New drawing skill! :)

It's almost Friday of a 3 day weekend, woo hoo! 

Maverick's Auntie Jo dropped by with a super fun surprise today at Nana's house:

"Cars" theme maracas, harmonica (with snazzy carrying case) and a tambourine (it's still at Nana's house).

He had so much fun standing there and shaking the maracas as hard as he could.  He hasn't quite figured out the harmonica, as he tries to eat it like a candy bar, ha!  But he likes it when I play it.  He wrinkles up his nose, and squeals at the same pitch. :)

He also loves it when I yell "Lightning McQueen!!" and he points to him on one of the instruments.

Which brings me to the newest conundrum.  I most definitely don't buy everything Mav wants at the store.  Not even close, actually.

But he is really starting to notice all the Cars merchandise at the store, ha!

So I broke down.  I bought him 2 new sippy cups with Lightning McQueen on them.

Actually, he needed some new ones anyways...the old ones were pretty worn!

This was our gourmet dinner tonight, ha!

The frozen pizza is actually very tasty, and hearty.  It is Shop'n'Save brand, but their fancy brand called Culinary Circle.  I highly recommend them!!  Only 5 bucks, too!

And what is pizza without our beloved toasted ravioli?!

Confession: Robbie and I can't seem to cut our addiction to these.

They are healthier leaning on bananas...right?! :)

Before bath time, we had some more coloring.

I don't know what is "developmentally appropriate" for a 19 month old's drawing ability...

...but Maverick displayed a new skill tonight out of the blue!

He can draw circles!!

It was so awesome to literally watch him do something he's never done before. :)

This one is on the fridge.

The bottom left red (looks pink) circles are actually pretty good! :)

(okay, I'm gonna stop now)

Big Boy Stuff

Yesterday I would've posted, but I was too busy getting destroyed by our lawn.  We finally had time to mow (when it wasn't raining), and boy was it awful!!!  I would've posted before and after pictures, but seriously--our backyard was violating some sort of city ordinance I'm sure!  I kid you not when I say the grass was halfway up my shin.  It's a good thing we have a 7ft privacy fence, ha!

The front yard wasn't nearly as bad.  For whatever reason, the grass in the front doesn't grow in as thick and fast as the grass in the back.  However, we do live on a corner lot so mowing the front is like mowing 2 yards.  My hands are still sore today!

As I type, this is the scene in the living/family room.  (As you can sort of see, we knocked down a wall to combine the rooms...hence the exposed particle wood flooring between the hideous pink and red carpets, ha!)

Robbie thought it would be fun to set Mav up in the big chair, with a big blanket, watching a big boy movie.  Of course its the movie "Cars".  Have I mentioned that this kid likes fast cars? :)

Now I'm wondering how 15 minutes into the movie...we'll get him into the bath tub and into bed!

Oh well. :)

Monday, Monday

It was sort-of easier waking up at 5:30 this morning knowing that a 3 day weekend is on the horizon.  A really fun 3 day weekend too.  We plan on attending our 4th annual Explodapalooza with our friends (lots of exploding from homemade fireworks).  Robbie is getting serious about the BBQ-ing this year.  He wants to haul our Weber grill all the way to our friend's house so that he can "grill properly" on a charcoal pit, instead of the propane one they have. :)

This morning started out like the past few days around here: very stormy!  But then it just melted into a soggy morning all around.  Fortunately the clouds finally passed and the day turned out steamy humid, but pretty overall.

When I picked up Mav from Nana's house after work, I was starting to fret that there wouldn't be much to blog about today.  Which is fine.  We're pretty boring people, ha!  But just kinda like the book If you Give a Pig a Pancake one thing leads to another...and voila! A little something to write about.

This was right after he woke up from a 2 hour nap (bonus points that he waited until I was off work!).

Eating the cheerios out of the bowl is overrated.

Belle is not impressed. :)

Mav has really been into coloring lately, which is pretty fun!

He can sit for (relatively) a while and keep himself occupied. (nice for trying to cook dinner!)

He is still figuring out which hand is dominant; he'll color a few strokes with his right...

...and then switch to his left.  And so on, back and forth.

We have quite a few lefties in the family, so we'll see!

(Yes, I have the ugliest carpet in my house.  Maybe someday we will be able to afford a makeover, ha!)

Today we actually had a "first"!  Those are fewer and farther between these days.

This was the first time that he pointed at something he drew, and then said what it was. :)

He specifically pointed to the blue shark fin looking thing (left center of page) and said, "Meow Meow Bye Bye!"

Um...okay?! :)

It's fun to keep a few pages here and there and see how much his coloring has changed.

This was the end of April, so about 2 months ago.  He was only making light, single strokes.

Inspired by his "Meow Meow Bye Bye" picture, I drew him a cat. (Okay, it looks more like a Liger)

Isn't it funny how things come natural?  He began coloring it in, the best he could anyways. :)

It was about that time I realized I needed to get dinner fixed, mostly so we could have something to take for lunch this week. 

And I decided that the bloggy world might want to know about the meal famously known around here as "The Pasta".

You know how everyone has that one meal.  The go-to.  Always sounds good, always have the ingredients in the pantry.

There is a handful of variations of The Pasta depending on what is in the fridge. But generally its some veggies and a meat.  Today I used the rest of this giant red onion.

And I threw in one of our favorite veggies: red bell peppers!

(Our favorite snack is red peppers oven roasted with some olive oil and pepper)

Overall, this is everything for The Pasta.

Parmesan cheese, pesto seasoning, olive oil (Eat your heart out Rachael Ray! Can you see her peering in the corner from my cookbook?), 100% whole wheat pasta, and a pan full of veggies and meat.

Originally I used to only use prosciutto as my meat, but its pretty expensive and not the healthiest option.

So we've switched to turkey bacon, it's so yummy!

After the noodles have cooked, add the olive oil and pesto seasoning.

The directions say to cook it separately as a paste, then add.  But this is easier. :)

(Sorry that all the pictures are sort of yellowy.  Its the type of CFL bulbs we have in the kitchen.  It's either yellowy or super harsh flash photography)

Add the veggies and turkey bacon that were simmering in the saucepan.

Last touch is a sprinkle of parmesan cheese.

Yum Yum!

Turned out to be a fun day!

Not that we were expecting a not-fun day, just more exciting than our usual Sunday!

First, thank you for all the compliments about my quest to blog daily.  Still not promising daily updates after my week commitment...but maybe I'll be inspired to update more than a couple times a month. :)  Again, I'm still not sure why I write this silly little blog.  I guess it's just fun to share a little bit of us with the world.

The original plan was: Church.  Nap.  Maybe grill some dinner.  Bedtime.

Thankfully, we ended up having a lot more fun than that today!

This was at church today.  Mav loves to walk along and tap all the chairs when service is over.

Today was the first time ever, that he did NOT want to leave nursery!

Normally all I have to do is call his name, and he sprints over to the door to leave.

Today I had to carry him out, and he was not happy about it! :)  

Okay, so I know I write about his love of wheels and cars a bazillion times.  But seriously, this kid is hooked!  Robbie turned on a Formula 1 car race on tv, and Mav got so excited that he ran around the room, twirling in circles until the race was over...30 minutes later.

Not kidding.

So then we were inspired to watch the movie "Cars" and I was pretty surprised that Mav paid attention to a good part of it.  Of course, while we were watching he was running laps and crashing into Robbie's lap on purpose.

It was about this time that we started to talk with some friends about hanging out tonight, so we cleaned the house just in case.  Mav decided that vacuuming the couch was really an excuse to jump on it like a trampoline.

I remember when I was a kid, I looooooved getting squished into the couch cushions.  Weird, I know.

Must be a genetic trait.

So, our evening turned out pretty fantastic!  Our friend Sean came over with his friend from New York, plus Robbie's sister Johanna, her husband Jon, and their son Noa, and their dog Ray, came over too!!

Impromptu BBQs are the best!

We grilled turkey burgers (I tried a new recipe, and it was yummy!), and veggie skewers.

We also enjoyed some pasta salad (which was already eaten from my plate), garlic hummus with crackers, and some delicious desserts. (see below, ha!)

Mav begging for food. :)

Here is the sweetest sugar baby in the world!! This is my nephew Noa, who will be 5 months old on July 4th.

I love, love, love hanging out with this little guy.  And Maverick LOVES him so much!  He gives him kisses, snuggles, shares his toys with him, and even offers his sippy cup to him.  It's so sweet!

Mav decided to poke holes in Robbie's burger while he wasn't looking. :)

Okay so this totally looks gross, but it was hard to get a decent picture.

First--the banana.  Grill it while it is still in the peel, and add some cinnamon.  So good!

Second--the most genius dessert ever: raspberries plugged with chocolate chips.

It is the divine taste of chocolate covered raspberries without the hassle of melting chocolate.

You HAVE to try it.  Seriously.

First trip to the Library!

Saturday mornings are the best!  Cartoons and a bowl of cereal...and then just let the day happen. :)

I can't believe I haven't taken Maverick to the public library until today!  I guess I've just always been afraid that he would be too rowdy.  Until now, we've always had Borders to visit and a TON of books at home.  Seriously, I could open my own library!  Besides all the books that have been bought for us, I get a ton of children's books for free from my work.  Pretty great, I think!  Mav really likes the gigantic-size books I bring home from work.  They come from classroom sets, and the giant one is so the class can read it together.

After looking at the forecast, I decided to go to the park first before the storms came.  Plus, maybe he wouldn't be so crazy for the library. :)

As we were leaving, I saw my dad drive up behind me.  We live in the same subdivision so this happens sort of often. (By the way--living in the same subdivision as your parents is a GREAT idea when you have kids!)  It turned out that he was just running an errand, so he tagged along with us to the park.  Hoooooraaaaay!

Playing peek-a-boo with Grandpa!

Mav had to show off his expertise of spinning wheels.

Playing peek-a-boo with Grandpa again...can you sort of see him through the crack? :)

Jumping off the mountain! (It's a good thing Grandpa was there!)

We had so much fun at the park, Mav actually didn't fuss about leaving like he normally does.  He's totally going to be the kid who says, "Aw man! Five more minutes?!" when I call him in for dinner.

Then we headed over to the library!  I think the quietness was sort of intimidating because Mav clung to me very, very, tightly when we first walked in.  It took a few minutes for him to release the claws from my shirt, ha!  But as soon as we turned the corner to the kid's section he wiggled free and ran straight to this shelf.

He picked a book about baby animals.  He then promptly began removing all the books from the shelf, ha!

I started to feel bad about all the books on the floor because I didn't want a huge mess for the librarians to re-organize.  But then I noticed the label on the binding: B.  No Dewey Decimal system on these shelves, ha!  Only the first letter of the title of the book, so that it would be easy for parents to re-shelve.  Nice!

The only time Mav got to be a little loud was when he started making all the noises from the animals he saw in the books. :)

He was so excited to see one of these again!  Every time we went to Borders, we HAD to stop and play with the one in the children's section.  Now this one can fill the void.

Orca whale lounger. :)

Okay, I totally didn't pose him, I promise!!  He seriously stood in the middle of the room...glanced over all the shelves...and plopped down just like this.  I think he was a little overwhelmed with the decision of what book to pick next.  Too funny!

I think we'll be making the library a regular stop from now on. :)

 

Friiiii-day!

Ahhhh, it's amazing what a good night's sleep (and some Children's Tylenol) does!  I think Mav might have some sort of earache because he kept hitting the one side of his head, and there is the slightest amount of drainage.  Believe it or not, he's never had an ear infection so this is uncharted territory.

I was excited to bring home a few treasures for Mav when I got off work.  At work today, we had a 'mini carnival' complete with prizes and a clown who made balloon animals.  I'm pretty sure that he would've taken the balloon dog to sleep if he could!  It is patiently sitting on the table waiting for Mav to wake up. :)

I also brought home this tiny beach ball, which he calls "bah-et-ball!".

Every type of ball is a basketball to him, ha!

The smallest treasure was this plastic star ring.  He wasn't quite too sure about this.

We spent our afternoon playing with his sushi set. 

It's really fun because the pieces Velcro together, and you can 'cut' it with the meat cleaver.

My mom bought this when I was only a few months along in my pregnancy because she knew how much Robbie would love to teach Mav how to eat sushi. :)

Very politely offering to share his meal. :)

Mav is so funny about cups and bowls.  This is the soy sauce bowl to the sushi set, that he pretended to drink.

I don't know where he picked it up, but whenever he drinks from a cup or bowl he finishes it with a wispy "Ahhhh!" sound (like you'd hear in a Coke commercial).

Could this picture be anymore truthful?! :)

This is a money set that I picked up for free from work.  Part of the money is magnetic (and all over our fridge), and part is paper.

We started our evening walk about 7pm, and I guess it was about 7:30 when I noticed Mav's head starting to nod forward.  And then it dawned on me....he hasn't taken a nap yet today!

He woke up just enough to get his jammies on and have some milk.

And then he was toast again.

By 8pm.

Woo hoo for early bedtime!