Fun With A Hose

On Friday night Andy was watering his strawberry topsy turvey when Max went outside and took over the hose. This kid had so much fun with the hose and Izzy that his giggles were just priceless. This fun time went on for about a half an hour. 

Washing the unwanted grass off his feet. 

And a little fit when it was time to call it quits.

Just Writing my ABCDs Mommy

The other night after Max and daddy's shower I went in to help get Max out of the tub, dried off and teeth brushed. I walked in to a very busy Max. I asked him what he was doing. He turned around and in a matter of fact way said "ABCDs Mommy." I asked him if he was writing his ABCDs and he said "yes." Of course I told him he is doing such a good job and his ABCDs look great. I mean, can't you spot the alphabet in his beautiful artwork? What a gifted child I have to be able to write the ABCDs at his age? ;)

Ms. Marie works with the kids on their writing skills, so Max is always excited to practice his. Here is a picture of him working on his writing at Ms. Marie's house.

Just a cute photo of Maxim in the tub.

Fun Photos

We have been homebodies lately and really haven't done much. We have escaped the extreme heat by hanging in the pool a lot, but other than that this family has been pretty laid back. Since I have no stories to share I will share some fun photos of Max lately. 

Just stacking some blocks.

Getting crazy with daddy in the backyard...don't mind that it's 110 degrees outside.

Doing very well at swim lessons. Mommy is very proud!

Just a Max selfie.

We tried to eat at the big table instead of his high chair, but it only lasted 5 minutes. He wanted back in his chair. Ugh! I thought we could pack that chair away, but Max is not interested. 

Max's Favorites

Max has a lot of favorite things right now and I want to jot them down so I can look back one day...or when I am making his annual photo book I can include these things.

Favorite color: blue

Favorite food: tacos (especially my homemade taquitos), but he is also a fan of noodles, pesto and of course fruit

Favorite animal: doggies

Favorite toy: anything with cars, trucks, planes or trains

Best friend: Besides his parents :), I will have to say Emmy

Favorite game: "night-night" or "chase me"

Favorite TV show: Chuggington, but he is also a fan of Mickey Mouse

Favorite movie: He still likes Frozen, but his favorite movie would be Cars. His latest interest is Brave and Finding Nemo

Favorite book: He likes 101 Dalmatians and the Little Blue Truck books, but his favorite right now would be How do Diggers Sleep at Night

Favorite song: ABC's, but he calls it The ABCD

Can't sleep without: his blankie that grandma V made him and a book or toy car

Swim Lessons Update

This past Friday Andy did swim lessons with Max since I wasn't going to make it in time. Due to this trade off you get to see pictures of him in swim lessons since I take pictures during swim lessons. He is doing a lot better at all the activities. He is still two and wants to do things when he wants to do them, but he is also doing a lot better. We are also working with him at home almost daily on the swim activities. We just have to work on him kicking his feet when he is under water, but until then enjoy the pictures of daddy and Max at swim lessons.

Nightly Ritual

Our typical week nights consist of dinner, pool time, bath/shower, play night-night, read a book and watch Chuggingtons before bedtime. All of that activity in a matter of two hours. Phew! Swim time has been the most beneficial because it's really helping with his swim lessons. We've been getting in 30 minutes of swim time a night (what else do you do when it's 110 degrees at 6pm) and helping him with his swimming. He's doing a lot better and I am very proud of him. Now we just need to work on him kicking his feet more when he is under the water. 

Camping 2015

This past weekend we got out of the heat and did our annual camping weekend with our friends. We headed up to the rim on Thursday afternoon ahead of our friends to get a spot, plus Andy wanted to have two full days of camping...he talked me into it. We set up camp on Thursday night and Max was all excited with the tent. He thought it was pretty cool. He was bouncing on the air mattresses and just having a good time while we continued to get the campsite ready. Max went to bed pretty easily on the first night while Andy and I enjoyed some peace and quiet by the fire with a bottle of wine.

We woke on Friday morning, had breakfast and played a little while Andy was getting the fishing poles ready to take Max fishing for the first time.

Since our friends weren't up at the campsite yet, we took Max (and the dogs) to the lake. I was responsible for holding the dogs (which meant keeping Madison out of the water and scaring the fish away) while Andy was teaching Max how to fish. Andy got the pleasure of reeling in Max's first fishy.

Not long after fishing our friends started to arrive and Max got crazy in the dirt. He even put a fistful of dirt in his mouth. I asked him if he just ate dirt and he opened his mouth wide so I could see it was all black inside. I asked him if he wanted some juice to wash it down and he replied with a very simple "yup."

I managed to get this adorable picture of all the kids on the hammock eating their oranges.

I am glad my friend, Pinterest Amber, was camping with us because she brought plenty of activities for the kids. I searched on Pinterest too and had ideas, but my execution was poor...ok, my execution just never happened. On the other hand, Amber's execution was awesome! She had the kids make fruit loop necklaces on Saturday morning (and plenty of other activities all weekend). Max struggled getting the fruit loops on the string, so I helped him put his necklace together. He also never had fruit loops before, so this was a treat and he just kept eating the blue ones. Right now blue is his favorite color.

He did search for buggies with the other kids since Pinterest Amber brought them all magnifying glasses and a bug house. Max had fun with his magnifying glass.

Following the necklace making we took the kids to the lake for them all to experience fishing. When we arrived there was a huge Elk very close to us. It was pretty neat to see.

We climbed down the embankment with five kids ranging from 2 - 7 (crazy, I know) and got everyone setup to fish. I was in charge of taking pictures while the guys dealt with the fishing poles. The other ladies were dog sitting (aka relaxing) back at camp.

We caught the small pan fish (or sun fish, but I am no fish expert), but that's all we needed to do to show the kids and have them have a good time. I believe Andy caught 10 fish and the kids enjoyed seeing it. Ella caught her first fish and it was fun to see her excitement.

We went back to camp for lunch, nap time and plenty of giggles with the kids.

Max went for a walk with daddy in the woods and brought me back a bouquet of flowers. It was so cute to see him running up to me with a fist full of flowers yelling mommy, mommy. Just completely melted my heart.

Around 4pm it started to down pour and it continued this way for three hours. We got over two inches of rain in three hours. That is a lot of rain in AZ. Max and I spent the majority of the time in Andy's truck playing.

We then moved to the tent to get ready for bed and of course everything was wet...no bueno! I managed to make a bed for all of us with two sleeping bags and one pillow. It was rough, but we managed.

Sunday morning was a new day with everything wet and muddy from the rain and the kids played together while we all started to clean up the mess and pack to head back to the heat.

I am not a fan of camping, but it's so much more fun with a toddler. To see Max have a great time, play with other kids, and learn new things just put a huge smile on my face. I will actually look forward to camping again next summer.