Chateau de Larson

This past week Max and I along with my sister Krista and her 2 kids, Macie & Carson drove up to Pleasanton to house-sit for my sister Kim and her family while they vacationed in Mexico. For us, it was a mini vacation. My sister has a gorgeous home with an even more wonderful pool in the backyard. The kids had a wonderful week getting up the courage to jump off the waterfal & go down the slide by themselves. Max even kicked around in his floatie and took a turn on the slide. I even raided my sisters library and read 3 books from the TWILIGHT series, which was fabulous.

So little sisters are sometimes good for something (love ya' Kris!). About a month ago she talked me into signing up for Classmates.com. I did and instantly found one of my best friends from highschool in Pleasanton (before we tragically moved my Jr. year (I'm still slightly wounded). She still lives in No. Cal so while at my sisters Allison came over for the day. It was so great to catch up and reminisce and see her new brunette hair.

Allison had another one of friends contact info so a couple weeks ago I met up with another BFF, Melissa. I'm totally ticked that I did not get a picture of us, but we were both juggling our kids. I did take pictures of her cutie-pa-tootie kids Simon and Charlie. Charlie totally has her red curly hair.

Have you ever had those kind of friends where you get back in touch after a long time and its like no time was lost? I'm so glad I signed up, thanks Krista!

Catch them if you can

Last night Mike decided to give the dogs some exercise and chase them while holding Max. Turns out Max LOVES it & Mike got the most exercise. We've never heard him laugh quite like this before...
(please ignore the messy house)

We had a lovely day in the fashion district trying to find fun fabrics, ribbon and such so I can look craftier than I am. The bedding for Max's crib and the curtains in his room are pretty much the extent of my abilities (and I had my Mom's help). I told my friend Sachia I'd post pictures of the curtains, so here they are. The buttons were a gift from my mom.

Kick-A day

Today was a kick-A day. Gorgeous weather, snow cones, lunch with friends at Olive Garden, then brownies & lounging the late afternoon away by the pool. For not really napping all day, Max did pretty darn good. At least, up until 20 minutes ago. But he's pretty darn pooped after swimming laps around Fallon in the pool. Fallon is 16 days younger than Max so she's not as advanced as he is at most things. Maybe when we take our swim lessons with her in August she'll do better. (hopefully the sassy sarcasm is coming through and you know I love Fallon, but love teasing her mother, Natalie even more).

We started by heading to the grand opening of the new Babies-R-Us in Glendale. They had Strawberry Shortcake, some Teenage mutant ninja turtle, and Geoffrey the Giraffe there. My friend Sachia wanted us to get pictures with the characters, but she didn't know I don't do people in costumes- freaks me out. I don't like when I can't see their faces. It's not as big as the one in West Covina, but who wants to go to West Covina? And its still well stocked and I'll go anywhere for a free snowcone. Then it was off to lunch at Olive Garden which totally hit the spot. Max and Fallon are big enough for high chairs so it was pretty cute to watch them play and try to hold hands.

After a pitstop at Joanne Fabrics, where hopefully the fabric I bought will eventually find its way into curtains for our bedroom, it was off to the pool at Sachia's. We snacked on brownies, played in the warm pool water and lounged in the sun. Great casual afternoon. Max and Fallon loved being in their little floaties, but check out the hilarious horse-head on Fallon's floatie. The best part was watching Natalie spend 30 minutes trying to blow it up :)

Check out Max and his frog-like kickin'.

Pretzels and Cheesesteaks

We just got back from spending the Memorial holiday in Philly with Mike's family, and of course while we were there Mike enjoyed his favorite Philly snacks of chicken cheesesteaks and pretzels. Uncle Marshall has a part time job at Einstein bagels so we enjoyed some of those as well. They are soooo much better on the East Coast, must be in the "wader" (you should ask Mike to say "water" for you some time, It's one of the few remaining words he still says with his Philly accent). Max had a few 1sts while he was there, he tasted his first pickle- which he loved & started rolling consecutively towards something he wanted across the room. The best part is that now I'm not the only one bragging about how smart Max is. It does not even compare to GG's raving about him to everyone. :)

Our friends the Melotto's drove in from NYC to spend Friday afternoon with us and we finally got to meet their cute son Thomas. Mike spent the afternoon describing how Max would dominate Thomas because he weighs 1 lb. more than Thomas who is 5 months older. Friday night we went to Shabat at the Brownstein's newly renovated synagogue so Max could meet all GG's friends. Ok...I can't lie. We only went for the dessert afterward, but Max is only half Jewish so its ok.

Saturday & Sunday our friends the Weisbergs drove up from Virginia to spend a couple days visiting. Audra, the girls- Anna & Lilah, & I are pretty used to our routine of finding something to do while Mike and Brad golf. Spending the day taking a ferry ride in New Hope & shopping in Peddlers Village did the trick this time. Don't forget to keep us posted on Baby #3's gender Audra!

Monday we spent at the Braun's who hosted a luncheon for family and friends to come meet Max. It was fun to "east coast greet" everyone & catch up. (I agree w- you Sachia, we need to bring the hug/kiss on the cheek to the west coast). Thank you Uncle Barry and Aunt Linda for a fabulous afternoon. Max was not exactly on his best behavior. I think the time change, teething, and catching 30 min. naps here and there finally caught up to him. I apologize again to everyone for a fussy baby.

It was a great trip, and we're already looking forward to seeing Uncle Marshall, GG and PopPop again in a few weeks for Uncle Matt's wedding.

3 little Monkey's

We just had to catch this on video. Max absolutely loves this little song, all we have to do is hold up 3 fingers and he gets so excited. I just love how he starts to flutter his eyes in anticipation of the alligator snatching the monkey out of the tree (watch the video and you'll understand).

Seal Beach

Even though it was a bit overcast we had a fun morning at Seal Beach today with Sachia, Natalie & Fallon, Danielle & Michael, April & Adam. I never get much of a reaction out of Max when I dip his toes in the water, but he does love to stare at the waves. He did get some alone time with Fallon in the tent but she was more interested in trying to steal his pacifier than in playing.

After a couple hours Natalie/Fallon, Sachia and I went to a little Mexican restaurant across the street which had awsome Carne Asada burritos & great waiters who kept calling us "Momma's". I'm sure he meant to say "hot momma's". In the booth behind me there was an adorable grandpa who I guess had been smiling at Max as I held him over my shoulder. When he stood to leave he leaned over, supporting himself on his cane and whispered to me in a very thick Irish accent that his name was Father xxx (I couldn't understand it), & that he used to have his own parish. He then made a cross on Max's forehead & chest as he said a blessing, wished us a good day and left. It was so sweet, and of course left us wondering why adorable Fallon who was quietly watching from her car seat next to Natalie didn't get a blessing. I'm thinking its becuase he knew she was a thief who earlier tried to take Max's pacifier and there was no hope for her. More likely would be he figured a boy would be a handful when he gets a bit bigger (remind me to tell you all in a later blog about my nephew Carson's escapades in potty training) and we would need it more than Fallon. Pretty fun day. Thanks ladies!

Since Friday Max has been kind of fussy & today I think we figured out why...Natalie confirmed it for me that the little white dot on his bottom gums is most likely a little tooth coming in. I felt bad becuase Uncle Matt and Aunt Susan came for a visit Sunday afternoon and Max was not in tip-top form. But it's always fun to visit with them and Max loves them. We promise next time guys that he'll be much happier.

Berenstein Bears

We're crazy to brave the ridiculous heat today, but I grew up loving the Berenstein Bears books so when we heard the author- Mike Berenstein was going to be at the LA Zoo we had to go. Actually, Mike Berenstein is the son of the original husband/wife team authors & has been illustrating and writing the books for over 20 years. I was ticked to find out he was doing autographs and we didn't bring our books. He did have some photocopies of illustrations and we got 1 signed for Max, and1 for me. Don't ask my why my husband only took one picture so please ignore the hanger strap of my shirt hanging off and that my gorgeous son is not even looking when I got him all dressed up in his fish outfit from Hawaii.