::many happy returns::

It's Kris's birthday!  His thirty-second, to be exact.  This seems crazy to me, but it's true.
He had to work most of the day, so we all came in to work to keep him company.  We do this lots of days anyway, but we definitely wanted to keep him company today.  We had pizza for lunch with the staff and then finished up with the patients a bit early and closed up shop.

After that we went downtown to do a bit of window shopping in the galleries and eat dinner.  We ended up at a restaurant overlooking the plaza in the middle of town.
The view was nice, and there was a little mariachi fiddle group playing down on the green.  Max really enjoyed watching and listening to them during dinner.


And here are some photos of my goofy menfolk--we were waiting for our dinner at this point, so they were a little hungry and silly.


Bet you can't guess who's the goofiest around here.


Oy.

After that we went home for some cake and presents. (Max got Kris some curry ketchup, one of his favorite things. I was so impressed with him for thinking of it all by himself!)
We had cream cake with berries on it. (From the store, since I was at work all day.)
Then we played pool together for a bit before bed.



It was as close to a perfect day as a work day can get I think--and I hope Kris thought so too.

Happy birthday to my man amoung men! I LOVE YOU!!

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I love this face:

And this one:

And this one of course:

This one too:

But I think this one has to be my favorite:

At least for today.

::finally::

This is old news for us--from early May in fact. But not too much of old news for the rest of you because you haven't been to our house yet!
The baby finally has his own room. At our last house--our rental here--he had a corner of our room. His little drawer unit was in there, and his teency Moses basket. And his clothes hung in our closet. It was temporary because we knew we would be moving sometime soon. And plus, he was such a bad dang sleeper that I needed him really close to maximize the short periods of time I got to sleep.
So all that aside, now he has a real room. All his (for now.) And it's cute. Not too fancy or anything, but cute because it's his.
He has built in bookshelves right inside the door. Max is a little envious that he gets all those books, but I think it's a good thing since we need to share anyway.

Then he's just got some mismatched furniture in there and a lovely crib that I got on a deep sale from Pottery Barn. It's really nice, maybe one of the nicer pieces of furniture we own right now. It makes the room I think, along with the cute little mobile from IKEA.

Lucky Sand has lots of toys--most of them used to belong to Max, but he does have a few of his own. The little giraffe with the rings around his neck is a relic from Max's babyhood.

The very best thing in the room though, is the little snort that sleeps in it.
He's adorable, and he's been doing great on his naps since the new room. They've definitely improved. And now, with Kris's help we're getting him to sleep through most (ok maybe more like a lot than most) nights. At least from about 10 to 5:30. And at this point any decent sleep at night is something we're grateful for. And he's sleeping in his own bed, which is good because the moses basket just doesn't accommodate his big boyness anymore.

So there you go, cute baby in a room all his own.

::spits::

Please enjoy....

::table::

Woo Hoo!!!

::drinks, sips and gulps::

This little guy of ours is one thirsty little dude. He loves to drink water and asks for it with an open upturned mouth while screeching, just like a little chunky baby bird.
It's funny because I don't ever remember giving Max water until he was about a year old and drinking from a sippy cup. But when Max was this age we lived in super-humid Missouri and maybe he was able to stay hydrated without extra drinks. Anyhow it must be our dry deserty habitat out here that's making our poor baby so thirsty.

He'll drink like crazy from the end of a straw if I hold some water in it with my thumb. He'll suck down tons of water if I give it to him using a medicine dropper/syringe thing.
But the nice trainer sippy cup I bought him? No way. How about the nice two pack of big boy sippy cups? NO! How about the bottle I finally bought in desperation? No sir. He wouldn't even go for any of those things when they were filled with apple juice or drinkable banana yogurt (only to tempt him to drink of course.)

BUT.

Will he drink out of a Dixie cup? OF COURSE!! What baby doesn't? I a grabbed one out of the bathroom the other day at dinner time as a last ditch effort to try to get him drinking in a more efficient way and the silly guy was thrilled. He drank and drank and hardly even choked. I was laughing the whole time thinking what a stinker he is. But I'm sure glad he's drinking!!!

::::

We love the new address plate Kelly & Lechelle, it fits in perfectly here at the house.

Thanks!!
(I really love the hummingbirds!!)

::peas::

It's something special about peas. Whenever our Sand gets peas in his mouth--after the initial snarfing because of hunger--he spits.

And he spits, and he spits and spits. I'm usually covered with little spots and so is everything else.

He makes like he's hungry for a bite. Then comes the tricky part. Sometimes he is hungry enough to just swallow it. Other times he spits it at me right away. I'm never prepared and it's always startling, disgusting and funny--as long as he catches me on a day when I have my sense of humor intact.

He does think he's pretty funny.
Besides this evening, last time he did this we were out to eat. Luckily we were in an outdoor courtyard where it was loud, so hardly anybody noticed and nobody could complain. I was a little bummed though when I pulled my sunglasses out of a bag under the table and the lenses were all coated with peas.

Please note the concentration--the flexed muscles--the amazing embouchure. He's serious about his spitting exercises.
If only you could hear the sound effects. Maybe someday soon when you come and visit. I'll let YOU feed him the peas.

You won't be able to resist.

::goofs::

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Brothers:

(Please take note--Max is wearing his karate belt over his T-shirt. He's serious about this stuff.)

Sitting:

(This is a terrible picture, but you can see the man sitting on his own. Since last week he's been getting really good at it. We're proud and it's fun because it's much easier for him to play with stuff when sitting. What a man.)

::way to go::

Way to go Fisher Price for making at least one toy that doesn't have flashing lights, obnoxious electronic music or require batteries.


Way to go for making a toy that excites my little guy so much that when he sees it he starts panting, he reaches with every limb he has and he wiggles.


And way to go Sand for turning into such a legitimate person--eating real food (lots of it), playing with toys and laughing at the funniest things (like when I blow my nose.)

Love that silly little boy.

::a smokey sunset::

We're trying not to suffocate on the Arizona smoke out here. Seems like lately every evening a big smokey cloud rolls in and covers us so thickly that we can't even see the mountains. I sure hope they can put that fire out soon. Fires are scary and we're so vulnerable out here.
We'll just keep on praying for rain and for the fire to finish up somehow.

::bryan wrap-up::

A couple of things I didn't get to post.
10,000 little boys:

(There are six boys in this picture--you can hardly notice Clayton on the far right for some reason, and Quin is hiding in his car seat. But they're there for sure!)
This was the morning they left. Max didn't want them to go. He was pretty bummed for the rest of the day.

Best park ever:

(I stole this picture from Kari.)
Can you believe the size of this slide? Our friends in the ward told us there was a two-storey slide park in town that their kids would beg to go to--we thought they were exaggerating. But no. It's HUGE.
The boys loved it. Too bad it was super windy (springs tend to be out here.) It was so windy that the babies couldn't catch their breath. So we'll have to hit the park again next visit. Twenty minutes probably wasn't satisfying enough for the dudes.

To wrap it up, we had a great time. We're so glad that Kari & her family came even though they all ended up sick with pink eye and colds a couple of days after they got home--they were forewarned though, so it was a known risk. Thanks for driving all the way out and risking the dreaded pink eye guys! Come back soon!

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Is this the most ridiculously humongous baby contraption you've ever seen?

Good thing we have a big enough living room to handle it because the boy loves it. The toys captivate him and he's actually (finally) starting to use it to jump too which is so fun.

Check out those fat little piggies. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I could just eat him up. And I do.