Great-Grandma Loves Max

Great-Grandma Healy has always been able to get a smile out of Max. I love that he warms up to people fairly quickly. It seems to make people love him that much more. Grandma also gave Max a cookie which didn't hurt.

A Post for Chris

This is for anyone who likes fly-fishing. Chris made this contraption and used it last weekend fishing (which if he had a blog he would write about for hours - it was apparently GREAT fishing). Anyway, he doesn't like lanyards and is tired of his fanny pack so he came up with using his binocular harness and some picture hanging wire to make this. Way to go honey. If only it could make us some money.

River & 20 Weeks Pregnant (1/2 way!)

We went and played in the river last Saturday. We weren't sure how warm it was going to be since it has been in the 80's here but it was great. Everyone loved it, especially Thatch and Max. Murphy was busy doing flyball so she couldn't go.
Max just waded around at first with us holding his hands but then he demanded to be put down. So we stripped him of his clothes and in he went, diaper and all. He has been throwing the loudest tantrums lately, especially in Walmart. We give in sometimes and sometimes we just let him scream. He started slapping us in the face a few weeks ago and we've been working on being 'soft'. The other day he got mad at me, went to slap me in the face, caught himself in time, softly touched my lips, then screamed, and slapped the wall! I almost laughed out loud. Since he got his temper from me, I can't hardly blame him.

Back to the river - He was so filthy afterwards he had to have a bath. He is a water-baby through and through. Any little puddle of water you can't keep him out of. He launches himself out of your arms to get in any pool or tub. Hopefully we'll put up his baby pool soon and he can splash around in that all summer.

I got pretty wet too. I hardly look pregnant in this photo - I love it! (You should see the other picture I didn't post where I'm slightly bent over and look 7 months pregnant :)

20 weeks (and 5 days) pregnant in these pictures. I love Chris. You know why? Because he looks at these pictures, which he took, and the first words out of his mouth are, "You're so pretty."

My cousin posted comparison pictures of her first and second pregnancy. I don't think I really want to know. :)

Catch-Up

We had the ultrasound today and even though I started to doubt my decision to not find out, we held strong and did NOT find out what the gender is. I can already tell that the last week before the baby is born I'm going to be very anxious. I actually have no maternal instincts on this either so even though most of the time we refer to the baby as "she", it's only to avoid saying "it". We chose "he" with Max until we knew so we just switched genders this time.

We moved into the house last Saturday. Moving out was a nightmare and a half, moving in was alright. It helped to have my in-laws here. They helped unpack and put together more than half my house. And we've said we're never going to go on vacation before we move ever again. Idaho was the best part of the whole month though and was way too short. I miss going up there. Who can't love looking out at this?
Max had a great time. He LOVES being outdoors which is a very good thing for us. I tried fly-fishing for the first time and it wasn't so bad. Maybe I'll try again another time, like when all the kids are gone. We went to Yellowstone and had a beautiful drive with lots of animals. We drove almost 2000 miles that week. We were sick of the car but the scenary was good.

I love my cousins and aunt and uncle up there so 4 days was definitely too short. Hopefully we'll be able to go back soon.
We came home, moved and cleaned our apartment for two days, and moved into a hotel Sunday night. We thought it would be for almost two weeks and were VERY happy when it was only until Friday.
Max spent the time crawling around on the floor under the sink and playing with Thatch. Thatch is very, very patient with that kid. More patient that I am most of the time. And Max got a few baths. You really don't want to know what his knees and feet looked like after crawling around on a hotel floor.
The house:

This is the yard on the left. With that amount of space, I always think POOL. But it won't happen. We'll figure out something else to do with it and let the dogs run it for now.

I'll show pictures of the inside when it is actually cleaned up and decorated.

I Can't Decide

I don't think I'm going to find out what I'm having this time around. I've heard it's fun to not know; I'm not having any baby showers; all my stuff works for a boy or a girl; and (hopefully) I can get boys and girls clothes from relatives or craigslist if it comes down to it. Any opinions on this? Any good reasons why I should or should not find out?

Day at the Park (Basically a dog post)

Murphy and Thatch are learning to play frisbee. They are getting pretty good and finally getting some coordination. Sometimes I forget how young they still are; Thatch is only 1 1/2 and Murphy is 2 years. They remind me of gangly teenages sometimes, especially Thatch.

This is how Max hangs out.
Thatch is pretty patient.

This is me at almost 16 weeks. I posted the one above because it seems like I look different in it and I don't know if it's the angle or what.

I know you show a lot sooner with subsequent pregnancies and I was fine with that. I'm just not sure how many more pictures I'll be taking. I just don't feel as big as I look in this picture so I'm thinking it really is the angle....

Oops

I was feeding Max one day when a spider or moth or something started crawling across the carpet right towards me. I can't stand to squish things so I quickly covered it.
By the time I looked up (seriously not 20 seconds later) I found this:

I forget that I don't have a four month old anymore that is much more interested in me and what I'm doing than what is on his tray. Instead my one year old cares only for the food. At least it didn't get on him or the carpet.

He tried to feed himself but I didn't let that last very long. Maybe another time I'll let Max make yogurt a finger food but only after I cover him and everything around him in plastic.

On a side note, about two weeks before he turned one he decided baby food was not for him anymore and wanted only what I was eating. It's nice sometimes and a total pain other times.