Air Show
















PBA here we come!

I come from a long line of bowlers. Growing up, every adult member of my family put on fancy bowling shirts once a week and bowled in a league. Some of my favorite childhood memories took place in the bowling alley -- birthday parties, Sunday bowling after church and my own first league when I was 8 or 9? -- so it was with much excitement that we took the boys bowling for the first time.

Max's first roll!

Fill in the blank:
Max has been prevented once again from ______
a) Smashing his fingers between bowling balls
b) Running across the oiled floors
c) Dashing down the lane after the ball
d) Sticking his hand in the ball return

Answer: All of the above!



Sigh. They will not know the joy of the small yellow pencils and paper score sheets at the neighborhood bowling alley. We programmed the game so that bumper lanes automatically popped up when it was their turn and disappeared for Mommy and Daddy.



Spare!


The outing reawakened Daddy's love of bowling. He played 17 games of wii bowling when we returned home!



So proud of my little bowlers!


A Busytown Mystery

The boys love to watch "Busytown Mysteries" on Saturday mornings, which is based off their favorite books by Richard Scarry. We had our own Busytown Mystery recently when we discovered a slight bruise on Max's upper arm. Max plays HARD, so he often has bruises, cuts and injuries, but we can always explain them. Rob and I could not figure out where this came from, which worried us.


Over the next few days, the bruise darkened and filled in, and we got a big break. The bruise looked like bite marks.


And one of the teeth imprints had a suspicious gap in the middle.


Hmmm. Who could possibly be responsible?





In Harry's defense, he is not a biter, but Max has had his issues with biting, so maybe he had his fill one day when Mom and Dad weren't looking?

Now some positive news about the boys, who bring us many smiles throughout the day, despite these recent postings about sleep and biting:


Harry is reading!


Max is going on the potty a couple times a day!


And...

Here is Big Brother looking out for little brother on the train. We were headed downtown and Harry held onto Max the whole time. He once got up to look out the window and said: "Mommy, will you hold onto Max while I look out the window?" Sure, buddy.

Oh, how I love when they do awesome, spontaneous, loving things like this.


Whack a Mole



So after Max's big surgery to correct his breathing at night, we thought "Finally! there will be a full night's sleep in our future!"


But as soon as his sleeping started to improve, the very next day, Max learned how to climb out of his crib without the help of any other furniture, which had already been removed from the room.

Soooo exhilarating and exciting for him. He would come bursting out of the bedroom squealing, and running. You'd pick him up to feel his heart beating so fast, and his skin sweaty, and obviously every time he climbed out, the adrenaline pushed him that much further away from sleep.


The first night, he climbed out of the crib approximately 75 times. It was ridiculous. Harry even appealed to him to GO TO SLEEP BROTHER!


Mom and Dad spent hours not engaging him, but carrying him back to the bed, just like the good doctors recommend.


The first night he went to bed at 12:45 a.m. in our bed.


Then he woke up six hours later. His brother, who was kept up late, was quite a piece of work the next day. Overtired Max then tried to resist the daytime nap, climbing out of the crib 46 times. He eventually passed out drooling on the couch.


Night Two. Max continues to climb out of his bed. Again, and again, and again, and again. Goes to bed about 10:45 p.m. this second night. But only after every toy has been taken out of the room, including the train table.


Night Three. Parents pull out every child safety trick they have to slow the child down, settling on a door knob contraption that is supposed to keep the child from opening the door. He opens it within 3 minutes, emerging even more gleeful than before.


Parents begin designing their own plans for wicked structures to contain the child. He eventually falls to sleep in the 10 o'clock hour.


Night Four. Parents cry. Please, child, please go to sleep, wonder if they have given birth to the Energizer bunny. Have a pep talk with each other after the first climbout about the strategy for the night ahead. Feel like the Worst Parents Ever. Feel like they will forever be returning the two-year-old to his bed. He falls asleep, two hours past bedtime.



Night Five. New approach: Remove the Challenge! Parents remove a side of the crib to transform it into a toddler bed. He stays in bed a bit better, but still runs out over and over and over again. Falls asleep at 10 p.m.



We are now plotting our strategy for tomorrow night, when we intend to emerge victorious! Wish us luck!


Aunt Sue's house!

We went to Indianapolis last weekend to visit Rob's family and stayed in Aunt Sue's fabulous new house.


The boys and Uncle Chris, newly married to Aunt Sue.



Max and Max. Uncle Chris also has a son named Max, pictured above with our Max. Our Max definitely took a liking to "Big Max."



Grammy and Daddy. They may be related.



Sigh. This photo fills my heart. The head on the left is Harry, pressed against the head of his cousin Sydney. How sweet is that?



Big Max reading a book to little Max. (Since our trip, he has asked "Where's Big Max? I'm small Max.")


Max refusing sleep so Mommy has styled his pool/sunscreen/dirty hair into this mohawk :)



Cousin Maggie works her magic at bedtime to put the boys to bed.