::climber::

My little guy could turn into a bit of a scary climber.

He's always trying to climb up on the couch, and anything else that seems accessible.

I'm probably exaggerating a bit though. He's not like some kids, truly climbing on everything. Sandy's so easy going you really don't have to worry too much about him. He's mellow and measured. So the climbing is happening, but not at too extreme of a level.

But when he gets up on something he's SUPER psyched. Like the couch. He bounces and chortles and looks like he's going to pitch off straight backwards.

And yes, he got too enraptured by Sesame Street and fell off the box at some point. Before that though, when I tried to push him bottom onto the box more he looked at me like I was SO RUDE.

Babies are ridiculous.

::::

Babies just love to explore and do fun stuff. They love to play with toys and get tickled. They love to reach for things that they shouldn't touch.

They love these things and beg to do them all day long. They insist that they're not tired and it's not bedtime. Ever.
BUT.
They give themselves away.

This morning at about 8AM I was thinking that our Sandy looked a little sleepy. But he was convinced that he needed to be playing and having fun.

But then he spied his pacifier across the room.

Once he had that he saw his blanket.


The rest is pretty-much history. He tried to tell me he really didn't need a nap, but luckily I know better.

He went right to sleep, the cute little stinker.

::summer sunsets::

Out here in the desert we have some pretty spectacular sunsets. Not always is the light perfect for photos though. The other night we were eating dinner with friends and I happened to look out the window into the courtyard and saw the most superb light shining in from the sunset. I ran and got the camera and inflicted people with my photo taking for a while.

It was worth it. The light was gorgeous!



I love the sunsets and the evenings out here. They're very pleasant and often pretty spectacular.

And yes, also silly.

::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.

::six month comparison::

0:

2 months:

4 months:

6 months:

Is this guy growing or what? He's still got those little worried eyebrows though.
I'm sure that eating two tubs of food per night isn't going to hurt his growth rate. I feel like I accidentally bought an Irish Wolfhound puppy thinking he was a Golden Retriever or something.
Love him.

::::

"Does anybody have a kleenex?" he asks--very seriously.


Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

Too bad this beloved silly putty had to go putty up the landfill after it got stuck in the carpet of the new house. Dad was not very happy about that.
I'm sure he'll figure out other uses for our kleenexes. He's creative that way.

::nephew::

This is one of my lovely nephews--Christopher. My brother's little guy. But if you call him Christopher, he won't answer or even turn around. He goes by Scooter. He loves things that spin around, he speaks complete sentences in his soft squeaky little voice, he loves his Pup and his Dog, he loves cell phones and he coveted Max's toy microwave insanely. He's not afraid of me which makes me SO happy.
He also doesn't eat.
Or so I hear. His parents say they battle with him to even get him to eat stuff like chicken nuggets & mac and cheese. He only likes juice, cheese sticks and some other stuff I can't remember.
Goofball, right?
I made him a sandwich one day when they were visiting and he actually started eating it. It took like 45 minutes, but long after I had left the table I came by and saw him chomping down the sandwich. It had to be documented.


Dismemberment of the sandwich is not important. It's just the eating that is.
He got a call at some point, but he didn't let it distract him.


Isn't he cute? I'm so glad he got to come visit with his family and we got some fun one on one time. Even if it's taken me almost a month to post some pictures of the visit. Oh well.

::goofy, goofier, goofiest::

But which is which?
Not even Boston is sure.

(these pictures are from about a month ago when Kelly & Lechelle & B were here to visit and we went up to Taos Ski Valley. I have more pictures that are fun and eventually they might actually get posted!!)

::it's gone!!::

Yesterday, as I was posting about his tooth being loose, it suddenly fell out of Max's mouth!!
I think we figured out the most efficient way to remove loose teeth. Ideally the child could throw a major fit about something--something totally insignificant. The child could then repeat over at over that he's "the king" so his mother should "do what I say!!!!" Then at some point the loose tooth will just come out.

Look at that tiny teeny little tooth! (Or don't look if you're like me and teeth kind of gross you out.)

(please try to overlook the chapped lips and possible blood crust around the mouth, ICK.)

I have to say that the tooth popping out completely changed his demeanor. He was not having a good day at all. In fact it was pretty terrible. But after the tooth came out we had a great evening. Straight from tears to enthusiastic grins. It should happen more often.


The tooth fairy did come last night, and she brought a couple of cars instead of a couple of quarters. It went over well. I think he's pretty happy.

Yay for Max!

::serious question::

Why does my son make such weird faces?

::sultan's playdate::

I'm not so good at setting up so-called playdates for Max. It's hard because I don't want to just send him over to somebody's house that I've never been to. And other moms feel the same way of course. So it often feels like the first time the moms have to hang out too, get to know each other and keep an eye on the kids. And sometimes that's fun, sometimes not so much. And when it's a nanny or somebody watching the kids, that's just weird.

The nice thing about Max's school though, is that it's a co-op. I didn't know what a co-op school was before we moved here. Basically the parents are all very involved. We go in and clean the school a couple of times a year. We throw fund raisers. We got in once a month and act as the teachers' aid, bringing in snacks, playing with the kids and cleaning up. It's nice that I have time to be that involved in Max's world. It's fun because when you're in the classroom once a month you get a chance to get to know the other kids. And through that it's a little easier to know the other families and feel comfortable with each other.

Anyway, long story short, or short story long, I got Max a playdate. It was with one of the little girls from school whom he adores. In fact, around the time that school started she was his imaginary friend. He'd pretend she was living here too and talk about her all the time. So as I figured he would be, he was psyched.

This little girl is an extreme animal lover. All she can talk about are horses and unicorns at school. When she got to our house and discovered we had a dog she almost lost her mind. She looked at Max like he was crazy and said "you never said you had a DOG!"
She LOVED Sultan. And Sultan loved her right back. She'd let him lick her all over for as long as he wanted. She lay on him and stroked him, hugged him and chased him around. She even picked the "boogies" out of his eyes.

And because she thought he was so cool of course Max had to play along. So he showed off the "tricks" he can do with Sultan. (you know, sit, down, stay). That was pretty exciting.
But then things started to go downhill when she decided she'd rather play with Sultan than do anything that Max wanted to do. She kept saying "I think Sultan wants to spend some time with me now."
I tried to say that Sultan needed a rest and they should go do something else, but she just argued that she'd rest with him.
Max got that bummed out cranky look on his face, and I couldn't blame him. It was as if somebody came over to play and then decided they'd rather hang with your little sister instead!

But then I got them playing hide and go seek or something. Then of course Sul got tackled.


Then she really made Max's day and reinacted the Mama Fish Movie with him a couple of times. That was truly awesome. And it was awesome for me because for once I didn't have to pretend to be Kelly.

It all ended well with a viewing of Martha Speaks on PBS. And naturally they had to watch it with Sultan. I'm surprised they could even see our little TV from where they ended up sitting.

It was pretty cute. And I think everybody ended up having a great time, although things obviously didn't turn out exactly as Max had planned. Luckily he's a pretty good sport.

Now if Max only loved Sultan as much as his little friend does we'd be in business!

::frigid outing pt 2::

......after we got done freezing at the crazy graffiti for park we hopped back in the car and headed over to check out another area. It was still cold over there.
We parked by one of the oldest lighthouses in the US. Now I can't remember of course--maybe it was the 3rd oldest? Anyway it was cool. And I got a picture of it just as the light flashed at us. Can you see it?

Max spent some time jumping off rocks. That was fine with me because it kept him away from the edge of the land, at least momentarily.

He is such a boy.

And then of course he went over to the edge. Think it was just to bug me? Take a look at the expression on his face.

Stinker.
So as you can see there's the edge of the land and then there's the ocean. In between there were a whole bunch of rocks on a slope. And it was cold and icy. So of course we went down there. Well, the boys went down there first.



It was really pretty.



Some of the rocks were pretty icy. Max did a pretty good job, but he definitely needed some assistance.

Wow, in that picture the ocean almost looks like ice itself. It was so grey.

I wasn't really planning on going down there, but once they got down to the bottom they started calling me. And although neither Grant nor I wanted to go, we did.


I watched my feet very carefully so I wouldn't end up in the ocean.

It was already cold enough. Falling in the ocean really would've bummed me out.

There were some pretty amazing icicles down there. It looked like there were all these little streams flowing down to the water and then suddenly it got super cold and they all just froze.

Kris says that's not what happened though. But it looks like it to me. It was really beautiful.
Melissa took a picture of Kris and I. While we were posing, Max did his best to break through some ice and fall in the water. Chad somehow kept him upright with the hand that wasn't holding Grant. Impressive daddy skills there.

But right after that Max finally succeeded in cracking some ice. (Melissa captured this moment)

See the ice cracking under his feet? Kris's arms are reaching out to grab him....but he did end up dunking both hands in the freezing water. And he got the bottoms of his jeans pretty wet Brrr. And somehow he still cried when we said it was time to go up and leave. I think kids must be made of teflon.
And so then we went home. It was a fun freezing adventure. I think we're going to go back when it's not quite so cold.