Things Making Me Smile

Today:

• McKay took his quarterly nap. 2 hours! (Too bad Max only slept for 45 minutes.)
• When we woke McKay up, Max was so excited to see him he leaned over to McKay and grabbed his head to pull him in for some hugs and kisses. I think he missed his brother!
• It rained tonight. Just a few sprinkles but it smelled wonderful.

Other days:

McKay loves to help.

How can you NOT smile at that?

A balloon = hours of entertainment and laughter. The kind of laughter that makes you laugh too.

McKay talking and singing to Max until I can get in there to get him up from his nap. That stool has a lot of uses in our house.

A day or two later he would have been able to get to Lightening McQueen. He might have on this day too but he ran out of time, if you know what I mean.
This picture sums up how I feel at the end of some days. I just can't quite seem to make it. Soon life will be back to normal. Soon. For now, I'll focus on the things that make me smile. And there are a lot of them.

Max - 4 Months

Seriously? Has another month passed already? Time is flying! Here are a few things about my 4 month old Max.

• Max has a tight grip. He holds on to the collar of our shirts when we are holding him, which makes it a little tricky to lay him down for sleep. He also likes to hold onto my hair. He still manages to grab my hair when I have it pulled back. And he does not give it up very easily.
• Max has something in his mouth most of the time. His favorites are: his shirt, toys, blankets, my hair, his fist or individual fingers, and pretty much anything else he can get his hands on.
• Max is very friendly and generous with his smiles. Both boys make people smile everywhere we go.
  
• We have about 2 seconds from the time we put Max in his car seat or bouncer to buckle him in before he arches his back and nearly climbs out of it.
• Max is very determined. He fights going to sleep, sometimes more than others, and makes it very clear when something is not right. Each day he gets a little better at falling asleep on his own.
  
• He can't sleep when he is too hot.
  
• Max is very happy and likes to 'talk' a lot. I love to hear him coo.
• He discovered his feet this month and loves to hang on to them.
• He also likes to stick out his tongue.
• Max likes to watch us eat and grabs at our food. If he can reach it, he will get it and good luck getting it back!
• Max gives us kisses and I L.O.V.E. it. He'll reach out and grab my hair or face and press his open mouth to my face. So so sweet. He'll also give hugs the same way, foreheads touching.
• Max has figured out how to hook his pacifier (which he'll only suck on as he is falling asleep) and pull it out when he is going to sleep. Once in a while he'll get it back in his mouth.
• Max is a sweet sweet baby who can win hearts in an instant.
• He smacks his lips and tongue when he takes a break from eating.
  
• Max is now rolling all over the floor. We can't leave him alone for a second. He has also started pushing off the floor with his toes to get to toys or whatever he sees. YIKES!
• Max laughs more and more each day and is getting more fun to play with.
• He is a bit of a Momma's boy. :)
  

At church on Sunday, a woman sitting in front of us was captivated (her word) by the interaction between the boys. McKay was talking very sweetly to Max (as he often does) and Max was grinning and playing right along with him. She said it was very clear to her that Max loves his brother and that McKay is a good brother to him. She was touched by the love she could see.

At his 4 month appointment, Max weighed 13 lbs 15 oz and was 25 1/4 inches long.

McKay loves to play on the floor with Max and Max loves when McKay plays with him. They can keep each other entertained for quite a while!

He uses the toys and toy arch to pull himself up. If he knew how to, he could turn on the music/vibration himself.

Sometimes the arch can withstand his pulling and other times it can't! He can pull the toys off the arch and then take the toy off the ring.

On this particular Sunday night, Max was 'watching' Jordan write an e-mail and playing with this bear toy (you can see the full toy in the pictures above). In the course of playing with it and his shirt, he got almost the whole toy down his shirt! He was ready for bed but I had to take his picture first. This boy never ceases to amaze us!

I LOVE this picture. McKay loves reading books and is quite patient and creative when he reads books to Max. Of course Max loves it.

My handsome boys!

An unplanned silly picture.

We love you sweet Maxwell!

THIS Is Why We Were Excited to Move Here!

We've had a rough time getting settled (more on that someday) and were wondering why we were looking forward to living here. So for family home evening we went to the San Diego Temple and then walked along the coast and watched the sun set. JUST what we all needed!

When we drove up to the temple McKay was so so excited and kept saying 'Hi memple'. This was my first visit to the San Diego temple. We are excited to have a temple so close again.

My cute McKay so happy to be out of the house!

This may become a favorite FHE activity for our family. McKay wanted to go in and it just so happened that all the workers were there for a special meeting (with plates and plates of goodies... ) so he was really confused as to why we weren't going in too. We talked about the Angel Moroni again with McKay and he said "Moroni is not nice to people'. I was confused until I remembered there was a little boy in his nursery in Santa Clara who frequently had to be taken to his mother because he was too rough with the other children. Different Moroni buddy.

We went to the beach a few minutes from the temple in La Jolla. The ocean is always so rejuvenating for us and we loved being able to see so much wildlife near the beach. I don't think I've ever seen pelicans so close before.

McKay LOVED watching the waves 'rash' against the rocks.

These harbor seals were fun to watch.

I love watching the sun sink below the horizon. So So beautiful. It was a perfect way to start a new week.

Moving is Exhausting!

What an experience this has been. One we hope to never have repeated EVER AGAIN.

Things to Remember

Here he is as Bob the builder driving his truck while taking a break from getting dressed.

8-22-10

Tonight McKay came into the living room dancing and said his feet were singing twinkle twinkle little star.

Today at church, McKay scooted close to Jordan so there was space next to him and said 'here is a spot for Nanna'! Later he moved in the middle and said there was room on one side of him for Nanna and on the other for Papa. Too bad they are not here... I'd love to see them fit in their 'spot'. :)

Something I hear A LOT from McKay each day: 'Mommy, I have a good idea. Lets play I spy!'

Another un-planned nap after our house hunting trip to San Diego. Notice his pants are on backward.

8-19-10
McKay is a good influence on me. All morning he kept saying 'lets exercise Mommy!' He wasn't done when I was and picked another video to do. He did the whole video all on his own.

I love watching and hearing McKay's imagination develop. All his conversations are very polite with lots of please and thank yous. He also does a lot of searching for parking spots. :)

8-16-10
A little background: McKay has started getting up early in the morning and having Daddy give him a 'snack' until Mommy gets up. He also loves his stepstool. Well, Jordan gave him a snack and hugs and kisses as he was leaving for work and McKay was sitting on the couch. Jordan asked if he wanted to play with his toys or something. No, he just wanted to sit on the couch. Jordan said okay and left. After he shut the door I heard McKay run to the bathroom and a moment later the TV turned on. He'd used the stool to reach the remote on the bookshelf to turn on the TV. I didn't want him to watch anything so I got up without waking up Max and hurried out there. McKay held up his hand as if to stop me and frantically said 'your head hurts, you're still tired, go back to bed!' Jordan and I had a good laugh when I told him McKay didn't really want to 'just sit on the couch'. When Jordan asked him about it at dinner, McKay said ' I wanted to sit on the couch AND watch a show on the TV'.

We were at the park and McKay found some kids to play with (as usual). They didn't know his name so they called him 'little boy'. He defiantly replied 'no I'm a big boy!'

8-11-10
Today we were driving home and McKay said 'Mommy, I'm falling asleep'. I looked back and he had one of Max's blankets and was rolling his eyes back and nodding his head, pretending to fall asleep. The things this boy comes up with make me laugh!

McKay says 'me me' (excuse me) every time he passes gas or burps etc. He always makes sure we acknowledge he said it and then says 'thats good manners!'

8-10-10
McKay went to his first friend birthday party today and had so much fun he wants to 'go to Evee's birthday party again tomorrow'.

8-3-10
McKay likes to look at the ads with me. He'll show me things that are 'on sale' and circle them with a pen.

I told McKay we had 10 more minutes to play at the park and he said 'no Mommy, 5 more minutes'. Whatever you say buddy.

7-20-10
McKay was going potty and got distracted during the getting dressed, washing hands part after (as usual) and I was reminding him to wash his hands. He insisted he needed to get his underwear on first. I told him he already had it on and started laughing. He looked down and saw his underwear and said 'That's not funny!' which made me laugh even more.

7-10-10
We were driving home from the library and had to stop at a stoplight by a Taco Bell. McKay said he wanted to go in there. I asked why and he said because our dinner is in there.

7-5-10
McKay tells everyone 'good breakfast' whether it is breakfast, Lunch or dinner and no matter who made it. And he expects to be told 'good breakfast' in return.

7-1-10
The most common question out of McKay's mouth is "What are you doing?"