Finally....one month later...

So sorry it has been so long since I posted. We have had quite a bit going on...

We decided to have the loft closed in to make another bedroom. Here are the before pictures:

during construction pictures...no banister anymore.

framing and insullation

dry wall

scaffolding that took up our entire living room...and we thought we could do all of this ourselves

All we had to do was paint.

the finished product...

a new guest room...so you can all come visit!

Max got moved to a "big boy bed" and a new room! He loved it from the beginning, although he doesn't look like it in this picture. We left the toddler bed in his new room for a few days, and he picked sleeping in the big bed over the toddler bed...so we took the toddler bed out.

He does have to climb 2 steps to get in and out of the bed, but he does the steps really well.

With the new room, came some new toys such as this ball pit. The ball pit was quite a success. One night, we did find him asleep halfway in the pit and halfway out. He loves to throw the balls in and out of his bed...but he only does it by color. He has to put all the purple balls in first, then the yellow, etc. We might have a bit of OCD?!

Papa and JuJu came to visit.

Max got his first haircut! As you can tell from this picture, he needed one. He actually had some really cute curls, but they showed up only when his hair was clean, and, unfortunately, his hair has food in it more often than it is clean.

He was a little squirmy, but he did pretty good.

It snowed here on Easter, so Max didn't get to wear his Easter outfit until the next Sunday, but he loved his Easter basket. He went from pulling out each piece of grass one at a time to throwing the grass all over himself and the room.

Max's Easter outfit.

We finally found some sunglasses Max will wear. Now, he wears them all the time...inside the house, inside the store, in the car...everywhere.

Watch out, Ladies!

It's been a rough week.

Not only do I have 3 bruises across my forehead and one black eye. I now have a cut on that black eye that sent me to the ER. I was running so fast to get to the window in time to see the dog I heard barking, that I fell and cut my eye. If my mom would just get me my own dog! (NEVER!)

Someone did not want to go to Church!

Here I am doing "Pat-a-cake". The only thing more fun than that is doing "Wheels on the Bus." I love that one even more.

Comfortable?

Lately, this has been my preferred sleeping position.

Friday Night Fun

What could be more fun on a Friday night?! We went to our neighborhood pool (indoor), and we were the only ones in it. It was great!

"Where's Max?"

This is my new favorite game...peek-a-boo...even though I am usually peeking through my fingers. I love this game so much, that if you ask me "Where's Max's ball?" (or any other question that starts with "Where's Max's"), I immediately cover my eyes. Apparently, I don't here the last word of that question. All I hear is, "Where's Max?"

Finally!

I got to play outside yesterday for the first time since I learned to walk. I was quite amazed at what it is like to walk around outside. I saw every single airplane in the sky and made the airplane sound ("zzzzzzzzzzz") each time I saw an airplane. I made the car sound every time a car went by, and barked like a dog every time any dog in the neighborhood made a noise. It was quite exciting. Yes, the snow in our front yard is still the snow from the pre-Christmas blizzard. It just might not ever go away!

Sad, but true...

Our baby is growing up! We were not quite ready for the toddler bed, but apparently Max IV was. Our plan was to move him to a toddler bed or single bed the first of May, and we were pretty nervous he wouldn't be ready. So, after 2 days of fit-throwing every time we tried to put him in his crib, we came up with an idea...bring out the toddler bed and try to put him in that! That should teach him...he thought he didn't want the crib so we were sure he would throw such a fit over the toddler bed that he would gladly get back in the crib. Well, we were wrong...kind of. We got out the toddler bed, put him in it, said goodnight, and walked out. We heard nothing...no crying, no playing...just heavy breathing. Yes, he had gone right to sleep in his new toddler bed. But it's not over. Nope. After about an hour, we thought we heard a noise. So, Max went to check on him, and he was asleep on the floor right next to the door. So, Max moved him back into his bed and it was over! He realized he could get in and out of this bed too easily. (Which was a bit of a shock to us since everytime we had shown him the toddler bed, he always acted like he couldn't get in that bed on his own.) So, as we continuously went to peek in on him, we watched him play and play and play until 3 am. If you have ever had a hard time sleeping at night, here are some things you can do: 1. find a ball and roll it from one end of your bed to the other-while walking around your bed to roll it, or 2. throw everything in your room onto your bed-then get in your bed and throw everything back off the bed, or 3. pull your window shade out so you can see what goes on outside at 2 in the morning, or 4. take your covers off your bed, then put them back on again. You see, there are so many things to do in the middle of the night, I don't know how anyone could try to sleep. Finally, things died down and Max IV slept on the floor by the door until 6 am. So, the next day, completely exhausted, we are faced with the dilemma of toddler bed or crib. We decide to try one more night with the toddler bed, and amazingly he slept 13 hours...in his bed...without getting out! How do we know this? After one night of not sleeping and constantly peeking in on him (which just excited him more each time he heard the door open), we went and purchased a video monitor. We watched him on our little monitor...as soon as we put him to bed and left the room, he threw his dog and blanket on the floor, got out of the bed and threw them back in the bed. Then he got back in the bed himself and went to sleep. We slept good, he slept good, and there is no going back. He took a great nap in his bed today (again, yes, I watched him on the monitor-it's actually very entertaining). So bye bye crib.

This is Max playing with his dog (stuffed animal, of course-wouldn't have a real one), in the middle of the room. See how much fun this video monitor can be?

Sometimes I like to play IN my toy box!

Dad's Birthday

We celebrated Dad's birthday this weekend, and I enjoyed some of his chocolate cake and participated by wearing my own birthday bib.
I tried on Dad's new snow boots--boots he could have used the past 2 months!

Genius?

I love to read...even if the book is upside down.

Bath Time

I LOVE LOVE LOVE to splash!
I splash and splash and splash and laugh and laugh and laugh! And when it is all over, there is water all over the whole bathroom.

It's a boy!

We found out last Thursday that we are having a boy (as you can see from this picture). Everything looked great and healthy and he measured exactly to the due date of May 23!
Sorry, this one is a little blurry. It is a 3-D profile picture of the baby. He is looking to the left with his hands in front of his face. I think he is frowning. Poor guy. This one is pretty hard to see.

Did I forget to mention...

that I'm walking? Yep. I said goodbye to crawling the week of Christmas.