All About Max

In honor of his third birthday today, here is a post dedicated to the things that make him uniquely Max.



His favorite color is yellow and his favorite animal is the giraffe. In our house, we are constantly asking which came first, yellow or the giraffe. To this day, we still don't know if Max likes giraffes because they are yellow or the color yellow because it's the color of the giraffe.

He has three security items...coo-coo, coo-coo and snuggie. Yes, I know there are two coo-coos, but hey, they are his so I guess he can name them whatever he wants.

Coo-coo, coo-coo and snuggie go everywhere. And they are a set, to they usually go everywhere together. Thank goodness he's content to leave them in the car.

He's very mechanical and loves to build things.

He's also my helper and is the first one to pick things up when it's clean-up time.

His favorite tv show is Dora the Explorer. We don't know why. Thanks goodness for Boots or we'd be worried.

He loves all things having to do with art. Stickers will entertain him for hours. He also loves to paint on real watercolor paper when he goes to his Babbie's house.

He is very literal. If you say, "How's my little monkey?" Max will say, "I'm not a monkey, I'm Max!"

He's deathly afraid of the dark and monsters. He sleeps with two nightlights, a lamp and his closet light on. He also brings most of his stuffed animals into his bed as protection against the monsters.

He adores his big brother and follows him around constantly.

He has a smile that usually gets him what he wants. Shame on me, but I just can't resist.

Happy Birthday Max. No matter how big you get, you will always be my baby. You have delighted me since you were born and you grow more special to me each and every day. I pray that God will watch over you and protect you and that you will continue to grow in your knowledge and love of Him. I'm so proud of the boy that you are and can't wait to see the man that you will become.

0 and 5

0 and 5. Yes that's a sports reference. However, being so completely not into sports, I'm not sure I got it right. I think you get the point.

For five years now, I've been trying to get a good picture of my kids at Easter. Even when we just had Luke, we never got a single good picture. Now that there are two, it's impossible.

In theory, it should be easy. They're already wearing the nice clothes and there are baskets of candy lying around to use as bribes. Really, it should work...but somehow it never does.

Here are the results of yesterday's efforts.

Okay, not bad. Maybe this will be the year.


Two frames in and already tired. This is not looking good.


And now it turns into a game.


The candy bribes are not working.


Even a change of location didn't help.



And the record holds. It's a good thing I'm an optimist. I'm sure we'll get one next year.

Spring Break? More like Spring Broken.

I was so excited for Spring Break this year. The kids didn't have school and I had plans. Plans to get together with friends from other schools, plans to play outside and general plans to have fun.

This year, it wasn't meant to be. On Friday I came down with bronchitis. Actually, I think I had been coming down with it for the past two weeks, but it hit on Friday. And when it hit, I was down.

How I long to use this post to detail all my ailments, to go on and on about the ins and outs of my five days on the couch. But that's not what this post is about (you're welcome). For me, it's about watching my life but not participating in it. It's a really odd feeling. So, from my drug-induced haze, here's what I observed.

1. My husband rocks.
2. If you eat every meal out of a paper bag, the sink is always clean and the dishwasher empty.
3. The trash is a different story.
4. Noggin and Disney have children's programming on ALL DAY.
5. Children can function nicely and have a great time even if their clothes don't exactly "go" together.
6. When held captive on the couch, one can watch too much Nascar.
7. If you're not careful, toys cars and super heros can become permanent fixtures and even seen as decorative items in your den.
8. Children, when left unattended, will not hesitate to "color" the tablecloth on your dining room table.
9. If you forget to put a pull-up on your child before he goes to bed, you will have twice as much laundry the next day.
10. Men are capable of washing mounds of laundry. They are not, however, capable of folding it.

Those are the highlights. I'm sure I could have thought of more, but my cough syrup had codine in it, so much of my memory is bit fuzzy.

I'm back on my feet now and getting back to normal. If you see Merk, make sure you give him a high five. He deserves a gold medal for his performance last week. At the very least, I hope to make him dinner tonight, but I'm not sure if he will see that as a treat or a punishment. Ahh, the plusses and minuses of getting back to normal.

Punching Not Allowed

Here's the conversation I walked in on today.


Merk: "Luke, did you just punch your brother?"

Luke: "Yes."

Merk: "Go to the naughty chair, now."

Luke: "But I didn't punch him very hard."


Boys clearly have a different perspective on right and wrong.

All About Luke

In honor of his 5th birthday today, this post is all about Luke. Here are a few of the things that make him our Lukie Pookie.

His favorite color is blue.
He sleeps with a blue pillow named Snuggie.
He loves Nascar and his favorite driver is Kurt Busch.
If Luke rides in the car after 4 pm, he will fall asleep.
He loves football and can name most of the teams by looking at their logos.
He likes to "verse." In a sentence..."I can't wait to play soccer today. We're going to verse the Mustangs."
Everytime he plays t-ball, he thinks he's going to be on tv.
His favorite food is macaroni and cheese.
He likes things scary now. He won't let me fast forward through the scary parts in movies anymore .
He loves to snuggle and is easily the best snuggler in our family.
He doesn't like art or art projects.
His favorite toys are super heros and power rangers, followed closely by dinosaurs and hot wheels.
He likes numbers and can count to 100 on his own.
He hates wearing clothes and takes them off every chance he gets. This goes double for church clothes.
He wears a super hero or power ranger costume almost every day.
He loves milk and would drink 5 cups a day if I would let him.
He loves to sing "rock and roll" and his favorite CD's are The Backyardigans and U2.
When he grows up, he wants to be a daddy.

Happy Birthday Baby Boy. You are so unique and special, you amaze me every day. I pray that God will watch over you and protect you. I pray that as you grow, you will continue to grow in your knowledge and love of Him. I am very proud of you and love you with all my heart.

Rite of Passage

Before it gets away from me, here are a few pics from Luke's first soccer game. His team is the Tigerbats, which Merk thinks is impossibly cool.

Soccer is a strange animal to me. Growing up in Atlanta, it was practically non-existant. I didn't have a single friend who played it so I don't quite understood the fuss. However, in Texas, it is the thing to to, so we're doing it. Actually, I want to expose Luke so he can make an educated choice.


So far, he likes it. He doesn't understand much yet, but he seems to be having fun.


I'm also proud of him for staying on the ball and going for it, even though once or twice he went the wrong way.


Watch out or he'll block you.


A few karate moves thrown in just to mix things up.

Snow Tastes Good

What a fun morning we had in the snow. Luke was ready to go out as soon as we woke up. In my book, 6:45 is a bit early for romping around in the snow, but since we seldom get the chance, we jumped, literally.


The first thing Luke did was throw his body on the ground and begin making a snow angel. I didn't know he knew how to do this, but if you didn't know better, you'd think he was a pro.


Then he went face first. I'm not so sure that was a good idea.


We had a couple of snowball fights. They were'nt entirely fair. Luke would come up to me and ask me to make him a snowball. Then he would throw it at me. He was having so much fun, I didn't care.



Max finally got brave and made his own snow angel.



Now we're drying off and getting ready for school. I am tempted to keep them home so we can play some more. But for me, preschool is like gold, so they're going. By the time they get home, it will all be gone. At least we had a very happy morning.

From the Mouths of Babes

This afternoon, Merk and I were cleaning up the house. I just finished one project and was trying to decide what to tackle next. As I was thinking through my options, I made the comment that I should do the dishes, but I really wanted to do something else because it seems like I'm always doing dishes.

I didn't realize Luke was playing in the floor behind me until I heard, "You can always do the laundry."