Golly, What a Day

Thursday, April 2nd started out as any normal day, that is until Thing 1 didn't ask me to tie his princess skirt with his blankies (affectionately named yellow and blue) the minute we finished breakfast. In fact, he didn't ask me to tie his princess skirt at all that day. Rather, during his morning dose of cartoons, he became rather intrigued with the garb of the Backyardigan Cave People and wanted to spend the morning wearing an animal skin and a bone necklace, just like Uniqua. Perhaps 'twas a subconscious foreshadowing of events to happen later this day.Being the promoter of imagination that I am, I tied yellow as so, and found him an old string of beads to pose as his bone necklace. Feeling ever so manly, Thing 1 showed me his muscles.

Meanwhile, amidst all the cave person hallabuloo, Thing 2 was enjoying tummy time on her play mat...or so I thought..."Tadaah!"

Apparently, Thing 2 wanted to get in on all of the firsting action. She rolled from her tummy to her back! Trying to one-up her big bro, she didn't stop there. Reaching for her dangling toy, she actually grabbed it instead of her delightful little toes by mistake.
Still, the toes remain a very definitive step in the grabbing process, mind you.Once she got the hang of this, though, Thing 2 seemed content to just keep on hangin' on...and on...and on...She'll never let go, Jack. Doesn't she look so pleased with her accomplishment?
We are proud of you too, Princess P.

Later in the day we headed with friends for Things 1 and 2's first trip to the ZOO.

There, we had the ever so important argument on how to pronounce Elephant...(I'm not sure who gave in first, but I'm pretty sure they they agreed to disagree.)

...became entranced by Gorillas......so entranced, in fact, that we could not, for one second, peel our little eyes away from the beasts while banging our own gorilla-like chests for a photo-op.


We also got to sing to Mr. Crocodile...
Can't Catch Me!

Hold hands, and more hands...then fall down...and stay there.

We giggled on a camel saw... monkey bums????

and--Oh Look!A Big Horn!! That's why we come up here.

Thing 2 had a delightful first day at the zoo as well.She was particularly fascinated by the inside of her eyelids.

A day of firsts is definitely what we had, for it was also the first day we met our new landlords at 341 Parkside, as well as the first night Thing 2 decided it was also time to start waking up 3-5 times a night (hence the lag in our blogging). I believe we have since nipped that last first in the bud. For all of our sakes, let's hope.

Marketing 101

I walk by this house everyday, and apparently they are selling. I guess that since the market is so hot in Buffalo right now you don't need to get much exposure to sell your home. Just throw something together in Print Shop, tape it to the window, and wait next to the phone....hmmmm.


They must not have received many calls cause a few days later I found this...
I'm still trying to figure out what this sign means. Maybe they need a second mortgage or something...I can't seem to think of any other reasons why someone would buy something they already owned.

The worst part is that the sign appears to be professionally made. Oh well. At least it's in a nice area. Here is the neighbor's house:

And across the street:
And a few houses down to the corner:
I'm telling you...we live in the struggle. At least it's adding to our street-cred.

And I forgot to post this after we got back from our nice, warm, spring break trip to Utah.
I was so mad at the snow. I decided to protest by throwing it away! Not very efficient, I know, but at least I got my frustration out. It's just too bad that it melted before the garbage man came!

Katchup

We couldn't put it off any longer. Elder has officially become a New Yorker. Even though th plate looks much better than the orange Utah plate, I feel like such a sellout! Sorry, Elder.

Here are a couple pics of thing 2. She has decided that she no longer likes to sleep through the night (I knew it was too good to be true) and has been keeping us up a lot lately. This is partly to blame for the lack of posting. She is still such a sweetie though. Even though she is so extremely tired she smiles every time we make eye contact with her. She is a happy baby. I use to tell people that I didn't know if I'd ever be able to love another child as much as I loved Max, but thankfully there is an answer for that! The sweet child you fall in love with becomes a crazy person at precisely the same time you have another sweet child. I remember being so anxious for Max to grow up and do something besides nothing! That's probably why it took him a little longer than normal to start walking! This time around I am enjoying the immobile stage much much more. And for just that reason, Thing 2 will probably start walking next month!








Here are a few pics of Thing 1. The weather has been pretty nice, so it's been great to come out of our cave and see the sun!


We watched the movie August Rush the other night and thought it was great. It is so nice to watch movies that make you feel good when you're done watching them rather than "It was good, BUT." I thought the music was really interesting and the story was pretty decent too. I must admit that I am easily amused, but I guess if I were a harsh critic I'd say the story line seemed long in some places and extremely rushed and underdeveloped in other places. But it still had me involved, entertained and feeling good through most of the show. Look to the bottom of our playlist for August's Rhapsody and it will give you a sample of some of the great music in the show. If anyone knows of any other good movies like this, please recommend.

Oh, and 1 more thing. Abby is going to kill me for posting this, but if anyone is wondering where Max got his lazy eye...It wasn't me!

Let's Go Buffalo!!!

A little while back I posted this article written by Edward Glaeser who is an urban economist at Harvard. I guess a lot of people around here were a little upset with what he wrote, so he is coming to Buffalo this Friday from 2:00 until (I think) 4:00 to have a forum. I believe that he will be speaking about resurrecting Buffalo and will then have a Q&A that should be pretty good. I'm excited about this, but I realize that it doesn't have anything too do with teeth so many of my fellow soldiers might not want to go. However, if any of you would like to venture into the world of economics I would love to have some company. It costs 10 bucks (for students--30 otherwise) and I think that includes food. It should be pretty good. So if anyone wants to go, give me a call.

She Makes The Rockin World Go Round!

Perry's results from the official weigh in:

75th percentile in weight

75th percentile in head

and......................................

10th percentile in height!!!
She's officially a "Fat Bottomed Girl!"

Sorry that we've been slacking. More to come tomorrow...with pictures!

Might as Well Be a Four Letter Word

This evening as I was getting Max's shoes on to go spend our tax return (ya baby!) on a much needed double stroller, he asked me why we needed to get shoes on when we went bye bye. I told him that we put shoes on so we can protect our feet from germs and things that might hurt them (glass, nails, etc) that are laying on the ground. He thought about that answer and then said, "Why? Why do we need to protect them from that stuff?" I told him that germs and cuts on our feet can make us very very sick and that's not good. He paused to think about this answer and then said,"Why?" My heart sank. OH NO, I thought, What if we've entered the never-ending "why" questions nonsense? What will I do? I don't remember exactly what I said, but apparently I sufficed his curiosity because that was the end of that conversation.
We went about the rest of the night without another "why question" cycle and I was beginning to think I was in the clear. Oh, but no...
As I put Max down for bed he asked me if he could have quiet shoes in bed with him to sleep (Quiet shoes are my shoes that he is allowed to wear because they don't make too much noise on our wood floors). I told him no. He asked me why. I told him that shoes aren't for bedtime. He asked me why. I told him because they have germies on the bottoms of them. He asked me why. I tensed a little and then said,"Because we walk around outside and on dirty floors with our shoes on and that's where the germies come from." He asked me why, but it was more like, "But whhhyyyy?"

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

After several more back and fourths, I defused the conversation. "I don't know, honey, you'll have to ask Heavenly Father because He knows everything."
"Oh," He said.
It worked! Yay!
"And Jesus?" he continued.
"Yup. And Jesus. Goodnight buddy."
"Goodnight Mommy," as I shut the door.

The Man Upstairs must be urging more patience upon me...or Max just really really wants to know about germies. If that is the case he is going to have to ask Gramma Mesha as she is the one who made up such words as coldy, all-gonny, and germies. It just leaves me asking with pleading eyes heavenward, "WHY?"

Take that Jenny

46 words

Speedtest

3 Times in 1 Day

Whew. I'm Beat! Just letting you all know that I posted three times tonight...four if you count this one. I had a lot on my mind, I guess.

ENJOY!!!

P.S. This is why I don't let Jeff post pictures of me online. They all look like this...or worse. (And yes. I edited the picture. It was a little too large and scary for me to keep looking at.)

R S T L N E

Yes. Eye am aware of my spellen error. En fact, der well be alot of dem tru-out des post. Allow me to explane. Several weeks ako a water bottle spelled--or leaked--en my purse. Amonk da waterlokked casualtees was my cell pone. Sence den, Eye av not been able to use my four key. Et semply well not work. Wat exactly does des mean, you ask? Well, my dear frends, et means any text messaje you receeve from me well read lyke des post as da four key olds da place of da 3 letters of da alpabet dat come after da letter F. Et also means dat ef your pone number as a four en et, Eye cannot call you unless you were prokrammed en my pone pryor to des unfortunate event. Woo knew dat dose 3 letters were used so often! Not me, but eye mess dem...very muc.

What's In a Name?

Every time I come across someone at the grocery store, or the doctor's office, or anywhere in public for that matter, the passer or passersby inevitably notice my darling little girl--sometimes they think she's a boy, but that is an entirely different issue--and they comment with delightful little baby talk at her. Perry, if she is awake, makes eye contact with them and coos in return, thus prompting further conversation. I slightly dread this for one reason and one reason only. These so-called friendly strangers always want to know her name. When the cursed question arises, I answer them the two or three times it takes them to hear and/or understand that her name is indeed Perry--not Carry, or Mary, or Terry. Then I watch their faces change from an admirational grin to pure confusion as they ask, "How do you spell that?" I tell them. Unamused, they reply with something like, "That's interesting," or, "Oh," or my personal favorite,"Hmmm..." The conversation awkwardly ends there and we continue on our separate ways dissatisfied with the encounter all together. It's starting to make me itch...

After several complaints of these incidents, Jeff decided to see what the public blogger world thought, just for kicks. We are pretty sure that the majority of the votes for Perry came from our families. As for actually changing her name? No decisions have been made as of yet. Thanks for your participation and we will let you know if anything changes!

Some Bunny Loves Me

In all of our lives we have incidents when we just cannot comprehend the rationality of such things. These things can be peoples' actions, new ideas, or even outrageous fads. We think,"Is that for real?" or "Did that really just happen?" These things become a part of our reality as we incorporate them into our lives (be it by acceptance or mere tolerance) then, over time, they become a part of our past--like the afro--only to be regurgitated periodically throughout time.

Every night Clementine sleeps in our bed. Similarly, every night I wake up to feed Perry. Most often I am not out of bed for longer than 30 minutes. Sometimes I can even be back into my room with in 20 minutes. Eager to return to slumber, I shuffle back to my room only to find that dang dog elongated on MY SIDE OF THE BED! As I try to shove her over 50 lbs of dead weight over just enough for me to fit on the queen size matress, she GROWLS at me as if I were some mistress crawling in the sheets for her husband! Hello? What, or should I say Who, does she think she is? Has she EARNED a place on my mattress by simply being a lazy, hairy, druely canine? We go through this same routine every time I get up from our used-to-be-a-pretty-wheat-colored chair in our family room. Clementine hops on the second I hop off. To further my bewilderment, If I am sitting on the chair and our bedroom door happens to be closed, Clem will putter around the house groaning and barking at both me and Jeff because she has no place to lay. I think, Lay on the blasted floor! You're a dog for crying out loud!

As we all know fashions come and go. Some are extreme and some are mild. Some we love and some we don't. Some make us shudder at the thought while others make us shudder as we try to wear them. I feel this way about one such baby fashion. Now, I don't quite shudder at this, but I certainly do scratch my head. Mostly because I so desperately want the giant flower bow to be cute on Perry, but I am not quite understanding the concept. Is it supposed to be larger than the babies' head on purpose? I think the idea is that our bundles of joy will look like living Anne Geddes-esque photos. Now, don't get me wrong, I have seen these on many other babies and I think it is darling....I'm just not fashion forward enough to make it work. Sorry Perry.

Max and Clem have a sort of love/hate relationship. In the past, it's been very loving. However, in the present, it is mostly based on mutual intolerance. Max squawks if our puppy is to so much as sniff in his direction when he has food in his hands. Likewise, Clem feels the same when our boy tries to play with her. Anywhoo, this is one of my favorite scenes at our house. Poor Max, defenseless against Clem's unforgiving jaws.

give me five......well, maybe

Since I've been catching so many colds lately I've been paying extra attention to things that could be causing this annoying problem. I'm sorry if this makes you sick (pun intended) but nearly 50% of the guys at my school seem to think that handwashing after using the potty is optional. I really can't stand it anymore. I want to follow these people of the restroom and yell "Don't touch this guy! He didn't wash his hands!" Maybe I'm wrong, but I have to think that this sickness is contributing to my sicknesses!

Isn't there a law that requires certain employees to wash their hands while they are working? If so, shouldn't there be a law that required ALL people in public places to wash their hands?!? I'm usually against excessive government regulation, but in this case the non-washers are hurting others, not just themselves. I would love it if there was some way to tell whether or not a person washed their hands when they exited a public bathroom, and if they didn't a loud siren and flashing light would go off or something.

Sorry for the rant. Does anyone know any good, long-lasting hand sanitizer for me? Or how about some supplements to boost my immune system. Maybe I should just wear rubber gloves around all day at school. Hey, that's a good idea!

RE: Privatization

Abby told me that my last post sounded mean. I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to be mean, I was really wondering if having a public blog was leaving us open to some weird thing that I didn't know about. So if any of you took offense, I beg your pardon.

Oi Vey!

I've heard and agreed with the saying, If Mama ain't happy ain't nobody happy...until I my son turned 2. Whoever coined this delightful little phrase must not have had a toddler. Or, perhaps, failed to recognize the reason Mama ain't happy is probably because her toddler REFUSED to smile for a flippen' St. Patrick's Day Picture in his couldn't-be-more-perfect-for-the-occasion Mr. Froggy towel! The saying should read: If the toddler ain't happy, you better BELIEVE nobody else is!

Oh well. He still makes a pretty cute naked leprechaun, even when he's throwing an unbelievable tantrum, don't ya think? We'll go to bed tonight and wake up for a better day tomorrow...we hope!

Happy St. Patty's!

Privitizing the blogosphere...

I've noticed that a lot of you bloggers have been going private. Can someone please tell me what, exactly, can a creepy person take from your blog? I'm not being cynical here, I really want to know. I like the idea of our blog being public because we have found and been found by several people that we normally wouldn't have ever talked to again, and it's been quite pleasant. I don't want to have to buy lifelock or anything, but I figure as long as we're not posting our SSN, address, or other personal stuff we'd be OK. Am I wrong?

Baby Blessing

Here are a couple of pictures from Perry's baby blessing. They were taken by Pete Stott (thanks!) and he is a great photographer. I would recommend him to anyone who is getting married or wants some nice family pictures! You can check out his work here and here.

Even though Max was extremely tired and dirty, I really like how this shot turned out.

The Economics of Heaven

My last comment about Max and the ducks along with some recent conversations with friends about what type of economic system we will live by in the millennium has got me thinking. The scriptures teach several things about heaven and children. One verse tells us that of such is the kingdom of heaven, and another tells us that we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven unless we become as a little child.

Here's the thing. Have you ever watched little kids play together with toys? Most kids that I have seen are protective of their property, take toys from the weaker children, and have a hard time sharing with others unless they are compelled by their parents. This leads to the stronger and smarter kids (or you could even say those kids who work harder) ending up with a larger share of the resources. This makes me think that heaven will be a system of competitive capitalism.

Here's the other thing. Like I said in my previous post, Max was so equitable with his food while he was feeding the ducks. He freely gave his popcorn away and tried his very hardest to ensure that all of the ducks got something to eat. In other words, he controlled the resources and distributed them fairly to everyone. This leads me to believe that heaven will be more in line with communism.

So, of which child is the Kingdom of Heaven? I'm interested to hear your thoughts.
Sorry for the post Ab. I think I'll start my own blog.

READY FOR A VACATION! (warning-this is a long journal post)

Well, we got back from our Utah trip last night, and now I am ready for a break! We had a WONDERFUL time out West, but I'm glad to be able to be home to relax for a few days before school starts up again.

We're currently trying to get caught up on all of our DVR'd entertainment (basically just American Idol and OTH--ya, 24 is missing from that list! Does anyone know when the heck it is going to start!!!) and I'm watching the first episode of the AI top 12. What a new set! I'm glad that the show is finally starting. I seriously get sick of all of the tryouts and the first 12 eliminations!! Yet, although it's not a religiously as the top12, I still watch them-go figure. Hopefully this year will be better than last year, and it already looks like it very easily could be.

OK, so what's with all the jawing between Ryan Seacrest and Simon Cowell?? It seems like it gets worse every season. Is this a real feud, or has it just become such an integral part of the show that the producers force them to play it up?

OK now for the trip (and my AI thoughts in **)-

It was a blast! It was so good to see all of our friends and family! We started off the first 3 days at my parents house in Salem and then spent the final 3 days in Orem. It was fun to spend some time in Salem. Max loves going to the Salem Pond to cruise around the park and feed the ducks. I'm amazed at how equitable he is with the popcorn he feeds them. His mission is to make sure that they all get some and that the geese-bullies don't take too much from the little duckies. Wow! There are a lot of parallels in there that I won't bore you with, but I'm sure you saw them anyway. Let me just say that you should be proud, Fred!

**OK Chikezie Eze just went crazy on the stage, and I really liked it! I was just telling Abby last week that there was nothing special about him-same ol same ol, but like Randy said he "Smashed it!!" this week. Amazing!**

On Friday I got to watch the Jazz game (what a game, what a game!!!) and had my first experience with Halo 3 and X box live, to the tune of seven hours (four of them being past midnight). While it was fun and entertaining, I have to admit, much to the dismay of several of you who might be reading this, that I won't be making the purchase. I would have a hard time graduating if I owned one of those things!

Saturday we started the day with flag football (running on a few hours of sleep and a whole lot of Amp--see above) which was a lot of fun even though I still run like a giraffe and then Abby and I went to dinner with my sister and her husband (Jenny and Greg) and my other sister and her boyfriend (Melinda and Travis). It was nice to meet Travis and spend some time with my siblings. Thanks to Mel and Travis for dinner, and thanks to Jenny and Greg for gracing us with your presence. Oh, and the appetizers. And the ride. Next time I want to go on the Harley. After dinner we got to spend some time with our friends at the McDonald's house. It was REALLY REALLY good to see everyone, and really really weird to see officer Moutsos in his very own cop car and uniform. Thanks for hosting the party Rum and AM, and thanks to everyone who came (Kole & Jessica, Eric & Stacey, Lyndsay & Garrett, Eric & Kati and all the kids).

Sunday we had family over at Abby's house for Perry's baby blessing. It was a really nice experience. She is such a sweet baby! I have to tell you, it was the fourth baby blessing I've performed, and I STILL get nervous!! I don't get nervous for many things, but there's something about blessing a baby that really gets me! Despite my nervousness, we gave her a beautiful blessing and it was a special experience for me. Thanks to our moms for helping to make it such a nice day and thanks to our family who came to share the experience with us.

**OK, we just heard Brooke Davis and that performance was AWESOME! Both Abby and I got the chills. She's good! She's really good!**

On Monday Abby spent some time with her friends from high school, and my dad and I went to St. George to replace a garbage disposal in our townhouse (yes, the townhouse that was supposed to be sold!! If you're wondering, it's a long story, but let's just say that we'll have renters there for the next year). It was refreshing to see the house in such good condition since it's been nearly ten months since I've been there. In fact, it may have looked even better than when we lived there!! I forgot how nice we had it when we lived there: no snow, a garbage disposal, sinks deeper than six inches, a dishwasher, a master bedroom bigger than 10ft x 10ft, and more than one bathroom! The good thing is that living in our current house will help us appreciate our next one so much more!

Well this is getting pretty long, so I'll end it there. Again, thanks to everyone who helped to make our trip an enjoyable one. Hopefully we'll be back soon! I'll post the pictures from the trip as soon as we upload them from the camera.

**OK last thought. Did they just show a clip of David Archuleta's dad playing the trumpet in his G's?!?! Unbelievable! I like this guy, but I really don't think I could sit down and listen to an entire album of his.**

We are now free to move about the country!

It seems that, as of late, many people have been leaving the airports a little on the ornery side-- especially if they have a connection through Chicago! I must say, despite the craziness of an over-tired two year old who can't sleep anywhere but a bed, we had a very pleasant trip from Buffalo to Salt Lake yesterday.

We go to the airport early (thank you Ryan Nielsen!!!!) and I have never seen the place as busy as it was. It literally looked like every single sports team, male and female, from the University was leaving for an away contest. That, combined with an influx of regular travelers, made the security line hundreds of people long. I haven't seen that many backed up travelers since driving on the 5 freeway in Los Angeles!! Anyway, after standing in line for a few minutes, and at this point I'm starting to think that despite our early arrival we aren't going to make our flight, a wonderful lady comes up to us and says "Since you have a stroller you qualify for 'special needs' security. Follow me!" YES!!! I LOVE STROLLERS!! So we skipped EVERYONE and happily made our way to the front of our special line.

Shortly after we got on our airplane a worried flight attendant came on the speaker and admitted that they had overbooked the flight (our first flight was to Chicago) and asked if anyone would be willing to take a later flight to Chicago, and the airline would compensate them with a $200 travel voucher plus the price of their ticket from Buffalo to Chicago. She said that anyone who would be willing to be bumped would be guaranteed to arrive in Chicago by tomorrow (Friday). She also mentioned that they needed three seats-the exact number of seats we had. I told Abby that I was down, and asked what she wanted to do. Ingeniously, Abby raised her hand and said "We'll do it if you can get us to Salt Lake." They told us they could, so we got off the plane, although it was much to Max's dismay: "I don't wanna leave!!! I wanna go to YOU-TA!!"

Well, to make a long story short, we took a plane to Baltimore, and then hopped on the flight from there to Salt Lake, and actually ended up making it to Salt Lake 30 minutes before our original flight! The ironic part about this story is that when my mom was booking our tickets she was trying to find us tickets through Baltimore (because it was faster) but they were unjustifiably more expensive!! The only downside of this story? Our stroller and car seat didn't get transferred, so they are going to ship them to us. Luckily we are visiting grandma, and grandma is always prepared! What did we get for all of our troubles? $1,000 dollars in travel vouchers good for one year! Wow, thanks! You got us on a faster flight and paid us for it!

So now I have a new goal. It seems like every time we fly southwest they run into the problem of overbooking, and offer the vouchers. My goal is to see how long we can travel on the airline's dime by taking the bump every time they offer it. I'm hoping for a streak of at least five! So maybe my title should have been, "We are now free to bump about the country!"

For The Maxfields

Do you need some help picking a dog? How about a Basset Hound?




We're cute!

We have long ears!
They provide excellent sun-shades!
We like to stare at you and wonder what you are doing!
We love to play with kids!
We love kisses!
We love to go on walks!
And we love to run and play!

We like to babysit! But most of all, we just like sleep