::eight::

Honestly I can't believe I'm saying this, but my old Max turned EIGHT this week!! YIKES!!

This is his first birthday where we haven't been traveling or visiting somebody for years. Last year we were in AZ for a work trip, and both years before that we were visiting family in Utah. So we were home, and we had a pretty fun day I think.

Max got to have a pretty lazy day. There was no school for him that day and he got to open a pretty awesome present in the morning--old school hot wheels tracks.

He played with them all morning. Then he got to watch some Sponge Bob, which hasn't happened in a while since he was mimicking the super annoying voices ALL the time. He was banned for weeks. He got a chance to try again since it was his birthday. (So far so good on the annoyingness.)

Later in the day Max got to go to his karate class. Then we all went and had a delicious dinner which included chocolate malts. Mmmm.

After that we finally made it home for cake and presents. HOMEMADE cake for the first time in a while.
It was tasty.

And the candles and singing are 100% up Max's alley.

I think he had a great day. And his actual friend party was the following day. I'll report on that later.
But for now, here's my favorite birthday picture of all for you.

Good night!

::::

As the manager of the dental office, one of my official duties is picking out and ordering the little toy favors that kids get after their appointments. I really enjoy this. It's just a fun thing to do. And it reminds me of how I used to love going to the dentist because of the fun little toys they would give us. And that's really funny too because I had a darn lot of work done over the years. You'd think I would be traumatized. But no, the toys saved me. I think the only thing that was traumatized was my parents' pocketbook, unfortunately.

Anyway, picking the toys is fun. Sometimes I have Max help me go through the catalogues and tell me what he thinks other kids will like. Of course it usually ends up with him circling what HE would like, then us having a big long discussion about why I can't just GIVE him one of each toy we order, and how much he'll have to pay me for the ones he wants.

Anyway again, the other day I had him go through one of the catalogues at home. He stuck to the dask with diligence and dedication. When I went back through it to make my orders I was highly amused. I asked him to circle the toys that he thought would be good for us to get.

Sometimes he did just that, and nicely.


Sometimes there was just too much awesomeness on one page, and he ended up circling essentially everything.


It gets even better from here.
Sometimes the awesomeness of the page was just overwhelming and he had to use special means to express how cool it all was.

I mean, who wouldn't bust out with an "OH YA" when they see those sweet Sponge Bob tatoos?

And my ultimate favorite, the "silly band" page.

I laughed so hard when I found this: "Ah ya, OH ya, YES YES!!"

I hope you appreciate all that as much as I do, because it still cracks me up while I'm writing about it. Funny funny kids. They're worth all the hard work. Especially when they're in bed.

::bashful::

The other day I made Max pose for me outside against one of the cool brick walls we have in our backyard. I'm still trying to figure out how to get the best lighting for portraits outside.

Poor Max, he's so sick of getting his picture taken. He'll barely look at me anymore. And when he does it's so cheesy. And he thrusts his jaw forward all funny so he looks like he's got a big underbite. I still think he's cute though, naturally.

He at least tried to get a little creative with his poses this time, like the kung fu panda fist.

and the boogie--or something, who knows.

Anyway, then our neighbors pulled up. The other side of the backyard has a chain link fence, so we can keep good tabs on what goes on next door.
We have great neighbors. We love them. Max especially likes the little girl neighbor. She's getting close to three I think. She's shy and bashful and sweet. And she loves him. And I mean LOVES him. And he loves to make her laugh by doing goofy things.
He saw them pull up and this is what his face looked like.

Suddenly some genuine emotion!
She was pretty excited to see him too.

Her mom is a photographer, so she's used to getting her picture taken. She's a cutie, right?

I do love seeing and hearing her and Max laugh together, it's really fun. We'll miss seeing them all the time when we move, but hopefully we can still get together.

::i like::

Max.
I like Max because he makes me laugh.

The other night I went in to put him to bed and this is what I saw:

Can you tell what it is?
Look in the upper left hand corner. Ok here, let me zoom in for you.

Yes, it's the big yucky wig from the Halloween movie we made that I posted earlier. It's hanging out in his bed with all his stuffed animal friends.
That really made me laugh.  How weird.

And while I was taking a picture of that I thought I'd show you something else fun.

We got these pelicans at Ikea (there's a matching one you can't see to the right.) I think they're hilarious. I think it's the cleverest way to store stuffed animals ever. So in conclusion I guess I like Max AND Ikea. They're two very excellent institutions.