The Brown Brick Road

Stinker

May 31, 2012

Hmmm…staying on my bottom in this rocking chair can get kinda boring. If only I could distract Momma and get her to look away…

I got it! Hey Momma, look down there! a bug!

It worked! She’s not looking. Ok, here goes. Get my balance…

and I’m doing it! I’m rocking chair surfing! Hang ten ya’ll!!

Uh-oh, Momma’s looking at me again and she’s got ‘that’ look…

No, Momma. I wasn’t doing anything. Just sitting here on my bottom like a good boy. Yep, just like a good boy.

He’s so sweet and innocent all the time. Riiiight.

First – Sickness update. I took Maxwell to the doctor yesterday morning and his ears look fine…but his throat looks terrible. Poor buddy. No wonder he didn’t want to eat. She did a strep test but that came back negative so it’s likely some sort of unknown virus that we just have to wait out. She did mention the possibility of Hand, Foot & Mouth disease (yuck) but so far there have been no signs of that, thank goodness! I feel like Hand, Foot & Mouth disease is a new common occurrence around the preschool set. I had never even heard of it until last year when a friend’s daughter got it. When she told me, I thought she was making up some funny illness to imply that her daughter kept sticking everything including her hands and her feet in her mouth! Nope…it’s a real sickness and not a fun one I’ve heard. But, Maxwell seemed to be doing better today so hopefully we’re on the up and up. Me on the other hand? no up and up. My cold moved squarely into my head settling right in my sinuses. Breathing has not come easy the past 24 hours. I tried a Neti pot last night but I was literally too stopped up for the Neti pot. what?! I resorted to Afrin. I love Afrin.

Second – Happy 21 months to Maxwell today!! I can’t believe we’re only 3 months away from TWO!! wow. I will try to do a longer update soon about what he’s into these days.

Third – Time to tell you about another adventure with Mrs. Susan! Last week Susan took Maxwell to the Southern Museum of Flight here in Birmingham. They had the best time! It’s such a hidden little gem that is fantastic for kids. They have a whole kid playroom and even a bounce house! Susan said Maxwell loved it all.

Of course Maxwell had on his airplane shirt to go to the airplane museum! 🙂 I love their adventures!

Hope you all have a great week free from sore throats, stopped up sinuses and Hand, Foot & Mouth disease! In fact, I wish the same for us!!

The long weekend

May 29, 2012

Unlike every other person in Birmingham, we decided to stay put for the holiday weekend. This place was a ghost town (literally – a majority of the stores were even closed on Saturday as well as Monday!). I must say, it was pretty nice. We were super productive and got all sorts of projects done that had been on our list. What did we do? Well, let me tell you all the exciting details! 🙂

On Saturday we got up and went to the Pepper Place Farmer’s Market for the first time this year. We got some fresh produce and enjoyed a little breakfast. Pumpkin bread for Maxwell and breakfast burritos for me and Robert. yum!

They were just as good as last year! It was the perfect way to start the day but, even that early in the morning it was already HOT!

Later that morning, Robert got a truck load of mulch from Home Depot and finished mulching the back beds…with a little helper of course!

After nap time (Maxwell’s, not mine unfortunately) we went to Wal-Mart…

and bounced on a cow…

I told you this was an exciting weekend!

On Sunday I woke up with the chest cold that Maxwell has been battling for the past week. So, we just took it easy and rolled around the house…

and I marveled at how big and long-legged by baby has become!

We did venture out to take another trip to Wal-Mart to use the Coinstar machine we had seen the day before.

Want to guess how much change we had saved up??

Over $200!! Whoa! We got it all put onto a Starbucks card because if you choose a retail gift card instead of cash, Coinstar doesn’t take the 9.8% it usually does. We’ve got lattes every weekend for the rest of the year!

By that afternoon, I wasn’t feeling very good and Maxwell wasn’t either. Even though his cough has been improving over the past few days, he had a fever of about 101. Poor buddy! We got him down for a nap and his fever broke…but he only slept about 2 hours. He was doing better for a little while but then had the dreaded relapse around 5:30 with another fever. We got him into bed and he thankfully slept all night. While he was a little pitiful when he woke up on Monday, he perked up as the day went on but we still just took it easy around the house racing cars…

and wearing his favorite outfit.

Well, I should say that Maxwell and I took it easy. Robert worked hard getting child locks on the remaining cabinets and cleaning the skylight.

About an hour before naptime Maxwell started getting really crabby again and just acting like he didn’t feel good. After not eating much lunch, he took a good 3.5 hour nap and woke up with some fantastic bed-head…

I was hoping that good rest would get him on the up and up but he wasn’t doing so great last night and really didn’t eat any dinner at all. Looks like we might be making a visit to Dr. Walley today! Hopefully we can all get well soon!

Despite the bit of sickness, it was still a great weekend. I hope you all had a lovely holiday weekend wherever you spent it!

Happy Memorial Day!

May 28, 2012

Memorial Day 2011…

Memorial Day 2012…

Thank you to all of those that serve our country!

Enjoy the day!

Friday Favorite

May 25, 2012

Every night before he goes to bed Maxwell wants to read 3 books:

The Wheels on the Bus – a former Friday Favorite. Maxwell can do all the hand motions and it’s precious.

Trucks – a former Friday Favorite. Maxwell can point out every single truck in this book by name. This book is so loved it’s now being held together by duck tape.

Construction Sites – today’s Friday Favorite!

He LOVES this book. It’s a “lift the flap” book and he knows what’s hiding under all the flaps. He can also point out just about anything on the pages that we ask him – ladders, wheelbarrows, crains, excavators, cement mixers – this boy knows his construction stuff! Of course, it doesn’t hurt that we’ve looked at this book approximately 2652 times. If you know a truck loving boy, I highly recommend this book and any of the other ones in the series!

I don’t know about you all, but am really needing this 3 day weekend coming up! We have no plans and I couldn’t be more excited. We’re going to do a little of this…