Birthday Weekend Update...

Max's birthday was quite a day. He was extremely tired throughout the day. In fact, he slept most of it. Waking only for phone calls...I think because there was singing involved!



He got calls from Syracuse Opera, in New York, and Los Angeles Opera, both friends he met from Opera Colorado. They sang to him and he LOVED it. We missed a call from another friend at San Francisco Opera, but have it on voicemail and have played it back for him.

Meanwhile, Steve and Abbey dressed up in their daytime costumes...
Abbey was dressed in her beautiful dress that Vijay gave her from India. And Steve...well...I don't exactly know what to call this.


And Abbey got to work on her Jack-O-Lantern before she changed into her evening costume. Her hair is all curly for her costume...I have been doing her hair like this for years!


Here are Hermione Granger and Max the Dragon:


We all had a fun night, trick-or-treating and sharing a meal together. Max slept through it all, until it was time for birthday brownies, and more singing.


And presents! A crazy singing Monster from Auntie Angie and Uncle Dan...


And a family membership to the zoo from our friends The Clark's!


It was a log day, but a good one. I was so glad to have everyone with us to celebrate. Especially my mom and Abbey.

On Saturday we went to lunch, and the park with Ang, Mom, and Adeline. What a gorgeous day it was! It was so warm, and with all of the fall leaves made a perfect setting for more pictures!




Steve and Abbey rented a bike and we stayed back while they rode it around the park.


Adeline found a great spot to hang out...


And Max and Adeline played with one of Max's new monsters...


The little ones got tired so we let them snooze before heading back to our new house to let everyone see it.





After we saw the house, Max stayed with Aunty Angie and Nonni while we had dinner out with Abbey. It was a really great evening with her. She kept saying over and over how she didn't want the night to end.

Well, there you go. Lots of pictures huh?! But I promised!

Happy Birthday...

Someone is 5 today...



Happy Birthday to the biggest strongest monster I know!

He's happily sleeping on my side of the bed right now. His sister insisted on sharing his bed with him last night. I finally put him in our bed when he was all the way on the floor and she was on his pillow.

We've got a full day ahead of us. Pumpkin carving, Veggie chopping, Chili making, lunch eating...all before 6:00 when Max's party starts. Oh...

At 11:30 this morning, the cast from Madame Butterfly at Opera Colorado will be calling to sing to Max. A special Happy Birthday! I'll get pictures and videos and hopefully put them on tonight.

Guest Blog...

Hi all,

I'm visiting over on Sam's blog today...

Come on over for a visit.

Indeed...

The anticipatory Love of God is a thing mortals seldom realize. See a Mother preparing for her child's birthday - Will she not love that? How she will love this! She anticipates the rapture of her child. Where did the Mother learn all this? From Me.
--Two Listeners

Max has been in this position most of the day:


Grumpy, fussy, crying his head off in between sleeping and diaper changes. I guess he's getting it all out before his birthday on Friday.

Ang and Dan came over. They brought this with them:


She makes noises now. Baby cooey noises. Googly noises! And she was wearing stripey pirate socks.

Oh...and they brought me this:


That is my very own Grandma's Lemon Cake! I'll share it, but can you believe it? A whole cake!!! GRANDMA IS THE BEST!!!!!!!

I know it is going to taste wonderful, but still will be missing the laughing and love around Grandma and Grandpa's table.

I'm off to give Max some medicine to make him feel better. It's purple and tastes yummy, and always makes him feel better. Then I'll be making my Halloween mask. We'll see if I still have any crafty bones in my body after all these years!

Say cheeeeeeese!

We took Max to the dentist today. She showed us a great way to brush his teeth. He sat with his legs wrapped around Steve's back, and his head was in the dentist's lap, with him laying back. He couldn't really squirm, and he was all relaxed because he was laying down. It was really helpful. She also gave us a little wedge to put in his mouth so his mouth will stay open while I'm brushing or flossing his teeth so he doesn't bite my fingers...which he loves to do when I try to brush his teeth. That little gadget will come in handy any time we need to look into his mouth really.

She saw no cavities, and said if he is under anesthesia any time they'll team up and get some x-rays of his mouth. He can't hold still enough while he's awake for the pictures. I was nervous he'd have cavities on his lower teeth, but it was just calcification, which she said we'll see due to him being tube fed. But that calcification was actually a blessing in disguise because it protects his teeth from cavities.

He's sacked out now. I think I would like to join him! I stayed up way too late finishing my book, Bitter Sweets by Roopa Farooki. I liked it very much, and am looking at how I can get her next one, since it has only been released this month in the UK. Blasted Atlantic Ocean in my way! Life would be so much easier for me if we could just drive over to England now and again!

I think we're going to go get our flu shots tonight. Max of course won't get his with us, but we still have to be covered. I'm waiting to hear back from his doctors to decide whether or not/when we'll get his. They haven't called us at all this week, as they were going to check up on a few things before they scheduled him in. So now I'm wondering if we should do it at all. We know for certain he is allergic to this years vaccine. So how smart of us is it to inject him with something we know he will have an allergic reaction to? Oh well...we'll wait to hear from his doctor.

One more thing...I started this post mad at my sister. The younger one...the one who took my baby niece to Tulsa to see all the family...and sent me this email with the subject line of "Jealous????", with this picture.



Do you know what that is? That is lemon cake. And not just ANY lemon cake...that is my GRANDMA'S LEMON CAKE!!! There she is having lunch with gma and gpa and she has the nerve to pull out her iphone and take a picture of my very most favorite thing to eat in the whole world, and send it to me.

I said I started this post mad at her. When I texted her to tell her she was cruel, she texted back that she is bringing me a piece home. So I'm not mad at her any more. But I'm pretty sure it won't quite taste right not being there sharing it with gma and gpa...but it will be good enough to tide me over until I get to break cake with them in person next!

Guess where...

We went today?


Max and Adeline played and snuggled while we looked for pumpkins for them...




It was Adeline's first pumpkin patch experience...


But to Max, it was all old hat...


Here's what we came away with...


We had a fun time dressing the kiddo's up. Adeline was being super fussy, so I put Max's leg on her to calm her down...family will know why this is funny. Think Brenna holding down the crying babies.


Happy Pumpkin!


There are about 110 more pictures on our flickr page. Just click on any of the above photos to go see them all.