max-n-cheese

The mischief continues. At naptime today I went to play Max's sleep music (sort of a rhythmic throbbing that's supposed to mimic the womb sounds) only to find the CD in the player upside-down. So I flipped it over and tried to play it -- which is when I discovered that they had scratched and smudged it so badly that it wouldn't play at all! Also for some inexplicable reason Max decided that the best use of his lunch was as a shoe-filler. And even as I type this, Mike is dropping the f-bomb in the kitchen because Max bit him. I've tried everything to distract them from evil-doing. This morning we took Liam to the dentist, then spent more than an hour playing in the park, took a walk, went shopping to get a gift for the new baby upstairs (welcome, Talia!), but nothing can veer them from their mission.

get your warpaint on

so i took the boys to my parents' house in naperville on monday, both to let them hang out with their grandparents and to give holli a chance to work on her freelance project in peace. max and liam had a great time, playing outside in the yard and going for walks with grandpa.




what is it with these kids and brooms, anyway?

so i was helping my mom with dinner, and liam was supposed to be drawing in the den. after a few minutes, i realized that things were a little too quiet, and then i heard the sound of the desk drawer opening and closing. we went into the room to discover this:


yes, that's white-out (or to be more accurate, liquid paper). all over his face. sigh. he claimed he didn't eat any. i tried to scrub it off, but he squirmed and screamed, so he got to wear his warpaint until the next day. lucky boy.

seriously. not for a second!

Here are some highlights of my day at home with the boys:




And these are just the moments when I happened to have the camera. Sorry, readers, but I didn't capture Liam putting refrigerator magnets in the toaster or grabbing every sharp thing in the house.

And lest you think I'm just a bad parent, just wait until you hear about Liam's adventures with his father at Grandma's house on Monday...

can't leave him alone for a second!

gone goldfishin'

The boys were playing in the dining room, and I was at the desk working on a grocery list. My spidey sense was tingling. It had been quiet for a while -- too quiet. Suddenly, there was a burst of laughter from both of them. So I snuck around the corner with the camera, not sure what mayhem I would find, and came upon this scene:


Liam had found a bag of goldfish crackers and decided to help himself -- and his brother. But instead of just handing Max a goldfish and letting him eat it, he was tossing them up in the air and trying to get Max to catch them, like he was tossing doggie treats or something. And Max was loving it. They were both laughing hysterically and were bummed when I broke up the fun by putting the goldfish safely back in the kitchen.

too tired to go to bed

Max knew he was tired, but he didn't want to stop playing. So he just played until he was ready to drop. Luckily, Liam brought over a folded-up blanket for him to "drop" onto. Ah, naptime.

happy boys, happy mom

saturday in the park

Saturday morning while Mike was mowing the grass, the boys and I decided to explore our new neighborhood a bit. We walked over to nearby Webster Elementary to check out their playground. Of course, once he looked around for an instant, Liam decided nothing would do for him except climibing the highest, scariest monkey bars up to a slide.





Liam's daredevil streak continued as he climbed up that thing on the right while Max was happily going down the kiddy slide over and over again. Of course, once he got to the top, Liam couldn't figure out how to get back down and started crying!



The playground has all sorts of cool features. There are the requisite slides and swings (tho no baby swing for Max), and there's a wobbly board to walk across, some modern version of the tin cans tied with string that acts as a cross-playground phone, and this neat upright xylophone:



Finally, here's Max through one of the ladders up to a swing. I like how he's out of focus, but the background is perfectly clear. I guess that's what happens when you set your camera to auto.

liam models for tq

the graduate

Today my brother, J, graduated from high school. So our family trooped across the street from my parents' house to the school and took our places in the gym. The boys had just woken up from their naps when we got there, so Max was understandably uncertain about these strange proceedings.



Liam, on the other hand, got really excited that there were so many things to clap for.



Eventually, the boys got to be too much way up in the bleachers, so we had to haul them down and walk the halls of the school for a while. After a while Mike took them outside, so I was free to wander around taking pictures. Some weird quirk of the camera made most of them come out so dark as to be unusable, but look what I got: A proud father-son moment!

i didn't have a ... clue

Yesterday afternoon Max had a fever, so I went and got the boys early from daycare and brought them home. They came home during what would normally be their naptime, so they were both a little groggy. Liam suggested that we all curl up on the couch and watch some television. Normally, they watch an episode of Sesame Street in the morning and that's about it for TV -- and Max doesn't even watch most of the time. But yesterday afternoon something strange happened: Liam asked for Diego by name. So I found it in the guide and turned to the appropriate channel and didn't realize until afterward that it was 2:29 and Diego ended at 3:00. I apologized to Liam.

"It's okay, Mom," he replied. (His new thing is to call us Mom and Dad because apparently the -y ending is too babyish now.) "Blue's Clues is on next."

Wait, what?!?! Not only does he know what Blue's Clues is (we've never watched it together), but he knows the afternoon children's TV schedule too? I guess he's growing up without me.

Max and I weren't particularly interested in Blue or his Clues, so we decided to pack up some boxes while Liam made himself right at home on the living room floor, telling me what every character's name is and playing along with the game part of the show:



P.S. Max seemed fine this morning and went back for his last day of daycare today, in case you were wondering. That's right, it's their last day of daycare. We're going to miss you, Susie and Lupe!

oasis

Take a look at our wild little bed around the big tree. It's kind of overgrown, but I like how everything is just jumbled in there. We'll probably clean it up a little bit (maybe next summer, given the rate we're going inside) but overall, this is how it'll be:

what now?

After seven mostly great years (Mobil marred the perfect record!), my last day at work was Friday. Today, I'm at loose ends, waiting for my freelance assignment to come. After weeks of non-stop running around, packing, interstate driving, painting, scraping, and taking care of the boys, I've suddenly got too much time to think. It's a weird feeling. Anyway. On Thursday, my co-workers, led by good friend Val, threw me a going-away party. It was a nice way to say good-bye to people who have been my friends and colleagues for so long. I'm already missing them, and the job -- but I'm so excited for what's to come.

box house

After years of loyal service, my mom traded in her beloved Bernina for the super-special, extra-features, comes-with-free-gifts 75th anniversary Bernina. For anyone who doesn't know, this isn't just a sewing machine. Or it is, kind of the same way that the Bible is just a book. Yeah, it's like that.

Anyway, my parents saved the giant boxes that Bernina came in, and cut windows and doors in them to make play houses for the boys. Nothing like a little good, old-fashioned fun!

cool shades

I took the boys to the shoe store (or, as Liam kept calling it, the "shoebox") this weekend to get sandals. Sadly, the sandals gave Liam blisters, so he hasn't worn them since, despite the big heat wave around here. But while we were at the shoebox, Liam picked out a pair of Spider-man sunglasses. It's funny how attached he is to them so quickly. Take a look at the day:

Fresh out of the shoebox, Liam insists that he put on his glasses right away:



Once we got home, he refused to take his nap without them. We thought he was going to acutally sleep wearing them, but he was satisfied just holding them:



When he woke up from his nap he immediately put the glasses back on so he could look cool while eating an afternoon snack of cheerios:



Luckily, in Liam's world, even the cool kids get to enjoy the simple pleasure of swinging without feeling dorky:

grandma and grandpa check things out

Liam and Max were very happy to get a Mother's Day visit from Grandma and Grandpa, who came to check the house out, kick the (metaphorical) tires, see what all the fuss was about. We had a nice visit. The boys especially loved showing off the yard. They led the way like it was some kind of nature exhibition. Not bad for a couple of (so far, anyway) city boys.

max frolics in the yard

He knows he's adorable, and he hasn't yet learned the humility to compel him to pretend otherwise. Here he is on Sunday afternoon, playing in yard and appreciating all the many hours of hard work it took for his daddy to mow the calf-high grass.

liam loves klaudia

...and I'd say she's pretty fond of him too.

a trivial pursuit

About every three months or so, St. Pat's Church holds a trivia night to raise funds for... the church? the school? Who knows? And really, who cares when it's this much fun? For the third time running (although we did miss one match that conflicted with Superbowl weekend), we were the trivia champions. We answered questions about classic cars, current events, the solar system, and, of course, famous mothers in honor of Mother's Day. My own mother continues to amaze us by being the only one to get most of the Bible questions right.


Years ago we had a volleyball team sponsored by MJ Package Store (my grandpa's liquor store) called Team Buzz. We've decided to keep the name, since we've always used our winnings to sponsor rounds for the next trivia night in the name of the store. We got Father to take a picture of our team. From bottom right, counter-clockwise: my uncle Greg, my aunt Janis, me, Mike, my aunt Chris, my dad, my mom, my sister Bethany, and her boyfriend Joe.

Go Buzz!

milk jug

Max befriended this milk jug after we threw it in the trash. He insisted on carrying it around for most of the evening. Then we threw it out again once Max was safely in his high chair eating dinner. Ah, milk jug, we hardly knew you.

daily dose of scary

So this morning I was making the bed, and the boys were playing nicely in Liam's room. Needless to say, "sectarian conflict" erupted, and soon there was full-blown howling coming from the room. I went in, and this is what I found:



He's been working toward it for a while, so I guess it shouldn't come as a total surprise that Max finally managed to climb on something. He got up there and it was fun for a while, but he couldn't get down, which was apparently what precipitated the crying.

fun with food

Last night we were having dinner, and Liam picked up a red onion and was playing with it. He stretched it out on the table, and said, "Look! It's a train track!" Then he held it up and decided it was a letter I:



Then he curved it on the table and said, "Look! The letter U!"



Then he made a letter O, but I'm sad to report that that picture didn't turn out. After that, he decided it was more fun to rub the onion on his face and in his hair. Still, the letter/train track thing was pretty imaginative.

max is talking

Max is really starting to communicate with us! Here's a partial list of the words he can say now:
Mommy
Daddy
Liam
Max
Rocky (the dog at daycare; all other animals are also called "Rocky")
thank you
uh-huh
yes
uh-oh
no
now
muchacho
uno, dos, tres
Keanu (kid at daycare)
one, two, three, four
Elmo (of course!)
Susie (daycare teacher)
stop
banana
Loni (my sister)
Papaw (my dad)
bye-bye
paci
hi
sit down (usually said in the bathtub)


I'm sure I missed some, so I'll update this list as I think of other words.

the end of the weekend

We're all plum worn out. Liam and Max are getting used to driving back and forth between our residences now. Saturday Liam asked me if we could drive by the Loop on our way back home. Or, as he says it, the Yoop. He loves to drive by and see all the big buildings. It's too bad that by the time Sunday afternoon rolled around and we were on our way home, both of them were conked out from a morning of fun playing (and having sand fights) with their cousins at Aunt Janis's house. I was feeling pretty worn out and toothless too (of all things, I bit into some sticky French toast, and pulled out one of my crowns!), but I did take this lovely image of the boys going down Lake Shore Drive to illustrate how we're all feeling lately. Don't worry, we were at a stop light!

max loves baby gracie

On Sunday morning we headed to my Aunt Janis's house to have brunch to celebrate my cousin Cole's First Communion. Much fun was had by all, but Max developed a special fascination with our newest cousin, Elizabeth Grace, age 2 weeks (give or take).

prom night

My brother J went to his senior prom on Saturday. Luckily, I was on hand to witness this big event. Doesn't he look handsome?

Liam and Max were a little suspicious of all the goings-on and picture taking surrounding J. Max was curious enough to stay nearby...

While Liam decided to go and hide on the porch.

Also, please note that Max is about two and a half feet tall. Then note how many Maxs would have to be stacked one atop the other to equal the height of J. Seriously, he's a giant!