::Just one more thing::

I just had such a great time while my dad was here that I can't really stop talking about it (obviously) but this'll be my last "dad" post, at least for now.
Dad helped Kris replace the brakes on my car. Well, I guess it was the rotors? It was a hard job and it was nice for Kris to have some help. Except that my dad is not a good influence as far as NOT buying tools. Oh well, at least he could tell Kris the right tools to buy--which is sometimes a problem.
Here they are:

The brakes felt wonderful for my drive to Minnesota. I feel lucky to have such a handy husband, and a handy dad.

And last but not least, my dad makes such yummy sandwiches. I had good lunches the whole week he was here. It was too nice.

Yum. Love you dad!

.::The Things Grandpas do for their Boys Pt 2::.

Wonderful Grandpas that love their little ones might play cars for hours. Whether they feel like it or not. They might also put up with being constantly bossed, and told that "cars don't talk". Funny since a few months ago they seemed to talk a lot.

Patience is important.

Max loved it.

A Grandpa also might lie down on the floor and let heavy heavy four year olds jump on them (it's called Hop on Pop. We used to get to do it when we were little. It was the best)
Then he might pretend to be a horse.


Or maybe more of a bucking bronco.


This one good way to get a workout. I don't think I'm going to try it anytime soon.

Does it looks like Max is having fun? I think SO!
Then that same Grandpa, since he is already on the floor, might just let his very heavy four year old grand boy fly like an airplane (this is also something we used to get to do when we were little. It was so fun.)

That one took a little while to figure out though.

I think the front flip exit was a little intimidating. That was all of the floor activities for the day.
Keep in mind, these Grandpa activities were besides making breakfast every morning, teaching Max (and his mom) how to make bread, helping clean up night time pukes, doing laundry, reading bed-time stories, baby sitting, going to the park for hours... I could go on and on. Max is lucky to have such a fabulous grandpa! Grandpa Guy, you can come back and visit anytime.

::KC's Fame::

(Warning--I don't know how to spell barbeque. So I've spelled it several differnet ways in this post. I think one of them has got to be right. Just keep in mind, I'm not a dummy...right?)
While my dad was here we thought we'd better let him in on one of the things that makes Kansas City famous. The Barbeque!
He's certainly had barbeque before, and of course he's cooked stuff ON the barbeque a billion times, but he hadn't ever had Arthur Bryant's--those of you from out here know that if you haven't eaten at Arthur Bryant's (or Oklahoma Joe's of course) you haven't really had true barbeque.
So we took him.
And I think he liked it.

He's eating ribs here. We had a platter with ribs, sausage and burnt ends. Mmmm burnt ends. Max likes it too.

I actually don't like going to this place that much, although the food is tasty. It's just really greasy in there, the people you have to order from always look at you like you're the dumbest idiot in the world, and somebody always tells me I can't sit where I want to. Oh, and at lunch the line goes out the door. That tells you something though, right? It sure tastes good.
I found out that people don't like to get interrupted while they're concentrating on ribs.



Which may be why I wasn't able to get a picture of Kris where he wasn't making some sort of ridiculous face.

No matter how hard I tried.

I guess he was trying to concentrate.

This is a decent picture though.

He's cute, even though he needs a haircut really bad.
Basically how this place works is that they give you a big plate full of meat--assorted or all the same, whatever you want. And then you have 3 or 4 squeeze bottles at each table that are filled with different kinds of bbq sauce--Arthur Bryant's signature sauces of course. So you can add whichever flavor sauce you want to your meat. The fries taste great when they're dipped in the bbq sauce too. They also give you as many slices of wonderbread as you want. Sound healthy? Oh yeah....
So we ate and ate--

and ate and ate

and showed Max how not to eat bones

and then when we were all ready to explode, we left.

It was good.
If you want to visit this place with us you'd better hurry up and get out here. Only a month left....

.::I did it MYSELF::.

You may recall that I posted a couple of times at the beginning of the year about trying to find things to occupy Max in order to keep him from getting bored, and as a result of being bored going crazy and being bad.
This is still often a problem, but we started with small tasks, and we've got some improvement.
He can now button his own pants (usually). He zips and buttons, and actually pulls his pants up which is a huge improvement--if you recall the whole reason why he had to have stitches in his chin is because he used to walk around the house with his pants around his ankles after using the facilities. I'm glad we seem to have moved past that.


Please excuse the nekkedness. It's just such a cute belly. He was very very proud of himself when he first figured it out. Snapping pants is really tougher than it looks, let me tell you. And there was only one pair of pants he could button for a long time, so he had to wear those pants every day for a while. Luckily we've moved past that. Now there are like 3 pair he can wear.
One of the other things we've been working on his having him put on his own seatbelt. Ok, I know that this is just exposing our slackerness--we probably should've had him doing this for like the last two years. I'm sure you all with multiple kids had your first strapping themselves in at 18 months. But Max is lucky enough right now to fill the roles of both oldest kid and the baby of the family, so he gets certain benefits I guess. (Not sure if they're really benefits, but whatever!) Mostly we're just always in a hurry when we go anywhere.
So now he's pretty darn good at strapping himself in! It's nice. Except we probably still strap him in more than we should--he's just so darn slow.
He's proud of this skill too and so are we.


Now just imagine his little voice saying, "I DID it!!"

His latest trick? He's figuring out how to zip up his own jacket. Now that's hard. He's only been able to it a couple of times, but he's still trying.

Kris and I just have to try to be more patient, and take the time to let him do these things himself. It's good for him to feel like he's capable, and has responsibilities of his own. We're proud of him. He sure is growing up.

And like I keep saying I do have more grandpa guy posts coming. I am just so behind on everything right now because of school. Only one more month!

::A Jaunt::

I haven't been able to post for the last few days because my friend Carie and I were taking a little vacation in Minnesota!
Here's a fun picture of Carie for you.

Carie is great. Its so nice to have a friend that's close that I have so much fun hanging out with--it's been a long time. And no Carie, I'm not just saying that because I know you read this thing.
We took a quick 3 day jaunt up there because our husbands wanted us to go and have fun! Isn't that nice of them? Well, it was something like that anyway. We went up there with the intention of going to Ikea, a place that we both enjoy, and the trip didn't disappoint!
We were in Minneapolis, and the Ikea was right by the Mall of America. Heard of that place? It's supposedly the largest mall in the US. And boy is it ever huge. It has an amusement park in the middle and basically any (mall) store you can think of. We started out there and had dinner. What's better to eat at the mall than mall food? We had orange chicken from Panda Express (or Stomachache Express as Carie likes to call it.) I have to mention this because I took such a great picture of the food:

and yeah, if it looks tasty to you that's because it was! Yum. It was great until later when our stomachs were sorry we'd eaten it.

Anyway, we shopped at the mall on the first day and the third day (spending plenty of time trying on clothes of course), and then the 2nd day we spend the entire day shopping at Ikea, going through all the things we wanted carefully and slowly. Since there was nobody to rush us it was great! So great in fact that we got there at like 10 in the morning and didn't leave the place until 5. Amazing, huh? We got a lot done though, and no, neither of us spent our life savings--somehow. The picture you see is of a bed I'm hoping to maybe get later on, for our new house, maybe.
We had lunch there and I got to eat the swedish meatballs. They were really good. Oh, to have an Ikea close. Poor Kansas City, it might never happen.

It was a really fun trip. It's the first time I've gotten away by myself in forever, maybe ever actually, and I think it was the same for Carie. We're lucky to have husbands that are so good with our kids, that don't think twice about stepping up and taking care of things!
Max did pretty well while I was gone, but was actually much more upset than when Kris and I went to Providence. He didn't seem to care when we were gone together but he did break down a couple of times this week. He was happy to see me when I got home (and I was happy to see him and Kris--it's nice to be gone, but always so great to come home.)

Now I'm off to do more school work. I have a big project due monday and then hopefully some of the school pressure will be lessened. I have more posts on the way about Grandpas and cute little boys. Stay tuned!

.::The Things Grandpas do for their Boys Pt 1::.

I came home from helping Kris at school one day last week and here was the sight I saw:

Mr ultra cool Grandpa had set up a big pad made up of his blankets and pillows on the rug, and Max was leaping onto it from the ottoman. He was having an absolute blast.
He would do a countdown:

(note the cool new way to do three, he figured that one out himself.)


this takes a LOT of concentration.


ZERO! Alright, GO!

Woo hoo!



I think part of what added to the extreme enjoyment of this was that in the past jumping off the ottoman in any form has been outlawed. So getting to do it was more than a little bit thrilling I'm sure!

I love this picture. Sultan was coming over to sit on me since I was down on the floor.

Looks like fun, huh? What a fun Grandpa to come up with something like this. I'm not sure he would've ever let us do it when we were kids, but I guess that's what it means to be a grandpa. You get to indulge the little ones.
And who wouldn't want to let this:

Do this?

More grandpa indulgences and activities to come later.