2 Year Olds and Halloweenie!

Sausage,
Oh what an almost 2 year old you are! After my last week in traveling for work I flew from Boston to Baltimore to come see you. When I walked into the house you came walking over past your mommy right up to give me a big smile and a hug with a look on your face that was screaming 'It's about time you got here Auntie!'. You and I played and played until you were giggling that laugh that you only giggle when its way past your bed time. You wanted to show me all your tricks and made sure you knew where I was at all times.

Grammy and Pop showed up late that night after we both were fast asleep, but as soon as you made one peep they were the first up and in your room. You were so excited to see them, and within the first 2 minutes had pointed to everything in your room and showed off your vocabulary. We played and played all morning!

In the afternoon, it was time for the Birthday party! And although you won't turn 2 for another month, we all wanted to be part of the party! You were really excited about opening the presents this year...

... and even liked wearing the party hat and blowing on the horns!

Grammy brought you a Banana cake all the way from Indiana!

You blew the candle out all by yourself!

You were so proud of yourself!

Grammy bought you lots of treats, including the Billy Bob sucker that you particularly liked!

Uncle Cashew and I bought you this really cool work bench, which you immediately loved. You already knew how to use all the tools and you went to work right away!

Grammy and Pop got you a scooter...you had a little trouble figuring it out but we're sure by next spring you won't have any problems!

The next day was Halloween! You were a Dragon and all though you weren't so sure about your costume at first...

...you quickly forgot you had it on because you were so distracted by all that was going on around you!

Grammy and Pop loved every minute of it and so did I!

By the end of the night, your "Pumpkin Head" was so heavy you could hardly carry it, but you didn't care, no one was going to get that candy bag out of your hands! You catch on quick!

We wiped boogies and bottoms the rest of the weekend. You can't stand to have boogies so you ask us to blow your boogies every 5 minutes. You're also being potty trained so we took lots of trips to the bathroom. You didn't have any accidents the whole weekend! Such a good boy! You played cards with grammy and surprised us all at the words you know. We had so much fun and we already can't wait to see you at Christmas!

Love you!
Auntie aka Sister

P.S. I talked to you on Skype tonight, you now call me 'Sister'.

Boston!

Sausage,
What a fun weekend! Auntie has been working in Boston since July so you flew with your mommy and daddy to come see me. When I picked you up at the airport you came out of the doors and looked at me with a smirk, and when mommy asked you, ‘Who is that?’ you said ‘Auntie!’ and came running to give me a hug….hands down the best part of the trip! I’m so happy that even though I don’t live close to you, you know me. We piled in to my car and drove to have some Taco’s while we waited for Uncle Cashew to arrive from Chicago. You sat on my lap at the restaurant and acted so nice. I think you drank a gallon of water while we sat there. As Grammy likes to say…you’re quite the drinker! While at lunch I asked you…’do you know who we’re going to pick up at the airport?’ you look at me like duhhh auntie, and say ‘Uncle’. We drove back to the airport to pick up Uncle and you were sure happy to see your Uncle Cac-coosew. We drove over to the hotel hoping to check in early and go in the pool but they weren’t ready for us, but we did meet up with a friend Auntie and Mommy went to Milligan with, Jen and her husband Josh and their 2 year old Linnea. You two weren’t sure what you thought about each other at first. Auntie bought you a book about Cookie Monster, or as you refer to him ‘Monster Cookie’ in a very monstery voice. You were all about that book all weekend I’m sure we each read it to you at least 4 or 5 times.

We then went to Fort Independence where you and Linnea ran around and played. You gave Linnea a flower…she dropped it on the ground, but it was still a nice gesture.

We went back to the hotel in time for swimming in the Pool and one of our favorite things right now PIZZEEE! You love PIZZEE almost as much as your Pop does. After Pizzee and swimming, every one was tired so we all went to sleep shortly after that. You were such a good boy, you went right to sleep in a strange place and a strange bed. The next morning, you woke everyone up by calling ‘Uncle!’ ‘Uncle!’ and then through things out of your bed as if you were telling us ‘Come on people, get me out of here! We’re burning daylight.’

We all got up and dressed and were out the door by 9 on our way to Dunkin Donuts to get some ‘Donts’ and then off to ride the train to explore downtown. You and Linnea were so good all day.

We walked and walked and shopped a little, and checked everything out. You never whined or complained and every time we asked you to go to the potty you did. Such a good boy!
We played a little bit at the park.

Then we put you on this seat, and you thought it was a potty...opps! We jumped to get you off of it as fast as we could!

You posed with frogs...

We went back to the hotel so you could take a nap while the big kids played games, then went back into the pool, and all ate dinner. We called Grammy and Pop in Chicago and you were so tired you talked gibberish most of the time and sang the ‘Rock You’ song over and over and over and over….Again you went to sleep right away, after a couple rounds of ‘Monster Cookie’.

You woke up early on Sunday morning, but every time the air conditioner kicked on it lulled you back to sleep, until Auntie’s alarm on her phone went off at 6:30 am…when I jumped up to get it you were sitting up in your bed and said ‘Hi Auntie’. So much for sleeping in a little later. You snuggled a lot with Uncle and read books, played Miss Mary Mack with Auntie. Then we all got dressed, packed up the car and headed to the aquarium for the day. You were wearing a Halloween shirt that had a mummy on it and when anyone asked what was on your shirt you would reply ‘Mommy!’. You really liked the fishes but I think you were even more excited about the PIZZEE you had for lunch.

We piled in the car to head to the airport and you were sleeping within about 3 minutes. Your daddy was even able to get your car seat out of the car while you were in it, hook it up to the stroller wheels and wheel you into the airport with out as much as a peep from you. You slept about another hour until it was time to go through security. Mommy said you were such a good boy on the plane you just sat on her lap the whole time while her and daddy took a little nap!

Here are some of the words you said about 100 times this weekend-

Hi Auntie!
Hi Uncle!
Sorry mommy!
Thanks mommy!
Pizzee!
Uncle Cacoosew
Monster Cookie
Where’d it go?
All done! All done!
Stuck!
Peepanes!
Milk and Cookies?
Pizzee!
Pool!
Donts
All aboard (some times sounds more like Albert)
Auntie phone, auntie phone (usually while trying to feel in my pockets for my phone)

Thanks for flying all the way out to Boston to see me! We had such a fun weekend. I miss you already but will see you in a few weeks!

Love and kisses,
Auntie

Labor Day weekend

Labor Day weekend we had a really good time relaxing and just enjoying ourselves. We went to play at the park, Annie's Playground, which is this amazing park built in memory of a little girl. It's really like a kids amusement park, so fun!

See...even daddy had fun getting stuck in the twisty slide with Max.

We even played outside in the pool at home. I don't have any good pictures of him in the pool. They are all dark because it was in the garage to keep him out of the sun. This one I thought was cute though...taken BEFORE, he was naked running around the front yard.

Go Birds Go!

We have a minor league baseball team called the Aberdeen Ironbirds. The stadium is pretty close to our house. We got free tickets from my work and went on Friday night. Our tickets were three rows back between 3rd base and home (closer to home plate). They were quite awesome seats. Max had a BLAST! Oh, he totally thought he was hotstuff, dancing to the music, yelling "CHARGE" at the appropriate times, giving the mascots high five! We lasted until about the 5th inning and then Max got a bit restless so we left. It was a good time! Here are a few pictures of Max enjoying the game.

Rock You

Aunnn T!!!

Sausage,
A couple weeks ago, you and your mommy flew out here to visit for a whole week! You even had your own seat in the Peepain! Once you got here, Gram and Pop picked you up and you headed to Auntie's house. The whole way you kept asking for Auntie! Auntie! Auntie! which makes my heart smile! Once you got here, you kept asking for Pool? Pool? Pool?

Read about Auntie and Grandma's Road Trip!

Sorry for the late posts, but click here to see posts from our April road trip!

Farm Fair

OK...well, Max's first trip to the Harford County Farm Fair was not quite as we expected. I have to say, Max is more like me than I realized. Let me tell you a little bit about our trip to the fair.

So, we park the car in the red lot, from there we get on a bus..A BUS! Can you believe it, we get to ride on a bus. This is totally exciting for Max who says "BUS!" every 5 seconds until we get on "THE BUS!". It's probably not even 5 minute ride until we are at the fair and he says *VROOM VROOM* the whole way. (Sorry...no pictures of the bus, didn't think about it, picture a typical cheese wagon with a cute, excited, little Max riding it.)

We get into the fair, go to see the farm animals first up pigs. What do piggies say? *snort, snort* See the piggies, from the safety of the stroller...um...ya, get me outta this thing momma, I need you to hold me, those piggies are big...but, Max, listen, can you hear them snort just like you do? .....Ya, not so much.

Moving on to the sheep and goats. Look, that goat is putting its hoofs on the fence to talk to Poppa? Nope, no way, get me outta here. Ok, lets go see the cows, what do cows say? *MOOO*

Cows, this is what a cow looks like up close!?! Man, these things are huge! The cows Moo loudly, Max SCREAMS! Grabs at and yells for Poppa, Poppa to the rescue, but really he wants back in the stroller. I try to explain that the cows are just talking to each other just how he talks to Poppa...ya, right mom!

OK, fine, lets go se the tractors. "TRACTOR! VROOM! VROOM!"

After a bit of watching the Antique Tractor Pulls, I say, Max you wanna go see the bunnies? "Ses!" You see, Momma, being a city girl, can only handle so long watching the tractor pulls, and the modern tractors are more exciting than the antique ones, believe it or not. So off we go to see the baby animals, small ponies, the BIG BULL, the BIG PIGGIE, the chickens, ducks, bunnies, etc. It was much of the same with the small animals, but he did get out to pet the duck. Baby piggies, "no", roosters, "no", baby goat, "no".

Look at the size of this Momma!

All in all, if I would have known he would have been so scared, I would have never taken him to the fair. My mom tells me I was exactly the same way. Maybe we'll have better luck next year!

At That Bouncy Place

Happy Fourth of July!

Around the fourth of July every year we try to pick blueberries. This year we went on Friday, the third, and picked 10 pounds right on the nose. That's a lot of blueberries! If we would have weighed Max before and after, they may have had to charge us for another pound. This boy loves him some fruit! Take a look at just how much he's grown since last year!

On the fourth, we had a cookout with some friends at Grammy and Pop's house. The kids had tons of fun playing and splashing in this really cool pool Grammy has.