::found::

"Mama Worm."







What fun. Now we know she's somewhere back there taking care of her babies.

::guess who::

We're lucky enough to have a semi-surprise visit from Kris's brother Kelly this week! He came in today and gets to stay until next week.
It's only too bad his wife Lechelle couldn't come with him. Next time, right Lechelle??

Poor Kris has had kind of an intense week. He's on call right now, and has had to go in and take calls at night the last few days. Some weeks are light and some are heavy, this one's been heavy so far, and it's only been a few days! He's also on a rotation where he goes to the operating room three days a week to learn about administering anesthesia. It's interesting, but he has to get up at about 5:30 those mornings. It ruins him for the evening. He's super tired, and with good reason, poor guy.


Anyway, Kelly got here this afternoon, and he and Max were already having a good old time. Matching. I got them the cutest shirts for christmas. Too bad Max's is pretty much too small already--his little belly sticks out the bottom unless he's wearing something underneath.



And speaking of matching, how about this look?

Just when we were talking about grabbing some after dinner celebratory ice cream Kris's pager went off. It was a big messy case, so Kelly thought he'd go along to observe and keep Kris company. I might not see them for a good long while, but at least they're together. Brothers are great.

::60 degrees::

So what do you do when it's a balmy 60 degrees outside?
Why get in your swimming suit of course, and run through ice cold hose water!

Or that's what you do if you're 100% crazy and your name is Max.
Our poor cars are covered with leaves and pollen and little sticky things. We park under a tree nowadays, which is great for providing shade, and also great for providing schmutz.

This was NOT a warm evening. Luckily he didn't catch hypothermia. But he did have a blast, and sometimes that's all that matters.

::fish family photo::

All the fish came out together the other day and insisted on Max taking a family photo.
There's been a new addition to the family.

It's the "mama mama fish." She's Mama Fish's mom. She was given to Max quite a while ago by his Grandma Kathy, and was pretty much ignored until he came across her the other day and realized who she was. She has been going around with Mama Fish a lot lately. They both came with us to see the Earth movie a while back. They're basically inseparable. And they're pretty well inseparable from Max too. In fact, he took mama fish, mama mama fish and daddy fish with him to the father's and son's campout last weekend. Only daddy fish was allowed out of the car, the two moms had to stay. And I was in charge of the baby fishes.


So are some of you wondering how we ended up with 5 of the same fishy? I'm not sure I really want to tell the story, but I'm going to. For posterity's sake at the very least.

Mama fish is third from the left here. And yes, I can tell the difference. We gave her to Max for his first Christmas. And boy was she ever a good present. He started taking her everywhere. Chewing on her eyes and fins and tail. He loved her. And when he got big enough to talk he named her Mama Fish.

When babies chew on stuff, the stuff tends to get gross and stinky. And he never liked to give up Mama Fish for a washing. So I had this really bright idea. I'd buy another mama fish! Then I could swap her out and wash whichever fish wasn't being used. Brilliant, right?
What I didn't realize is that the boy would know when his best friend was replaced with a look alike. He knew immediately. And thus, Daddy fish was adopted into the family. So now he had to have two fish everywhere he went. Daddy fish is 2nd from the left in that family photo.
THEN...
We were shopping at the bookstore--Borders I think? Anyway, one of those bookstores with pluffy animals. And who does Max find but another fish! And before I realize it and can stop him, he's sucked on one of the fins, and stuck it in his ear. Arrgh. I still tried to separate him from it, but it was like I was breaking his heart. So I just gave in like a good sucker mom and bought the adorable thing. That was Baby fish. Baby fish is 5th from the left (or 2nd from the right, whichever you prefer.)

THEN...
I was made completely insane at this point, I didn't know right from wrong or have any sense. So when I was someplace and saw two adorable pluffy fish I had to buy them. I put them high up in my closet. I think my thought process was that if Mama, or one of the other family members was permanently misplaced I could do something about it. And that was/is a valid concern. Mama fish has been lost more times than I can count, and seriously lost several times. I've always found her though, lucky for Max!

When we moved from our first house in Kansas City, the fish were unearthed by Max. I didn't know it. I came into the room and there he was, snuggling and rolling around with FIVE fish!! I was shocked. It was too late though. They were all his, and they joined him at bedtime. They've also all taken trips with us before, though luckily now we're down to just one or two on big trips.
I can't tell who's who in the photo, Baby Brother fish and Baby Sister fish look very similar. The only way to tell the difference is that Baby Sister fish still has a plastic tag thing through her fin.

So that's the story. Max loves his fishies, and I love him.

::bubble mower::

I really wanted to get Max a little plastic lawn mower to go along with the new yard. I knew Kris was going to have to do some mowing, and what's more fun than mowing the lawn with dad? With your OWN mower no less.
I couldn't find a plain old little plastic one though. These days all there are (at least out here in the progressive east) are plastic mowers that blow bubbles.
I thought it was kind of cheesy, but I bought one anyway.

Once it finally quit raining we got it out and he started mowing.
It's actually super cute. There's a little mechanism inside with a fan. When the little bubble stuff bottle is filled and the mower is pushed, it makes a little noise and blows bubbles from the fan. He LOVES it. He's mowed the lawn so many times in the last week.

I'm not sure what the indignant face here is all about, but I'm sure he's saying something to Sultan. That's usually how they communicate.

I love the mower. I'm so glad I got it, even though I just found it for like $4 less at Target than at the local weird store I found it in. Still worth it.

Bubbles!!!

**Oh, and yes, the lilacs do smell good. They're wonderful, and I'm going to miss them because the blossoms are starting to disappear. But luckily I took a lovely photo or two, just wish I could add the scent to the pictures.

::last week::

So I just have a little more to say about mothers day, though it know it's old news.
It was the best mother's day I ever had.
Kris took care of everything--cooked, cleaned, etc.
Breakfast was delicious. He got Max all ready for church and cleaned up.

After church he made lunch and we got to eat it OUTSIDE! It was so nice, and the day was sunny and gorgeous.



After that I got to take a nap, and Kris played with Max in the yard. Having a fun yard is so great.

Then I got to work on photos for a while on the computer and relax while Kris got dinner ready.

After that he took care of the cleaning and all the bedtime preps for Max (which he usually does anyway).
It was such a great relaxing day. I feel so lucky to have such a great little family!

::::

We sure do love our new yard.

::big city day trip::

Kris had a work event yesterday in New York city. We talked about it and decided it was cheaper for him to drive and take the train, and that way he could take Max and I along.
We left in the morning and got there around noon. Kris went to his work thing and Max and I hopped on the subway to head uptown to the American Museum of Natural History. Wow is that a BIG place. We shared an incredibly overpriced yucky lunch in the cafeteria ($17 for sandwich, drink, cookie) and then headed up to see what we could find. There was way more stuff there than we could ever see in a day.
We started with the North American mammals hall. Taxidermy heaven, let me tell you! It was cool though, Max liked looking at the animals.

Though of course you wouldn't know he's enjoying himself from his face. That's not the face I'd be making if I was standing in front of an insane moose fight, that's for sure.

This facial expression is slightly more appropriate, though not much. Man those bears were huge. That one standing up had to be twice my height.

Seems being stalked by bears and being swallowed by enormous crustaceans looks about the same.
The ocean stuff was really cool. I'm not sure how many of the animals were models vs taxidermy jobs, but they all looked cool. And there was an immense model of a blue whale hanging from the ceiling. I was impressed.



This picture is of a really tall wall where they had animals divided up by kingdom, species, phylum, etc. It was really neat. I could've looked at it forever, but of course with Max around we only look at things for a maximum of about 3 seconds before moving on.
Unless it's some computerized thing of course--then we stay there for hours. Boring.

I don't think I've ever seen anybody using those interactive computery things besides little kids. Do you think anybody's ever told the museum people that?
Mr Webb's dream:


After the ocean I took Max up to the top floor to see the dino bones. I was hoping I might get cell reception up there, since the place is way too immense to have any downstairs. It barely worked. It was a good thing it did though, because Kris got done early.
We explored some dinos. I think Max is still a little scared of them though. He wasn't that interested in looking very long.
And I don't blame him. I think they're pretty frightening myself sometimes.

Like that claw, YIKES.


I don't know how many peoples lovely posed pictures max spoiled by walking right in front of them as they pressed their shutters, but I know it's more than one, and I'm guessing not less than 10. Oh well. Do you really need a cheesy posed photo of yourself in front of EVERY single exhibit in the museum?

No way. We don't do cheesy posed photos around here. Never.

Luckily Kris finished up right about the time that I got tired and Max started running away from me around exhibits, giggling and dodging. Since I don't think that's fun we headed out back down to the subway.
On the way out we saw one of Rachel R.'s friends.

Ewwwww. He sends his love. I told him you didn't want to see him anytime soon.

Oh, I almost forgot to tell the best part. We took a bathroom break on the way out, and of course since my little boy is not the type to actually stay where I ask him to, he has to come in the stall with me. That's bad enough, but he's always messing around with the door when I'm in there. So of course, as I'm using the facilities the door swings wide open. There are tons of women and children coming in and out and everyone sees me. Even worse, he doesn't even close the door himself. I have to stand up and close it.
Awesome, right?

After I blocked that experience out of my mind very carefully we got back on the subway and went to meet Kris at Grimaldi's pizza, under the Brooklyn bridge. And boy was it good. We didn't even have to wait in line because it was 4:30 PM on thursday!

The crusts are thin, the cheese and tomato sauce is super fresh and the basil is whole. Mmmmm.

Can you see it steaming? Everybody should get a piece of this stuff. It changes your whole definition of the word pizza.
Anytime anybody wants to go we'll meet you there.

Then we got on the road and took the long drive home--oh, but not before Max decided he needed to poop and took up the Grimaldi's bathroom for about 20 minutes.
The joys of a five year old in the big city.....

::a walk::

I walked to pick upMax from school one of the days the last week we were in our old house. Our house is in such a beautiful area. Very much in the middle of the city, but the homes there are generally really attractive, and the yards are well groomed. Anyway, I brought the camera along so anybody that wanted to could share in the springtime beauty!

I don't remember seeing many trees like this before. We had a lot of blossoming trees in kansas city, but this is like a carnation tree or something! The flowers are huge and gorgeous. And oh so pink.

I love these trees. The flowers are almost like little cups or something, riding up on top of the branches. They're so delicate and attractive.









And my favorite little "blossom"?

Riding along in the prince's throne. We'll miss the our old neighborhood, it's beautiful!

**speaking of beautiful, go and check out this. My friend Amanda and I just started a little photography blog.  She lives in Oregon, so we're on different sides of the country.  We have a theme each week and we try to illustrate it in our own way.  I'm having a lot of fun with it.