Playdates with friends

Jed and his friend, Maya, at the zoo.

All of the boys' friends are girls in these pictures. They do have friends that are boys, but most are girls. I guess they know how to impress the ladies and treat them right!

feeding the goat at the zoo

beautiful peacock at the zoo

Max and his friends, Eliza and Harper. They are all 3 weeks apart!

Eli with friends from school at our after school playdate at Doc's.

playtime with all the Perkins boys!

Ninjas!

3 ninjas!

Boone "played" with Jed's Spiderman figures, and it resulted in this. It was very tragic! Jed was not happy about this!

A date with my three boys

A few weeks ago, while John was out of town, I took the boys to one of our favorite places, Doc's Backyard. We went to play on the playground there, then I decided it would be nice to sit and have a margarita. So, I snagged a table outside and got to drink my drink while hanging out with my three boys. They played, we had dinner and enjoyed the weather and each other. Plus, I got some good pictures. Perfect!

pretty good shot, thanks to my long arm

What we've been up to...

Wow, I haven't posted in a month! We've had a lot going on in May. The boys had activites with school, like track and field day and Mom's day and kindergarten graduation. Meanwhile, Max is the size of a toddler at 7 months old with three, almost 4 teeth and is rolling everywhere, playing with toys and eating like a champ. Eli and Jed are done with school and it's already summertime! My how time flies! I find myself wanting to enjoy every moment with my boys (even when it's loud and chaotic and I'm frustrated) because they really do grow up so fast and I know I'm going to look back and miss this. There's a good reason people say it so much..."enjoy it now because they grow up fast". It's so true!

the one picture I got before my camera died at Ei's kinder graduation

Eli and his teacher, Mrs. Lancaster, on the last day of school

Jed on his last day of school

SVE Track & Field day-funny story: That day, while John ate lunch with Eli's class, he taught them to flex their bicep and point one way when he asked "where's the beach?", so when the class won their tug of war game, John said, "Hey Mrs. Lancaster's class, Where's the beach?", they all pointed on cue with biceps flexed and yelled, "That way!". He got it on video on his phone, but I have no idea how to put it on this compter. It was priceless!

cute Max

Me and Jed at Mom's Day at Jed's school. The kids sing songs, give us gifts that they made (like the crown I'm wearing), and serve us punch and cookies. It's so sweet. Here are a couple videos of one of the many songs the kids sang. Jed was trying not to smile the whole time for some reason.

Max eats baby food

The day Max turned 6 months old, I gave him his first bite of solid food. He had some whole grain rice cereal mixed with a bit of warmed breast milk...mmm! I'm not sure why they call it solid food because most baby food is really soupy and mushy. He liked it though. In fact he kept diving toward the spoon to eat it. He has gotten the idea now that he just has to open his mouth and I'll put the spoon in. So far, Max has only had the rice cereal and mashed bananas, but avocado and sweet potatoes are in the near future. It hasn't been too messy yet, but I'm sure that's in the near future, too.

I like when Jed gags toward the end of the video and says, "that is pretty yuck".

Silly Brothers

Eli is the only one who's been able to make Max laugh like this. Gotta love baby belly laughs!

Max has a tooth!

On Saturday, the morning of Eli's party, John discovered at tooth in Max's mouth! I guess Max wanted to add something else to the Easter weekend festivities. I was expecting his tooth to appear at any moment. It's tiny and you can barely see it, but it's there. He is proud of his first tooth! Eli says that Max must have got the tooth that he lost a couple weeks before.

one tooth in, one tooth out

Easter 2012

We had a nice Easter celebration this year. The weekend was full of fun stuff. We had Eli's birthday party Saturday and then dyed Easter eggs that evening, the boys did their egg hunt Sunday morning, we managed to make it out to some bluebonnets to take some pictures, and Sunday night Max was dedicated at our church.

The Easter egg dyeing and hunting is fun and all, but I don't like the whole Easter bunny idea. I'm not really sure why. Maybe it's the fact that it's all commercialized and the fact that Easter is about Jesus, not the Easter bunny. Plus, I think the idea of a giant bunny coming to my house is kind of creepy. I originally bought some stuff to do Easter baskets for the boys, but I was feeling anti-Easter bunny and decided that I didn't want to do them every year and returned all the goodies. We ended up telling Eli and Jed that the Easter bunny came and hid the eggs, that way they wouldn't have to think that he came into our house to deliver anything. The boys didn't ask details about how he got the eggs we dyed. It's all confusing to me. So, next year, I think we the Easter Bunny may just hide some plastic eggs that he brought himself. I always thought it was gross to eat the dyed hard boiled eggs that were laying in the yard for hours. Anyway, I digress. Eli and Jed had a fun time finding the eggs and dyeing them, so I guess it was a success...except for the fact that there was one egg that we never foud. I bet a raccoon found a nice Easter treat!

To help explain to Eli and Jed why we celebrate Easter, I got some eggs called Resurrection Eggs. They're plastic eggs with little things inside like a loaf of bread or a linen cloth or a nail, along with bible verses and a little explanation of the Easter story of Jesus. They sort of understood what it was about. Eli liked the spear and talked about how much it would hurt, and he also thought he got jipped because the last egg was empty (for the empty tomb). It was a good tool to at least introduce them to the story of Easter. I like that way better than the Easter bunny and all the candy and Easter baskets!

Max's dedication was a special moment. At our church, children’s dedication time is a special time set aside to introduce kids to the community, pray for them, and let their families know the church community is there to support and encourage them as they strive to raise their children well and in our shared faith. I'm thankful Mammy and Uncle Dan and Aunt Lisa were there to share that time with us, and I'm thankful for our church community.

Eli is 6!

Eli turned SIX years old on April 10th. We did our usual party at Garrison park with snacks and cake. Eli first wanted a monster truck theme, then he changed it to a Lego theme, which is convenient because I couldn't find any monster truck decor. He requested a lemon cake with vanilla icing and no decorations on top except for some sprinkles and candles. Again, convenient...I can do sprinkles and candles. In reality, Eli didn't want any Lego decorations on his cake b/c I was going to put some of his Legos on top and he didn't want his Legos to get dirty. I love a low maintenance, low stress, low cost birthday party. It's all about the celebration with friends, right?


Eli's birthday celebration was really several days long. I took him to the Lego store to pick out what he wanted, and we also went to the Build-a-Bear store where he picked out and stuffed a longhorn. He named it Bevo (sigh), that's what we get for living in Austin. They had plenty of (Baylor) bears, but Eli didn't go for that. Then on Eli's birthday, I took cupcakes up to his school for the class to celebrate. After school on his birthday, we invited some friends to Locomotion jumpy house for a birthday playdate. Eli chose to go eat at P.Terry's for his birthday dinner. I think he felt the birthday love!

I can't believe my boy is six. He has lost his first tooth, he can tie his shoes, help with chores, help out his brothers, he can read and write, among many other things. He's in big boy territory now. As every parent out there says, "He's growing up way too fast!"
 

Eli lost his first tooth!

As of Monday, March 26, Eli is now missing a tooth! He had been working on it for weeks, wiggling and wiggling. I was worried he was going to loose it at school and I'd miss the momentous occasion. Luckily, the tooth was still there when he got home from school, barely hanging on. John ended up pulling it out and that was that.

I was little sad about it because it meant that my boy is growing up. It was amazing, as soon as his tooth came out, he started acting all grown up and being very compliant...teaching Jed how to read, happily taking out the trash, playing nicely with no intervention, and no whining! I guess Eli felt more grown up now that he had lost a tooth. Even though I was sad, his reaction after it was out was a nice surprise...if only that behavior lasted!

The tooth fairy came that night and Eli got $5 for the tooth. He got $5 because it was his first tooth (and because the tooth fairy may have heard that Eli was saving up his money for a $29 Lego set he saw on the Scholastic Books form from school and only needed 4 more dollars in order to buy it, and he had to turn in his money to school a couple days after he lost his tooth). That is one gracious tooth fairy!

This is the before picture

...and the after picture, with tiny tooth in hand.

Spring Break/Seattle

Bubba and Max

A couple weeks ago was spring break. John and I decided to go to Seattle to surprise our friend, Bubba, for his 40th birthday. So, I took the boys up to Dallas on Tuesday so that Max and I could spend some time with family. Then, on Thursday evening, Max and I met John at the airport (he flew up from Austin), and the three of us headed to Seattle. Eli and Jed stayed with my mom (Mammy) and got to spend time with family while we were gone. It was cousin Grayson's 12th birthday, so they got to go to his two birthday parties! They did other fun things like go the aquarium and see The Lorax at the movies. They had a blast and got lots of family time!

We had so much fun in Seattle, too! Bubba was very surprised when we walked into his house Thursday night. He had no idea we were coming. What made it even better was that he does that kind of stuff to people all the time, so we got to do it to him. It was nice to spend time with Bubba and Anna. We stayed at a little Bungalow a few houses down from them. Their neighbors rent out their basement for visitors, so it was perfect. We even got the neighbor discount! I was expecting it to be rainy and cold the whole time since that's what the forecast said. However, each afternoon, we got some nice sunny weather. It wasn't too cold either. One morning, it snowed huge giant flakes, but it wasn't too cold even then. Bubba said it rarely snows there, too. When it was snowing we were at the top of a hotel where Bub's parents were staying in downtown Seattle. It was really pretty watching the snow in the city from their room.

look closely at the big snowflakes

Bubba's party was fun. They rented out the community center in their neighborhood and everyone played dodge ball. I didn't play because I was wearing Max in the Ergo carrier. I'm glad I had an excuse because I'm not a huge fan of dodge ball, but it was fun to watch! The guests were all supposed to wear their best workout attire, Bub style. John wore his old Baylor basketball uniform, and everyone got a kick out of that. After the game, we all went to Bubbanna's to hang out. What a fun memory!

Max did great on his first vacation. He was happy being carted around the city, and just hanging out with friends. He was a happy baby on the plane as well. He mostly slept or ate or smiled at the people near us. Having only one kid with me feels like nothing now! When I'd tell people we were going to Seattle, I'd say "John and I are going...oh yeah, and Max, too". Max is just so laid back and easy...or maybe it's because he's our third and we're pros...or both!

One regret on our trip...we didn't take enough pictures!

Max at 4-5 months

Let's all say it together..."He's so big!" At his 4 month check up, he weighed 20 lbs. and was 28 in. long. As usual, they put >97%, which means he's still off the charts. He's rolling from back to belly and belly to back now, although he usually cries when that happens. I think it scares him. Max's head and neck are getting very strong now. He lifts his head way up during tummy time and looks like he wants to take off. He's not sitting up and not really close to doing so. When I sit him down on the ground, he just folds in half. We're working on that though. Max likes to sit in the highchair while we eat, but he's not eating solid food yet. I want to hold off on that as long as possible (at least one more month) because I'm not looking forward to the poops and the messes and the spoon feeding and the pureeing of foods when he starts eating solid food. We are hearing more babble out of Max as he experiments with new sounds. Lately he's been squealing very high pitched sounds. Eli and Jed think that's hilarious. Max is still a laid back little guy. He loves watching his brothers and they love making him smile and keeping him entertained. The last five months have gone by so fast! Slow down, baby boy!

PS- I was looking back on the blog at posts when Eli was 5 months old, and the post I wrote for Eli was very similar to the one I just wrote for Max. They look so much alike, it's amazing! Check out the post here.

tummy time

he's only 5 months, I promise!

Eli can tie his shoes!

That's right! Learning how to tie shoes feels like such a big milestone. Once Eli got some shoes with laces and decided he was ready to learn, he picked it up pretty quickly.

It all started with the Y-ties that they were selling at school. For some reason he was obsessed with getting some Y-ties...peer pressure, I guess. His shoes didn't have laces, so once he got the Y-ties (with his own money), he wanted to get new shoes with laces (using my money). Luckily for Eli, he needed new shoes, so we went and got some Shaq shoes, black with red soles, and with laces. They were another peer pressure purchase that Eli decided on because Xander from his basketball team has the same shoes.  Anyway, I guess it all paid off because Eli learned how to tie his shoes in the end. The Y-ties are sitting on his dresser because he decided he didn't want them in his shoes after all.

So, not only is Eli tying shoes, he's reading at a first grade level now, doing all sorts of chores around the house to earn some Lego money, and in a little over a month, he'll be SIX! That just blows my mind! He's becoming such a big kid now!

You can see the identical Shaq shoes (Xander is #34 and Eli #12)

The shoes in action!

The Exersaucer

Time to bring out the exersaucer again! It's hard to believe Max is old enough to play in it already. All three boys have loved that thing, thankfully. Eli and Jed were happy to introduce Max to the exersaucer and show him all the toys on it. The first time I put Max in it (at 4 mo. old), he was already too tall for the shortest setting, but I couldn't have put him in it sooner since he didn't have good head control. Oh well, I guess he better get used to being too tall for things!

whoa...

amazed

Max the Baylor Fan

We got to go to see a Baylor vs. UT basketball game last week. Eli and Jed stayed home with a sitter since it was a late game on a school night. Gramma was in town, so she went with me, John, and Max to the game. Max was great, as usual. He was sleeping in the Ergo carrier when we arrived, so when he woke up, he was very surprised to see where we were and amazed at all the hub bub going on around him. As you can see, we captured the look on his face in the pictures.

It was a good game since Baylor won! As John says, "it's always good to see UT loose, especially when it's to Baylor". Sic'em Bears!

look closely to see Max's expression

check out those surprised blue eyes!

of course we all wore our green and gold with pride!

Jed and his monster trucks

The collection continues to grow. I think it's getting close to 30 monster trucks now. Each one has a name and every one of them is special in some way. I think Eli and Jed could watch Monster Jam videos on youtube for hours if we let them! Jed likes to line them up perfectly so that if you move one just a little, he knows and will move it back right away. Jed also pretends the trucks are his babies. He feeds them num-nums, carries them in his backpack, and sings to them. I love it! That's definitely a memory I want to save for later!

Crunchy Mama

This makes me laugh! After I saw this I realized that I am a crunchy mom. I've done or said most of these things!

In case you are wondering what a crunchy mom is exactly...

• The slang dictionary definition: hippie-esque; ALL-NATURAL. Refers to the crunch of granola, which (as goes the stereotype) hippie-esque people are likely to eat.
• The definition from the Urban Dictionary: Mother who supports homebirth, breastfeeding, baby wearing, cloth diapering, co-sleeping, gentle discipline, etc. One who questions established medical authority; tends to be vegetarian and/or prepare all-organic foods. See crunchy and hippie.

There are different levels of cruchiness. I found a "How Crunchy Are You?" quiz online. I'm just below ultra-crunchy. I'm happy with my crunchiness and glad to know this about myself. Austin may have some influence in my crunchiness and that's why I love Austin! I think I would have some crunchy tendencies, Austin or no Austin.

Now, off to make myself some deodorant and put some garlic drops in the boys' ears...

Third Baby

This is what happens with the third baby: you put him down to play for longer than intended and when you come back to check on him, he's fallen asleep! No crying, minimal fussing, just content to fall asleep on the play mat. Nice!