And I have a 3 year old boy!

We had such a fun weekend celebrating the boys' birthdays! We had a joint Halloween birthday party for them and it was fabulous. The boys dressed up as a pirate (Athen) and a parrot (Maximo). I dressed up as a pirate like Athen and Matt didn't dress up! It was so fun to see all of their friends dressed up! And it was too cute because they were all a bit embarassed at first. It was fun to watch them walk through the front door and kinda hide behind their parents. We saw all kinds of costumes: dinosaurs, alphabet soup, Spiderman, Hulk Hogan, cats, and even some firefighters. Here are some pictures of the boys in their costumes and some of the goodies.

The cupcakes!

Popcorn Balls






My Pirate!

My little parrot with Nana and me!



Maximo eating his cake!


Singing Happy Birthday!



The boys were spoiled rotten with both Grandma and Grandpa and Nana and Pappy visiting. They got more gifts than we have room for :). They both loved having them around and are going through grandparent withdrawal. Athen woke up Monday morning and said to me, "Where are my friends?" And I asked, "Which ones!" And he said, "Grandma and Grandpa and Nana and Pappy." I thought that was so very sweet! For a few nights Pappy and Nana slept in Athen's room and he definitely didn't wait for the 7 to start bothering them... He even said to Nana that 6 is very impatient. Needless to say Nana and Pappy didn't get much sleep, but I think they enjoyed every minute of it.
We had great weather and we were able to spend a lot of time outside both at the party and all the other days everyone was visiting. Maximo loves being outside and most days stands at the door and whines to go outside. They spent a lot of time swinging and playing hide and seek.








With Pappy here Matt was able to get a lot of work done on his truck! And even let Grandma take it for a spin.



We had a great time with all of our visitors and miss them so much. We can't wait to see everyone at Christmas!

Food Shot

So yesterday Athen got his annual flu shot. He heard Matt and me talking about it and he started calling it, "food shot." I had to take Maximo to the doctor so Matt was the one who actually took him to get the shot. He told him exactly what was going to happen and Athen told him that he was tough and was not going to cry. So the nurse came in with the shot and Athen sat quietly and once she put the shot in his leg, he screamed and cried for a few seconds and then said, "I'm tough no more crying." He then gave him a sucker and a McQueen and Mater treat. Here is a video of him telling me the story...

My singing Birthday Boy

Athen got a singing birthday card in the mail from Nana! Here is a little video of him singing with the card :). Enjoy!

Birthday Boy!

My sweet little Maximo turned one today! It's such a bittersweet day. I love that he's getting bigger and older, but I miss my sweet little cuddlebug. He's on the move and doesn't have much time for cuddling :) Although, this week he did backup and sit down in my lap for me to read him a book. So sweet! We celebrated Maximo's birthday by going to our favorite mexican restaurant. Maximo loves the rice and refried beans, and on this trip we let him eat the chips too!

And of course he loved them.

Outside of the restaurant!

After dinner we got Maximo his first ice cream cone. He wasn't to sure about it and cautiously took bites. Eventually we just let him eat the cone and he loved that!


On the way home, Maximo was super grumpy and Athen was so sweet and started playing peekaboo with Maximo. Such a sweetheart!

When we got home we put together their birthday present. We got them a table and chair set and here is a picture of them sitting in the chairs! I think Maximo likes it...

I love my little Maximo and feel so blessed to be his Mama! Happy Birthday my sweet boy!

Cars cars!

Athen has hundreds and hundreds of Cars. His love of cars never ceases to amaze me. He sleeps with atleast 2 cars every night, he brings them to the bath with him, he even eats with a few. When Matt gets a new truck part magazine in the mail he will sit for a good 20 minutes and go through each page talking all about it. Here is a short video of him "reading" the magazine!

There are two categories of cars in our house: cars from the movie Cars (called Cars cars) and regular cars. He has names for every car in our house. Mostly it's the model of the car or the name of the car from the movie. Here he is so proud of his car show of Cars cars :).

Daaaadyyyy!

Every evening, Matt calls on his way home from work...Athen hears the phone ring and he usually says, "That's probably Daddy!" Then he runs to the window, pulls up the blinds and Maximo is about 10 steps behind and they wait in the window until they see Daddy's black car...And Athen runs to the garage yelling, "Daaaadddyyy" It's really the highlight of my afternoon!

Adventures in Nursing!

So with Maximo's first birthday quickly approaching, I'm down to the last few weeks of nursing. He only nurses right when he wakes up and right before he goes to bed! Nursing him has been such a different experience than I had with Athen. Athen had problems eating real food and stopping nursing... Maximo on the other hand has had no problem eating real food and absolutely loves to eat! Weaning Maximo is so bitter sweet. I love the bond you have while nursing, but I love the independence you have once you are done. I know I will miss Maximo touching my face, smiling at me, and playing with my hair while nursing, it's just so sweet. It's really the only time now he sits still and cuddles. Sometimes I think he is completely ready to stop nursing and I'm the one holding on, but he quickly shows me this isn't the case.
So in our recent visit to Colorado the last night we were in town Maximo woke up at 5am and the only way I could get him back to sleep was to nurse him...So in MY mind this replaced his usual 6:30 or 7:00am nursing. So when he woke up that morning I got ready and couldn't figure out why he was so cranky. We rushed out the door and packed in the car. After about 5 minutes in the car I had lost my patience because Maximo would not stop fussing. I turned around to try and console him and he started doing his cue for when he wants to nurse. We call it his "nursy face." Where or how he came up with this and how I know what it means is a mystery to me, but he closes his eyes and makes a smacking noise with his mouth. He continues doing this everytime I try to console him. I tried giving him his cup with milk. He threw it down. I tried feeding him all the food I had and he continued to throw everything down. He even threw his paci down. He had one thing on his mind and that was the nursing! We were running late and couldn't stop so this continued most of the two hour drive. I'm sure it didn't help that I was sitting in the back with him and he could see me yet I couldn't hold him, get him out of his carseat or nurse him. By the time we made it to the Springs, he had worn himself out from crying and was almost asleep.
I know I'm going to miss his "nursy face," but man that was a long two hours!!!