August 14th and 15th were a big weekend for Max. We spent the weekend in Fair Play with Nana and Poppy and boy did he change! After 9 1/2 months he still had no teeth, and he still didn’t crawl. He would sit happily for a very long time playing with whatever was in reach. Well sure enough towards the end of the week we thought we saw two bottom teeth about to pop through and by Saturday, sure enough, they both were there. Almost 10 months old, but also just about when Sophie got her first tooth. If that wasn’t enough, Max pretty much out of nowhere just started to crawl on the same day! On Thursday he took a few “crawl steps”, and a couple more on Friday, and by Saturday in Fair Play (probably encouraged by the carpet he was crawling all around. Evan and Sophie are completely delighted by the progress their brother is making and love to watch and “help him” at every new venture!
Evan and Sophie watch as Max takes some of his first crawls.
Max pauses his crawling to get a picture taken
Proud big sister poses with Max
Having "mastered" crawling a few minutes earlier, Sophie and Evan decide that Max should learn how to somersault as well!
"and yes.. i CAN fly"
One last note. Evan and Sophie are doing amazing together. Sharing toys and food, caring about each other when they cry, and last night, on the way to dinner, we looked in the back seat and there they were, holding hands!!
Evan and Sophie playing a game of 'ring around the rosie'
Evan turned three on Sunday. We planned a different sort of celebration for him this year. We noticed at Sophie’s 2nd birthday party that Evan didn’t seem entirely thrilled with a large group of kids in the house, and lately when we are in large groups of people he will tell us he would prefer to be somewhere quiet. There were a few things we knew however, that we wanted to incorporate into his day. The first was “Toy Story” – he is a big fan! The second was “Chuck-E-Cheese” – he has been asking to go there since he saw a commercial on TV. The third was time with his cousins.
So on his birthday morning, we sang him happy birthday with a candle in a muffin, and let him open his presents from Daddies. He was thrilled with his Buzz, his Woody, and his Slinky (as was Sophie). In the afternoon we met just two friends at Chuck-E-Cheese. Evan LOVED it and ran around the entire time, only taking time to sit for a few minutes to have pizza and a cupcake. On Monday evening, his cousins and grandparents came to our house for Pizza and birthday cake. It turned out to be a perfect 2 days for Evan – he loved every single minute of it.
On Monday, May 24th, Max became part of our family forever. His adoption day was very similar to Evan’s and Sophie’s. Early morning at the court house with our attorney (and now friend who we have been in constant contact with for 4 years!) Susan Romer, and our parents and family. It has become tradition to go to lunch and celebrate the day with family. We went back to the same restaurant (Le Mer) that we went to after Sophie’s adoption and had another great lunch!
Lot’s of things going on every day! Trying to find time to document everything new that happens (a new word, a cute phrase, a haircut) is always a challenge. Even remembering to take pictures sometimes doesn’t happen. Here is a random sampling pictures from the last few weeks that captures a few of the goings on in our lives.
things of note; Evan's underwear, Sophie's pony tail, calliou on computer
Evan on tricycle he got for being potty trained, and sporting haircut thanks to Daddya and Matthew
tender moment between brother and sister on train ride in Tilden Park
Evan, Sophie and friends watch the train at Tilden Park
Max in his jumpy seat.
Evan test driving fire engine at Glen Park street fair
Sophie actually may be a better driver than Evan..
Sophie moved from her crib about 6 months ago. This month we finally got them matching beds!
Sophie jumping on her new bed- a whole lot better than a mattress on the floor!
Sophie turned 2 this last Friday. It was a great weekend filled with surprises, cake, parties and a very special visit from Mom! Angela came in on Saturday night and spent some great time with the kids. Sophie seems especially happy to see her mom and looks at her with big eyes and says “mommy”. Sophie seemed to enjoy the whole weekend and got a bunch of really great presents.
Birthday breakfast practice candle
Birthday day breakfast party
Sophie blows her candles out on her birthday night cake
Max enjoying the festivities
Evan watching Sophie open a present
Sophie checks out a new toy
Sophie gets ready to blow out the candles on her cake on her Saturday birthday party
By this time she had practiced at least 10 times
Sophie successfully blew out all the candles on her cake!
Almost a month since the last blog update. So many things are happening that we want to document, but we forget to take pictures, forget to load photos, or are just too tired to update the blog. The good news is that the kids have all been happy and healthy over the last month. The not so good news is we have had a really tough time at night. All three kids were waking up during most nights and some nights daddy’s were left with only a couple hours of sleep. Lately it has gotten much better. Evan is almost always sleeping through (but likes to wake up at 6), Sophie will wake up once about 50% of the time and just want some daddy time, and Max is still usually wanting to eat at about 1 AM.
Max is now playing in the jumpy seat, sitting in high chair, eating rice cereal and playing with all sorts of toys. He mostly loves to watch Evan and Sophie and will giggle and laugh whenever they are. Sophie continues to develop her speech. She adores Matthew and calls him “Mat-Mew” – it’s adorable. She is finally beginning to call Evan more than “Ehh”and now says “Evan” about 75% of the time. She pooped on the potty last week, but will normally just say “poopie, poopie” then sit on the potty for 5 minutes and say “all done” without anything happening. Evan is in the middle of potty training. He knows he gets a bike when he is done, so he is working on it diligently. For the last 3 days he has done every pee in the potty during the day. Regular underwear stayed dry all day two days in a row. I think we are off to buy a bike today. Yesterday when I came home from work he told me he peed in the potty. I said “great Evan, I am so proud of you, do you want to go pee with Daddy again right now?” He said, “Daddy if I go pee again do I get 2 bicycles?”
Sophie and Daddy on the beach
Evan eating ice cream (before haircut)
Max's first meal of rice cereal at 4 months
Max in his high chair
Evan (after haircut) and Max in their matching pj's (Sophie has some too -but was still sleeping this morning)
Evan. One of the reasons I write this blog is for you to read when you get older. I want you to see someday why i love you so incredibly much. You are an amazing child full of love, patience, and caring. I love you with all my heart and hope that your life will be filled with moments like this where you delight in the happiness of others ! What you don’t see in this video is how many times the kitty has scratched you in the past. You worked so hard at getting this cat to trust you. YOU are amazing my son.
It is somewhat fitting that the second longest running show on Broadway is “Cats”. We have two cats that we have now had for over 10 years. My biggest fear is that we will have them longer then they “ran” on Broadway. It all started nicely enough – we saved two sisters from a litter of feral kittens at Petco. We always knew they were “needy” – and as a single couple were happy to oblige. Here’s the thing – the kids LOVE the kitties! The highlight of every day is seeing the cats scurry from one room to the other. Evan’s third word, and Sophie’s 9th word were “kitty”! Yet the cats are terrified of all people that aren’t “David” or “JP”. Evan has recently taken on a renewed interest in the cats. One of the reasons being that sometimes his “quiet” (ie nap) time is in on our bed with the cats. He has NEVER even been able to touch one (of ours – many strange cats gladly let him pet them!), but is determined to make friends. We have for a couple of weeks now been encouraging him to feed them in the morning and give them their favorite snack (fish flakes). Evan always amazes us with his patience and kindness, and today it was rewarded by one of our ungrateful cats! (Celie -for the record)
Max had his four month check up this week. He is doing great. Had a couple of shots, but in true Max fashion, only cried for about 10 seconds. He finally seemed to catch the cold that Evan and Sophie had earlier in the week, but seems to very mild one so far. Max is growing well. He is almost the exact same weight as Evan was at 4 months! 91% for weigth – 53% for lenght
