Mattie and I had a great time at my Weight Watchers meeting today. We got there early, like we usually do, and got settled in for the meeting. Everything was going fine, Mattie had her DVD player with Elmo, her water, Ok. So we are sitting there, and all of a sudden, Mattie burps or something and kind of spits up a little. I thought, that's weird. She seemed fine, though, not crying or anything, just still watching Elmo. All of a sudden, she starts throwing up for real, and...oh my gosh... it's everywhere, and still coming. People are starting to turn around and jump up. Good grief. So I scoop her up and head for the bathroom. I get her cleaned up as much as I can, try to clean up the sink, there are like 2 or 3 women in the bathroom with me, handing me paper towels and talking to Mattie. She is fine and still just jabbering away. She kept saying, Wet! The whole front of her dress was soaked from me trying to clean her up. I gathered our stuff up, thanked the women for their help, said sorry like 100 times and ran out. Geez. When Mattie is a teenager, I may walk around the house in my bra while she's having a sleepover, just to get her back.

Max still won't let me take any pictures of him. I snapped this one of him doing his chores. It's his job to take out the recycling everyday, and bring in the bin on Fridays. Mattie makes up for Max's camera shyness. She thinks camera shy is only taking 5 or 6 poses. I was fixing dinner tonight, and heard Max and Mattie just cracking up in her room. I peeked around the corner, to see Max getting Mattie to say, peep, poop, pee pee, all those things, and then die laughing, which made Mattie laugh and say it over and over, making Max laugh harder. It was pretty funny, if gross. I'm glad Mattie has a big brother to be such a good influence on her.

Papa's Birthday

Happy Birthday, Papa!! I'm so mixed up on my days. I keep waking up thinking, Ah! Saturday! Then I remember it's a school day, and I now have 30min to get Max and Mattie up, fed, dressed, and out the door. It's a little bit easier now, we have a new system: the pocket-chart. Max wakes up, and item by item, goes through the chart. 1) get dressed 2) eat breakfast 3) get shoes on 4) brush teeth 5) play . So now I don't have to keep on him about every little thing getting ready. We have been doing it for about 2 weeks and now have extended it to after school, too. Snack, chores, play, and homework. He likes doing it because he slides the card over to "done" when he is through with that step. I expect that to wear off after a while. We also created the Job Jar. Instead of time-outs, he now has to pick a chore out of the job jar. It's been a few days, and no jobs so far. Max has been camera shy lately, that's why there have been no pictures of him for a few days. This is the only one I could get.

Mattie had her first time-out today. This picture isn't her in time-out though, no books in time-out! We were playing together in her room, and she kept hitting and throwing things. Not in anger, we're just trying to stop all hitting and throwing. So I warned her once (or twice), then told her she had to go to time-out. She started crying, and I thought, this is your first time-out, how do you know to cry? So I put her on the time-out spot, and told her she had to sit here until the timer says ding. I set the timer for one minute, and moved a little way away. She sat there, I was shocked. The timer went off, she came off, said sorry, and that was it. Crazy. She also told me when she was "doing her business" in her diaper today. This sounds weird, but it's really exciting. She'll be ready to potty train soon. Good because we won't have to pay for diapers, but bad because now I'll have to take her to the bathroom at every store we stop at from now on. Gross.

Mattie Counts to 10!

American Idol

Today we went to Tim and Amy's house to watch American Idol. I wish it came on earlier so we could see more, but we left and came home about halfway through. I meant to bring my camera, so sorry there are no "American Idol" shots. The kids come home so tired, so it's easy to get them to bed and asleep. They both fell asleep with their books. Max is so excited because now he can read his beginner's Bible. He can struggle through most stories, but gets stuck on names and places, of course. Max would only get a haircut tonight after Tim did. Now they both have the same haircut. Does that mean Max has an adult haircut, or Tim has a little kid one?

This is Mattie showing me her teeth. She has been drooling so much lately, but I didn't get a good enough look to see if she had any coming through. My wisdom tooth on top is coming in, and, geez, it is not fun. I have a whole new respect for babies.

Eat!!

Pretty good day today, Max is doing well in school, and Mattie and I have a good time at home together. She gets really frustrated when she can't verbalize what she wants. She came in the bedroom where I was and threw herself on the floor and started "crying". I picked her up and told her to stop crying and tell me what she wanted. She mumbled a few things, I tried to guess, and each time she yelled No! She thought for a while and finally yelled, Eat! She was hungry. Who knew.

"Funny Video" Video

Here is Max's homemade funny video. He had Mattie "eating" paper earlier that morning, but the moment I turned the camera on (and flipped the viewfinder screen so she could see herself) she started singing, and wouldn't do her part with the eating the paper bit. She batted the paper away without missing a note, just kept right on singing, then it starts annoying her, it's pretty funny.

Today was pretty quiet, until church tonight, when Max and Josh got together and started picking noses. I hope this doesn't start a booger obsession, like the potty talk. He'll be grounded from Uncle Josh. Forever. He was sitting in the back with Josh and Emma because Dallas was sitting next to me up front and getting on Max's nerves.

Mattie is really starting to talk alot. It's the toddler talk where you can't really understand her unless you already know what she's talk about, but...it's talking! She loves to be read to, so maybe that's helping. I caught Max reading her a book in her room the other day. Just one of her board book, too, not one of his reader books. He read her the whole thing and she just sat there and listened to him. After the first book, he got a second one, but struggled with some of the words, so he told her, we'll just have to look at the pictures on this one.

Go, go, go!

What a busy day! It started early when I went to get Mattie out of bed and she was naked. She has finally learned to take her jammies off... my baby's growing up. I said, what did you do? She said, cold! Emily came over to watch the kids while I went to the library's book sale. It was pretty awesome. Emily said they had a good time, too. Mattie will not say Emma. She should be able to, but can't quite get it out. We worked on it a little bit today, though. They watched Cinderella and played Lego Star Wars, and anything else I don't want to know about! Cokes and candy at 10:00am!

After lunch, Max and I left for Mason's birthday party at Andy Alligator's, some new Chuck E. Cheese type place. Max played bowling with his friends for a long time, then they all scattered to play games. So Max finds the kid-sized basketball toss game. He played it over and over, and was sinking so many baskets, people were stopping to watch him! I couldn't believe it, I started counting, and he was making up to 5 shots in a row. You would never know he was my kid. He wants to play on a team so badly, I hope I can find one for him, but I'm afraid they were all this winter and we missed it. Anyway, that was the only game he played and he earned almost 50 tickets with just 4 or 5 games. He turned them in for a whoopie cushion, and thought he hit the jackpot. Mattie is scared of the whoopie cushion, though, she doesn't like to hear it. I'm starting to agree with her, it's getting annoying.

Mark and Max went to the Monster Truck Rally tonight. I know one of them really enjoyed it. Mark said they were stuck in traffic trying to park, and Max was in a frenzy. Why can't we go, Dad? Has it started yet, Dad? Where's Nick, Dad? Why is that car stopped, Dad? They finally made it there, and Mark said it was all he could do to keep up with him. Max said his favorite was everything, but I made him narrow it down, and he picked the transformers. I guess there were trucks that raised up and blew out fire, or something. He told me all about it, but he went on and on about so many things. And then they did this....and then this big truck came out and...Whoa!...and then....Boom!...and then...!!! It was 9:30 or 10 before they got home, and 11 or so before he would quiet down and sleep. I think he liked it. I just hope he doesn't want to be a monster truck driver when he grows up. Or any kind of truck driver for that matter.

TGIF

Its a quiet Friday, finally. Mattie took her place back as the Weight Watchers Princess, everyone at the meeting fawning over her, talking to her, and just making a general fuss over her. It's hysterical to watch! It seems like I'm exaggerating because I'm biased, but, really, everywhere we go people talk to her and say how pretty she is. The other day at Hobby Lobby, a lady was saying how symmetrical her face was and how it didn't look like a baby face, but was proportional and on and on, whatever that was supposed to mean. It's crazy.

This picture is when Mattie was sick. They both had those bloodshot eyes and the snots. Eww.

Max asked about being "babatized" last night. You can tell he wants to, but is nervous. He said he'll do it when he's 10. I bet it's within the year. He is really interested in presidents, and how they are elected and for how long. He wants to know why Japan has a Emperor, and not a President. He wanted to know if George Washington was still alive, how many votes did George Bush get during the last election, and on and on. Somehow he always saves his questions until bedtime.

Back to "Normal"

Ok, I think we're back to normal.



Max is in school, Mark is at work, I'm catching up on the house, and Mattie is...Mattie.




She can count to 10 now, kind of, she needs a little prompting on six and seven, but she can get all the way to ten. Max is doing well at school, but using his inhaler about twice a day at school.














Mark and Max are going to the Monster Truck Rally this Saturday. Max is so excited about it, he even was willing to skip his friend's birthday party that's on the same day. I think he can do both, the party in the morning and Monster Trucks at night. The best day since Christmas. I'm just glad I don't have to go.

One Crazy Week

This has been a really bad few weeks for us so far. Good grief, Max had a respitory virus, gave it to Mattie, who developed an ear infection, Mark and I have been exausted trying to take care of the kids and still get to work and take care of the house. My tooth has been hurting really bad lately, and now today Mark's stomach is upset and my back is acting up. It seems like when I get stressed out (which isn't very often!) my back locks up or something. So Mark came home today to help take care of Mattie and pick up Max and all that. He's even making dinner. What a man! Mattie's ear infection is clearing up it seems like. Last night was the first night in a while she and Max slept through the night. Usually one or the other or both will wake up and need something.

Max was really excited to get back to school this week. He has been having trouble with his athsma, but Mrs. Shrag is back and she deals with it really well. She read with him during 2nd recess so he wouldn't have trouble with coughing.

Mattie had her daddy home with her all day, all to herself, so she couldn't ask for a better day. She hung on Marks leg all day. I think Mark's back will go out next! Mark was cracking up because Mattie will come up to you if you're eating something, and open her mouth and just stand there and wait for you to put some in. Mark even took both kids to Sam's today, by himself! They had a great time and came home with hotdogs and Icee's. Good day.

No Pictures yet

I still can't upload pictures, but hopefully soon! I have been taking pictures every day, though.

Valentines Day

This was a good Valentines Day, even if none of us felt very good. Max, Mattie and I suprized Mark at work with 20 big balloons. He was in the foyer with two dozen other people when he saw balloons coming and said, Hey, someones going to get like, 100 balloons! Then he saw Max. So he called everyone's attention to it, and they were for him. He was really embarrased. We took the balloons around and passed some out. Mattie was adorable carrying a huge bunch of balloons. Max had a good time, but wasn't feeling 100% yet, so was kind of quiet. It was a pretty good day.

Sick Day CXIV

We're going on day...what, 156? of this virus from hell, or whatever it is. I'm writing on Mark's work laptop because our computer is broken, so I haven't been able to upload pictures for a few days. The kids are doing better, every now and then Max will have a bad few hours, but there are finally more good ones than bad. Mattie is a little touchy and feverish, but not too bad. Max's started out slow, too, though, so I hope we're not going there.

Sorry, more pictures coming when we get the computer going again.

At the End?

I think we are nearing the end of the sick days. Max's anyway. Mattie is running a pretty good fever today, and coughing quite a bit. Anyway, today's post is going to be pretty short, I'm going to bed!

Mom and I took Max and Mattie to Dr. Nehls today. She listened to his chest and said everything is clear. That's what I was really worried about, that it had progressed beyond a cold or flu. But it hasn't, so basically, we a dealing with a nasty, long-lasting respitoriy virus, which, added to Max's athsma, pretty much knocked him out. Mattie has it too, now, but shouldn't suffer quite as much, since she doesn't have the underlying problems. Hopefully Max can get back to school Thursday in time for Valentine's Day. By the way, illness really brings out Mattie's inner diva. Let's hope she's a healthy kid.

It's Not so Sunny Here

What a day! And not in the happy, last day of vacation sense. We took Max to the ER last night at 12:30, and didn't get back till almost 2:00am. And we didn't even see a doctor. His coughing woke me up last night, so I listened for a few minutes, and it didn't slow down, so I got up to give him some Albuterol. When I touched him, he was burning up. I didn't even need the thermometer to know we had a problem. But I ran and got it and it said 105. 105!! I about passed out! I yelled for Mark, and we debated about putting him in the bath, or going to the hospital. We went to the hospital. He could barely draw a breath without coughing. We loaded him up, Mark stayed with Mattie to save time, and Max and I took off. When we got to the ER, he was already doing a little better, I think the cold night air helped. Anyway, we waited for 20 or 30 minutes, talked to the nurse and left. I got $30 worth of fever reducing medicine at a 24hr Walgreens, and we went home. By about 3:30 his fever was down to about 99 or 100. Geez. So everyone woke up this morning tired, but ok. Needless to say, we skipped school. At this rate, it will be 1st grade before he goes back.

Mattie is still doing ok, but does have a small fever...please, NO! So I have kept her on the Motrin, too. I spent all morning on the phone with various doctors, Dr Reyes for the cough, Dr. Nehls for everything else. They really didn't say anything I didn't already know, but Dr Reyes did call in an antihistemine. I am going to try and take him in to Nehls tomorow. PLUS...I am staring to not feel really well, but I am going to asume it's nothing. Anyway, I'm pretty tired of this, and can't wait until it's over. Plus, I need a haircut. Bad.

Not Another Sick Day

Another exciting day at the Madewell Memorial Hospital. Everyone is doing, Ok, but every now and then, someone's fever will spike, or Max will have a major coughing fit, and everyone's generally irritable (except me, of course!). I went to church this morning just to play the music service, and then come home. For some reason, Mark really needed to get to work early this afternoon (his part time job), I guess they really needed him to come in right when I got home (is my sarcasim coming across?). No, he wanted to get up there early and get his hours in so he could come home and I could go play for choir and evening service. I didn't end up going to either though because Max's fever spiked pretty high and I didn't want to leave him until it came down. So I called Todd and told him I was staying home to watch Max and didn't want to leave him because if his fever rose any more (it was at 102-103), I was going to take him in. So he told everyone at church, or probably in the choir, that I had taken Max to the emergency room. So everyone was asking Emily how Max was, and she didn't know what they were talking about, and when they told her she freaked out. She called Mom and Mom called Mark and then me and...it was nuts. But no big deal, just drama.



Speaking of drama, this afternoon I was reading the paper, Max was asleep, and Mattie playing in her room, when I heard Fletch growl and snap and Mattie screamed. I flashed back to when Fletch snapped at Max (the one and only time) when Max was 2. I rounded the corner, expecting blood, and Mattie crying on the floor and Fletch cowering nearby. I didn't see any blood right away, and when I looked closer, he had nipped her in the wrist, but hadn't even broken the skin, but there was a small bruise. She had me kiss it two or three times, the I wrapped it in a damp washcloth. She really liked that. She held it on with her other hand and walked around that way for 15 or 20 minutes. Then she forgot all about it, and started pestering, I mean loving on Fletch again. She really does like him alot, and he is very tolerant of her. She shoves and hugs and hits and pinches, and he just kind of sits there with his ears back. He doesn't like it, but he tolerates it really well, and just kind of waits for a chance to excape. She loves to give him big hugs around the belly, and I have never seen him let anyone except Mark or I touch his belly while he is standing up. He really is good with her and it's mutually benificial, because he eats all the crackers and snacks she drops, and usually will feed him half anyway. I've almost got her to quit doing that. Gross. She will go to the back door and yell for him "Etch! Etch!".

One of Max's favorite shows is Funny Video's, so we tried to make a funny video today, Max's idea. This morning, Max and Mattie had this bit where Max held out a piece of paper and told Mattie to eat it and she tried to grab it in her mouth. It was pretty funny to watch. So we got the video camera out and the moment I turned it on, and turned to view screen around so Mattie could see herself, she started singing. And she kept singing through all of Max's attempts to get her to eat the paper. It was pretty funny, but probably just to us, kind of like this blog. But Max didn't give up and soon he was shoving the paper in her face and she was batting it away, singing the whole time. It's pretty entertaining. He has always asked to send in a funny video and is constanly practicing falling and asking me to record it. He even wrote out the letter and envelope to "funy videos".

Sick Day IV - This is Getting Old

Geez. How long can a cold last? With athsma, a long dang time. Max was better today, more energy (meaning: it was harder to keep him in bed), but he freaked me out early this morning with this shallow breathing stuff. I was afraid he was getting pneumonia, and I'm not even sure what that is. Anyway, after a call to the doctor on call, we uped his inhaler doses to several times a day. So that cleared that up for the most part. Mattie started her fever today, and it was wierd because she has never been sick, really. She had low grade fevers when she was little, but this was fever, and it was strange to see her...lying still. So, Kiddie Motrin and a luke-warm bath took care of that, and she's better. She is using her sick voice, though, and it's hilarious, because it's even smaller that her real voice. If you know her, you know she has this tiny, oh-so-sweet and innocent little voice, until she is mad or upset, then her inner soprano comes out like she's premiering at the Met. Then, she reverts back to innocent Gerber baby voice. But her sick voice is even higher and softer. Hilarious! Max has gotten tired of watching Tv and playing Transformers on his lap, so I gave his the laptop (with a dire warning) and he looked at the Transformer's website and Star Wars and such. It killed a few hours.








Max has been coughing so much, his eyes are red and bloodshot, so I make him put a cold washcoth on his eyes for a while every now and then. Mattie thought that was cool, so...




Anyway, I'm getting tired of writing about everyone being sick, I hope we are nearing the end of this adventure. But Papa has the stomach bug, so I guess I'll quit complaining.

Sick Day III

Man, more of the same. Fever, coughing, runny nose. Poor guy, but he does seem to be on the up swing now. He is counting the days until he can go back to school though! He doesn't know he will probably have to miss one of his classmate's birthday parties tomorow, he is going to be upset Monday when he finds out. I can't let him go and cough all over everyone though. He didn't sleep very well last night, so between that and every-three-hours inhaler doses, no one got very much sleep. About 4:00am he woke me up and said he had a bad dream about spiders in his bed. I hate those, too. I put him back in bed and "pet" him for a while (that's what he calls it). This morning, he told me he had another dream after that, where he was in a spelling contest, and he was the last one, and the final word was: Emma. He said he told them (judges, I guess) E-m-m-a, and so he won a trophy, $100, and a bike with 2 wheels. Then he spent the next 30 minutes telling me what he would buy if he really did win $100, combined with his current $13, of course. Let's see, a TV for $1, a new car, $1, new toys, $1, everything was $1. So he subratcted $1 from $113 until he got to $107, then he lost track of his dollars. I was kind of glad, this had taken almost an hour. He felt better today as long as we kept his medicines up. I told him to give me a thumbs-up for my picture and could only get silliness. He is definatly feeling better. His eye's were really bloodshot though, and I read on the internet that is from coughing, and a cold rag over his eyes would help. They said it's nothing to be conserned about, but it creeps me out. Anyway, late tonight (7:30) I got this hilarious shot of Max with a washcloth over his eyes, and next to him Mattie with one over her eyes. She can't let brother have all the fun. I had already uploaded my shots for today, so I'll get it tomorrow. This is Mattie's version of the thumbs-up:





















All the nursing was worth it though, because this afternoon I got a letter:














Hopefully, Max will be over this tomorrow, but we have lucked out, no one else has gotten it.


P.S.: That is Dorito dust on her face, not a rash or anything.

Sick Day II

Max was home today again. He's actually worse today, but that's still not too bad. Just a yucky cold and a fever. Nothing a little Kiddie Motrin and Triamenic can't cure! Or mask. Mattie's pretty snotty, but no fever and plenty of energy, maybe about 85% capacity. She likes having her Buba here all day and is always checking on him and bringing him toys.


Never too sick for a lollypop!

Mattie has this new hilarious facination with the hat I made her. She wears it around the house, and now has taken to wearing it to bed. Mark swears she cried last night, and when he checked on her, her hat had fallen off. He replaced the hat, and she fell back asleep. When I got up to get her this morning, I was greeted with this:

Can you think of a better way to start the day?

What she had waiting for me in those pajamas wasn't quite as cute.

Hopefully, Max will feel better tomorrow, but we will see about school. I was taking his temperature today, and he groaned and said, "Oh, I'm doomed!" I think he has been watching a little too much Boomerang the last few days.

Mattie has continued her love affair of the camera (both sides of it), but she found the delete button, and it makes a noise, so, oh well. I shot a hilarious video of her singing today, I will get Mark to try and upload it.

Sick Day

Today Max didn't feel too well, so he got to stay home from school. He even had breakfast in Mom and Dad's bed. And Mattie can't be left out, so she had breakfast in bed, too. Because we missed school, we had to miss church tonight, too, so we pretty much hung out here today.











Mattie found her bottle today, tucked away in a cabinet and she went nuts! She laughed and cried at the same time. If it wasn't so ridiculous, it would be funny. She's almost 2 and when she saw that thing, she fell to pieces. Unbridled joy at the return of a dear friend. It's really my fault for keeping her on it past 1 1/2, but after breastfeeding for so long, I loved to hold her while she drank it. She would even want me to rock her. Since she has never been a huge cuddler, I take what I can get! Max is my snugglly one.

I missed my spinning class this morning, I knew I would regret it, and I did all day. 5:30 just came way too early this morning. Mattie has been taking pictures all day with the Fischer Price camera, but she aims way to low and cuts off everyone's heads. I love it! Her best shots are Dad and Max, shown here. Kiddie camera takes some pretty decent shots!
Max spent about 10 minutes today talking to Jeff about Transformers and other cool Uncle topics. Plus, he has really let up on the potty talk lately, I mean, it's still there, but not as pervasive as before. I guess it will settle into the normal male level, always there, but usually with a filter.

No American Idol Today

Today is normally our day to get togther with everyone and watch American Idol. But today...Josh is out of town, Emma is studing, Max isn't feeling well, so we called it off this week. Pretty soon we will make our picks for this season's top 5, then everyone puts in $5. At the end of the season, whoever was closest to the actual outcome wins the pot. Emily won last season with come-from-behind winner Jordon Sparks. I was the first one out with my pick of Chris somebody who got out like the 3rd week. Mark was second, he chose Blake to win. Anyway, I think I have a pretty good shot this year.

Mattie had a nice little meltdown in Wal-mart today. She saw the strawberries in the produce section and could not understand why I would not open them up and let her eat them. I'm used to her "shopping moments" but this was a good one. Luckily, I was ready to check out. Going grocery shopping with Matilda is like taking a pupping with no leash. You know it can hear you, but either it can't understand you or doesn't care. She must touch everything, put everything in the basket, and heaven forbid she ever sit in the cart. If she didn't look so amazingly adorable while being so impossibly annoying, it would be alot less funny. As it is, I really enjoy shopping with her, and the last time I went to the store alone, it was really boring. Plus nobody talks to me when I don't have her or Max with me. So we all got to eat $5 strawberries after dinner tonight. Thanks, Mattie!

On a knitting knote (I know, I love it too!), these are the matching hats I made them this fall. They even have their names on them. All they need is like, Tweety Bird and Taz to be totally wrong. Mattie loves hers and Max tolerates his. He has a completly male outlook on it: if not this one, I'd make him wear another one, so what's the difference? I figure at least he'll come home with it from school. I'm almost done with Max's grey cabled sweater. I need to sew the side seams and finish the collar. Mattie's shouldn't take too long, I'm using #10's on the body, #9's on the edging.

Hair? Dryer

Today we went to Dr. Reyes, Max's athsma doctor. Max is still breathing, yea! We haven't had any problems for a while now. Monday is turning out to be our Library day, we spent most of the afternoon there after picking Max up from school. The hardest thing is keeping Mattie quiet. I have never really figured out how to do it. She climbs up and down the two stairs into the children's area singing "Go! Go! Go! Go!" while Max tries desperatly to find a Scooby Doo book he can read. We finally settled on a dozen books or so and checked out. It's so cool that knitting is popular now, the library gets all the new knitting books. When I first started knitting, they only had about 10, and most of them were from the '80's. Ewww. Tomorrow I'll post a picture of the sweater I'm making Max. After I'm done I am going to make Mattie a matching one in pink. I know, I know, but I think it's cute, so shut up. Seriously, stop. Max got himself dressed, feed, and even packed his own lunch today. He was so proud. We had to institute a new chart this week to help him keep on track in the mornings. I would have to stay on him all morning just to walk out of the door on time. He is just slow and distractable...scatterbrained. But with this pocket chart, everything is in order, and he slides the card to "Done" and moves on to the next card. It worked today; we'll see tomorrow. After baths tonight, Mattie had her hair dried. She seemed to like it and watched herself in the mirror. It took like 30 seconds to get "all" her hair dried. And that's almost 2 year's worth of hair. Geez.

Super Bowl Sunday

No Super Bowl party today, with church, WW, and a 22 month old, we had to DVR. Today was a restful day for us, Mark went to work. It wasn't restful because Mark went to work, just that we had a restful day, while Mark did not because he went to work. I made the sweater Mattie is wearing in the photo last summer. Man, I can not get my grammer right to day. Not the photo last summer, I made the sweater last summer. Geez. Emily took Mattie to the nursery tonight, and didn't come back for a while. When she finally made it back, she said Mattie had cried when she tried to leave, so Emily stayed back there for a while. Because, you know, we don't want Mattie to cry. Ever.

Ice Storm

These are some of my shots from this year's big ice storm.

I used a macro zoom 70-300mm on my Rebel XTi.

New Deal

I think I will try to post a picture a day for a year. I saw this on another blog and it seemed like a good idea. It will give me an excuse to use my camera anyway. Max had sharing (show and tell) at school today. He can't remember his own name sometimes, but he knows when it's Friday Sharing Day. He is also really into the potty talk now. Not curse words, but literally talk about the potty. It's always poop, pee pee, and peeps now. Uncle Josh taught him that toilets say "give me your pee pee!" and it has snowballed from there. Every night for dinner we have poo poo chichen or spaghetti peeps. And having three uncles who think it's hilarious doesn't help, and I'm sure all day at school he and his cronies are cracking up about farting. It's really anoying but...boys will be boys I guess. Some mom must have coined that phrase after eating poo poo chicken.

Mattie's newest obsession is Little Einstiens from Disney. She even sings the theme song. Friday is my WW day, and she is the darling of everyone there. She watches her DVD's during the meeting, but before and after she mingles . I feel like the sidekick when I go anywhere with her. It's not really me people care about, I only hold the bags.