Busy & Lazy

Here's a quick recap of the last 1 & 1/2 mos.

We went to Disneyland.

Max really enjoys the rides now & its hard to drag him away when its time to go home. I should have taken a picture of them both passed out in the car before we even left the parking lot.

I love how serious Max is about his coaster riding

We had farewell Philly cheesesteaks with our friends the Andersons.

They ditched us for Tulsa, OK. I still can't talk about it.

Max & Weston @ Philly's Best

We tried out a children's restaurant called Giggle's n Hugs in L.A.

Mike and I stole away for our anniversary and went to Morro Bay. Basically its famous for this giant rock, but it also had great seafood, fun shops and... ...this really cool elephant seal preserve up the shore. I'm not kidding, there were thousands!

My sister watched the boys for the weekend and we came home to Tate with a 103 fever.
I love how he's still trying to smile through the pain.

Max now loves to read.

We read stories after stories, then he "reads" them back to us.

We went to one of Daddy's softball games.

Max had fun watching this groundhog dig out its tunnel.

Plus he got to throw the ball with Daddy on the big field.

We went to the Skirball Museum w/ Sachia & Sienna.

What's not to love about running around in Noah's ark?

Max & Sienna loading the animals 2 x 2.

Even Tate enjoyed himself.

Tate now enjoys his bog boy food.

Here's the B Boys enjoying leftover pizza for lunch.

So now we're all caught up. Hopefully I stay on top of things a bit better.

Mothers Day bragging

Happy Mothers Day!

Thank you to the wonderful Mom's in my life. My wonderful Mom, mother-in-law, sisters & girlfriends who are such a great support and example.

I figured this was as good a day as any to brag about the boy's latest accomplishments & shenanigans. It's crazy how big a difference a couple months make. I feel like they are both doing so much now.

Max:

- Can now reach light switches & loves to turn everything "off".

- When he walks into a room he says "Oh HI, it's me Max". Oh, thanks. I had forgotten.

- Still says "I want to hold you" if he wants to sit on your lap or be carried. I doubt he could hold me anyway.

-If you are holding Tate when he wants to be held, he tells you to "Put him in bouncy chair".

- Tries to lie and say he is 4 like his cousin when you ask him how old he is. Then he smiles and says "No, I'm 2".

-Being tickled tops his list of favorite things. "Tickles Mommy?" No thank you, but I'll tickle you.

-Everything is "scary" right now. I don't mind playing along since I usually get hugs out of it so I'm not so scared anymore.

-Can sit still now through a book. Loves to read his stories at nap time and bed time. He "reads" the ones back that he likes. Pretty funny to hear him use the same voices his dad and I use when we read them to him.

-Speaks really clearly. He still puts an "s" on the end of his sentences. "Mommy, that's silly's", "Oh no, what are we gonna do's?", "Where's Daddy's?"

-We get asked a lot how old he is & then get shocked faces when we say 2 & 1/2. Is it because he is tall? Is it because he is constantly jibber-jabbering? He seems 2 & 1/2 to me.

-Loves to do anything his Dad is doing. It can make Saturday afternoon chores take a while, but seeing him out there with his own wheel barrow & shovel with his Dad is one of my favorite things.

-Likes to brush his teeth, but doesn't like it when Mommy & Daddy have to help him. He mostly just sucks the toothpaste off.

-Chases the poor dogs & tortures them by holding a ball and not throwing it. Sometimes he gets mad when they jump on him to try and get it.

-Sings CONSTANTLY. You can hear him an hour after you've put him to bed still singing. He does his own mash-ups now. My favorite is the Wonder-pets/Jesus wants me for a sunbeam mash-up.

Tate:

(you're just supposed to notice how cute & adorable Tate is in the 2nd picture. Not that I just woke up & haven't showered in 2 days.)

-No crawling, just rolling. Or, he kicks his feet in the air when he's on the back. He's learned he can gain a few inches in any direction doing that.

-I swear he has bigger cheeks than Max did.

-Smiles at anyone who has a smile for him. I love it when I walk back into a room and he gives me a huge grin. At least someone is happy to see me.

-Plays the screaming game. This is when he screams at me, smiles & waits patiently for me to scream back. Then I scream and smile, then he screams again and so on. Things can get really loud when big brother chimes in as well.

-We are not in a rush for him to grow up, so he's still on soft baby food. He does not like veggies but loves fruit.

-Hates, Hates, Hates to be alone. So does his father. I can just see them now snacking & buying things they don't need out of boredom whenever I'm gone.

-Has the grip of a grown man. You can't tear anything out of this kids hands. Thank goodness he can't crawl into my shoe closet.

-He has been sitting up on his own for a while, but now he kicks and rocks himself back and forth when he's excited. This often occurs when I let them watch TV.

-Can hold his own bottle if you put his hands on it for him. I don't know what to do with a free 5 minutes anymore.

-Tate does not go to bed w/o first being snuggled for a good 5-10 minutes. He needs to be held close so he can play with your hair or your ears. I think he just needs some decompress time with no one bothering him. Funny, Mom's and Dad's need that too!

I love my boys so much and am thankful every day that they are healthy, happy and mine :)

Mother's Day 2010
(Rose Bowl for Brunch)

Did you know March was National Craft Month?

Neither did I, but according to Joanne's Fabrics it was. Maybe that's why I had this urge to make clothes for the boys.

First, one of Mike's old sweaters with a moth hole became a vest for Max & a cardigan for Tate.
I didn't take a picture of the cardigan by itself, & sadly it somehow got mixed up in the wash and shrank enough to fit a Barbie doll now. At least he wore it once first.

Max is ticked that we are blocking "his shows" trying to take this picture.

Originally, this old shirt of mine was just going to become smaller w/a black pirate ship on it for Max. I messed up the collar so used it to make a pirate ship to put on one of his T's. I think I'll make one for Tate now too.

I also made myself a couple ruffle T-shirts & one with some little flower embellishments. I couldn't bring myself to pay $60+ for the cute ones at J-Crew. I'll post those later. Tate had his shots yesterday and is not happy with me being on the computer.

Bowling & Sweet Potatoes

Today was a momentous day for the Brownstein Family.

2 very important 1sts occurred:

Tate ate his 1st food, sweet potatoes!

(do you spell that with an 'e' or just add an 's'? I'm never sure)

We've been giving him rice cereal for almost a month now & he hates it. He wouldn't take it off a spoon so we had to switch to a very high tech, special, customized bottle. Yup, a bottle with the nipple cut off. (Why does writing that make me flinch a little?)

Mike worked from the Pasadena office today, so we picked him up from work and headed off for an outing Mike has been dying to do for a while now.

The bowling alley had some raging music going. We totally rocked out to "Girls Just Want to Have Fun".

Pics of the big day:

Despite his lack of smiles, Max was having a blast. He rarely let Mike or I have a turn. He bowled 2 games by himself, occasionally switching it up and trying granny style.

What is this deliciousness Mommy?

Oh, & Tate got his 1st tooth on Monday, 2nd on Tuesday.

No wonder it felt like his cold was dragging on.

Hooray! Easter time!

How cute is this?

Over 20 kids all geared up for the 1st Egg hunt of the season.

Grandpa Holmes came with us & hid the eggs while the

grown-ups attempted a group shot. Alas, the kids were

spaced too far apart for me to capture all the adorableness,

but this group looks very "springy" and ready for action right?

No.

Please note that my 1st born jewel is the only child crying.

The sequence of events below.

Other than the mini-meltdown it was a great evening back at our old church building. Isn't it fantastic that they have a softball field and park as part of the property? Plenty of yummy food & treats of which Max partook none. Too busy on the slide and trying to steal someones ball to eat. I'm pretty sure all the kids had a blast & it turns out that Max was the 1st child to hit the Egg Hunt.

Tate? Happy as usual to sit back and watch it all.

I love the boys faces in this pic.

Both so intent on getting to the good stuff.

Too bad Tate only had Easter grass in his.

Max eventually gave him an empty egg to play with :)

Max could not be bothered to sit still for a family picture.

Why do I even bother trying to get them in coordinating

outfits for pictures?

Hope everyone has a fabulous week and a fun-tastic Easter!

Sometimes, its the simple little things

One great thing about the recent rains is that we now have nice, juicy oranges on our trees. I thought it would be a fun thing we could do together and make great use of all our oranges to make juice. It took me a couple days to find one, but I got one of those hand-juicer-thingy's (yes, that is it's official name) and Max & I made some OJ.

I don't have pictures of the tree, or us picking them, but I promise we did not buy these oranges. (I had thought of making an OJ/cutie combo drink, but alas the cuties on the counter behind Max had gone bad.)

This was a very lengthy process. Max insisted that every spec be washed off. He didn't quite grasp that we were not using the outside of the orange. He's the same way when washing his hands. Can't stand a single spec left on them.

This was the fun part. Max moved on quickly to the next orange so I had to go back and re-squeeze them all.

The best part of all was drinking it. There are 2 "schools" to OJ drinking. You're either a pulp or no-pulp. I don't mind a little pulp in my OJ, but Mike wouldn't drink the glass we saved for him. Apparently he is on the no-pulp side.

Nothing wrong with getting a little work done

I've always wanted super full lips. My little sister has nice full lips like Angelina Jolie. I really wanted my kids to have nice full lips as well. But alas they were both born with adorable little rose bud lips.

Soooooo, I've been contemplating getting a little work done on them (theirs, not mine). Botox injections won't hurt them that bad will they? I was just about to start looking for a Dr. when Max decided taking a header off the stairs would be less painful AND cheaper!


Thanks Max for saving us a few bucks!

You know I'm kidding about the botox for babies right?