Max Turns 3!

My sweet little baby is now 3!! I know it sounds so cliche' to say 'I can't believe how quickly the time passes' but, "I can't believe how quickly the time passes!"

To think that so much can change in the ultra short span of a few years is unbelievable. The photos below were each taken on the mornings of his first thru third birthdays.
Max on the morning of his first birthday:

The following describes Max at age 1: Adorable. Requires use of all four limbs for ambulation. Adorable. Fights and kicks and protests at every diaper change. Adorable. Loves playing in water and eating apples, cheese and guacamole. Sleeps all thru the night in his own crib. Mommy and Daddy are the center of his world! Loves to read books!!

On the morning of his second birthday:

At age 2 Max: Is still ADORABLE. Has become a little more comfortable in the role of "Big Brother" but still has a hard time sharing Mommy and Daddy (who are still the center of his world). Not only sleeps thru the night in his own room, but sleeps IN until close to 9 am and then STILL takes a 3 hour nap every day. Enjoys reading books and eating pizza. Still likes to play in the water. And the dirt. Loves horses and trucks and tractors and backhoes and excavators and trains.

And finally, on the morning of his third birthday:

At age 3 Max: Has traded his tractor fascination for a superhero obsession (note the black spiderman costume). Loves his coffee in the morning, but will eat cereal, eggs, and "poop treats" anytime of day. Loves to read books, paint, and play in the water and in the dirt. Loves preschool. Doesn't take a nap. Doesn't sleep thru the night. DOESN'T even sleep in his own room. Usually is awake before 7 am. Is an AMAZINGLY AWESOME AND SWEET big brother. Knows his ABC's and can count to "One-teen." Loves to snuggle. Is Adorable.

Well, I guess some things stay the same... I just wish he would stop growing so fast. I often ask him if he will stop growing up and just stay my little boy forever. Sometimes he says yes, but most of the time he will say, "No, Mommy. I want to be big--like Daddy!" But he promises me that he will still snuggle with me!

I got to volunteer at Max's preschool on his birthday which was very exciting (and a little exhausting). The night before the big day he helped me make these special cupcakes to take to all of his friends at preschool.


He was so proud of the spiderman cupcakes!


But he didn't really care for the birthday crown his teachers gave him to wear that morning. Maybe if it had a superhero on it...

After school there was even more birthday fun to be had when his buddies Shane and Ethan came over to play. Shane and Ethan are twins and are a year older than Max. Max thinks they are super-cool--maybe it's the shared superhero appreciation.


Later, on the evening of Max's birthday, Max, Sam and I met Paul at Max's favorite restaurant: California Tortilla. Max LOVES to eat here. It's sort of the same idea (and the closest we've found out here) to Utah's own, and our beloved, Cafe Rio. Max is actually quite an enjoyable companion when eating out these days: 99% of the time he is very well-behaved, sitting right down and holding still thru all of the meal, and usually eating most of his food. He really is such a good boy. In fact, right now he is the easy child (except when it comes to sleeping). Sometimes it is amazing to think that he is only just now three; he really is so delightful (again, except when it come to sleeping), and well-behaved and good.

After dinner we returned to the B-hive (I stole that from Paul if you couldn't tell) where Max found a few birthday presents waiting, most notably his super-cool spiderman bike.


And what a nice brother--he even let Sam have a turn!


Paul assembling the bike a few nights before--what a great and handy daddy!


I saved a few of Max's cupcakes so we could sing to him that night and so he could blow out the candles. Max LOVES to blow out candles.

And his favorite part of the cupcake?? The frosting. In fact, he pretty much just sucks the frosting off the top and pushes the cake aside. He's been doing this for months--maybe even a year now. Paul talked me into using a cake mix for the cupcakes (which I never do), his argument being that all kids his age only eat the frosting. So, at least the frosting was homemade!


Later that weekend we had a little party for him at My Gym which is a fitness center for kids with all sorts of fun activities, games, rides and gymnastics. Max has taken a few classes here and is quite familiar with the facility, and he had been looking forward to having his party here for almost a month. It was so much fun to see all the attention and excitement focused on him.


He had a really super-cool spiderman skyscraper cake complete with "bad guys" and a spinning superhero.








And one of the best things about his birthday was that cousin Koa came down to help celebrate!

All in all, it was a spectacular birthday. Max still doesn't understand that he won't be having another one for a year. He keeps saying things to me like, "Mom, I wanna have a batman birthday party now." Or, he will come up with all of these other presents that he wants to get for his birthday. Can't blame the kid; it was a ton of fun to have everyone celebrating his special day with him not to mention the fact that he got to blow out candles probably every night on his birthday week.


In fact, here is Max and Koa, on the night before Koa had to leave, blowing out candles together. Koa's birthday is exactly a month after Max's, so since we won't be seeing him for his big #5 it was only fitting that we spend one of the five days of singing "Happy Birthday" singing to Koa as well.


Mimis' three grandkids. She bought them these cute little matching "monster truck" outfits.





The three cousins enjoying a splash in the tub.




Here is Max modeling one of his birthday gifts. Of course anyone out here is a die-hard Philly-Anything fan, and most of them see it as a personal mission to convert us. I think Max may have been persuaded...

Halloween Extravaganza

I literally have NO time to blog these days. Max doesn't nap. Sam only naps in the car. So, I really only have time to do things like vacuum and mop, shower, email and blog after they go to bed which is typically around 8 pm. The problem is, Max has gotten into this crazy habit of crawling into our bed at night. This started back in July: after sleeping with us while on vacation he realized it was quite nice to sleep in the big bed with Mommy and Daddy. And so, he started coming in around 2 or 3 am every morning. At first, one of us would march him back to his room and lie down with him for 20 minutes before sneaking out. But, he would do this like 3 or 5 times a night so we finally gave up and let him into our bed. Gradually, however, the getting out of bed has started earlier and earlier. Tonight, for instance, he went to bed in his room at 7:45. Great--a little earlier than usual so I am hoping that I can get a lot done. I start to do the dishes, clean up the kitchen a little bit, do a load of laundry and I am just thinking about getting into the shower when, at 9:30 pm he gets out of bed. Paul tried to put him back in bed, but daddy doesn't always do and mommy inevitably had to go in there and spend 20 more minutes with him. Okay, now it is 10 pm. Let me hurry and shower, then I can get swimsuits together for Sam's first swimming lesson tomorrow, catch up on email, and maybe do a little blogging before it gets too late. Wait a second--11:10 pm, did I just hear his door open? Yup, the little bugger. I rush to his room to intercept him before he gets too far down the hallway and lie with him until I think he is fast asleep again. Now it is 11:30. If I hurry I can get thru my emails before midnight. What?? Did I just hear him getting up again? It has only been 10 minutes since I left his room. I rush back in there and lay him back down. When I finally get out of there again it is about 12:20 am. I am going to get thru those emails before I go to bed!! 12:40 I hear him again so I am a little irritated when I go back in there. I spend 20 more minutes in there, and when he wakes up as I try to sneak out this time I lose it--I tell him that he has to stay in his bed or I am turning out all of the lights. (He is a little afraid of the dark and sleeps with a night light and a bedside lamp on). Obviously he complained and cried at this remark and when I marched out of his room I bumped into Paul, the big softy, who was on his way to lay with Max. I don't know what we are going to do with this monster we have created. I love snuggling with him and I love when he crawls into my bed--when it happens at 4 or 5 in the morning. I can even do 2 or 3 am, but when he wants to crawl in our bed for the night at 9:30, that is just not cool. Moreover, it only gives me an hour and a half every night to vacuum and mop, do dishes, tidy the house, fold laundry, shower, email and blog. I can't do it!! Help!! At least Sammy, the fearless daredevil who climbs onto everything, has not yet figured out how to climb out of his crib--he gives us at least a solid 12 hours a night.


Anyway, I have no time to blog so I will make this short and sweet. Halloween was crazy busy. The whole month of October was filled with Halloween parties and Halloween playdates and trick or treating at malls and Halloween parades and pumpkin picking and wearing costumes around EVERYWHERE!!

Max has a spiderman obsession, as I mentioned in my last post. I have no idea how he really knows so much about him, but he can't stop talking about the superhero. He wore his costume on a daily basis and often even insisted that Sam put his on as well. I have utilized my limited sewing skills more this last month than probably ever in my life patching holes and tears in the flimsy material.

Just a couple of superheros hangin' out at home on a regular day.




We had 8 kids over for a playdate, and wouldn't you know it--Max had to wear his costume.

A little off the subject but too cute not to include: Sam helping bake the cupcakes for our playdate.



My MOMS club had a Halloween party at a park and it was a lot of fun to see all the kids running around playing, climbing and swinging in their costumes.





So Max wore his spiderman costume all day every day for a couple of weeks when he suddenly decided that he wanted to be "black" spiderman for Halloween. What?? Who is black spiderman and how does my child know about him? Paul found him a costume for $10 at Target and so the black spiderman craze begins...

Max was black spiderman at his preschool Halloween party and parade.




And he was black spiderman on an outing to Longwood Gardens with some friends.


Cute little Sam loved the trains and the pumpkins at Longwood.


Great shot I got of all 4 of them actually holding still and looking in the general direction of the camera.









But, he was only half black spiderman at a cute little Halloween parade we went to. Unfortunately, the rest of the costume needed to be laundered and patched so he had to break out the old red and blue one to go with the beloved black mask.




Paul and I were really creative this year with our costumes. We actually went to a grown-up Halloween party and had no time or motivation to do something better so we recycled our punk-rocker costumes.

And finally, the actual holiday...

Black Spiderman returns!!


Supersam!!


Sam is actually saying "Cheese" in this picture.



We went trick-or-treating with our friends Sara and Eric and their two little "Things"--Brandon and Gracie.

That night--the anticipated event that should culminate all that we had been awaiting and preparing for all month--was a little disappointing. The kids didn't really enjoy trick-or-treating. It was more of a struggle than we imagined and they wanted to open every piece of candy before it even hit the bottom of their pail. Too much work. We only hit 5 or 6 houses before throwing in the flag and calling it a night (or a month). Enough Halloween for one year--bring on Thanksgiving! Oh, wait--Max's birthday is coming up. Bring it on!! (Why do I have this suspicion that he will still be wearing his spiderman costume at his birthday party?)