The McBlog

Moving Maggie

2012-01-21T18:16:00.001-08:00

Everything involves alliteration now since we are working on learning letters and their sounds. :)

Tonight Maggie started crawling. She isn't fully up on her knees instead she army crawls and she ends up rolling over instead of moving forward about 2/3 of the time. None the less I am counting this. Who knows by the end of the week she might be fully crawling.

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Mac is growing up

2012-01-11T19:38:00.001-08:00

So this week Mac started shaving

Okay there obviously isn't a blade in there, but he does seem to be pretty serious about the shaving. His kit came with a small mirror that is propped in the corner of the bathtub and that's what he is staring into so intently.

He really is growing up because last week we registered for pre-K for next fall. He will still be at the same school, but they seem to do a great job of making it a big deal for the kids. For awhile now he has used pre-K as a synonym for being grown up.

Yesterday I was taking him to school and before we got to his room he hugged my leg and started to take off. I said wait I'm coming with you and he laughed and told me he was just joking. He said he was pretending to be a pre-K kid.

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Catching up

2012-01-11T18:47:00.001-08:00

I know we have been terrible about updating lately. There is a ton of things we have to report but we've been so busy actually doing stuff and visiting with people. We realized that this is the first weekend in at least a month and a half that we have been at home and not had visitors. (and I'll be at work all weekend) We've loved all the time with family but it didn't leave much time for other stuff.

So here is a recap of what's happened in the last few weeks. Maggie is now working on her fifth and possibly sixth tooth. She is apparently a teeth growing champ. She is also transitioning into a new class at school. I remember when Mac moved out of the baby class- it felt a little traumatic. In some ways it seems like she shouldn't be ready for that, but in other ways she seems to be growing and developing so quickly. On that note, she has outgrown her car seat. The week after Christmas we went and got new car seats for Mac and moved Maggie into his seat. Mac outgrew the baby carrier seat at around one year of age (by weight) and now Maggie outgrew it at 7 months (by length).
The car seat change was a big one for Mac as well. He is now the right size for a booster seat with a back so that makes him a big kid now.

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Anyone up for a little B-ball?

2012-01-07T12:20:00.001-08:00

Ready for basketball season!

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it was just something in my eye

2011-12-14T17:34:00.000-08:00

Mac and I were watching a Christmas movie (Jingle Bells) on Netflix last night. He sat on the couch by himself while I gave Maggie her last bottle before bedtime.
The movie really isn't all that good but he watches anything that isn't scary.
Anyway, there was a sad part of the movie and I looked up to see a few tears roll down his cheek.
I was impressed that he is paying enough attention to understand what was happening in the movie.

I was also not surprised when he denied that he was crying. As Samantha said "he's definitely your son." I figured he just had some allergy issues or something.

Maggie's tongue

2011-12-02T04:51:00.001-08:00

Took this video at breakfast this morning. Maggie has discovered her tongue and it constantly sticking it out. Until I start videoing of course.

YouTube Video

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Happy birthday daddy!

2011-11-28T07:55:00.001-08:00

This post is extremely late due to some technical difficulties, but this is Mac taste testing Doug's birthday cake.

YouTube Video

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Maggie

2011-11-26T11:48:00.001-08:00

Maggie's teacher sent us this picture. She pulled the box of toys down and the rolled herself onto the shelf. At just under 6 months I think you call this precocious.

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Imagination and experimentation

2011-11-11T18:18:00.000-08:00

It is so much fun to watch Mac use his imagination. It has become even more fun recently.
Here's an example:

Each Sunday on the way to church, Mac will close his eyes to shut out the bright sun. (we always seem to forget his sunglasses in our rush out the door) He says if you squeeze them really tight you can see colors. Then he tell us all about the red and black and yellow and green. He even wants us to try it out because he thinks it is so cool.

It's adorable that every time he lists things now he counts them on his fingers. So he goes through the list and then tells you how many things he has listed.

One of our favorite things lately is to watch how delighted Maggie is with everything he does. She will smile and giggle when he is entertaining her, but even when he isn't trying she loves to watch him. This morning he was brushing his teeth and she was just grinning ear to ear watching him like it was wonderful. She quite obviously loves her big brother.

Halloween catch up

2011-11-07T19:01:00.001-08:00

Some pictures from our trip to the pumpkin patch and the jack-o-lantern that followed.

Never a dull moment

2011-11-07T18:49:00.000-08:00

We are loving Mac's creativity and imagination. Apparently we are going to have a sleepover here...

Brother and Sister

2011-10-30T18:33:00.001-07:00

Catching up a bit

2011-10-30T18:30:00.000-07:00

This is from a few weekends ago when we went to the Watkinsville Fall Festival. Mac enjoyed riding the ponies. We weren't sure that he would actually want to do it after we waited in line and we were afraid that he would want one of us to walk along next to him if he did. He kept asking if the horses could get out of their circle. But when it came time he got up there and rode without any fear.

Last night he informed me that while he wasn't out of hugs entirely, he was out of "squeezy" hugs. Then today he was tightening up his shoes and told us that was how he got filled back up with "squeezy" hugs.

Today at lunch we looked up just in time to see him closing down on a bite of just butter. It also happened to be the entire scoop of butter off the top of his pancake from Cracker Barrel. I don't know how but he swallowed it. Brett thought he should have washed it down with the little bottle of syrup. :)

Maggie is definitely finding her voice. She is "talking" and getting louder and more high pitched all the time. She also does what we have heard referred to as the "teridactyl scream."

180

2011-10-20T19:07:00.000-07:00

Tonight Maggie was playing on her stomach and laughing. I called Mac in so he could see her and asked if he wanted to play with her. His response was "no, I'm busy doing something important."

Contrast that with Wednesday night I asked him if I could take him to school in the morning. His response was "no, I want Mommy to take me because she didn't get to snuggle and love on me tonight."

He can be pretty sweet - when it suits him.

New tooth!

2011-10-19T18:19:00.000-07:00

Maggie's first tooth broke through last night. She has been drooling like crazy for over a month now, so we figured it was coming. Last night she was fussing and I let her chew on my finger. Instead of softly gnawing and gumming like usual she chomped down with a sharp new tooth.

Today there is another one starting to show through right next to it as well.

She is such a sweet baby though. Even with new teeth coming in she woke up smiling and happy this morning :)

To the zoo...

2011-10-08T06:41:00.001-07:00

Doug and I are taking Mac to the zoo this morning. We were discussing what animals we would see and doug mentioned pandas. Mac said no we can't see them because pandas live in Asia and eat bamboo. It just amazes us the things he says that we don't even know he knows. He is definitely learning alot at school.

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Rolling over

2011-09-23T21:41:00.000-07:00

We know that the camera work is terrible. Its really hard to move the camera around and keep it focus on her well while also trying to entertain her and get her to perform. Hopefully sometime soon we can use a little teamwork to try to get a better video.

Game day!

2011-09-23T20:07:00.001-07:00

Photos from Maggie's first visit to game day festivities. She only went to the dawg walk and then ate at the student center and went home. Mac and daddy went to the game.

-

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No fear, unlike mommy

2011-09-23T19:52:00.001-07:00

Maggie is sitting in her seat at the table now. She even seems to like having her feet dangling from such an incredible height.
We're planning to start trying to feed her food soon.

On another note, Samantha is reading through the blog from the beginning and reminiscing about all the fun of watching Mac grow up. Hopefully we can capture milestones with Maggie as well, if not better, because there are a lot of things we thought we'd never forget that, you guessed it, we've forgotten.

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Hard not to laugh

2011-09-15T19:27:00.001-07:00

Mac was in time away (time out) and I asked why he did what he did.
His reply- "because"

I gave him a look and he responded with a question in his voice, "because ma'am?"

I was feeling really frustrated with him but that certainly broke the tension :)

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Everything...And the kitchen sink

2011-08-30T06:09:00.000-07:00

First, in Maggie News, she is rolling over! She can flip both ways, we think this might be a little early since she is not quite 3 months old yet. Actually she has been doing it since last week, I'm just a little behind. (I just checked and Mac was getting close to 4 months when he rolled back the other way)

Now a funny Mac story. Mac has been helping with cooking a good bit lately. He especially loves to help make desserts. (shocking I know) Last night I got home from work and Mac came running wanting me to see what he made. While Doug was feeding Maggie, Mac was apparently "cooking" in the kitchen. He had a dish and a spice rack. He nearly emptied some of the spices (the celery salt must have poured better than the others because its almost gone).

I know that it looks like dirt. I really thought he had been outside getting sand at first. He was so proud of the "dessert" that he had made. I tried really hard to keep a straight face while talking to him about it, but I ended up crying I was laughing so hard. I wasn't sure how to tell him that we couldn't eat it for dessert without hurting his feelings. He actually tried a pinch of it and said it tasted great!

And finally...last night when going to bed Mac said "let's thank God for stuff." He started listing things: pillows, covers, crayons, bookshelves...and the kitchen sink. :)

A long time...

2011-08-23T18:31:00.000-07:00

Recently we were talking to Mac about our morning plan while getting him ready for bed.
We told him that Samantha would be taking him to school in the morning.
His response:
"No, Momma's been taking me to school for 40 days and 40 nights.!"

We figured this must be the longest time period he can come up with. Plus, it means he's actually getting something out of our Bible reading even though he can never sit still.

Roll over, roll over

2011-08-19T18:50:00.000-07:00

The exciting news: Maggie can roll over already.
The not so exciting news: we didn't see it and it apparently only happens at night.

How we put her to bed...

How we found her in the morning...

Well, actually the first time she was turned 90 degrees and much further down the bed, but at 4:00am we weren't really thinking about taking pictures.

Maybe a little weird?

2011-08-08T06:32:00.000-07:00

I tried to get Mac to pick up stuff quickly last night so that we could have time to play a game. He went to put away a set of board books and he just couldn't do it quickly. He had to do it according to the "instructions."

I tried to explain that this was just a picture of all the books, but he insisted that this was the directions for how to put the books away. We spent 10 minutes, at least, with him flipping the box back and forth checking the diagram and putting them in the right place. I finally just gave in to his way and tried not to laugh.

First day of "school"

2011-08-06T18:42:00.000-07:00

The schools around here don't start for a few more days but Monday we had our first day for Maggie.
Mac was VERY excited about taking Maggie to school for the first time.

I'm glad to report that this first week went great. We're still trying to adjust and figure out how to get everything done, but we're off to a good start. Thankfully Mac is pretty helpful when only one of us can be there to take them or pick them up from school.

Bedtime prayers

2011-08-03T18:02:00.000-07:00

Tonight Mac prayed "Thank you for Mommy and please help her work tomorrow and make lots of money so we can go out to eat sometime"

We have a few things saved up that we need to post so look for some stuff soon.

Dinner

2011-07-27T18:04:00.000-07:00

This afternoon Mac was helping me start supper. When I told him we were making a marinade he said I like that...I've had it before.

New plan

2011-07-24T17:26:00.000-07:00

So I know we haven't been fantastic about doing posts, especially lately, so I have a new plan. While we will still do regular posts when able I'm thinking of also doing some that are just short comments probably without pictures. Somewhat akin to a twitter feed, but I don't tweet and I know most of our "readers" don't either. Hopefully this will encourage us to post more frequently and also do a better job of documenting some of the hilarious things that our children do and say. (Hopefully you will also think they are funny even though I'm sure something will be lost when taken out of context)

Here are some examples of what I'm thinking...feel free to voice any comments or suggestions.

True to form, Mac didn't tell us anything about what he learned at church today. However,

during lunch he was listing his cousins and included Paul and Barnabas so that might be a clue.

Mac had a sandwich shaped like bear for lunch today. He usually prefers his

sandwiches cut dragonal, which is very similar to diagonal.

My goal is that we can share more of everyday life with our family that can't be here every day. Mac is constantly cracking us up with something, or alternately driving us crazy. We wouldn't want yall to miss any of that.

Daddy's big helper

2011-07-23T18:40:00.000-07:00

If you've ever been to our house and out on our deck, I'm sorry.
I knew it wasn't in the best condition, but I had no idea how bad it was.

Back in April I bought some Trex decking that was on a huge sale at work.
I just got around to removing the old deck. There's still a little more to do before I can install the new stuff, but we're making progress (finally).

This was one of the times I'm glad I have a truck and glad Mac has one.
I cut pieces small enough to fit his truck and it cut down on how much I had to carry around to my truck.
It also went faster because we took the "governor" off the truck and it is a lot faster now.

All loaded up.

The kid has an arm.

Staying hydrated...with Daddy's water.

All done

Mac even rode with me to the landfill and helped unload all of the lumber.

As requested

2011-07-19T10:28:00.000-07:00

Maggie is smiling!!! And Mac wanted his picture taken too

2 Weeks Old

2011-06-16T11:36:00.001-07:00

Maggie is officially 2 weeks old!

Mac got in the car leaving school yesterday and announced that he did not have to go to time away all day. That was quite an announcement considering we thought he didn't go most days. I still haven't gotten a clear answer from him to see if he has to go to time away every day or not. :)

Greatgrandmothers

2011-06-14T11:06:00.001-07:00

Grandma Great (GG)

Mema

Now just one more great grandmother and a great granddaddy with whom we need pictures.

News for the day: Maggie's cord fell off so she now has a bellybutton.

Mac has been playing a matching game on my ipod. A few days ago he got a high score all by himself.

First Bath

2011-06-08T19:02:00.000-07:00

Maggie had her first bath today. She didn't mind terribly, but I wouldn't say she enjoyed it either.

Home with Baby

2011-06-03T16:14:00.000-07:00

Today we brought Maggie home from the hospital. She is doing well and Mac is excited that we are home. We are beginning to see the difficulties of balancing a new baby and a three-year-old. Mac loves Maggie, but he certainly needs his own time and attention. I think that will get easier as we get into a more regular routine.

She's here!

2011-06-01T18:01:00.000-07:00

Doug is getting dinner with Mac and our families and so Maggie and I are alone for the first time. I sit here just looking at her and feeling amazed.
I am overwhelmed with love for her. Even though she spit up the minute they walked out the door, and refused to eat because she wouldn't wake up except to spit up more, and she dirtied her diaper the second I finished fastening on a new one.
It's no wonder that I love Mac so much. He is an amazing kid and so smart and loving. He makes me laugh and gives me hugs and kisses all the time.
It's more of a mystery as to why I love this tiny bundle in my lap. And yet I already love her fiercely and I want to do everything to take care of her. It's just such an amazing feeling. I guess thats why God calls us his children. We can do nothing for him and yet he loves us unconditionally.
What a wonderful day! Our family is truly blessed.

Awesome big brother

2011-05-19T17:00:00.000-07:00

I'm sure it won't always be great and easy, but something tells me that Mac is going to be an awesome big brother.

For those who aren't fluent in toddler-ese, here is a rough transcript.
Doug: Are you going to have a baby sister?
Mac: Yeah.

Doug: When is your baby sister coming?
Mac: On June 4th.

Doug: What is your baby sister's name going to be?
Mac: Maggie...MAGGIE!

Doug: Oh, Maggie. And how do you spell Maggie?
Mac: M-A-G-I-E. (*Note: he usually spells it correctly. I think he was too excited about being taped.)

Doug: Alright, and are you going to be nice to Maggie or are you going to be mean to Maggie?
Mac: Nice to Maggie.

Doug: Are you going to take care of her?
Mac: *nods*
Doug: What are you going to do if somebody tries to scare her?
Mac: I'm gonna say, it's nothing to be scared of.

Doug: Do you already love Maggie?
Mac: Yeah.
Doug: Are you going to love her a lot when she gets here?
Mac: Yeah.

Samantha: What are you going to do to help Maggie sleep?
Mac: I'm going to sleep in the day bed (in Maggie's room) so her don't get scared.
Samantha: Oh you are? What about that...
Mac: If somebody sleeping in my bed, I'm going to sleep in the day bed and make sure Maggie OK.

Growing up

2011-05-18T18:12:00.000-07:00

So I started realizing what a big kid Mac is a few weeks ago. One of the first things was that we had to buy new tennis shoes. These shoes don't look like little kid shoes at all. I don't know how well it comes across in the picture, but they could be adult running shoes. I felt a little teary-eyed sitting on the floor in the shoe store.

The next thing I noticed was as we were changing his clothes the other day. He is getting to be a skinny kid. He has gotten so tall suddenly without gaining much weight. It makes him no longer look like a toddler. Of course it helps not to have the added bulk of a diaper.

He also seems to add words to his vocabulary daily. Like today he asked if I could toss something to him. And he asked a question last night about the Israelites.

And the thing that most makes me realize he is growing up is the thoughtful questions he asks. Oh we still get plenty of why's and repeated questions, but he also asks if Orange juice will make his teetee yellow. And if sugar in Tea is what makes him teetee more.

Dream closet

2011-04-27T10:16:00.001-07:00

I'm finally creating the closet I've always wanted. It's for my little girl:)

One well-dressed baby

2011-04-06T08:27:00.000-07:00

More shoes for Maggie! These are actually little socks with pink poofs at the toes. If they weren't cute enough already, their name is Tiny Dancer.

Also I forgot to mention in yesterday's post that everytime I tried to talk up the upcoming doctor's visit Mac would remind me that he needed a checkup with the dentist. I think that is due to the combined efforts of his school (who had a dentist week and a hygienist came in to talk to their class) and his Aunt Jessica (who is going to be a dentist soon).
Mac and Jessica will both be pleased to know that he has an appointment scheduled in 2 weeks for his first checkup with a pediatric dentist!

Growing up

2011-04-05T08:54:00.000-07:00

This morning was Mac's 3 year checkup. He is doing great and seems right on track developmentally. He had to get a finger prick and a shot as well. He was very brave through the finger prick and even watched and didn't fuss as the nurse squeezed his finger and filled up the collection tube.
When she did the shot he did cry, but she said it was a bad injection that burns so that was expected. He did great and dried up the tears quickly, of course, only after informing me several times that he did not like it.

When the doctor was in the room, Mac kept asking where Dr somebody was. I couldn't figure out who he was talking about until after we had left the office. He was asking where Dr. Seuss was :)

Lastly, I have a story that sums up the attitude around our house lately. Before we left this morning, I told him to grab a jacket because it might be chilly and he said "ok let me check the weather." He went to the back door, opened it, and leaned out. He agreed that it was cold so then he was okay to go get his jacket. He is growing up really fast and seems to think he knows everything.

Working

2011-04-01T06:41:00.001-07:00

Sorry the picture isn't great, but this is the sight that greeted me when I arrived home from work the other day.

"Look Mommy I look like I'm going to work"

Also an important note: Mac has learned the pledge of allegiance. I will get video of that up as soon as possible.

Nursery Progress

2011-03-29T17:57:00.001-07:00

We still have a bit more painting to do and then the trim (crown molding, picture molding and chair rail) will go up this weekend. So excited that it's coming together! I can't wait to get the furniture moved in so I can start putting away the things we have and figuring out what we still need.

Better a late party than never

2011-03-24T17:55:00.000-07:00

Thanks for all the family who came and celebrated with us.

What a busy weekend

2011-02-27T18:20:00.000-08:00

We actually got alot accomplished this weekend. We put together a new cabinet Friday night that will help clear all our office stuff out of the nursery. That is a huge step toward getting things ready for the new baby.

On Saturday we got a load of pinestraw and over 2 days we did most of the beds in our yard. Its amazing what a difference a little pinestraw can make. We also had visitors! Uncle Jeff and Jonah came to see Brett and go to a UGA basketball game. Doug joined them for the game Saturday night and then they went to church with us this morning as well.

This evening we did something really exciting though. We took the bed out of Mac's room and put in his new big bed. It's the queen size bed from our guest room and then the guest room will get the crib and be the new nursery. He has been really excited about getting a big bed. The first night that we mentioned it he was ready to move it into his room right then. He helped pick out new bedding with cool cars and trucks on it and a stool that he can use to help climb up.

He was very excited until it was time to go to bed and then he got a little nervous. He loved that mommy and daddy could get on the bed with him to read his nightly Bible story and say his prayers. Once we started to leave him he protested a bit. He did relax enough to lay down and hopefully he is asleep now. He has been quiet for awhile, but I'm not ready to risk going in there yet. -------Scratch that, Doug just checked and he is asleep. Hopefully that means in the morning we will have returned to the excited about the new bed stage.

And now a picture...

How fun is a baby girl?

2011-02-23T17:57:00.000-08:00

We received a surprise gift in the mail yesterday. And what a surprise it was!!

I think this is a product of having an aunt who has a shoe obsession and no little girls. Thanks Aunt Carolyn!

Birthday Party

2011-02-20T18:08:00.000-08:00

Mac's good friend Jones recently had an awesome birthday party - at the zoo!
Mac's party last year was at the zoo, but that was basically just a picnic where we walked through the zoo.

Jones' party was in the zoo and included several animals brought out for display and touching.
The whole presentation was about how larger animals eat the smaller ones. The guide used an example that if he were a dinosaur that ate birthday party children, they would all be cupcakes.
Was Mac afraid of being eaten? No, his response was simply "I want a cupcake!"

Even if he did miss the point a little, it was cool to see these animals and get a guided tour of the zoo. We certainly learned a lot and had fun.

Meat Week

2011-02-20T17:40:00.000-08:00

I recently learned of a holiday that we should all celebrate - Meat Week.
You can learn more about it here.

Basically, it is a week long celebration of meat, primarily barbecue.
The group meets at various restaurants each day of the week to enjoy some good food and friendship.

I felt it was my duty as a dad to take Mac to at least one of the events. It just so happened that we have friends who recently opened a BBQ place nearby in Statham and they would be hosting Meat Week on Friday night.
So, we braved the rain and headed out to Big Al's Pit BBQ.

Mac loved it! He also took great joy in telling Big Al "Happy Meat Week!"
He and Samantha had sandwiches while I opted for the rib plate.
I thought it would make a good picture if I got Mac to pose with one of the ribs off my plate.
It would have been a much better picture if we brought a real camera instead of just my phone.
The really bad/funny thing is that I gave him a rib with about half the meat still on it. I thought he might taste it and not have a lot of interest.
How wrong I was! When the rib got back to me, it was clean! Mac had gotten every last bit of meat off the bone and then continued to eat his. We've already been back with some family and will make several more trips to enjoy good BBQ.

A scary moment

2011-02-08T18:58:00.000-08:00

Sunday night about midnight Mac woke up. He does that occasionally. He will wake up for whatever reason and come and get one of us. We go back to his room, tuck him back into bed, and that's that. Sunday night he must have had a bad dream because he was pretty upset. He was crying hard and shivering uncontrollably. Doug got to him first and was taking him back to bed. After a few minutes Doug came to get me. He said Mac was breathing strangely and he wanted me to listen to him.
Mac was making a strange wheezing noise like he couldn't catch his breath. My first thought was that he had gotten something stuck in his throat. He could talk okay and told us that he had not put any toys in his mouth. He kept trying to cough, but he couldn't cough normally. He just made this strange barking noise. Doug and I were getting worried and just decided to take him to the ER.
We bundled him up and jumped in the car. We were both praying the whole time. Its scary not knowing what is wrong with your child or how to help him. By the time we got halfway to the hospital he had warmed up and stopped shivering. His breathing had calmed and he had started talking and telling us stories.
We got to the hospital and they were great (they also weren't really busy at the time). They got us back quickly and we saw a doctor in only a few minutes. It turns out Mac has croup. It wasn't our imagination that he got better on the way there. Apparently an attack of croup can improve when you go out into the cold air.

Yesterday Mac and I hung out at home just to make sure he was okay. We made a trip to Walmart to pick up his medicine and ran into a friend of ours there. I was telling her about our ER visit and she said that the same thing happened to them. It made me feel a little less like we had overreacted. Of course in the moment there was no question. Mac couldn't breathe so we had to do something. I guess that is what parenting is all about, figuring it out as you go.

Growing up

2011-01-29T18:27:00.000-08:00

Mac is growing up. I know this is ground breaking, stop the presses type of information, but today was one of those days that made me very aware of this fact.

The day started with an imaginary story time where Mac brought in a chair and most of his books. He then said "Good morning friends (that's what they call each other at school), who brought a book today? Raise your hands. Then he picked up a book and said, "I think ____ brought this one." He would read it, turning it so his friends could see and then repeat the whole thing.

It's fun to watch his imagination at work.

Then, we went to a 3 year old's birthday party for a girl from his class at school. This meant getting to spend a good bit of time with the parents I typically just see in passing at the end of the day. It also meant getting to see how the kids interact in person, not just the hard to understand stories we sometimes get at home.

The party was at Pump It Up, a warehouse full of inflatable bounce houses, slides, obstacle courses, etc. Mac was slow to get comfortable, but when he did, he went 100 miles an hour. He did insist that I do most of the things with him and only had to mildly twist my arm. We especially liked the obstacle course that ended with a slide.

Another part of growing up is starting to contribute, so I decided it's time for Mac to start pulling some of his own weight around the house. To accomplish this today, I got him to help me wash my car. He liked it so much he wanted to wash his truck too.

Overall, I felt pretty good about today. As I was telling Samantha about it all, I realized that Mac didn't watch any TV today, not even part of a movie. This may seem like nothing, but TV is so easy, especially on the days Samantha has to work, so I was pretty excited about that fact.

Playtime

2011-01-22T15:33:00.001-08:00

Perhaps this indicates too much unsupervised playtime. Or maybe this is just how to have fun.:)

What's in a name?

2011-01-21T17:56:00.000-08:00

We need a little help.

It was very exciting to learn that Samantha is pregnant and we recently added to that excitement when we found out that this baby will be a girl. So of course, now we ~~have to~~ get to pick out a name. We have several in mind, but one of the favorites presents an issue.

If baby #2 gets a name that starts with M, would any potential future children then also have to have names starting with M?
Yes, we realize that one, this isn't a huge deal and two, Mac's actual first name is John, but what do you think?

Thankfulness

2011-01-20T17:44:00.000-08:00

Mac is deeply into the "why?" stage, something we are possibly enduring more than enjoying. Don't get me wrong I love that he asks questions and wants to know about things, but after you have answered the same question for the 5th or 20th time it gets a little old.

Something else he is into that is more enjoyable is his thankfulness. I think it started at Christmas with him telling everyone thank you for his gifts. He still forgets to say thank you sometimes when he asks for his cup or little things like that. Its completely adorable though when he thanks you for something random.

This morning he told me thank you for getting more yogurt at the grocery store. He will also tell me thank you for picking out his jersey for him to wear to school or any number of things that happen during the day. Our favorite was in the car the other day when Mac told Doug that he appreciated Doug packing his toy. It took us a moment to comprehend what he was saying. Mostly we just didn't expect him to use such a big word. But he did it correctly and pretty clearly too.

So I guess we are thankful for his thankfulness.

Divine intervention

2011-01-17T18:04:00.000-08:00

Last summer Mac decided he would announce to anyone who would listen that he was going to have a baby sister. We had no idea where this came from, especially since most of his friends have no baby siblings and those that did primarily had brothers. But, despite being told that this was not the case, Mac was insistent.

Then, Samantha got pregnant and we told Mac. All of the sudden, when asked if he was going to have a baby brother or baby sister, he would answer, "just a baby." We often tried to explain that the baby was going to be a boy or a girl. He only grew more insistent that it was "just a baby."

We had an appointment scheduled for this past week to have an ultrasound done and find out if the baby would be a boy or a girl.

We braved the snow and ice in Athens to get to Samantha's doctor so we could find out if this baby would be a boy or girl. Thankfully, the ultrasound technician was brave enough to drive in the conditions as well. Even as we took Mac into the doctor's office to watch the ultrasound, he continued to say that it was just a baby.

Now we know ...We are having a GIRL!!

Mac has immediately adapted to saying that he is having a baby sister and even saying "her" when referring to things he will do for his baby. (like take her to feed the ducks and make sure she has gloves on)

We were very excited about a baby and had nearly convinced ourselves that we were just as happy with either a boy or a girl, but we sure are excited about this baby girl.
This post is entitled divine intervention because we feel certain that God had a hand in Mac's behavior during this time. I think if he had continued saying he was going to have a baby sister for the last 20 weeks we would have all had our hopes up. The reality is that we had hoped for a girl anyway (yes, even Doug), but Mac's neutrality on the subject helped us to have a good attitude and remember that either way a baby is an amazing gift from God.

Snow, continued

2011-01-11T18:20:00.000-08:00

The snow was quickly covered with a solid layer of ice, so our snow day turned into two days. Thankfully this was Samantha's week to have several days off and I didn't have to go in since the office was still closed.

Mac and I decided to get the wagon out and just take a walk through the ice and snow. We saw the ducks at the neighborhood "lake" and decided we should come back to feed them. On the way back home we saw kids sledding on the fairway of hole number 5 and couldn't resist. We did sled a few times and watched as the kids played together. The mom of one girl took a few pictures of us sledding, so hopefully we will have pictures soon.

Later in the day we went back out to feed the ducks and ended up building a snowman. The snow wasn't originally good packing snow, but as it got better as it melted. Mac couldn't decide if he wanted to push the snowman into the water, put him on the side of the road, or take him in his wagon. He also couldn't decide if he wanted the snowman to be big or little, or if there should be one or a lot of snowmen. The good thing is, he is typically happy with how things turn out.

School is still closed tomorrow. Hopefully we can find more things to do. We're starting to run out of things that don't involve getting in the car.

Snow! Again!

2011-01-11T18:17:00.000-08:00

In case you haven't heard, a small snow storm recently came through the southeast, depositing 6-8" of snow here around Athens. It started Sunday night and Monday morning we had snow everywhere.

It was beautiful except for the fact that Samantha was still supposed to be at work. Doug's boss already told him to stay home and check in during the day. We all loaded into the car to try our luck on the road. We made it maybe 10 miles and it took us close to 30 minutes. So, we threw in the towel, turned around, and went home. Its been great having time for the three of us to spend together. We did take Mac out to play in the snow before the freezing rain/sleet started.

Doug tried to teach Mac how to make snow angels and showed him how much fun it can be to practice sliding in the snow. We even tried to show Mac how to make snowballs, but the snow wasn't wet enough to pack.

And...

2010-12-18T19:02:00.000-08:00

This was taken recently at Mac's daycare so we don't know exactly how this encounter with Santa went, but here is our guess.

Hey Santa,
I want buzz and woody and basketball and football and baseball and soccer ball and umm games and...

For some added realism, try stuttering and repeating every other word at least twice. That's how Mac talks when he gets excited, and he is EXCITED about Christmas. (This is the kid who had to read the Toys R Us Christmas catalog (his book) at every meal for at least 2 weeks.)
This past Friday, one of the Dads at daycare came in with a Santa hat and beard on and Mac just stopped and stared with his mouth hanging open. He couldn't believe that Santa was here already. After Santa left the building, Mac told everyone in the room that Santa was there to bring him his buzz and woody.

I'm so glad that he his "getting it" this year. That he knows what is going on and gets almost as excited about picking out gifts for others as he does telling us what he wants. But sometimes I worry that he's missing the real meaning of Christmas - the birth of Christ. I try to make sure he knows that story and that we think about others this time of year.
I worry, but i really shouldn't. Mac will randomly start telling us about baby Jesus. He will tell us that the angel at the manger says "Glory to God!" Since we have started talking about and focusing on Christmas, his rocking horse has become his donkey.
As much as I'm happy that he's "getting it" with Santa and the gifts, I'm even more excited that he is "getting it" with Jesus and the story of his birth.

Jingle Bells!

2010-12-10T18:27:00.000-08:00

By the way the ornament features Cindy Lu Who from How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

Decorating

2010-12-07T05:47:00.000-08:00

We've had our trees up for a week or so, but its taken me a little longer to get the pictures on the blog. Here is Mac with his little tree in his room.

He decorated it himself, mostly.

We had to help a little because the ornaments were all congregating in one location. Like on Hairy Dog...

And the angel on top

But otherwise he did an excellent job and he hasn't once taken the balls off and thrown them. (We had a talk about that as we were decorating) The house looks pretty festive and smells like Christmas too.
Now we just have to finish up the last of the present hunting and wrapping. The wrapping is a little slow with Mac's help. Mostly because I only have the patience to do a few at a time. He gets a little ahead of me with the scissors and tape so I have to keep reigning him in the whole time. But I still can't resist such a sweet little helper.

Nighttime drama

2010-11-30T18:33:00.000-08:00

Sorry its been quite a while since we managed a post. Its been a whirlwind lately.
We had a great Thanksgiving, Mac loved getting to play with cousins. I'm not sure he really even ate anything he was so busy running around. We can't wait for Christmas so we can see even more family.

Last night Mac woke up at 4 am and came to our room. He was scared because he said there were sharks in his room. He loves to play sharks and pretend they are in his room and we get them out. Usually its a fun game, but last night he seemed really scared. He was shaking and didn't want to go back to bed. We turned on the lights and checked everything and got him calmed down. He went back to bed and said that I could go back to bed as well. That only lasted a few minutes and then he was back in our room. I probably made a mistake by letting him get in our bed then. My thought was that I was really tired and wanted to go back to sleep. Ha. That was a terrible reason because I hardly slept at all after that. I don't know how anyone so little can take up so much room.
Here's hoping that we won't repeat that experience again tonight.

Happy Halloween

2010-10-31T18:57:00.000-07:00

Trick or Treat!
We visited a few houses in our neighborhood tonight and also gave out a little candy of our own. It was a nice amount of halloween. We don't have a ton of candy that we have to eat and he didn't get completely worn out walking around.
Here is a few pictures from the highlight reel.

"Trick or Treat!"

Being a fireman is serious business.

Check out the Loot!

The real surprise of the day happened while we were getting ready for church this morning. After breakfast Doug went to get in the shower and Mac asked if he could play for a few minutes before bathtime so I went to dry my hair. Five to ten minutes later I noticed that things were a little too quiet. I went to check on Mac and found him putting diapers from a new box into his diaper drawer. A very constructive project he was working on, just that he was bottomless. I asked what he was doing and he said he had pooped in the potty. Apparently he decided that he needed to go and so he went. He even took off his pull-up and put it in the trash and when he went to get a clean one he decided to restock the drawer for me. Luckily I got to him before he reached the point of dumping his potty into the toilet which might have been disastrous. I told him that I was very proud of him, but next time to tell me so I could help him. Thats what mom's are for right?

Full Circle

2010-10-26T06:36:00.000-07:00

Well the blog has officially come full circle. We started with our very first post as a picture from an ultrasound and now here is another one. This is the first pictures of baby 2 so you can't tell very much yet. So far all we know is that things look good and they have re-estimated our due date for June 4th. I may not feel this way by the time June gets here, but I'm actually hoping for June 6. Mac is 3/3 and my birthday is 4/4 so I think that would be a nice way to make an addition to the family.

Pumpkins!

2010-10-19T11:23:00.000-07:00

This is a little late, but the weekend before last we went to Washington Farms. Its a local farm that has a corn maze and tons of other kids activities. We had a great time playing all afternoon and even managed to take a few pictures. I was surprised as I uploaded these pictures to see how tall Mac looks all of a sudden.

A Curious George moment

2010-10-14T18:55:00.001-07:00

Tonight Mac was playing and somehow managed to get his foot stuck in his chair. Luckily this exact same thing happened in an episode of Curious George we saw recently so we were well prepared. And also luckily we did not have to call the fire department like they did in George's case. Though Mac probably would have enjoyed that.

The Knack

2010-10-11T17:51:00.000-07:00

Mac is a funny kid. I guess most 2 year olds are, but we pretty much only know him.

Sunday after church we sat down to eat lunch at a restaurant. After getting our drinks he insisted that he needed the salt. After grabbing it, he dumped some onto his napkin and then placed his drink onto it. He was pretty pleased with himself, but went on like it was nothing.

After laughing we asked him where he learned to do that.

He said "Huh, Papa." "Huh" is the first thing out of his mouth anytime he is asked a question. Quite annoying, but I am sure typical for his age.

I thought this was funny enough to let Papa know. He modestly replied "He may have figured out on his own how the salt breaks the adhesion properties of the wet paper. After all, he is my grandson."

If that is the case, then perhaps its one of the early symptoms of The Knack.

Of course shortly after this he exhibited symptoms of not having The Knack by shamelessly flirting with two ladies at a nearby table. Perhaps he is a rare breed - a ladies man with The Knack.

BIG news

2010-10-05T06:54:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we went down to Americus to visit family and have a late celebration for Grandpa Tom's birthday.
Sunday we decided to meet up with the Cook/Chadwick/Ragsdale crowd at Ryan's and there we found even more celebrations. Uncle Mike proposed to his girlfriend (she said YES!) and Chet announced that he is going into the ministry. We are unbelievably excited for both of them, but the celebrations did not end there...

A translation for those of you who don't speak 2-year old: Mac is going to be a big brother! (yay Mommy...)
Samantha is due at the end of May, just after Doug's cousin.
We are super excited and glad that Mac is excited, even if he doesn't fully understand.

All in all, it was a great weekend and we are amazed at all the ways God is blessing us, even when we don't deserve it. He truly is an amazing God.

Morning with the McFarlands

2010-10-02T06:14:00.001-07:00

Good morning everyone. We are visiting Nana and Grandpa Tom. That means our morning started with homemade French toast and now Mac is helping wash dishes. It makes me nervous so I'm distracting myself by blogging.

Teaching points

2010-09-20T16:48:00.000-07:00

Being a parent is full of fun and excitement. Its also full of opportunities for teaching a child about things that are truly important, like family, faith, and giving to others. On October 30th we will have a chance to share some of these things with Mac, even if he isn't quite old enough to understand fully yet.

That day we are planning a trip to Columbus, GA to participate in the Alzheimer's Association Memory Walk. This event is the largest fundraiser for the Alzheimer's Association - the world leader in research and support for this disease.

The real importance of this trip has to do with why we are walking and who we are walking with.

We are walking in memory of my grandfather (Pop Pop), Charles Robert McFarland.

He suffered from Alzheimer's for several years before passing away just after Thanksgiving in 2003.

We will be walking with my grandma who took care of Pop Pop as he struggled with Alzheimer's.

We'll also be joined by many of her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.

There are plenty more family members who will not be able to join us, but I am excited about having a mini-reunion and honoring Pop Pop at the same time.

Since this is a fund raising event, we are obviously trying to get donations. This is the part that I don't like. Thankfully I can just put this link out there and give people the chance to donate without putting pressure on anyone.

Click here if you would like to donate.

Thanks.

Good night

2010-09-13T18:11:00.000-07:00

We had a great night tonight. I think Mac was making up for how ill he was on Saturday and Sunday. He was really sweet tonight, didn't pitch a fit about dinner or washing hands or anything really. He ate dinner better than he has in quite awhile and was very entertaining eating his beans (pinto beans -we finally had to cut him off because he kept asking for more.)

He had a rather creative night as well. He added a little extra ornamentation to his police car. So funny looking that we had to take a picture. Of course then he wanted to cheese and get a few extra pictures too.

For your viewing pleasure...

Weekend of sports

2010-08-29T18:22:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a weekend!

This weekend we took Mac to the UGA vs Utah soccer game on Friday night. UGA looked really good from what little I was able to watch between chasing down Mac and his friend Brooks and being used as a jungle gym. The Dawgs won 3-0 and we were sitting almost next to UGA's starting QB Aaron Murray, so that was cool.

Saturday morning I went for a 5 mile run, continuing my half marathon training. I still have a long way to go before feeling confident enough to try the race. While I was running, Mac and Samantha went for a walk around UGA's intramural fields. Apparently it was very exciting, getting to see dogs and giant caterpillars.

Saturday night we took Mac to his first Braves game. It was a great night except for the North Avenue Trade School nerds sitting behind us who thought they were at a Georgia Tech event. Thankfully Brett and I were able to restrain ourselves and not visit the Atlanta City Police Department.

We were seated one section over but on the same level as the fireworks they shoot after each strike out. Mac loved the "fire."

We had great weather and saw a great game - the Braves won 12-3. Tim Hudson surpassed 1,500 career strike-outs AND had a career high 13 strikeouts. Brett's favorite player Matt Diaz even got a home run.

Before we left we took Mac over to a kids play area. They have a baseline set up to run and he had a great time doing that. As we were getting ready to leave Prado hit a homerun and we were standing right under the Coke bottle that shoots fire works. It was perfect timing.

Check out the pictures to see the awesome seats we had, then check out the highlight video that SportsCenter somehow forgot to include. Unfortunately we forgot the camera so these came from a cell phone with a setting changed from playing with it earlier.

ABC...jump!

2010-08-29T13:39:00.000-07:00

Mac loves to perform - sometimes.

Mac loves to rough-house, jump off of things, etc. - sometimes.

The other night he was more than happy to do both of these. Of course, it didn't hurt that it was bedtime, so he welcomed any opportunity to delay the inevitable.

Which is how this happened

Splash

2010-08-06T18:03:00.001-07:00

Tonight while gathered at Grandma Dalton's house, Mac has enjoyed playing with all his cousins. He's seeming very grown up going up and down the long staircase without any help.

Apparently cousin Walker (who is 3) went to use the bathroom all by himself. Mac seemed to think that was a good idea. Suddenly we hear him crying from upstairs and Lolly and I went running to check on him. He was the only kid up there and he was in the toilet. He had gotten his shorts and pullup pulled down and climbed onto the toilet. Of course he had put the seat up since Walker did. When we got there his legs were dangling out of the toilet and he was crying. He was really upset. I think it scared him and he was worried because his shirt was soaking wet.

The bad part is that I was having trouble not laughing as we fished him out. He was so distraught, but it didn't last long. Once he got dried off and had fresh clothes he was off and running once again.

Just catching up

2010-07-29T05:43:00.000-07:00

So its been forever since we had a post and I just wanted to update you on a few recent things.
Life is in a pretty normal pattern with us, that is to say constantly up and down. I guess its normal behavior for a two-year-old to be a fun perfect kid one moment and a whinny crier the next. It's hard to tell what might set him off.

But when he's good he's very very good. Last night we had grilled salmon, rice, and spinach salad for dinner. He cleaned his plate. I showed him how to put a blueberry on a spinach leaf and eat them together. He didn't complain once. In fact he said it was good. After he finished dinner we had the rest of the cupcakes left over from our anniversary. (i came home from work Monday to find Mac and Doug with flowers and cupcakes, what more can a girl ask for?) In the middle of eating his cupcake he found a leftover piece of spinach and went ahead and ate that too.
The dessert was a little messy and Doug asked him what we do after eating cupcakes. He said "take a bath"
My favorite part of the evening though was after bathtime. Doug asked him if he was a girl or a boy. With a sly grin he said girl. Mac thought it was hilarious that it was irritating Doug so he just kept saying he was a girl. We finally got him to admit he was a boy because Doug wouldn't let him watch Buzz and Woody until he said it right. If he already has Doug's number like that heaven help us when he gets to be a teenager.

Happy Birthday America

2010-07-05T18:09:00.000-07:00

We had a great time celebrating July 4th - a visit from Jessica and Eric, first Peachtree Road Race, grilling out, and fireworks. Mac may not completely understand the meaning of July 4th but he sure got into the spirit when it came time to eat! He especially loved the corn on the cob.

You should see the other guy...

2010-07-01T06:33:00.001-07:00

Mac had a little incident at school yesterday. He and a friend were playing trucks and he somehow ended up with carpet burn on his face. Little boys...who knows? He got ice though so he was totally cool with it. Besides he loves having a boo boo to talk about.

Silly bands

2010-06-23T19:09:00.001-07:00

Mac has discovered silly bands much to our chagrin. Some of his teachers have them so he had seen them. Then last night he found the silly bands attached to his cookie favor from Taylor's party. (Doug was trying to open the bag with the cookie and Mac asked if he needed scissors)

I usually don't let him take toys into school, but he wanted to show them to his teachers. I had bad luck with a Barbie skirt that went to school with me and never came back.(don't ask)

I should have taken the hint though when we pulled up to school and he said "I not put silly bands in my cubby" hopefully he listened to the teachers when they told him too.

ABC's

2010-06-22T05:15:00.000-07:00

Mac was singing his ABC's this morning. I tried to get some video but he was wandering around too much. Maybe later. He was also helping me take out the cereal boxes for recycling. Its adorable how he says "recycling" though it is a little hard to understand.

He is just talking up a storm lately. We never know what is gonna pop out of his mouth.

We also found out that he does know his colors perfectly. For a while now when you ask him what color something is he will just guess randomly (usually purple). It turns out that at school he will volunteer the correct color without being asked. For example, he has told his teacher, "Thats a yellow circle and thats a yellow circle. Thats the big one and thats the little one." He only pretends not to know things when he is being quizzed. We thought that was the case because of the little grin he gets when he answers, but its nice to know for sure that he is just messing with us.

Growing up

2010-06-07T17:53:00.001-07:00

Last night Mac went number 1 in his potty right before bedtime. We recognized the "concentration" face and quickly stopped trying to get him in the bed and put him on the potty.

Tonight was even better. This time he asked to go potty before bed. After waiting a while (guess we should get used to that) he stood up, moved the "seat" away and went standing up. I know we have a long way to go, but it is exciting to see progress.

Big Boy Bed

2010-06-06T14:35:00.000-07:00

We had a productive afternoon converting Mac's crib to a toddler daybed. He is really excited about it. He would hardly even let us put the mattress back on before he was trying to climb up. As you can see he was immediately ready to go "night-night" or at least pretend. We shall see if it actually lasts and he wants to sleep in there by tonight.

We are expecting a rough night, but it won't be any different than the past week. He is having nightmares or something that wakes him up every night screaming. He doesn't want to go back to bed unless someone stays with him, that has made for many nights on the floor or the chair in his room. I have a hope (but not expectation) that this might help snap him out of whatever is going on. At least this might be a good time for change since things haven't been going well anyway or maybe a terrible time (we shall see tonight).

One of our biggest concerns is that he won't stay in bed, but he isn't staying there anyway lately so that is nothing new. For a while now he has been jumping out of his bed and no punishment or reward seems to be enough to keep him there.

Warrior dash

2010-05-22T17:52:00.001-07:00

Today we went to the warrior dash. Its a race/obstacle course (think jumping fire and crawling through mud) mac made alot of friends as always especially when wearing Doug's warrior helmet (as pictured).

Doug took several pounds of dirt away from Mountain City but most of it has gone down the drain. One of our favorite parts was checking out all the crazy costumes. We look forward to seeing the pictures taken by everyone else becuase this is about all we got. Luckily we met friends there with better camera skills than ours.

The only downside is that Mac was too cranky and Doug was too dirty for stopping at the Dillard house, but we are making up for it with Mirko pasta.

I ride racecar!

2010-05-14T13:28:00.001-07:00

Last night we enjoyed a chance for family outing to the softball fields for a game. Mac loves softball night especially when he gets to ride in the mustang. He calls it the racecar and all he talks about is how he's riding in the racecar. And last night was made even morefun since we won. Mac and I actually watched more of the game than I've seen since before he was born. So it was a win on several points.

New Bedtime Routine

2010-05-05T17:33:00.000-07:00

No matter how well a bedtime routine works, it never seems to stick.
We always adapt and go with what works. Sometimes its sweet, sometimes its a battle, and sometimes it is just cute.

The new one definitely falls under the cute category. Samantha received a Little Mermaid birthday card and Mac has decided that it is his. And that he has to look at it every night.
He did this a few nights before we remembered to get a video camera out. In the past he would always get shy whenever we tried to record him doing something cute or funny. Not this time. This time he decided to ham it up and put on an even better show.

It might take a while to load, but we think it is worth your time.

The best part is that when the camera was turned off, he tried to instruct Doug to get the camera back out for his last performance.
Not too many dull moments around here.

Can we get our child back please?

2010-04-21T19:28:00.001-07:00

How do you get a two-year-old to stop being a two-year-old? (in my head this is to the tune of 'What do you do with a general' from White Christmas)

I don't know if its from being spoiled like crazy over our vacation, or if he's getting sick, or maybe the transition to his new class at school is a little tough for him. It may just be a little from column A and a little from column B (and C). Mac has had a rough couple of days. He is crying more and pitching fits even at school which is not his norm. Slowly, slowly we are bringing him around and today was a better day at school. However it still involved a good bit of crying.

Sadly it seems that it takes a very short time to spoil a kid into rottenness and a long time to get him back to his normal, happy, even-tempered self.

In the mean time, anyone want to babysit?

Disney 2010

2010-04-14T12:30:00.000-07:00

So its taken me a few days to get this post up, but we had a mountain of laundry and no food so those were the first priorities.

We had an amazing time at Disney World, but it was exhausting. Mac loved getting to meet the Disney characters. He actually ran up to Minnie Mouse and gave her a hug. He was a little scared of the others though. He enjoyed some of the rides, but I don't know that he fully understood what was going on. The race cars at the magic kingdom were his favorite, we just had a hard time getting him out of the car afterward.

While there Mac wanted little to nothing to do with Doug and I. Since coming home he wants to hold my hand walking through the house. Go figure. We are starting to get back into our regular routine, but it will take some time.

Anyway,here are the pictures. Sorry I know there is way more than most people want to see but I narrowed it down as much as I could.

Disney 2010

Happy Easter!

2010-04-04T15:11:00.000-07:00

I haven't had a chance to look at and edit the other photos, but I'll try to post them as soon as I can. For now I hope everyone is having a happy Easter like we are.

Whose child is this?

2010-03-17T15:28:00.001-07:00

When Mac and I got home, I told him to come with me so I could change. I went in our room but he didn't follow.

I finally found him in his room, taking the new bag of socks and putting them into his sock drawer. Not only that, but I was throwing something away later and found that after he put away his new socks, he put the bag into the kitchen trash!

Keep in mind that nobody told him the socks where his, much less that they needed to be put away. I'm pretty sure that's his mom and not me.

Who's child is this?

2010-03-17T15:26:00.001-07:00

Maybe we have had too much birthday lately?

2010-03-10T06:53:00.000-08:00

Monday night Mac was eating some pineapple while we made dinner. It probably wasn't the smart thing to do, but I gave him toothpicks to eat with. After a while Doug and I look over to notice that he has two toothpicks stuck in a piece of fruit and is singing happy birthday. We could recognize two lines "Happy birthday to you" and "Happy birthday to Mac" (which he stretched into two syllables to make it fit the tune) When he finished he blew out the toothpicks.

What a crazy kid!!

Then last night Doug said he was singing happy birthday to himself again as he looked at his birthday cards. I guess he certainly has this birthday thing figured out now. I wonder what that means for next year?

2 Year Doctor Visit

2010-03-05T10:36:00.000-08:00

We went to the doctor today for the 2 year appointment. Mac did amazing! He stood up to be weighed and measured like a big kid. He didn't fuss at all when the doctor checked him. He didn't even mind having his finger stuck, he just didn't want a band-aid on it. That actually gave us a little trouble since it took a few minutes for it to stop bleeding.
His new stats are 34 inches tall, 32 lbs, and 19 1/2 inches head circumference.

Test Birthday Run

2010-03-03T17:51:00.000-08:00

Today is Mac's actual birthday so we had to celebrate a little today even though the party is on Saturday. It also gave him a test run to practice with blowing out the candles, etc. He did well, but no surprise there since it involved cake.
In some of the pictures he looks upset, but its mostly because he makes a crazy "cheese" face when you try to take his picture. He was having a blast, its just hard to capture in a picture sometimes.

Racecars

2010-02-27T08:55:00.001-08:00

racecars

I took Mac to Lowes this morning to make the Lowebot - a race car robot, and was surprised to see Carl Edwards 99 Scotts Ford Fusion out in the parking lot. Its an actual car that has been raced, but it was also cleaned up for show. I guess they are starting to make the rounds, getting promotions in before the Atlanta race next weekend.

We had a good time making the lowebot and an even better time just looking at the real race car. I apologize that there aren't better pictures of Mac, but he was insistent on wearing his apron AND goggles starting when we were getting ready to leave the house, and he wouldn't look at me very much - more interested in looking at the car. Mac mostly just stood there and said "whoa" over and over, but he did manage to ask if he could see the engine. Ok, so maybe I asked, but either way, they let us look at it. They mentioned possibly firing it up a little later, but weren't sure when, or even if, they would do that. They were worried about bending the pushrods if the engine was too cold. Plus, they've gotten in trouble in the past for firing it up and scaring an unaware customer with the loud engine.

I also got to meet one of Mac's friends from his school. Its always neat to see how he reacts to seeing someone "out of place." Both he and Blake recognized each other and were able to introduce the dads.

One last thing - I've been trying to teach him to say "Boogity, boogity, boogity, let's go racin' boys!" He doesn't even come close, but he tries with such enthusiasm, its pretty cute.

Blocks

2010-02-24T17:22:00.000-08:00

Tonight Mac and I were playing with his Duplo blocks (think slightly bigger Lego's) and he was so cute. He built a tower that I had to hold up because it was so wobbly. When he had used all of the blocks he put a finger to his lips and said shhhh! He paused for a few moments with his hands outstretched. Then he yelled and smashed the tower with both hands. He was incredibly pleased with himself. Apparently you have to sneak up on the blocks, just in case you didn't know.

Snow!

2010-02-16T05:19:00.000-08:00

So our laptop died last week and we've been setting up the new one so it took me a little bit to get this video uploaded. I think it was worth waiting for though. He really enjoyed the snow. The problem is that when he says snow it sounds like no. Since no is his favorite word lately it was a little confusing.

tee time

2010-02-13T09:14:00.001-08:00

tee time

Haircut

2010-02-10T17:01:00.000-08:00

Just a little note about something that happened tonight.
Doug and I were discussing whether or not Mac needs a haircut. I was saying i think its getting a little long and Doug of course thinks that its fine. While we are talking about it Mac went into the kitchen and I called him to see what he's doing. I hear a drawer open so I went to check it out. I told him that he didn't need anything out of that drawer and closed it. He seemed distressed and said plaintively "haircut." I then realized that he was in the drawer that (thankfully) recently contained scissors. I moved them a few days ago and I guess he doesn't know that yet. Otherwise he might have just given himself a haircut before we could decide.

Puppy

2010-02-09T17:09:00.000-08:00

Jessica and Eric got a new puppy and they brought him by to visit on Saturday night. We took a few pictures of Mac and Tate (I feel like that is the title to a children's book). While we ate dinner, Tate was in his crate and whining. Mac continually went to the crate and looked in. He either said "Okay puppy" or "No puppy!" I guess that part is cuter if you can hear him say it. After they left we got a little worried because even though Mac said goodbye to the puppy (and he is really cute saying that with his little British accent) he was looking for Tate after they left. He kept walking around saying "Puppy, Puppy?" with his hands in that question shrugg that he does.

Story time

2010-02-05T21:27:00.001-08:00

Mac decided to read a book or two to Samantha who wasn't feeling well.

Ben's party 07

2010-01-31T16:15:00.001-08:00

Baby Sarah

Ben's party 06

WE WANT CAKE!

Ben's party 05

painting Macasaurus t-shirt

Ben's party 04

painting Macasaurus t-shirt

Ben's party 03

painting Macasaurus t-shirt

Ben's party 02

painting Macasaurus t-shirt

Ben's party 01

painting Macasaurus t-shirt

Ben's Party

we went to Ben's birthday party today and had a great time. I am trying out ways to post pictures and words to the blog at the same time from my phone, so bear with us as we experiment.

2010-01-29T20:01:00.001-08:00

Socks

2010-01-27T11:26:00.000-08:00

Today Mac decided to pick out his own socks. He was on the changing table and reached down and opened his sock drawer. So now he is laying on his belly hanging over the side and riffling through the drawer. I told him he could pick out what socks to wear, but he was having too much fun just digging around and occassionally picking one up to show me and saying sock. I thought maybe he was indicating an interest in wearing what he was holding up but no. Finally I gave up and said okay these are the ones. He did not like my choice and commenced kicking and screaming "no socks." Then I got smart. I offered him two pair to choose from. He picked one fairly quickly and happily put them on. (well I put them on him, but with no screaming and even some assistance). So he may be wearing argyle socks with a firetruck shirt but at least he's happy.

Don't tell Mommy

2010-01-26T17:46:00.001-08:00

Mac having fun with his slide. He was cautious about going down head first, but liked it a lot!