chug-chug, puff-puff, ding-dong ding-dong

Max LOOOOVES trains.  Loves them.  Saturday morning, we got up and ready for his first 'train' ride.  While we finished getting ready, Max read to himself on the floor.  On the train/metro, he was very, very calm and still - almost fearful.  He has done nothing but talk in great detail about all of the things we saw through the train windows (water, houses, cars, airplanes, etc.).  He really enjoys our outings and asks for 'family ah-venders' whenever he has a chance!

GOOD morning!

Somebody was in a very smiley mood when he got up this morning!

This Day in Blog History...

We are coming out of hiding with our exciting news - Max is getting a sibling!  We are very excited to welcome a new little one and can hardly wait to meet him or her.  

These are the ultrasound photos we've had so far.  The top left shows the baby Jan. 31, at 9 weeks.  The others are from our scan Feb. 20, at 12 weeks 1 day.  So fun to see a real person in there.  We saw two arms, legs, feet, hands, the tummy, and a perfect 160 heartbeat.  No more scans until after Easter (I think that counts as my Lent sacrifice), when we find out the gender!

Future Engineers Day

We went to check out the National Building Museum, because everyone keeps raving to us about the great kids section with building blocks.  It was Future Engineers Day, and it was PACKED!  Max wasn't quite sure what to make of the mayhem, but he sure did know what to do when he saw the Legos!  He was able to play with big-boy Legos for the first time.  They're a lot harder than Mega Blocks, but he pulled through like a champ :)

 I thought this was sweet of the two boys as we left the museum:

Two Faves in One Morning

This morning, Max put back on the boots and plopped down with a good book for a Mommy's-getting-ready read.  

I also forgot to post the serious progress he is making on counting: 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 3, 4

So Many Funny Things

• The cleaning people left the painter's tape on the table in the play room.  Max grabbed it and ran up saying 'track, track!' and pointing very insistently at the ground.  We made a nice track for cars, then turned it into a beam and tried walking on it.  Mommy is an ace beam-walker.  Max is an ace at getting close to the beam sort of.
• He's started throwing funny tantrums if he doesn't get what he wants.  We made Valentine's cookies, and last night he wanted one before dinner.  I said no, and he turned bright red and cried (and, by the way, he's FINALLY started making real tears, which makes him look SO pitiful!).  Fortunately, distraction still works so it only lasted about 30 seconds.
• Ian gets home just before bed and tucks him in most nights.  After they read, Ian turns him around and they talk about Max's day for a few minutes before going to bed.  When he comes downstairs, I interpret Max's version of the day into reality.  Last night, it was 'balloons, pumpkin soup, thunder not sad, and Gabby.'  Obviously, Maxie had lots of balloons from Valentine's Day that they got to play with, Mommy made him delicious pumpkin soup, you don't have to be scared of thunder, and he had a play date with Gabby.
• He knows he is not supposed to hit.  When we ask him about Meleia, he almost always responds with 'no hitting May-a'
• When he gets up in the morning, we let him talk in the crib until 7:30.  He rambles through a list of transportation (truck, fire truck, moto-cycle, ai-pane super-fast, etc.), then starts on about the fire at Derry Hill (from Big Frank), lists off his friends, and then talks to the animals on the thing that hangs over his crib.  He's a funny, funny little boy.  When we get him up, without fail for the last week he throws himself into a corner of the crib and says 'hiding, hiding, HIDING' 

These boots are made for walking...

If there is anything Max loves, it is boots.  He is jealous that Maxie gets to wear them to school on rainy days, and he tries Maxie's on when they are playing.  He shows us pictures of boots in all books, and we hunt for them in the pages.  And this morning, Max found Mommy's boots in the back of her closet!

Navy Museum

We went to see the boats at the Navy Museum this weekend.  Max LOVED it - we had the whole place to ourselves most of the time, and there was lots to see!

 He had lots of fun hiding behind the displays.  Can you find him in this one?

 Talking to Navy man

 AIRPLANES!

 On a 'boat'

 'Hammering' the boats

 Shooting guns

 Tor-PEEE-do

Happy Valentine's Day!

Max calls it Ballemtime's, and he is having a good day!  He wore his red car outfit, and we made valentine cookies for Maxie, Meleia and Miss Maria.  We even sampled some cookies to be sure they tasted OK.  

 He's holding the Valentine's Day card from the Maultsbys.  He spent a lot of time looking at his friends in their 'book' last night!

True Love

Three weeks ago, Max was given a fire helmet by the nice lady at the station when he was on a walk.  In honor of Valentine's Day, I thought I would post some pictures of him with it, because this is true, true love.  Most nights, he falls asleep saying 'lady give me the hat.'  And at least three times a day we examine the hat and all of its awesome qualities.

Fun at the sink

Max hops up on the stool in our bathroom to play in the sink while I get ready in the morning.  He likes to splash the water, wash hands, and brush his teeth (eat Daddy's toothbrush).

Morning Stories

Max and I read about Tom Sawyer and his fence painting exploits this morning.  Max wanted the paint brush AND all the treats Tom got for letting his friends help.

 What I got when I said 'smile for the camera' - he's figured out to squish his eyes pre-flash.  Funny boy!

Saturday Adventure

We started at the National Aquarium, which is pretty lame.  Imagine a really rich friend who is into fish.  He'd convert his basement into a showplace and have 10-12 fish tanks, right?  Yeah, so does the National Aquarium.  We stayed a whopping 30 minutes, but Max loved it.  We talked about how some of the fish had stripes on their tummies, just like Max did with his striped shirt.  We also found fish with polka dot bellies (he LOVES to say polka dots).  The highlight was the albino alligator, which he calls Chomp, after his alligator hand puppet also named Chomp.

 So after the aquarium, we headed to American History to see what we could see.  We skipped the trains (HOORAY!) and headed straight upstairs to Presidents and the military.  Max liked the Presidents exhibit.  There were lots of pictures of interesting things (read: dogs, airplanes and helicopters) right at his eye level.

 He found this chair from George Washington in a glass box and thought it was soooo funny that you couldn't sit on it.  He kept trying to sit on the ledge around the box and laughing away.

 In the military section, we found a chair you could sit on - YAY!  This was to take pretend photos like a Civil War soldier would have before going off to fight.

 Trying to smile for a picture.  We're getting there...

 The best part was that you could HIDE with the chair, yay!

 Daddy and Max tried out riveting.  Rosie the Riveter had nothing on these two!