, well, Mara was in New York. So this was the best we could get.

Personally, I think it's funny that Katie was so sad. It's just the age, we'll look back and laugh at this picture when she's a sweet cooperative four year old:)
Good looking bunch, huh!

10 Months

I've been taking so many pictures and blogging so much lately, I have neglected to journal about Max now that he's 10 months.

Well, as of the past few days, he is now a FAN of self feeding. Which means, baths and 20 minute cleanups after every meal. I used to think Sam was a mess, I'm not sure if he actually got cleaner or if he's just clean in comparison. I gave him a plate with diced strawberries on it for lunch yesterday. He just hugged it. He would pull it up to look at it, then hug it again (it did have jungle animals on it, thanks kelly!). I don't think he quite gets the concept.
He has 3 teeth and several more swelling to come in. He hasn't been too happy about it.
As of yesterday he is now officially scooting. It is most definitely bittersweet. I mean, he has to move eventually, his girl cousins are way ahead of him. But I really liked that I could just sit him on the floor with toys and he was happy. Oh well. He must grow up. And I really did enjoy it while it lasted.
He will pretty much only cuddle and nurse with me in the early mornings now. I try to savor the feel of his tiny little body snuggling mine. They get big so fast!
He's a great sleeper - as long as there is a crib and 2 pacifiers handy... one for the mouth, and a spare for the hand. That way he can plug himself back up when he needs to.
Pretty sure that between me and his big brother and sister, this little boy gets plenty of attention and love every day!