Grandma and Grandpa Z come to town

The Zander Grandparents are visiting from Michigan. It's so nice to have them here. They arrived on Friday afternoon and are staying about a week. We are so grateful to them for coming as they are taking care of Max this week while he is waiting to start with his new childcare.




Max is loving having playing with them and being loved by them. He thinks they are both pretty funny. They seem to be having a good time with him as well.


Truth be told I think Havers is the most excited about the visit. She LOVES her Grandpa. This is how close she'd like to be to her Grandpa all day except when she's licking Max's toes, fingers and face!



Max learned to make a new face. Aahhhh, the nose wrinkle.

He seems to think it's hilarious. If you wrinkle your nose at him, he'll do it right back and giggle, giggle, giggle. It's pretty darn sweet!

MESSY MAX

Havers trying to get in on the action.


Above you see Max with his Biter Biscuits. He loves them! It provides about 25 minutes of entertainment both for him and for anyone watching. It's quite something to see how such a tiny amount of cookie can become so large an amount of spreadable ooze. You basically have to hose him down when he's done. It's worth it to see how much fun he has feeding himself. Still, this begs the question, Are babies completely immune to feeling sticky?

This Tee Shirt was purchased for Max in honor of his Uncle Jefferson.

"You're not the Boss of me"

So much fun to put stuff on your head.



That's it for now. More later. Happy almost 4th of July!!!

VACATION!!!

Max had a fabulous pillow fort at the Sheraton in Syracuse - our first stop. He loved it! Rolled around and around and around. Giggling and carrying on. We think he was just so happy to be out of the car. That night he had is first night out for Sushi but, of course, no sushi for him. Just a couple Cheerios!



Lake Placid Brewing Company - Love My Shades


Day 3 of our adventure was spent on the road from Sacketts Harbor to Lake Placid. A gorgeous drive and our little traveler did pretty darn well! The only real info we had on Lake Placid was regarding the Bobsled Experience, encouragement to visit the Olympic Hockey Rink of Miracle fame and a tip from our friends Mike and Heidi regarding the two microbreweries in town. We decided to check out the Lake Placid Brewing Company first and had a great experience. Loved the UBU and the fish-n-chips. It was such a perfect night that we ate outside and Max had a lot of fun playing with my sunglasses and "banging for a beer" on the table. It was the first time he'd really banged on the table (or any surface) with his hands and he was having a ball.

We stayed right in downtown Lake Placid and had a really convenient location for walking and what a beautiful view of the Lake (Mirror Lake) from our room.


We walked the Lake one morning and it was so peaceful. Max fell asleep about 10 minutes into but here's our family portrait when we finished. Max is in there under the sunshade.



Is that maple latte for me?


Right before our trip we realized that Max has turned into a camera ham. He smiles like crazy when you get it out. We stopped for a coffee in a cute little cafe and Max really wanted a sip.

Gold Medal Goal Tender

Here's our boy after being awarded the gold medal. He seems to have forgotten the words to the Star Spangled Banner. Uh oh.

Max and Dan - Peeking in on the 1980 Gold Medal Hockey Rink



Unfortunately, the rink was closed in preparation for a hockey camp so we didn't get the tour. Still we got to see it.

Next we moved on to the Olympic Museum and here's the Mighty Duo watching the introductory video just moments before Max's gold medal meltdown. I'm not kidding he got another medal. Good thing he did because he stopped crying just as soon as he saw it.




That's it for now but there will be more.

Mr. Post-it

Apparently, we're starving him. Max was so hungry he ate our grocery list this Saturday. I don't know how it happened but the grocery list on the post-it pad fell in his car seat and whaddya know I see a bunch of blue gunk in his mouth as we're walking into the grocery. A quick finger swipe revealed a bit of blue smush. I only got half because he quickly gulped. The post-its caught my eye the next moment. They were wedged in between his chubby little thigh and the carseat. DOH! Of course, he's fine even though I worried for about 2 hours.



Saturday and Sunday were both full of errands to get ready for our upcoming road trip. We don't really have a destination. We're driving north. We hope to see our friends Mike and Heidi in upstate NY and then maybe get up to Lake Placid. Perhaps we'll make it to Maine or Vermont. We'll bring the atlas, stop as we need and go with the flow. Max tried to eat our list again on Sunday. What's he got against the grocery list?



Is eating Cheerios a milestone? It sure gets a lot of press! We have started down the Cheerios path and I think there is no going back. He loves them! He actually likes his little banana puff things better but 2 oz. for $2.29 vs. 14 oz for $1.89. We'll take the big box please. (How do they get people to spend so much money on baby stuff?) Anyhow, it's hard to tell if he really likes eating them or if he is more interested in picking them up and getting them into his mouth. Either way, it's pretty fun to watch. He's improved his manual dexterity so much in just a couple of days.






Hangin' with Dad in the morning.


Got my ring!


Dan made Max a special helmet. The side view makes me laugh.


Cute as can be in my squirrel suit.

Could I be a bigger NERD?

I almost forgot to tell you about our nerd-a-riffic night. The only thing keeping us from being super nerds is that this happened on a Thursday rather than Friday night. So, I was a little tired and a little cranky after a little someone named Max clamped his little fishy lips closed and refused to eat ALL evening and then also didn't want anything to do with sleep. Finally, after we got Max settled, Dan called me into the living room saying, "I've got just the thing to cheer you up."

It was the National Spelling Bee finals (rebroadcast apparently) on the OCHO. Really, it was something like ESPN 537 but who can keep track?

What's so funny about this whole scenario is that Dan was right - it totally cheered me up. Congratulations to Sameer Mishra! It did seem as if the final words were a little easier (like "nacarat" "escalandre" and "sinicize" which are all pretty much spelled exactly like they sound)for him than Sidarth Chand, the guy we were rooting for who got words like aptyalism (silent 'P'), introuvable (though he had fun saying that one) and prosopopoeia (silent 'I'). Sidarth is from Pontiac, Michigan and he should have his own tv show.

One quick highlight for you: the back and forth pronunciation of the word, thymele, between the contestant and the announcer. We were laughing so hard. Poor kid. He got a rough word to spell.

You can learn more about all the spellers at http://public.spellingbee.com/public/results/finishers. I'm sure you'll all be heading right there. =)

That's all from our Nerdery for now.

Happy National Donut Day!

Yes, friends, it is National Donut Day. It was on MSN and that means it has to be true, right??? They'd never lie or practice shoddy journalism. Here's their blurb:

"The celebration was launched in 1938, in the depths of the Great Depression, as a Salvation Army fund-raiser honoring the volunteer “lassies” who served coffee and fresh doughnuts by the thousands to homesick soldiers in France during World War I." The photo above was *gasp* stolen from a Donut Blog called The Blognot. Google "donut blog" if you want to find it.

Well, I'm certainly not one to punk out on a BONA FIDE and important holiday such as National Donut Day. Off we drove to the trusty DD to pick up coffees and a box of Munkins to pass out at work. Here's a re-enactment (with Wendell) of the first donut I passed out today.



And for those who are wondering - no munchkins for our munchkin today. He was SOOOO SAD.


What? No Munchkins?

At least I have Kissy Fish.

The Clapper

It's official; Max can clap. It happened once on Sunday, not a once on Monday and come Tuesday our little Sprout is a clappin' fool. He gets so excited about it and it's pretty funny to watch. Here's a few photos:





Max is a big fan of solid food. Eating took on a new dimension on Monday when we let the Hoover hang around during dinner. They both had a blast. We learned that Hoover is an insta-matic clean machine for the boy's messy face, hands, feet and legs. Took her less than 3 seconds to do with her tongue what it takes me 2 or 3 minutes to do with a wet cloth. Max loved it and Havers is always up for a trip to the buffet.






One last photo of our happy boy in the car. This is quite an accomplishment - he used to HOWL!

Good-Bye Winston; Hello Honda

On Saturday we said good-bye to dear, cute Winston (our Mini Cooper)with his friendly white roof and mirrors. It was great while it lasted but we need fuel economy, baby..not to mention a second car that we can put a baby seat and a passenger in. When did the practical begin to outweigh the cute?



The true answer to that oh so rhetorical question is October 28 when we put Max in Winston and I about died on the way home from the hospital with the seat adjusted all the way forward and my knees smooshed up to the dashboard just to get the baby seat in the car.)

Hello Honda!


Meet our new car - not yet named - a Honda Civic Hybrid. We're both really excited about the car because of the fuel efficiency and hopefully lessening our negative impact on the environment. The buying process was kind of headache and lasted 4 and 1/2 hours but we all made it! I think Max wondered if he would at some points during the day. That's a long time for a little dude to go without a variety of activities.

Friday we attended our last ball for the 21st Signal Bridage at Ft. Detrick, MD. We actually had a really fun time! We were so lucky to sit with a great table including our friends Morid and Fari and Sgt. Rivera and his wife, Nancy. Here's a photo of all of us. We shared a bottle of champagne and collected our souvenier mousepad coaster. I should post a picture of these because it will make you laugh. Oustide of the fellowship with our friends in the Brigade, meeting General Via, Commanding General Communications-Electronics Life Cycle Management Command (CECOM LCMC and his wife Linda and listening to his speech was the highlight of the ball.

This is saying a lot because you usually watch the clock tick through the speeches. He is so soldier-centered and his committment to soldiers is undeniable. Rather than drone on about the plans for technology upgrade or reorganization he spoke about soldiers, how they are the backbone of the Army and how honored he is to serve with them. He offered the standard thank you to families for their support of soliders and unlike many of the times this phrase is uttered, it felt like he was talking directly to you and genuinely meant what he said and what it means to sacrifice as a family member. (For those of you who are dependents, I think you know what I mean.) The bulk of his speech centered around Memorial Day and the final respects paid to one soldier who paid the ultimate sacrifice in Iraq and the tribute fellow soldiers paid to him as his body was transported home on Memorial Day. It was really amazing and beautiful. What an outstanding example of leadership and humanity.

Our Table


The only major Max news is that he clapped on Sunday. He hasn't done it since but he's really interested in grabbing my hands and making them clap. Here's the sole Max photo from this weekend.


And a photo of our little Chubber (who isn't really chubby anymore but the name stuck). He seems to get shorted in the blog.