Wordless Wednesday

Dinner tonight

So yummy!

Homemade teriyaki marinated chicken thighs and asparagus - on the barbie!






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Max's new toy

Go Huskies! 

As soon as I saw the color of the stroller I'd been lusting over, I knew this was 'the' one.

Max has a fussy disposition because I dared to stop the ride. Homeboy does not like any sort of pit stops.

So I only got two action shots before it was time to hit the road again.

So far, I love it so much more than the Maclaren stroller we got last year. We had been debating between the two last year and I wish we'd gotten this one at the time. But cest' la vie. I'm lovin' it!


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Best ever trail mix

Here's a recipe for our family's favorite trail mix.




I bag of the Nestle Peanut Butter and Chocolate morsels
1/2 bag of the Nestle White Chocolate morsels
Several handfuls of the following (until it reaches your own perfect balance of yumminess): Almonds, Cashews, golden and/or regular raisins, Craisins and Peanuts.

Mix well and enjoy!

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The new trike

Here's a shot of Max's new trike. He's having lunch at the moment, so as soon as he's done we'll go for a ride around the neighborhood.

He was so excited while I was putting it together.







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My New Favorite

This guy, my new MacBookPro!

Looooooovvvvvveeeeeee it!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to my love, my husband Sam. Love you babe!

Also to my dad and my step-father - ya'll are awesome and good at being grandpas!

xoxo

P.S. Proof that I love my husband:
- getting a shot that has made my arm hurt for the last 3 days
- going on antibiotics for 7 days which have a particularly nasty side effect: the big D. Yes, oh yes, 7 days of D!

I told Sam this and his response was "think of it as like one of those week long cleanses, but without having to eat nasty stuff".
My response "shut up and rub my back". Please.

The art of compromise

So Sam and I have a pretty awesome relationship. We never really argue and I can't recall us even raising our voices to one another. This week we put the art of the compromise to the test!

Let me preface this all by saying that we have 2 cats: Marco and Gio. Marco is the smallish black cat and extreme snuggler. Gio is nutty - really and truly, he has some cat 'anxiety' craziness going on. As such Gio has some weird habits. One of which is that he just all of a sudden runs at full speed, up/down the stairs and then climbs up and hangs on the moulding on the sides of doors. He does this at least daily. He's also really picky with food/treats.

So, Thursday night, I was chilling in bed reading something on my iPhone (Facebook in fact but w/e).  I heard Gio doing is breakneck run up the stairs, but didn't realize until too late that he changed his pathing. Instead of climbing up our bathroom doorframe as per usual, he went around, scampered my nightstand and used my ear/head as a launching pad over the bed.

Yep, I got mauled by the cat. My scalp has major cuts/abrasions all across the top and my ear was sliced pretty badly (no stitches though).

Immediately, I felt the pain and screamed for  Sam. I was bleeding all over the bed from my head.  We got me into the bathroom for a closer look and decided that it wasn't necessary to head to the ER. So we waited for the bleeding to stop, I got in the shower and washed my hair as best I could (to get the blood out but also to disinfect the scratches) and then once out applied Neosporin to all the cuts.

Friday I went to the doctor - got a Tetanus shot and antibiotics.

So the compromise was in regards of what to do about/to the cat.

Gio is quite large (as cats go) and extremely strong. His claws are like demon talons. And they hurt like crazy when he does scratch you. So I, naturally, wanted the cat out of the house (hey I'm allergic anyways) and his behavior while not malicious is definitely erratic. Sam of course, wanted none of that and was trying hard to figure ways to keep the dang thing around. He loves his little beasties (to a fault).

I just couldn't get him to see things from my point of view. What if that had been Max instead of me. Or a new baby? Or if my head angle had been different...and he got my eye instead of my ear. To him, all he could see was his precious cat being sent off to the gas chambers.
That was not my intent. I just don't want the cat in the house with this strange behavior that can be quite harmful.

SO in comes the compromise.

We took Gio to the vet today (as a family and Sam was very against me/Max going because he thought we'd fight and/or I'd just wail that Gio needed to be put down or something).
I stood patiently and expressed a few opinions on the matter as needed. Calmly. Cooly. Patiently.
At the end of the visit we agreed to put Gio on kitty-Prozac and we're getting tips put on his front/hind claws.
If with the nail tips and the Prozac his behavior can become more normal and none of this crazy running/climbing up walls then he can stay. If after those things he still goes 'crazy' then we'll be giving him away.

Sam and I agreed that it was a good compromise to the situation.  No gas chambers for the kitty (laugh) and there is an 'out' for me if Gio still goes crazy after medication/claw tips.

Summer fun

So far Max and I have been having a good bit of fun this summer. He is LOVING going outside. All we have to do now is mention 'outside' and he heads to the back door. If he doesn't have shoes on, he grabs them and shoves them at me. If the TV happens to be on, he turns it and the cable box off (smart kid!). He gets very irritated with us if we don't go outside at least 2x per day.  He will point to the door/window, grab our pant legs and try to pull us to the door, he'll even stand by the door and cry/beat on the door to try to coax us to go out.  And yes he'll do this at 1am if he happens to wake up!

So even if its raining or he's sick, we still have to go out. Sometimes its just a ride to fill up the gas tank and come home. Sometimes its errands. Sometimes its a walk around the neighborhood or getting the mail. Doesn't matter how long we're outside as long as we go then he's satisfied!

As long as it hasn't been pouring down rain or over 100 degrees we try to hit the playground during the morning/early afternoons (before all the big kids from the neighborhood take it over). He's really been having fun. He even has finally learned how to climb up the equipment and go down the slide by himself. Here's us on a walk.

And here's him playing with his new back yard water/sand table. Haven't gotten the sand yet, decided for now to just leave it water only. He LOVES it.

Little Gym Graduation

Max graduated from his Little Gym Birds class last week.  We've really loved this class and of course, the Gym. The teachers here are excellent and so are all the parents/kids.

19 months

Max turned 19 months a few days ago. Just in the last few weeks his vocabulary and speech has really expanded. He got all 95th percentile marks across the board at his checkup.

At his 18 mo checkup he used only the following words: mama, dada, ice, hi and ball. He'd wave bye also.

He now also says 'all done', nana (banana), hot, shus (shoes), and juice. He also will now sign milk and point to his head, ears, and nose. We're working on tummy next.
He also makes the sounds for counting 1-2-3. Like the voice inflections that I make he'll now make also. He comes really close to saying two and three.
We're working on his S sounds. He loves to blow kisses now and says HI to everyone when we go run errands.

Now that it's hot out, every time we get in the car he says 'hot'! It's so cute!!
He's all about throwing things in the garbage can- saying all done as he does so. Or when we throw them away he'll say it too.

He's turning into such a little dude. As frustrating as it can be sometimes, it's the greatest joy!

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