Birthday Week & Weekend

We have had a VERY busy week. Although exhaustion has set in at this point on Sunday night I did want to write down a couple of things Max said today before I forget. Birthday pictures to follow but, most of them are on facebook.

Yesterday morning we attended our stake baptism day. We had 6 children getting baptized and that included having LOTS of out-of-town family members. The services were held in the chapel and then 3 kids at a time and families would move down to the RS room for their baptisms and confirmations. We had two kids from our ward and we are very close to one of them. So we were excited to go. Max and all the children were able to sit close and see all the action. Thankfully they have installed a glass barrier between the room and the font so no one could fall in or get pushed in.

Today as we were walking in to church, Max said to me, "Mom, if dad does not get back before I turn 8, will you baptize me?" I laughed for a minute and then informed him, that dad will be back way before his 8th birthday and that mom could not baptize him. It would have to be daddy or grandpa. Of course Max then questioned why I could not baptize him, and I said, well because I don't have the priesthood. Why? Was his answer to this. Because the mommies have to carry the babies and the daddies get to have the priesthood! Perhaps not the best answer but, he dropped it after that. It seemed to satisfy him for the minute anyway.

We are then riding in the car and Max asked to listen to "Take it to the left" song. I said is that a song from school? I don't recognize it. No no ... he replied. Maybe daddy took it back to Afghanistan with him. I said, no daddy did not take any music back with him. Anyway, he insisted that daddy listened to this song with him and he just wanted to listen to "Take it to the left" ... have pondering this for some time, I finally realized Max was talking about "Take it to the Limit" from the Eagles cd. Once I found which song he was referring to .... we listened to it over and over so Max would know it was "limit" not "left"! Such a stinkin' smart kid with an incredible memory.

More Max questions and ponderings to follow.

Look Whos Five!

Our little man turned 5 this past week. He is so much fun and quite a handful! As Imentioned in a post below he is ALL BOY! Here are some of the things that Max is doing now:

Attends preschool 5 days a week from 6:45 am to 5:30 pm.

Speaks beginning Spanish (taught at school)

LOVES did I mention LOVES legos!

Is beginning to read and recognize lots of site words.

Enjoys playing hide-n-seek (but don't hide too hard mom), star wars laser tag, and anything on disney.com, nickjr.com or thomasandfriends.com;

Loves to play with trains and likes to watch Chuggington in the mornings from 6 - 6:20 am.

Is learning to be friends with lots of boys and girls from church and school.

Max has beautiful blue eyes and lots of curly brown hair that makes him super cute.

For all the moving that we have down over the past two years, I am so proud of Max. He likes to find adventure in all that we do. I'm so glad that I have him here with me while Mark is away working. Although challenging to be with him by myself, I truly do love teaching him and helping him to grow. I pray that we will always be close and that we will be able to stay close in our relationship. Every night when Max is saying his prayers he always asks Heavenly Father to watch over and protect dad and to help dad find a new job where we can all be together.

We celebrated Maxs' birthday by having Justin and 14 other kids go bowling here in Alexandria. Bowling with 16 kids is a little nuts but, I had lots of parents there who helped me. After bowling we had hot dogs, hamburgers, chips and cake! On the morning of Maxs birthday dad called at 6:15 am so he could tell him personally happy birthday and that he loved and missed him so much.

We love this little man and we are so happy that he is in our lives!

Quote of the Week

Keep an eye on your kitchen scale and your

bathroom scale will take care of itself!

Unknown

PS - Down another pound!

I Cheated!

I can not tell a lie .... I cheated this afternoon ... 6 of these babies with a little peanut butter on them. And they were DELICIOUS! The weekends are SO hard to eat well on! Running errands, looking at birthday cakes, having all kinds of yummy food all around you ... a cheese stick and carrots just were not going to do it for me. BUT, seriously, I don't think 6 saltines or "square crackers" will blow everything. Although this was my first flour and sugar is almost 14 days!

Quote of the Week

"If the problem is not hunger, the solution is not eating!" Unknown

Yes I am in the second full week of a new eating plan.

A little tired of salad.

But

Down 7.5 lbs.

Raising A Boy ...

This sweet boy is so bright, smart, cute, has a memory that can't be stopped and is going through so many social growing pains! Max has been learning how to interact with other kids while at school and lately, we have had many "incident" reports written up. Thankfully they have not all included Max and Max has not been the cause of all the incidents but, "boy howdy" school lately has been a challenge!

The teachers will say to me "he is all boy" or "boys will just do this" or "this is natural for boys" etc. "These" boys will break out in wrestling matches at any given time especially if there is an older boy close by. My definition of wrestling is watching Max body tackle other kids (including some girls) to the ground, swing arms and legs and roll on top of one another. Swinging arms and pushing can happen uncontrollably at just about any time. I found out that another little boy at his school thinks he is a power ranger so therefore he likes to lash out, punching and kicking at any given time. Again, "all boy" and "boys will just do this". Hmmm .... I have and will continue to try and teach Max about CTR especially when it comes to our friends and teachers at school. Listening and comprehending is just an on-going project for all kids, I think in reality and for some of us adults too! Mark (along with close friends and parents) get to hear me rant about how concerned I am over all of this but, the reality most likely is that I am not alone ... Maxs' behavior is mostly likely as normal as it can be for an almost 5 year old! Mommiehood just gets better and better, but this sweet boy can melt my heart every day especially when I hear "Mom, I love you soooo much" which usually happens just as he is dozing off to sleep.

Who's Tub Is It?

Does your tub look like this? We have two bathrooms in our apartment but only one tub. Love sharing my shower / tub with all kinds of action figures including Darth Vader! Thankfully, they are all here to keep us safe!