Fun at Home

After we got home from Ellie's birthday party, we of course had to spend the rest of the afternoon playing with all her new gifts. She wore her lovely pink tutu all day and rode many a mile on her new horse.

While Ellie rode Lightning (or whatever his name is today), Max discovered the bouncing Tigger. I think the sequence of pictures below is priceless.

Umm....I'm not sure....

Oh wait, yes, I do like him......

In fact, I love him. What does he taste like?

Happy kiddos.

Happy, happy birthday, Ellie dear!

Our Little Miss has turned 3 years old!!! I can't believe it. Where has the time gone? To celebrate, we had a party at Monkey Joe's. Monkey Joe's is an indoor bounce house extravaganza, with lots of slides, tunnels, obstacle courses, etc....all the things kids love.

Ellie on the slide.

Daddy and the birthday girl.

The amazing princess castle birthday cake my mom made.

Monkey Joe even came to the party to give Ellie a special birthday gift. He only stayed for a little while, and left some of the children in tears. What is it about a huge, purple monkey that could frighten a child?

The whole gang enjoying the birthday cake.

Let's go for a Walk

With all the beautiful weather we've been having, we decided to explore a new walking trail nearby. The trail is in the MU technology park and connects to the Katy trail. The trail is quite nice, blacktopped, wide, and clean. We made it a family affair with the grandparents, aunts, uncle, and cousins, and it was lots of fun. Check out the monkeys swinging from the trees.

Rolling Over & Eating Toes

Max has had a very eventful summer. He mastered rolling over...front to back...back to front...all around. There's no leaving him on the couch or bed without sufficient barriers now.

Max has also mastered the all important task of getting his toes in his mouth, much to the horror of his father. But since he's not walking anywhere yet, those toes are cleaner now then they'll ever be, so I say enjoy 'em while you can!

Go Cards!

We all went to our first Cards game of the season recently. My dad had tickets in the BJC suite, so the whole family got to go, and boy is that the way to take young children to the ballgame. We had air-conditioned seating inside (although it was a beautiful day that day), comfortable chairs and sofas to rest on, all the food and drink we wanted, and a private restroom (the best part in my opinion). And if we wanted to sit outside in real stadium seating, we had an awesome view right behind home plate.

Not only was this our family's first game of the season, it was Ellie's and Max's first game ever. In the days leading up to the game, Jason was getting so excited he could hardly stand it. He LOVES baseball, and especially loves being at the stadium, so he was really looking forward to sharing that experience with his kids.

Ellie quickly learned when to say "CHARGE!" with the crowd, and would raise her arm in the air each time. She was also very excited to see Fred Bird, and thought it was hilarious when she saw him eat a little boy's head on the jumbotron.

Papi with the grandkids. Thanks, Dad, for a fun afternoon.

My sister and her family also joined us. Look at how adorable Ella looks in her Cards gear and bow.


Even though I work across the street from Busch Stadium and see it all the time, we still had to do the geeky, touristy type of photos.

4 months and eating cereal

Max had his 4 month checkup yesterday. He weighed 15 pounds 14 1/2 ounces (66%) and was 26 1/2 inches long (91%). He had to get a couple shots, but he took it like a champ and immediately stopped crying as soon as he was picked up. He also got his second dose of the oral vaccine for rotavirus, which he wasn't too sure about. For one, it was cold which is strange for a 4-month-old who has only ever had warm milk, and second, it didn't taste like milk. He held it in his open mouth for a while, trying not to let his tongue touch it, then as it moved to the back of his throat he started to gag a little. I thought, 'oh great, here it comes,' but luckily he swallowed and everything was fine.

Max has a very strong stomach and esophagus muscles and rarely spits up, and by rarely I mean I can probably count on one hand the number of times anything has come back up. But the few times anything has, it is only because he has gotten gagged by his binkie or some other item, such as baby tylenol. In fact, later that day, I gave him a dose of baby tylenol since he seemed to be a little fussy (a rarity for Max), but who wouldn't after having shots in both legs. Once again he didn't like the taste and feel of the non-milk liquid in his mouth, but this time as it moved to the back of his throat, he not only gagged, but also threw it up. Fun stuff.

At his check up we got the go ahead to start on solid foods. I was a little apprehensive about how he would take to rice cereal, knowing about this gag reflex, but so far so good. He has had a few servings, and while he is still learning how to actually take the food off the spoon and move it around in his mouth, we haven't had any gagging or spitting up yet....knock on wood. Hopefully he'll get the hang of it soon, so we can move on to all the fun messy baby foods like green beans, sweet potatoes, and carrots. Yay!