::plenty::

We're missing Kris right now. He's in California for the California Society of Pediatric Dentistry (CSPD) meeting. Whew that's a mouthful.
We're hoping he might meet some helpful people out there so we'll have a good place to end up in a year.
Anyway, to fill the emptiness of a missing daddy we went to the library. Max and I have been enjoying the library lately. He finally realized we could get fun books there that he might actually like.

Looks kind of like a book rainbow, doesn't it?
We came home with over 20 tomes. They're all good ones too. I had to read 6 stories to him at bedtime, and that was on top of the 4 or 5 I'd already read when we got home from the library.

I'm really glad he's enjoying books, and the library. Both those things have been very important to me in my life and very beneficial too. In fact I don't know what I'd do without the library right now. I'd have a very costly habit I guess.

It was so funny, I had requested a book I knew he'd want, so it was waiting for us at the check out desk. When he saw what it was he was so excited that he plopped right down there and started reading it. Cute? Yes.

About 90% of the books are about dogs too. It's pretty funny.

Anyway, if you see Kris tell him to come home soon? It's a bummer he has to miss conference weekend. It's a bummer he has to be gone at all, we miss him!

::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.

::happy april 1st!::

It's chilly here!
Thought it might be fun to celebrate the beginning of this fine hopefully springy month with some old family photos.

We sure do miss our favorite restaurant in Kansas City. Yum enchiladas poblana.



Won't it be nice when it's warm enough for short sleeves again? And wow, the grass in that last photo is super green through the window. Looks so nice.


We won't be seeing any family this month probably, but hopefully soon enough. Kelly and Lechelle might be coming to visit sometime soon, and hopefully Ken will make it out here before our two years is up!

APRIL FOOLS (about the photos--everything else is pretty much true I guess)
One last one:

Oh, wait, this one's real. Ummmmm........

(have you ever been to this site?)

Time For Your Check-up

I have a dental dilemma:  I don't like working on family members. Even though we have dental insurance (albeit sucky) I'm not about to let just anyone treat my Ginna-teeth.   And they can forget about my Max-teeth--I keep a tight eye on them. 

So, what to do when Ginna and Max are overdue???

Ginna was not excited about spending a Saturday morning in the hospital getting her teeth cleaned, but Max was pumped. We started with Max. This wasn't his first time, but he is surprisingly wiggly and not that easy to treat. I'm also surprisingly less patient with him. The infection control was not what you'd usually see at the office, but I at least used gloves.
I used some behavior management techniques I don't usually use with other people's kids also. For example: the arm hold.

I routinely treat kids much younger than Max doing things way more invasive than just a cleaning, so I was annoyed when Max was giving me a hard time just sitting in the chair. Then, I realized that if I treated him like any other scared kid, he might do fine. And he did

First I disclosed his teeth to see where the plaque was. He thought the little pink tablets were treats. Then, I let him play with the "robot toothbrush".

I washed out his teeth and let him practice using the special straw that drinks from you.

Soon, it was business time:


After I cleaned all the pink off his teeth, I gave him the old scratching, clicking, picking exam. It was refreshing to pick around and not find any cavities, unlike my typical exams that may have more cavities than teeth.

We have these really goofy Statue of Liberty sunglasses to help the kids eyes not burn away under the treatment light.

Max really liked the glasses.
We finished up with the classic bubble gum flavored fluoride treatment and it was on to Ginna. She didn't let Max use her camera to take embarrassing pictures of her getting the same treatment. But here's and idea of what she was seeing.

We finished up Ginna without Max touching too many things he shouldn't have. And the Ginna teeth had no cavities either. That's important because we have an image to uphold, right?

Before going home we spent some time in my office. I worked on some stuff while Max got to play on Brian's computer (my co-resident). Max loves the hospital. If only he could go to work in my place.

::::

::six::

Today after church we had six missionaries over for dinner. No, we didn't _eat_ the missionaries for dinner, unfortunately, we fed them. They ate a lot!
For some reason our ward has six elders right now. Two portuguese speaking and four english speaking. They're total goofballs. We had a lot of fun with them.

It stressed me out a little trying to figure out what to feed them all, and once I realized that today was fast sunday and they'd be breaking their fast at our house it was even worse. But we figured it out. There wasn't a bit of food left by the time they left, but I think they may have been full.

It was Max that had the best time though. He was playing with them non stop. Tickling, being tickled, playing games, teasing, yelling wiggling. You call it, they did it.

Magic tricks--making quarters disappear (down your sleeve.)

We took some photos so I could email them out to their moms. Max made sure he was front and center.

It was really fun to have them, makes me wish we could have Murphy and his companions come so we could feed them too!
Missionaries are so cute.

::warn me next time::

Max says he told me before, but I don't remember it.
He says that when he goes outside, sometimes he turns in to a bad guy.
I wish I would've been prepared. It was a little scary.
Good guy:

Bad guy:

Good guy: (well sort of)

Bad guy:

Well behaved, compliant young man:

Really bad guy: (you should hear the scary sounds he's making)


The scary thing is that it's finally warming up around here, and hopefully we'll be spending more (a lot more) time outside. So wish me luck, I'm not sure what's going to happen.
These photos were taken a week ago today, and it was freezing. My hands were so cold taking pictures, they felt like they were going to fall off. Today it was sunny and actually kind of warm in the sun. I don't expect it to last just yet, but I we're going to enjoy what we get. Max spent a lot of time out in the wimpy yard running his trike into stuff. Can't wait for the new yard!

::so far so good::

So I took Rachel's advice. She said that if Sultan slept with Max it would seal the deal and they'd be friends forever.
I asked Max if he wanted to have Sul sleep in his room. Max was a little worried about the carpet getting hairy, but once I promised him that carpets can be vacuumed he was excited and went and pulled Sultan's bed into his room.
Sultan thought it was weird. He wasn't sure he wanted to sleep there. I gave Max some dog treats to try to smooth things over, and it helped a bit.
But he didn't want to sleep there when night fell. He usually sleeps on his bed all night, but last night he kind of wandered the house.
I think he ended up on the bed though.

Anyway, the whole point of this story is that I went into Max's room this morning after my shower. Max was supposed to be getting dressed, which is always an ultra long process.
Here's what I saw:

Does he have that kind of put upon look in his eye, or is that just my imagination?
Max was letting him read. He'd gotten out his dog books. McDuff, and Martha Speaks. They're open to specific favorite parts.
I thought it was so cute. How nice of Max to help Sultan read! And to find the books he might be interested in.

So far so good I say. I like that Max has to think about somebody else besides himself once in a while. It can't be a bad thing. Now if we can just get Sultan on board we'll be set.

::not yet::

It is FREEZING here. It doesn't feel like spring at all to me. It warmed up for a couple of days, but the wind is freezing. So high 50s felt like 30s to me. And now when it's in the 30s it feels like 20!!
But spring can't be _too_ far away. Because Max and I found these:

and these:





If the flowers are out it can't be too much longer, right?
We found most of these in unkempt yards belonging to rental houses. I love whoever planted them, they make me so happy to see. And I love the person that thought of early spring flowers in the first place even more! I miss the bulbs I planted at our first house in Kansas City, the ones the squirrels always ate up. I wonder if they're still blooming.

These remind me of an easter egg hunt. Just sweet little flowers coming up bravely amid all the old winter detritus.
And even though we were freezing when I took this pictures, it was still nice to be outside. And nice to see the sun.
Come spring, come!