Give or take a few hundred.........

Tonight when my husband and I got home from our weekly Friday night date, we found Max, sitting at my computer, taking pictures of himself in Photo Booth.

I asked him who taught him how to use the program and he told me that he had figured it out by himself.

He was making up all sorts of faces and poses as the camera clicked multiple pictures of him.

After a while, my husband said "Hey Max, that's enough. All of those pictures are taking up a lot of memory on the computer, you've taken about 30 or 40 pictures."

Max looked closely at the screen then turned around and said "No Dad, it's more like 623!"

Too many video games?

Yesterday I asked Max for a kiss on the cheek. As he leaned over to kiss me, I turned my head and planted one right on his lips.

He wiped off his mouth and said "OK mom, let's try it again!"

He tried to kiss my cheek, but again, I quickly turned my head and kissed his lips.

Frustrated, he said "Again, try it again!"

The third time, he was a little quicker, and I kissed his chin, then he said "OK, score for level 1, mom, 200, Max 100. Begin level 2, double points, and GO!"

Random stuff.....

I remember reading the drivers education manual when I got my drivers license. I don't seem to remember the section that says that when you see someone in the next lane signaling to get into your lane, that you should speed up as fast as you can because apparently, it's against the law in this state to let someone get in front of you.

Did I miss this in the manual, or did they change it?


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I'm getting sick. I mentioned this to Max this morning, and then later when I asked him for a hug, he wouldn't come near me because "I CAN'T HUG YOU BECAUSE YOU HAVE GERMS!!"

This afternoon I had to lie to my little guy and tell him I felt better, just so I could get a hug.

I will say that after getting a big Max hug, I did feel a bit better.


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I picked up the kids from school today because the weather was rainy and cold. I had a few errands to run, and I made them come with me.

After a trip to the bank and to the library (to return an overdue DVD so we don't have to fund an entire new wing of the library with our overdue fees) we were headed home when Brielle mentioned that a hot apple pie from McDonald's would sure be nice right about then.

It sounded like a pretty good idea to me too, but knowing that Max doesn't like the hot apple pies, I wasn't sure how he would react to us getting a treat and not getting one for him, so I asked "Max, do you want an apple pie from McDonald's?" you know, just in case he changed his mind about liking them.

He said no.

"Would you be sad if we all got hot apple pies?"

Much to my surprise, he said yes.

Then Aaron (sensing that there was danger of him not getting a hot apple pie) asked Max "Would you be sad if we all got hot apple pies and you didn't have to eat one?" and Max replied "No, I would be very happy if you all had them!"

Seriously, how cute is that?

I pulled into the McDonald's that was just up the street, bought 4 hot apple pies for me and the three older kids, and chocolate chip cookies for Max.

Maybe you should re-check the math on that

This is a post I just found in my drafts folder. When I wrote it, Aaron refused to let me publish it, however, today he said it would be OK.
All he asked was that I make sure that everyone knows that this happened last year.



I love the fact that my kid's teachers require them to read a certain amount of time each day.
(I don't ever remember this being a requirement when I was their age, not that it would have been a problem, because I usually spent a great deal of time with my nose in a book.)

Our kids do read the amount of time that they are supposed to, and sometimes more. The problem that I have is having to record the amount of time they spend reading.
For some reason, this simple act of writing down the amount of minutes read each day is something that nobody in our house is able to accomplish. (myself included)

We have tried everything, charts, timers, and even just writing the numbers down on the big dry erase board in the kitchen.

It appears that we are "reading minute recording impaired." (RMRI)

Last week Aaron came to me and said that he needed to turn in a reading log for the last several weeks. He wondered how much I thought he had read during that time, as if I would remember that sort of information.
I came up with a great idea. I asked him to bring me the books that he has read in the last two weeks.
Next I timed how long it took him to read one page, and told him to times that number by the number of pages he read, and that would tell us how many minutes he had read.

He thought this was a great idea, and he went in the other room with the books and the timer.
A while later, he came and asked me to sign a slip of paper. On the paper was written;

Aaron's reading minutes
112,037

"Here mom" he said "I figured out how many minutes I read, and I need you to sign the note so I can hand it in to my teacher."

I looked at the number he had written. It looked a little high. He HAD recently been reading much more than he had previously, however, I knew there was no way that in the last 2-3 weeks, he had read for well over 100 thousand minutes.

I told him to go and divide that number by 60 to see how many actual hours that added up to.

1,867 hours

Then I told him to divide that number by 24 to see how many days that would take.

77

Which would mean that he would of had to be reading for the last 11 weeks non stop to read that many minutes.

I am very sure that he didn't read for 77 days straight, in the last two weeks.

I think somebody wants a really good Christmas present

Max: "Mom, how much do you love me?"

Me: "I love you more than anything!"

Max: "No, what number do you love me?"

Me: "I love you one million, billion, trillion, gazillion.......... times infinity!"

Max: "Well, I love YOU one more than that!"

Starring Max as Peter Pan

Tonight's dinner conversation.

Me: "Hey Max, would you like some corn?"
Max: "No, thank you."
Aaron: "But corn will make you grow taller."
Max: "I don't want to get taller."
Brielle: "But if you don't get taller, you won't be able to drive a car, or go to college, get a job and your own house........."
Max: "No, I don't want to grow up. I love mom SO MUCH that I want to be 5 FOREVER!"

M.Q.O.D. (Max quote of the day)

Yesterday was such a nice day! I had a ton of work that I should have been doing, but Max wanted me to come to the back yard with him. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to spend some time in the nice warm sun with my cute little guy, so I put my work on hold and we went outside.
Max ran to the swing set and hopped up on one swing and I sat on the other one.

"Mom, " he asked sweetly "aren't you going to push me?"

I started swinging myself and said "I thought that this year you were a big enough boy to be able to push yourself on the swing."

He rolled his eyes, threw his hands in the air and said......

"BUT WHEN I PUSH MYSELF, I DON'T GET ENOUGH VELOCITY!"






Methinks we've been spending a bit too much time with Bill Nye the Science guy.

Another cute Max quote

I was hugging Max today and said "Max, you'll always be my baby!"
"No mom, I'm NOT a baby!" he protested.
You're right" I replied, "You're not a baby anymore, but you'll always be MY baby!"
He hugged me tight and said..............

"And you'll always be my grown up."

Tiger catch a fish

Last weekend, CJ and Aaron spent a great deal of time tinkering with an old computer that a neighbor gave to them. We were so impressed because they managed to fix it!
We dug out all of the old computer games that they played when they were younger, (but won't work on our newer computers) thinking that Max would really enjoy playing them.

I suppose he would have enjoyed playing them if he had been allowed to play them.

After a while, he got tired of watching his siblings play the games so he took matters into his own hands. He took three pieces of paper and drew a keyboard and a mouse on one, a monitor on another, and a pair of speakers on the third.
On the back side of the monitor drawing, he drew the "inside" of the computer which looked amazingly similar to the inside of the CPU that his brothers had been working on earlier in the day.
He laid the drawings next to each other on the table then drew "cables" between them.

"Hey guys!" he said excitedly "Look! I've made my own comprewter!"

We all took a look at his creation and told him how great his computer looked.

Next he sat down at the table and began typing on his keyboard and clicking his mouse. Every once in a while he would say things like "Oh no!" or "Yay!"
I asked him what he was doing.
"I'm playing a game on my comprewter, it's a game called Tiger catch a fish! It's a really fun game!" then he continued to type on his paper keyboard and click on his paper mouse.

He played this game all weekend.

Seriously, he sat at the table and pretended to play this game for 30 minutes straight.


Yesterday, he asked me to get a few games out of the closet. A while later he yelled "Mom! Come and see what I did!"
I went into the living room to see that he had set up a game board. One side of the board had 18 pieces set up on it and the other had 6 pieces.
"Mom! Will you play the game with me?"
"OK, I said, noticing the mismatched pieces, "But what are we playing?"
"Tiger catch a fish!"
"Oh, so it's not just a computer game?"
"No, it's a two person game. Will you play it with me?"

He sat down on the side of the board with fewer pieces. He spun the spinner from the Hi Ho Cherry-O game and moved one of his pieces two spots.

I spun the spinner and landed on 4. I moved forward two spots, then sideways two spots.

"Is it OK if I move sideways?" I ask.
"Yes" He answered, "But when you move sideways, then you get to take one of my pieces.

So after that, I moved sideways on every move and he handed me one of his pieces.

When He got down to one piece, I asked him "How do you win this game anyway?"

He giggled and said "The first one to have all their pieces get gone is the winner!"

Sneaky kid.

I guess it's easier to win if you make up all the rules as you go along.

Do you think I should perm my hair?

Anyone that knows Max knows that he has a bit of a hair fettish. Ever since he was little, he has liked to play with my hair. He wraps it around his hands and rubs it on his face, especially when he's tired. Sometimes he will play with Brielle's hair if I'm not available, but most of the time it's my hair that is his comfort object.

This is an actual conversation between me and Max.

Me: "Max, do you have any friends in your class at school?"
Max: "I like Kaylie!"
Me: "Is she cute?
Max: "YES!"
Me: "What does she look like?"
Max: "Kaylie has TOO MANY curls."
Me: "Too many curls?"
Max: "Yes, I like her curls."
Me: "Do you ever play with her hair?'
Max: "No."
Me: "Do you WANT to play with her hair?"
Max: (pauses to think for a moment) "Welllllllllll......................"




I'm just waiting for a call from the school.

Happy Bagsalody Day!

Remember my post from yesterday where Brielle was being mean to me? Then when I told her she couldn't have a popcicle because she was being rude, she started sucking up so I would let her have a popcicle, and I still wouldn't let her have the popcicle because the only reason she was being nice to me was so that she could have the popcicle, not because she was actually sorry that she had been rude.
Today, I was looking at the calendar on my iPod and I noticed that there was an event scheduled on Saturday, August 22.
I couldn't think of anything we had scheduled for that day, so I clicked on it to see what we were doing.

Apparently, August 22 is Bagsalody day.

What is Bagsalody Day you ask? Well, I didn't know either, so I looked at the memo section for that day, and this is what I read.

"This is a day in honor of my mom being pretty. I hope everyone thinks my mom is pretty. I love you mom."

So there you have it.

How do you think I should celebrate Bagsalody Day? Should there be gifts involved? Cheesecake? Chocolate?






Brielle just finished her popcicle.

Max the Magician

Today, Max walked into the room with his hands behind his back.

Max: "Hey Mom! Can I show you my new magic trick?"

Me: "Sure!"

Max: "Guess which hand is hiding something!"


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Fashion to the "Max"

Fashion statements made by Max in the previous week.

Rolled down socks

Cowboy boots with shorts (my personal favorite)

I'm not sure exactly what WHAT kind of fashion statement he's trying to make with these.

Any ideas?

A Mother's day gift from Max

I used to rock Max to sleep every night.

I would sing to him while he cuddled in my arms and twisted his fingers through my hair. The soft glow of the night light would cast shadows across his sweet face as he drifted off to sleep while I sang his favorite songs.

As he got older, he wouldn't fall asleep, but would sing the familiar songs with me, then when he got tired enough, he would tell me that he was ready to go to bed.

A while ago, we decided that he was too big for his crib. We took the crib apart and put it away, replacing it with a toddler bed.

Max was thrilled with his "big boy" bed. It was right at that time that he decided that he didn't need to be rocked at night anymore.
"We not do rock a bye now. I'm also bigger."

I really missed this time with Max, and would frequently ask him if he wanted to sit in the rocking chair with me before he got in his bed.
"No, we not do rock a bye. I just go to bed."

During this time, I was growing increasingly tired of Max's sippy cups. We had an abundance of cups, but only a few lids left and he was quite picky about which ones he would use. I told him that when he turned four, he couldn't use the sippy cups anymore.
During the weeks before his fourth birthday, I reminded him frequently that after his birthday, there would be no more sippy cups, we would be getting rid of all of them. He wasn't too happy about this, and told me that I should just go buy some more.

About a week before his birthday, I got an idea.

"Hey Max, I'll tell you what. After you turn four, you can keep your sippy cup if you let me rock you in the rocking chair before you go to sleep at night."

I was partially teasing, so I was quite surprised when he agreed to this bargain.

Over the next several days, I would remind him of our deal, and he would agree every time.

The morning of his birthday, I filled up his sippy cup with milk and handed it to him with his breakfast. He handed it back to me and said,
"I not using those anymore. I'm four now ." And that night he still wouldn't sit with me in the rocking chair.

Last Friday night we had been to a wedding reception, and Max fell asleep on the way home.
I carefully lifted him out of the car, carried him to his room and put his pajamas on him. He woke up just a little, but went right back to sleep.

So I carried him over to the rocking chair, sat down and rocked. Even though he was asleep, he instinctively reached up and rubbed my hair between his fingers.

The next morning I told him what I did.
"Hey Max, last night I rocked you in the rocking chair."
He giggled and looked at me like I was crazy.
"Hey, I totally did! I cuddled with you and you played with my hair"
He laughed and walked away. I don't think he believed me.

Saturday night after he said goodnight to the family, I asked him if I could rock him again. "I won't even sing" I told him "I'll just rock you a little bit."
Much to my surprise, Max replied "No, you should sing."

I sat in the rocking chair and he cuddled in my lap. He played with my hair and sang his favorite songs with me, then gave me a big hug and kiss and went to bed.

I don't think he'll ever know how much it meant to me to be able to rock my baby.

And yes, I know he's four years old and no longer a baby, but as I've told him many times, he'll always be MY baby.

Thanks Max.

The cutest mermaid!!

My niece is entered in a costume contest and we would love it if you would go vote for her!

Go HERE.

Please give her a 6 star vote.








P.S. I made her costume, so a vote for her is a vote for me :0)

P.P.S. Not than I'm begging or anything, but it would really boost my self esteem.

P.P.P.S. And my niece is really cute too.

P.P.P.P.S. If you feel so inclined, you could ask all your friends and family to vote too. Cause that would be nice of you.