Maddox in the Morning

Maddox has always been a super early riser. After months of suffering through 5 or 5:30 a.m. wakeups, we finally put a digital clock in the boys' room and told them they weren't allowed to get up until a specific time (depending on the day). I came across the clock unpacking boxes today, and had this conversation with Maddox.

Me: C'mon, Maddox, let's go put the clock up in your room.

Maddox: No, I don't need it.

Me: You don't?

Maddox: No, I can wake up whenever I want to now.

A Laugh for You

This afternoon I was relaxing on the couch (it's a snow day) and I noticed Maddox looking extremely cute. He was "paddling his boat". I started snapping pictures, and the results... oh my. We've got a serious cheeser on our hands. He and Kelsey are so much alike that way.

It started off innocently enough. He was just paddling his boat.

And paddling some more.

And being a pirate.

Then I captured this picture. And I started laughing...

Which, of course, meant that Connor needed a turn in the boat.

And they wanted to pose together.

They were trying to make me laugh again. 

 And, yes, they were succeeding.

More than they realized, probably.

Needless to say, it was a fun afternoon. 

Veggie-Lover!

Maddox ate his peas and asked for more.  TWICE. Then he asked for more corn on the cob, too. This is definitely a red letter day!

Brotherly Love

When my boys get in trouble they get sent to the corner for a "time out".  Generally I set the timer for their age in minutes, and they get to hang out there until the timer goes off.  Lately it hasn't been working so well.

Why not, you ask?

Well, when Connor has to go to the corner for something, it doesn't take long for him to get some company.

Maddox just wants to make him feel better.

It's moments like this that makes the rest of the craziness of little boys worthwhile...

The Many Faces of Maddox

Maddox was having so much fun with the Castle MarbleWorks on Sunday morning that I couldn't resist snapping some pictures and taking a video.  I went back to look at my pictures, and I noticed that he kept changing his facial expressions in the pictures...

Hope there's room for more than one "ham" in this family...

I've got to show the video, too.  By the time I took this one he'd been playing with it a while, but he uses just about his only two words while I'm recording.  The first one is "cheese" because he saw me with the camera.  The second one needs no translation.  He's just so dadgum cute!

Teaching Them Young

If you make a mess...

...you'd better clean it up!

Sixty-Seven Perfection

I had an errand to run this morning on the north side of town, so I took the kids.  

We stopped at the park on the way home.

It was 67 degrees, sunny, and breezy.

Perfect.

Connor & Maddox on the helicoptor.

 I somehow caught this expression on Connor's face.  I'm not sure what it means... but he looks like he's plotting something.

Kelsey and Eva on the "kind of" seesaw.  It was so cool for Kelsey to be on there with someone close to her weight.  Eva kept getting a little scared, and it was sweet to listen to Kelsey talk her through it: "You're doing great!  It will be fine!"

Maddox just likes to ride things.

And Connor likes machines.

The girls enjoyed the swings, but Kelsey never could get very high on her own.  Eva, on the other hand, was flying.

Kelsey entertained herself in other ways.

And the slide... oh, the slide.  It's very tall, and made of metal.  Connor thought he would be brave enough to go down.

He chickened out.

 But that didn't stop Maddox!

Or Kelsey.

And Maddox, as usual, ended up fascinated with the dirt.

On the way out of the park, I had to get a picture of our "spring snow".  When the breeze blows the petals out of the Bradford Pear trees, I know that spring has truly arrived.

 

Hungry Much?

Maddox loves to go outside.  Loves it.  The problem is, he usually finds at least one thing to fixate on that makes it necessary for him to come back inside after a little while.  It used to be Trixie's water.  Not anymore...

Now he's into eating dirt.

p.s. I also discovered that Maddox knows a new word: "Cheese!"  He's got the exact same grin in both pictures because he said it both times.  Hot diggity!

Driving Me Crazy

If there is one thing I do more than any other thing on every single day, it is taking Maddox down OFF the table.  That little monkey climbs and climbs.  And since we've taken out the carpet around our dining room table, he can now push the chairs out and climb on them to get ON the table, which is his sole mission in life.  He knows there's a lot of fun stuff up there that mom hasn't put away.  He has drawn all over Kelsey's school assignments, tipped over water cups, and strewn napkins all over the place.  It's literally driving me and Ben bonkers.

But when I came into the room and saw this tonight, I had to snap a picture:

Not only is he in pajamas that don't match (my fault since the laundry was only half-done), but he has taken all the napkins out of the holder and is whacking it with my putty knife.  It made some pretty music, after all.  One day I'm going to look back at this and smile fondly.  Eventually.  Today I just look at it and sigh.

Camping

My friend, Amy, gave us a tent the other day.  The kind for indoors.  The kids loved it.

Because of the lighting, I only got one decent picture:

But this picture shows a little better what was actually going on:

I count 3 kids and a dog in that tent.  How about you?

Miss Mary Mack... and Rites of Passage

Last Friday I took the 3 younger kids to the zoo with my friend, Lori.  Her youngest is Olivia's age, so she gets to be the surrogate aunt when she comes with me on our field trips.  I love it.  Helps me feel not so outnumbered.

I've had a song running through my head lately:

Miss Mary Mack, Mack, Mack,

All dressed in black, black, black,

With silver buttons, buttons, buttons,

All down her back, back, back.

She asked her mother, mother, mother

For 50 cents, cents, cents,

To see the elephants, elephants, elephants,

Jump the fence, fence, fence.

Obviously, it was time to visit the elephants. (I hadn't seen the baby since it was born last May!)

Apparently we now have 4 elephants at our zoo.  Check out the "do" on this one!

The best thing about our elephant complex?  It's humungous.  Everything is built in such a large scale with these big, fat logs.  It's gorgeous.  There's this ramp that you take up to see inside the building where they go when they are indoors.  Maddox was amazed.

Connor was more interested in walking on the bench.

While we were there, Maddox had his first "statue" experiences at the zoo.  I guess it's got to be done sometime, right?

Kelsey had fun pretending she was falling off all the statues.  I guess she had to see if Lori would fall for it.  Seriously - these pictures were taken 30 minutes apart on two entirely different statues.

She's such a goof, but a cute one!

As we were leaving, Lori treated the kids to a couple of the quarter-rides at the entrance.  She did it mostly for Connor, I think, but Kelsey seems to be having the most fun.

Ride 'em cowgirl!

Maddox had a good time on the other one, too.

Though it looks rather questionable, here.

All in all, it was a win. 

We love our zoo days.