Whistle While You Work

Max loooooves our dog, Ellie. He is constantly wrestling with her and playing with her. She follows him around for hours, just waiting for him to drop something for her to eat and/or chew on. He watches how we "train" her very closely and has begun "whistling" for her to come to him. Instead of actual whistling, though, he makes this adorable high-pitched "hoooooooooooo!" sound and she comes running. It's hilarious!

Last night, he came out of his room after bedtime to go potty. He was in there for awhile and then we heard, "Mom, can you help me wipe my butt?"...."Mom? Hoooooooooooooooooooo!"

Oh, Maxwell. :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope your Thanksgiving celebrations were relaxing and fun! We had Thanksgiving brunch at Ron and Meg's so I could get some turkey and stuffing before my 2pm shift. Liam made a sign and put out a basket for people to put donations in. He explained that he was collecting donations for Hurricane Sandy victims! They did a colletion at his school that raised over $1000, and he wanted to do his own! So, tomorrow I will bring him to the Red Cross to deliver his donations!

Love my compassionate kid.

Party for Liam!

Ron and Meg graciously hosted Liam's party again this year!
Sarah made him this awesome pirate ship fort that slips over a card table! We piled his presents on top.

With the pirate fort came pirate garb...arrrr!

I can't believe this kid is 6! Stop growing!

Aww...cute brothers!

Again this year I vowed to take a picture of the boys with everyone who came to the party. And AGAIN this year I took ONE picture. Just one.

At least it turned out cute!

Oh, and one with me, but that doesn't count in my tally!

He got so many awesome presents! People really know what he likes and made some great choices!

A microscope and telescope set!

 

A digital camera!

Grandma Meg made this awesome cake with Liam's favorite candy - Kit Kats!

Happy Birthday, buddy!

He loooooves his camera!

Such a great day!

Bells Will Be Ringing...

We rang bells at the Big Red Kettle tonight! The boys did very well and made sure to say "thank you" and "Merry Christmas" to everyone. We had a 1 hour slot, which turned out to be just the right amount of time.

Liam likes wearing the apron and the Santa hat, Max...not so much. Liam rang the bell for most of the time we were there. Max...rolled around on the floor, did ninja moves whilst ringing the bell and laid partially under a loveseat in the middle of the mall. And you know what? I let him. He wasn't hurting anyone, and he was being pretty good despite spending the majority of his time on or near the floor. He was right next to us and just couldn't stand to be doing one thing (ringing bells) for a whole hour. Aaron did have to take him on a walk once, but he really was not that bad.

Max told me all about a game he made up that he was practicing while we rang bells. It involved jumping on the loveseat, falling on the floor, running around in a circle, tackling, lying half under the loveseat...and I'm sure there were some other rules I'm forgetting. It was cute. He has an incredibly big imagination, but he uses it differently than Liam does. He experiences things much more physically than Liam does, and I need to just let him be Max. Most of the time...!



Liam is 6!

It doesn't seem so long ago that Liam was just this big!



And it's hard to believe that he's now THIS big!!

I asked him what kind of balloons he wants for his party and he said,
 "I don't know. But, whatever they are, I'm going to LOVE them!"
I think that about sums up his view on just about everything.
Happy Birthday, Buddy!