.::I did it MYSELF::.

You may recall that I posted a couple of times at the beginning of the year about trying to find things to occupy Max in order to keep him from getting bored, and as a result of being bored going crazy and being bad.
This is still often a problem, but we started with small tasks, and we've got some improvement.
He can now button his own pants (usually). He zips and buttons, and actually pulls his pants up which is a huge improvement--if you recall the whole reason why he had to have stitches in his chin is because he used to walk around the house with his pants around his ankles after using the facilities. I'm glad we seem to have moved past that.


Please excuse the nekkedness. It's just such a cute belly. He was very very proud of himself when he first figured it out. Snapping pants is really tougher than it looks, let me tell you. And there was only one pair of pants he could button for a long time, so he had to wear those pants every day for a while. Luckily we've moved past that. Now there are like 3 pair he can wear.
One of the other things we've been working on his having him put on his own seatbelt. Ok, I know that this is just exposing our slackerness--we probably should've had him doing this for like the last two years. I'm sure you all with multiple kids had your first strapping themselves in at 18 months. But Max is lucky enough right now to fill the roles of both oldest kid and the baby of the family, so he gets certain benefits I guess. (Not sure if they're really benefits, but whatever!) Mostly we're just always in a hurry when we go anywhere.
So now he's pretty darn good at strapping himself in! It's nice. Except we probably still strap him in more than we should--he's just so darn slow.
He's proud of this skill too and so are we.


Now just imagine his little voice saying, "I DID it!!"

His latest trick? He's figuring out how to zip up his own jacket. Now that's hard. He's only been able to it a couple of times, but he's still trying.

Kris and I just have to try to be more patient, and take the time to let him do these things himself. It's good for him to feel like he's capable, and has responsibilities of his own. We're proud of him. He sure is growing up.

And like I keep saying I do have more grandpa guy posts coming. I am just so behind on everything right now because of school. Only one more month!

::A Jaunt::

I haven't been able to post for the last few days because my friend Carie and I were taking a little vacation in Minnesota!
Here's a fun picture of Carie for you.

Carie is great. Its so nice to have a friend that's close that I have so much fun hanging out with--it's been a long time. And no Carie, I'm not just saying that because I know you read this thing.
We took a quick 3 day jaunt up there because our husbands wanted us to go and have fun! Isn't that nice of them? Well, it was something like that anyway. We went up there with the intention of going to Ikea, a place that we both enjoy, and the trip didn't disappoint!
We were in Minneapolis, and the Ikea was right by the Mall of America. Heard of that place? It's supposedly the largest mall in the US. And boy is it ever huge. It has an amusement park in the middle and basically any (mall) store you can think of. We started out there and had dinner. What's better to eat at the mall than mall food? We had orange chicken from Panda Express (or Stomachache Express as Carie likes to call it.) I have to mention this because I took such a great picture of the food:

and yeah, if it looks tasty to you that's because it was! Yum. It was great until later when our stomachs were sorry we'd eaten it.

Anyway, we shopped at the mall on the first day and the third day (spending plenty of time trying on clothes of course), and then the 2nd day we spend the entire day shopping at Ikea, going through all the things we wanted carefully and slowly. Since there was nobody to rush us it was great! So great in fact that we got there at like 10 in the morning and didn't leave the place until 5. Amazing, huh? We got a lot done though, and no, neither of us spent our life savings--somehow. The picture you see is of a bed I'm hoping to maybe get later on, for our new house, maybe.
We had lunch there and I got to eat the swedish meatballs. They were really good. Oh, to have an Ikea close. Poor Kansas City, it might never happen.

It was a really fun trip. It's the first time I've gotten away by myself in forever, maybe ever actually, and I think it was the same for Carie. We're lucky to have husbands that are so good with our kids, that don't think twice about stepping up and taking care of things!
Max did pretty well while I was gone, but was actually much more upset than when Kris and I went to Providence. He didn't seem to care when we were gone together but he did break down a couple of times this week. He was happy to see me when I got home (and I was happy to see him and Kris--it's nice to be gone, but always so great to come home.)

Now I'm off to do more school work. I have a big project due monday and then hopefully some of the school pressure will be lessened. I have more posts on the way about Grandpas and cute little boys. Stay tuned!

.::The Things Grandpas do for their Boys Pt 1::.

I came home from helping Kris at school one day last week and here was the sight I saw:

Mr ultra cool Grandpa had set up a big pad made up of his blankets and pillows on the rug, and Max was leaping onto it from the ottoman. He was having an absolute blast.
He would do a countdown:

(note the cool new way to do three, he figured that one out himself.)


this takes a LOT of concentration.


ZERO! Alright, GO!

Woo hoo!



I think part of what added to the extreme enjoyment of this was that in the past jumping off the ottoman in any form has been outlawed. So getting to do it was more than a little bit thrilling I'm sure!

I love this picture. Sultan was coming over to sit on me since I was down on the floor.

Looks like fun, huh? What a fun Grandpa to come up with something like this. I'm not sure he would've ever let us do it when we were kids, but I guess that's what it means to be a grandpa. You get to indulge the little ones.
And who wouldn't want to let this:

Do this?

More grandpa indulgences and activities to come later.

::Easter Fun::

We started our easter festivities early, on saturday. We got together with friends for an easter lunch and egg hunt. My friend Carie hosted the get together. Lunch was nice. We had ham sandwiches made with our yummy homemade bread.

Carie's husband was gone on a business trip, so my dad spent a little time with their baby, Eliot.

Eliot wasn't so sure about it at first, he wouldn't eat any food dad gave him. But he warmed up pretty quickly.
After lunch a couple of dads went out to hide a good amount of eggs.

It was a perfect set up for an egg hunt for those four years old and younger.

We let the kids out and they were very excited for the hunt.

Eliot hung out with my dad.



Carie took the great picture above.

It was extra fun this year because Max is finally starting to understand stuff like this. He did a great job hunting for eggs. Last year he was starting to get it, but still wasn't quite there. He's getting to be so much fun nowadays!

Look how happy he is. Yay.

Isobel did a very good job finding eggs too.


Check out their loot.



We went inside to empty out eggs and the kids started chowing down. It seemed like they had a great time. It was so fun to do this for them. I got a little inkling of how fun it must've been for my parents to set up our huge easter egg hunt every year. Well, fun and also a lot of hard work.

And if you see this guy bouncing off the walls anywhere, don't give him any more candy....please?

.::Found::.

So we have a place to live in Providence now.
One of the wives of a current resident at Kris's hospital was sweet enough to go visit a couple of places for me and send pictures. Luckily one of the apartments she saw we really liked, and the landlord was willing to work with us and hold it until May.
Here is a quick pictorial tour, and by the time you're done with it you'll know as much about our new place as we do! It's a 3 bed 1 bath apartment.
It's in downtown Providence, in an area really near a couple of colleges (Brown and RISD). There's lots of fun activity and walking culture in this area and we really like it.
Here's the outside.

There's an apartment on the 1st floor and one on the second floor. Both are vacant right now so we were lucky enough to score the 1st floor. Which I think is good because nobody deserves to live under both Max and Sultan. Yikes.

Parking is right here on the side of the house. Luckily we're already used to parking in the "elements", so that won't be too much of a change. At least there's parking for two cars at all! In this area of town that's actually kind of rare.
Here's a shot of the front room looking out from the dining room area:

It looks nice, don't you think? Clean and stuff. It's really similar to our current house as far as the way it looks, and probably in age as well.

Here we're looking into the dining room from one of the bedrooms. I'm glad the walls are already painted colors I either like or can live with, it's nice.
Here's the bathroom:

yea, it looks pretty much just the same as our current bathroom, and yeah, we're going to have to share with Max for another couple years which is definitely a bummer, but oh well. At least it looks clean right now!

Here's one of the bedrooms. All three bedrooms have closets, which is great! And they look like they're ok sized.

This is Sultan's yard. We're very pleased at the idea of the nice big privacy fence, which should cut down on midnight sessions of barking at cats. And it'll be a nice place for both Max and Sultan to have fun in, when not covered in cold snow.
And last but CERTAINLY not least, the kitchen!

I'm excited about it. I think it looks so nice. So much nicer than our current kitchen for sure!

It's been remodeled in the last couple of years which is great.
I'm really excited. We love the area the place is in and it looks like a we're going to love it.
What do you think?

::Oh Yum::

Guess what?

My dad came to visit me and he got us a bread machine! Yipee Yipee!
It smells so good in my house now. And the bread is delicious. My dad is like the bread expert. He's been making delicious bread with his machines for a long time, so he's pretty much the master.

Here's a dorky picture of me with the delicious crusty bread.

Ok, don't look at me, just look at the bread!

If you come over you can have some warm bread with butter and jam, or honey, whatever you like.
Thanks Dad! And we're loving having him here for other reasons besides fresh bread too. I'm sure I'll have more to post later.