::more nature max::

Do you remember the Nature Max movie we made last fall?
Well, Max and I just finished up a new one, and he's really excited about it.
It's my first iphone video, and I think it looks pretty darn good. The only problem I have with it is the audio--the phone doesn't pick up audio as well as our little video camera, although the video is like a million times nicer. Can't have it all I guess.

Enjoy Nature Max--Taos edition. And you know you can change the video quality of what you're watching down in the lower right hand corner. Hopefully your internet is faster than ours and can show you the video at all!

(and if you have watched the original Nature Max lately you might catch a few allusions Max makes to himself--he thinks he's pretty funny.)

::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!!)

::two months to go::

(taking pictures of oneself can be complicated)
As of today there are two months until the official due date. Now, we all know better than to go by official due dates, but what else is there to do at this point?
Things have really been going great. At one point the dr's office in RI thought I had a fibroid, but the new OBGYN's office here in NM couldn't find it when they went looking. I'd rather have it that way, naturally.
I'm doing well, just really tired and busy. Some days everything hurts and some days I feel great.
Last night I did wake up in the middle of the night because (1)my back hurt (2)I had to go to the bathroom (3)my ear was ringing because I'm congested and can't take any decongestants (4)horrible heartburn. I was really annoyed. Then I laughed and thought--boy, does this sound like the third trimester or what?

So much has happened in the last few months, it's crazy to think we just have a couple of months to go, but also crazy that there are still a whole couple of months!
We'll make it. We're all excited. Max is very excited and enjoys feeling the baby kick whenever he gets the opportunity. I think he'll be a good and helpful big brother (generally speaking.)

(this is kind of like my view of myself. Mostly middle, no feet anymore)
Thinking of names is taking lots more time and energy this time than with Max--at least it seems that way. Maybe it's because we have to come up with a good option of each gender? Maybe it's because (as the trendy baby name books say) we need to coordinate sibling names? (hah). Anyway, we're working on it, and hopefully in a couple of months we'll have some good stuff figured out.

Can't wait to meet this little one.

::switcharoo::

My sweet little Max had to go through a little bit of a school ordeal this week.
Evidently there were some problems with class sizes, and the 1st grade classes had to be slightly reorganized. (I've heard from other moms this happens often in this school--something having to do with enrollment numbers and etc.)
I was hoping that we would be safe, since there are so many 1st graders, and the likelihood of Max being chosen out of the mob seemed low. But of course, he got picked to move into a different class. Bummer. Extra bummer since the principal called and left me a message telling me about it at 7PM on friday night before labor day. So I had to go through the whole weekend mad, and couldn't get ahold of anybody to complain and explain that my poor little son has been moved around already more than any guy needs to be, and how I just wanted him to be able to stay in the same dang class where he was actually starting to make friends!

So I didn't talk to him about it over the weekend, really hoping I was going to be able to talk the school out of it and that he'd just be able to go to his normal class. But after a billion calls to the school and emails to the principal the only way to reach her was to attack her at her office as she arrived 10 minutes before school started.

There was nothing I could do--you know--there comes a point where unless you're going to be a super duper jerk you just have to deal with what comes.

So I had to go out in the parking lot and tell my little boy he was switching classes RIGHT THEN. I felt awful.
Luckily his new teacher is super nice, and after listening to my concerns she was very sympathetic. She came out to the parking lot with me and took him back to the classroom to show him around. He was pretty sad and bummed at first, but warmed up to her pretty quickly.
He seemed to do ok, but me? I didn't do so hot that day until I picked him up and saw he was ok.
He had a good day, and he's had a good week in the new class, though he definitely misses his old one.
I'm just proud of him--he's strong and resilient and fun and smart. He's a great kid and I'm so glad he's ours!!

::new toy::

Max was so sad when we moved from RI because we had to give our trampoline away.
It was old and kind of gross and we had to hold the safety net on with wire ties. We weren't going to pay to move that dang thing across the country.
Besides the yards out here aren't exactly made for playground equipment.

And that's the problem. The yards are just different than what we're used to. Before we moved, Max spent hours out in the yard, swinging in the hammock and playing on the deck. Out here it's more complex. Our yard is less contained and the in the afternoons the little garden area gets HOT. There's also not a lot of room for chairs or hammocks or anything. Our hammock is out there, but it's on the part of the patio that's not contained by walls, so I'm not thrilled about him being out there all alone.
So there's not a ton of motivation to play outside, which I don't like.

So I thought maybe we could get a tramp again. A smaller one. One that would fit right in our useless gravel patch.
And I found it.
The other day when we got home from work/school/whatever, there was a big package waiting for us by the door. Max was psyched to see that the box said TRAMPOLINE on it!
Kris said he'd set it up right away.
When we started working on it the sun was up and the evening breezes were starting to blow. It was really nice outside.


(see the flower petals on Sultan's back? I love it when he goes out and rubs around the bushes. He comes in looking like he's been at a wedding or something, all covered with purple petals.)

For some strange reason Max had already gotten dressed in his PJs. This is honestly so weird and never ever happens without us bugging him a bunch. But that day, somehow he was on top of things.

He was just SO excited about the trampoline!!

And we worked on it and worked on it. Max played around and Sultan ate apples.


Isn't it tiny? It's probably half the size and half the height of our old one. It kind of looks like an overgrown exercise trampoline. I think it's cute.
Setting it up took way longer than it seemed like it should. And the sun was going down.


The sunset over the mountains never fails to disappoint.
And Kris finally finished up the last bit of the safety net set up in the dark.

And the little guy finally got to jump. He waited so long and so semi-patiently! We let him jump for about 5 minutes and then shuttled him off to bed.


It was a nice night. And Max was way excited to get up and jump on his trampoline the next morning. I'm hoping it'll inspire a lot more outside time this fall!
Thanks for spending the evening with us.

::indian market::

A couple of saturdays ago, Santa Fe hosted their famous yearly event, the Indian Art Market.
People have been telling us about it for months, so we really wanted to go and check it out. And a friend I met at Max's karate class was selling her jewelry there (it was awesome, by the way) and a mom of one of our patients was also exhibiting her jewelry there.
I snagged a picture of her.

Her jewelry was so dang pretty. I wished I could buy all of it.

Anyway, this is a huge weekend event and I'm told that people come from all over for it. And it seemed that way. We got downtown around 8AM, and it was already packed. There were people everywhere, and the amount of turquoise people were wearing would've sunk a tanker.
It was hot and Max was really wimpy walking around in the crowds and the sun. So we went quickly to find our friends and then we planned to leave.
But then we saw the honey stand.

Oooooooooooooooh, says Max.
There were a billion different honey flavors. And the honey guy let us taste as many types as we wanted.

He'd put a little bit on the end of a sample stick and we would suck it off.
Max was enjoying it until he got a taste of the really really dark (almost black) honey. It was so strong and bitter. I don't even know what to compare it to. I've never tasted anything quite like it. After that Max was done sampling. He's a little wimpy.
But Kris and I weren't done. We tried raspberry/strawberry, orange blossom, desert wildflowers, mountain wildflowers, etc. etc. I don't even know what else.
Then we had to choose just three flavors. It was a tough one. But we chose the wildflowers (desert & mountain--hoping maybe eating the local honey would help with allergies, we'll see) and then we chose the orange blossom flavor. Mmmmmmm, it's good.


Aren't the bottles of honey gorgeous? I just want to put them on the windowsill and look at them and never eat them. Luckily they're too tasty to really tempt me to do that.

So after that we left. We had a small dose of Indian Market and enjoyed in that way. There was so much to look at though, we could've been there hours if we could've fought the crowds.
Oh, but before we left I ran into a booth that Lechelle and I had found earlier when she was in town. It was these amazing carved gourds. You would love them Mom!
I don't know if you can see any detail in this picture, but these people had carved tiny awesome patterns onto these gourds, mostly animals. I loved the hummingbirds and butterflies. If only I had the most money ever I would've bought them all.


So there's your little taste of the craziness of the Santa Fe touristy art scene. It's pretty fun if you can handle the pressure!

::friends::

We feel really lucky to have moved into this area. The ward has a bunch of people our age and in similar situations. We've met a lot of fun and interesting people, and there are even a few kids Max's age, including his current crush.

She's there on the right. When we get together with them they just giggle and giggle and giggle.
We're looking forward to a lot of fun get togethers with church friends, and that's nice!!

::only in NM::

Watch out for cows being abducted by aliens. It seems to be a serious problem out here. Yikes.

::mmmmm, apples::

We have at least three apple trees in our little yard.

(check it out all you skeptics, we've got grass and trees! So much grass in fact that it needs to get cut, yikes.)
The apples on the little trees are starting to look pretty legit as we head towards fall. They're really pretty.

I love how they're starting to blush red and how they peek through the leaves.

Anyway, I just found out the other night when we were hanging out in the garden, that one particular member of our family has already been partaking of the apply goodness--liberally.

Sultan picked and ate about five apples in the hour we were outside. It was cracking me up.
Kris says he's been doing it for a while. I was glad to know that, otherwise I might've made him sleep outside that night.
But oh well, at least he's keeping busy. It must be like heaven for him--free food falling from the sky!

Silly dog.
I can't wait to make a crisp out of the apples soon.