The Brown Brick Road

Give him the boot!

April 4, 2012

Yesterday we went to Maxwell’s follow up appointment with the orthopedist and we are now CAST FREE! Hooray! They said his leg was healing great and he would be fine with just a boot for the next two weeks. Fantastic news! The best part of the boot? Maxwell can take a bath!! He has to wear it all the time but we can take it off to give him a bath. Needless to say, Maxwell enjoyed a half hour bath last night full of splishing and splashing!

Last picture with the cast…

Below is video of the cast removal if you want to see. It’s not that exciting but I had never seen a cast being cut off before so I thought it was interesting. Apparently the saw can’t cut the skin because it just vibrates. Here’s a good explanation: The saw vibrates, but does not rotate. If the blade of the saw touches the padding inside the hard shell of the cast, the padding will vibrate with the blade and will protect your skin. Cast saws make noise and may feel “hot” from friction, but will not harm you — “their bark is worse than their bite.”

If you can’t see the video, click here to watch it on Flickr.

Getting the boot and not very happy about it….

All booted up and feeling better…

The boot even has an M on it for Maxwell!

Back home and loving the first real bath in two weeks…

Maxwell is allowed to walk with the boot on but I think it’s going to be pretty difficult for him. The boot is big and makes his left leg much longer than his right. I’m sure he’ll get the hang of it soon though.

Of course we saved the little cast for posterity…

We’re glad to have that cast off and be this far on the road to recovery!

Barber Motorsports

April 3, 2012

First, thank you so much for all your sweet comments, emails, calls and texts yesterday. We really are super excited and so glad that the secret is out! We need to come up with a nickname for #2 now. Maxwell was always BBB for Baby Boy Brown. So far we’ve been calling #2 “Teddy” because the first ultrasound really looked like a Teddy Graham! 🙂 Of course, my friend Lyndsay has been calling #2 “Maxine” because she’s convinced it’s a girl. We’ll see what sticks!

On Sunday Robert, Maxwell and I went out to Barber Motorsports to see some Indy cars race. We had never been out there before and it was fun to see what it’s all about. It’s a really neat venue and pretty impressive that Birmingham has something like this…at least in my opinion.

Maxwell wore his official Formula 1 shirt that LuLu and Granddad brought him from Monaco…

This seemed like the right occasion to wear it!

The main race was Sunday afternoon but, with Maxwell’s schedule, the morning worked much better for us. That worked out just fine though because we still got to see some cars taking practice laps and it wasn’t quite as crowded.

Parts of it were like going to a really small state fair (rednecks included). They even had the ferris wheel from Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch…odd, right?

We first checked out the Fan Zone and took this awesome family photo…

We couldn’t even sit down in the car because it was so dirty. The ground was really muddy from the rain the night before and everyone had been stepping in the seat all day. Maxwell’s pouty face cracks me up.

We then ran into Mario Andretti…

I told him I was a big “fan”.

We then walked by the “Lady in the Lake”….I don’t really know what to say about this.

After that we took the tram up to the Paddock which was really cool. You got to see all the trailers and where the cars got worked on as well as where they would come in for pit stops.

If we go back I want to pay for Club Level access at the Paddock so we can go up high and see the whole track!

By the time we left the paddock, we were worn out. It was HOT and almost lunch time so we went to take a quick tour through the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum before heading home. The museum has tons of vintage cars and motorcycles and is worth checking out if you’re into that sort of thing…

We even found a Maxwell size car!

Maxwell’s favorite part of the museum? The glass elevator…

Maxwell’s other favorite part of the entire day? Riding on the school bus from the parking lot to the track!

It was a fun day and something we’ll have to remember for the years ahead!

No joke!

April 2, 2012

Well, it’s April 2 so this isn’t an April Fool’s Joke…

Yep! Maxwell’s going to be a BIG BROTHER!! His life is going to change dramatically come October 23rd! We are all VERY excited…especially Maxwell!!

ps – if you’re a close friend or family and are feeling a little miffed that you are finding out about this through the blog, don’t be! Everyone is finding out this way – even the grandparents! SURPRISE!!

I think it’s going to be a great week! 🙂

Friday Favorite

March 30, 2012

We’ve been watching even more Sesame Street than usual this past week and we all (me, Robert, Maxwell and Susan) love this DVD set of clips from episodes over the last 40 years. It’s so fun to see the Sesame Street of “olden days”…before the Street was majority Elmo! It’s been so neat to see that Maxwell is just as enthralled with the clips from the 1970’s and 80’s as he is with the episodes of today. I just wish they would release full episodes from all the years – I would definitely buy those!

Sesame Street – 40 Years of Sunny Days

Our DVD’s came courtesy of Maxwell’s Aunt Jenny, Uncle Ronnie and cousins Katie and Anna. We love these DVD’s and highly recommend them to anyone with a Sesame Street loving kid!

We’ve got some fun plans this weekend to go out to Barber Motorsports to see the Indy Cars race! Full report next week.

I’ll send you off into the weekend with an iphone dump…