"GET HIM!"

We knew this day was coming.

Max is suddenly grabbing at Lucy's toys and drooling on them and knocking them over, and it is driving her crazy!

Sometimes she begs, "MOM! PLEASE get him!"

Sometimes she demands, "Mom, GET HIM!"

Sometimes she panics, "MOM! PLEASE GET HIM!"

And sometimes she suggests, "Mom, you should get mad at him!"

Get used to it, Lucy-- this is what little brothers do!

Doesn't her face in this picture say it all?

Max turned 6 months old yesterday! He is almost crawling. Well, he is sort-of crawling. He does an army crawl using his forearms and his toes, and he is pretty fast and efficient at getting around. Remember Lt. Dan from Forrest Gump? Max looks like Lt. Dan when he "crawls". Except that Max has legs :)

At his six month check up, we learned that Max is a hefty 21 1/2 pounds, and he is off the chart in height (28 3/4"). Our big boy!

I took Max and Lucy to Kelsey Creek Farm last week, and we played at the park for a while, and then we went to look at the animals. Lucy was much more brave around the animals than I was, but her first comment was, "It is too stinky. It stinks. I am getting sick." THAT'S MY GIRL :)

Support Your Local Crossing Guard!

There is a new crossing guard in town, keeping the pedestrians of the neighborhood safe!

It is our very own Joseph, and we are so proud!

We are also very proud of this chunky guy because he just started eating "real food," which is a horrible representation of real food!



Max didn't seem to LOVE rice cereal mixed with water.

The whole family was really excited about Max's first non-boob meal. Devon had the video camera, Joseph was taking pictures, I was feeding, and Lucy was a cheerleader.

Lucy asked if she could try Max's food, so I gave her a little, and she couldn't spit it out fast enough! She even cried real tears as she tried to wipe rice cereal off of her tongue using a kitchen towel. Totally dramatic! Fortunately, Devon got it all on video, and, even better, she is only wearing underwear, so we've got some great blackmail footage for when Lucy is a teenager :)

If I haven't mentioned it before, I should note that Max adores Joe. Whenever Joe is in the room, Max stares at him, dying for his attention. If Joe talks to Max or makes faces at him, Max's whole body responds in glee. It is pretty adorable. I am not sure why Max was staring at Joe in the picture below, but he stared for so long that I had time to go get my camera and snap a pic.

Devon stayed home with Lucy one morning while I went to Stroller Strides with Max, and I returned home to this sight:

They were coloring, and Lucy was in a Snow White dress, and this scene made me smile and made me grateful that I am married to the type of man who sits in a tiny chair at a tiny table coloring princesses with his princess-dress clad daughter before he heads off to work :)

Max is almost 6 months old! Can you believe it??!!

He is snuggly and giggly and chunky and perfect!

And I am very pleased to report that he is still a mommy's boy!

The Morning Shift

Remember alarm clocks?

Remember when you didn't need to use an alarm clock on Saturday mornings? Remember when you could sleep in until 11:15 a.m. if you wanted to, and it wouldn't matter to anyone?

Last night, as Devon and I were climbing into bed at 11:30, with Max and Lucy both awake between us (unfortunate, I know), Devon said that he didn't need to set an alarm to wake him up at 6 a.m. I secretly hoped that he would sleep right through and miss his early morning sales meeting so that he could take the morning shift.

Devon is great at the morning shift. He happily gets out of bed at whatever ungodly hour that Max or Lucy decide to be bright and shiny, and he changes diapers, brushes teeth, makes breakfast, starts coffee-- all while I sleep.

Ever since Devon started his diet/exercise plan two months ago, he isn't really available for the morning shift. He gets up before the sun, but he sneaks out alone and sweats in our garage/gym for 1-2 hours. I completely support his efforts, and I can't wait to share his fantastic results, however, this means that the babies wake me up! When the kids wake me up, my feet hit the ground running, and this is a part of motherhood that I don't really agree with! I like sleeping in. I like finishing my cup of coffee before it turns cold. I don't like the morning shift!

So, what can I do? My only solution is to wake up before the kids do. Otherwise, they own me.
Such was the case this morning, this Saturday morning.

Sure enough, Max pooped his pants at 5:45 a.m. , and Devon was kind enough to get up to change his diaper and return him to me wide awake. Devon said, "See, I told you that I didn't need an alarm clock." I growled as I rolled over to snuggle my baby, my very happy, wiggly baby. Of course, Max didn't go back to sleep, and neither did I, and Lucy woke up just as I heard the front door close as Devon left for his meeting. By the time that the three of us made our way downstairs to the living room, we found Joe involved in an intense, early morning Lego battle.

So much for alarm clocks!

So much for sleeping in on Saturday morning!

September in Review

September was an action packed month for us. I am really hoping that October will prove to be a cozy, stay-home type of month, but September was fun while it lasted, and here is a peek at what kept us so busy!

As I mentioned before, Joe went back to school, Devon had a birthday, and after those two calendar days were checked off, we traveled to Wenatchee on Labor Day weekend for Devon's softball State Tournament. There was more rain and less softball than anticipated, and Joseph wisely made the decision to stay back with Grandma instead of enduring the year's last softball hurrah. The weather wasn't horrible the whole time, but when it was bad, it was bad!

Next on the agenda was Devon's company's Employee Appreciation event which was held at a Weezer/Blink 182 concert. It was really fun to detach from the kids and be an adult for a night- listening to adult music, talking to adults, drinking adult beverages (just 1-- okay, 1 and a half :).

Weezer was awesome! My favorite song was "Holiday." Blink 182 was fun too, and they totally reminded me of my college days and singing in the car with Allison and Andrea. Devon isn't too familiar with Blink 182, but he enjoyed them too, and when they were singing "First Date" he asked, "What are you hoping that they play?" I said, "THIS ONE!"

One day, Devon came home from work with 4 tickets to the circus!!
On the way into the venue, someone handed us a postcard with information about animal abuse involved in a traveling circus, and Joseph read it and was a bit concerned. Once we were seated, we received another postcard of info pertaining to all of the steps taken to ensure that animals have the best care and are in no way abused. The conflicting info didn't sit too well with Joe, and more than once during the show he leaned over to ask, "Did that whip just hit the tiger???" or "Does that hurt the dog???" Aside from his worries, I think that Joe enjoyed the show, and Lucy enjoyed it too, though she was really scared at first! It is overwhelming because they have a few different acts going at once, and it is dark and loud. But she LOVED the elephants, and at the end of the show we asked what her favorite part was, and she said, "PINK!" Hmmmm. She probably meant the pink dresses that the dancers wore. Max was totally tuned in during the show and had no interest in nursing-- he didn't want to miss the circus!

Could Lucy's hand be in a more awkward place?

Time for another concert!!! Poison/Def Leppard!!! The people-watching was truly top-notch, and we got there early which allowed us plenty of people-watching! Poison was really fun, and for any Guitar Hero fans out there, they played "Talk Dirty to Me." The only other song that I knew was "Unskinny Bop," which I didn't even know was a Poison song so it was an extra special treat :)

Def Leppard was full of surprises-- first of all, I expected them to be younger, and second, I didn't know that they were British. I didn't know a single song. Nope. Not even one song was familiar UNTIL.... POUR SOME SUGAR ON ME!!!! Oh, it was all that I'd hoped it would be! I'd waited all night for that song :)

Devon's mom, Donna, a.k.a. Grandma, had a birthday on September 26th, and Devon was able to take her to a Seahawks game to celebrate! They had a great time, despite the Seahawks loss to Chicago.

Along with Devon's "belly button" birthday, September marks his AA birthday. On September 27th, Devon celebrated 22 years of sobriety :) He has a group of friends who also celebrate AA bdays in September, and our friend Carrie always hosts a big birthday party. It is such a great group of friends that we love very much, and every year they all go to an AA meeting together and get their coins. Devon's best bud Kevin was there, and we were especially happy to see him. Our kids LOVE Kevin!
Devon also managed to go to two Pearl Jam concerts and had some overnight trips to Portland for work.

There has been a little down-time at home, and that looks a bit like this:

That was September in a nutshell :)

It has left me exhausted!