Our little monsters at Monsters, Inc. on Ice!

What a fun night! Thanks to WREG and media night, we got a free pass to see Disney on ice Featuring Monsters, Inc. We even got to have fun beforehand at a meet and greet! Max can't take his eyes off of Sully and Porter is amazed by Mike. This picture is a bit fuzzy, it's actually a picture of a polaroid picture, we don't have our scanner up and running yet so this will have to do. The show was great and the boys had such fun!! They clapped, screamed, laughed and generally had a wonderful time.

Loving every minute of it!

What a week!!!

Oh these boys are getting so big!! The first, the biggest, big boy event I must report, PORTER WENT PEE PEE IN THE POTTY!!!! Just before bathtime, I noticed his diaper was dry, so I thought instead of what we normally run into, a golden shower as soon as he steps foot in the tub, I'd ask him if he was ready to try. To our surpise, was he ever! He towered over his miniature toilet, arched his back and let 'er fly! Perfect aim even! You can't imagine our delight at this event, yelling and near tears of excitement, even Max congratulated him! It was quite a sight. And with pride brimming from his smile, Porter stood over his accomplishment and exclaimed, "I make Lello" (yellow). Max really wanted to do it too, he gave it the old college try! But couldn't make anything happen. Until of course he ran downstairs in the nude to get his beloved Thomas, you can't take a bath without Thomas, and matched Porters feat....on the living room floor. We're getting there!!! Porters landmark has yet to be repeated, but we're on our way to a diaper free lifestyle! What will we do with the extra time? And money?!?!?!?! That's enough to pay for a carribean vacation right there! Wait, that's what got us into this mess in the first place...hee hee!

Let's see, aside from that, both little men have been a bit under the weather this week. Especially Max whose cough could shake the walls! Yikes, it's just painfull to listen to. On top of that, he's got allergies bothering him and a double ear infection and a diaper rash! Poor kid. Imagine for a moment this 33 pound linebacker of a toddler in need of ear drops. To begin with, he hates anyone to get anywhere near his ears. The simple task of the holding him for the Dr to look into them with that...ear checker outer thingy...is like holding down a grown man. So the monumental task of squirting 5 drops of antibiotic into his tiny painfilled ear canal is more like wrestling an alligator. And then the aftermath is worse, as the nasty liquid settles in, fizzing away the infection, poor Max just howls and grabs at his ear screaming, "Owweeee Ear!!!" Ahhh well. After about three nights of nearly no sleep for any of us, Max is on the mend. The ear drops however have mysteriously disappeared. They were on my nightstand (not the best place I realize) and now they're gone, HHHHMMMMM. Probably for sale on EBay. Sneaky little devils.

Joel is still loving his work and I am getting closer to work, I think. I'm doing a "tester" piece for a local paper, not the main one, but it's the second largest. It's a personality profile on a local award winning professor at the Univ of Memphis. I get paid whether or not it runs and then if it's print worthy, I'll be used as a freelance writer! I also had an interview with a company that does test reviews for the CPA exam, I'd be an independant contractor, securing on-campus representatives at local colleges and universities to encourage enrollment in this review course. It sounds like a really interesting opportunity, however taking on a home business like that is a bit daunting, so if an offer comes, there's a lot of mulling over to do. Also, I've thrown my hat in the ring for a bunch of things I'd REALLY like. Mostly Public Relations, at St. Jude Hopital, the Memphis Zoo...So, we'll see.

Anyway...just wanted to throw out an update for anyone interested! Much love to friends and family, miss you all tons!!!!!

Max the Engineer

Good/Bad Influences

As a mother, I try to filter everything that Max and Porter watch on TV. I keep them away from shows that might encourage them to mimic bad behavior especially at this very impressionable age. I even think while watching my own favorite shows, if they were watching it, what would they pick up on? How would they interpret what they're seeing? So you have to imagine how excited I was when Max became a die-hard, watch every episode a million times like it's never been seen before, Thomas the Tank Engine fan. What mother wouldn't be pleased with this choice? Non-violent, sweet choo choos who think of each others feelings and learn lessons about taking turns and sharing. Well...that's what I thought until Max started this new thing. Driving his trains through anything and everything! Let me give you an example of my frustration. Breakfast, a yummy bowl of "Snap, Crackle, Pop Rice Krispies" and milk. Ahh...they love this early morning meal. But I turn my back for a minute and Max has scooped out the milk soaked crisped rice, (honestly there is nothing more detestable in my opinion that soggy cereal, so soggy, it's become a paste!) and dumped the glue-like blobs onto the table for Thomas to drive through, then a few hands full of the goopy mess drop on the engines smokestack. Aside from being very annoyed, I thought nothing of what the point to this was.
And then I realized he was doing this with everything, stacks of colorfull flashcards, the woodchips at the playground, an entire box of baby wipes, pulled out one by one, covering his favorite trains from wheels to funnel. And one of my biggest annoyances, all of the blocks and tiny toys that fill the buckets in their room (meticulously organized of course, sorted by toy type) and there at the bottom of the pile, his train of choice, being pushed through the mounds of stuff. Then it finally hit me! These scenes had been played out and replayed over and over from his favorite Thomas DVD, Thomas' Snowy Surprise. In the episode, Thomas has to push through piles of snow on the tracks. And it all makes sense now. Max buries hit choo choo's saying "Thomas, snow!" He can do this for endless minutes! (that's a really long time for a toddler)
So see, no matter how benign you might think something is, it can become just about anythingin those sweet imaginations.

Loving their Pillow Fight with Daddy