Pedaling with two wheels

The real reason I've been trying to catch up on blogging is to post a clip of Max on his pedals without those training wheels! So happy for him! We took them off a couple weeks ago and he loves it! Saturday we took him on his first BIG ride - three miles around the lake (complete with a stop for ice cream!) and he's ready for more. I think he already has the endurance bug. Great job Maxman!!

Our dinosaur and ballerina

Halloween was a blast this year. I know Mike will post about his cross race that day, but it was fun to watch! Then we stopped by his parents with kids in costume. That night we went to our neighbors for dinner - where Max got to go trick or treating with his buddy, Canyon. While the trick-or-treating was fun, I think Max had more fun passing out the candy when he came home!

Mind of Max II

(we had one burst of cold weather, and a decent amount of snow at our house. Here's another mind of max excerpt.)
There they were. Neatly sitting in the hall closet, just waiting to be found. I'd almost forgotten about them, but running from my bed this morning, feeling the cold floor on my bare feet, I knew I would need them. I'd already tried going without them this morning as I ran along the crusty, cold, snow-covered grass with my dog. But I couldn't bear the shock I felt as the chill ran through my body like lightning. It was then I knew I had to find them. Winter would not be the same without them.

The hunger pain of breakfast could wait. Some time earlier, my mom had made sure they still fit. She must have known this moment would be soon. She must have known I would have an unbeliveable sense of urgency to use them as soon as it arrived.

So there I was. Standing at the hall closet with the door ajar. Staring at the corner of darkness where I knew they must be. One step in, and I've got them. I just have to reach around the vacuum.

Whew! Before I could think they were in my hands. But wait. I needed more. So when I again went out into the cold I would feel a buzz of warmth. A sticky sweat under it all keeping me insulated and comfy. I needed it all.

The pants. The coat. The hat. The gloves. All of it. It was time. No more swimsuit summer days. Mom was right, the season had changed. Summer to fall to winter to summer. No wait, there was one more season I know I've learned about. It had the song with flowers and rain. Spring. That's it.

But here I am. On the brink of winter and mom is worried about feeding me breakfast. Food can wait. She must not understand what it feels like to sink into the depth of snow. To make the first footprints. To fall and slide and build like nothing else. Maybe she's never experienced the snow. I will have to show her how amazing it all is.

Today is the day.

October!

Holidays are just fun with kids. It's fun to enjoy it for the whole month too. It was such great weather and it was so nice to get out. Fall/Halloween activities included a field trip with his preschool to Hee Haw Farms, a trip to the Farm at Thanksgiving Point, and a visit to the nearby pumpkin patch for picking and a corn maze.

Hee Haw Farms was a fun mom and Max date. Waiting for the wagon ride (it was actually hot sitting there!)
Thanksgiving Point was actually pretty busy the day we went, so my parents and Bryce tag-teamed the wait in line for the big pony ride.




The thrill of the pumpkin patch was the mini-wagon. He loved wheeling it around just like grandma.



Practicing his roar...

Circus

I think I was about 6 years old the last time I went to the circus. Memories? Motorcycles in a metal ball (I think?), trapeze artists, a funny clown and this fiber optic flashlight that my dad let me pick out. Other than that, I can't say I remembered too much. So, I wasn't sure what to expect when we went.

I was pleasantly surprised. It was a great and entertaining show. The kiddos both loved it. Actually, it was tough to say who enjoyed it more. Alexis loved all of the trapeze and tightrope acts (I think she enjoyed seeing people as flexible as she is!). And, for the first 20 - 30 minutes Max just sat and stared at everything happening - no comments, no talking, nothing. In fact, we couldn't even tell if he liked it. But, as it continued, he became more and more animated. It was fun to watch.

Highlights? Elephants. Tigers. Definitely the canon. And this guy named Mr. Gravity (random, I know).

To keep with tradition, my dad let him pick out something to bring home from the circus. After much thought and debate, Max chose a miniature canon that is spring loaded to shoot out a person. Good choice, Max. Thanks mom and dad for the fun memories. Max still talks about it (and possibly Alexis does too!)!

The Mind of Max

(An excerpt from what I call "the mind of Max." Sometimes I'll watch him in deep thought and when he finally says what he's thinking - in three year old language - I feel like I could just go back and narrate what his mind was working on. This little moment was actually during the first part of September.)

It first came to me as I was looking out the window of my car. It was still warm. No, hot. I had just enjoyed a trip to the big local pool when it arrived. The thought. No, the idea. No, the need. Of what I knew I would be for halloween.

We hadn't even talked about it yet. But, I knew it was coming. I had seen photos of years before, and I remembered that as the heat began to turn cool, it was my opportunity to become something else. To be something different.

Wait, I like being Max. I don't want to be different. My neighbors might wonder where I went, or worse, think I had actually turned into it.

A dinosaur.

"Mom, I'm going to be a dinosaur for halloween. A green one. With claws and sharp teeth. With a head that will come off. That way my neighbors will still know that it's me, Max."

Nothing else will come close to this. I know that for my third year of life, nothing will be better than a dinosaur.

I'd better start practicing my roar.

September

Here it is. What can I say, I'm on a roll today, or maybe I'm just excited to get to those halloween pics.

Max has been in swimming lessons on and off for awhile. Here's a photo I took when he completed on his last lesson in September.


Alexis LOVED watching him at the pool. Between watching the kids and screaming as loud as she could (it was an indoor pool), she was the happiest baby around.

We finally made it over to Wheeler Farm. We met my dad on his lunch break one afternoon and headed over. We hadn't been there since Mike's cycle cross season last year, but I was amazed at how much Maxman remembered (true, when we lived in Murray we would often stop over, but he was such a little guy!). So, with a year lapse, I thought his memory would be rusty.

I was completely wrong. When we drove into the parking lot, he said "are you going to sit on the green tractor or the yellow tractor?" (remembering one time when we'd sat across from each other on opposing tractors). He then managed to take me on a tour of the farm, which was pretty funny.
Max calls all tractor attachments a "combine harvester." He learned it from this truck book that he's memorized. Funny enough, my dad actually knows the actual names for all tractor attachments (thanks to those childhood days he spent on the farm in Tooele), so in this photo my dad is actually explaining what that attachment really does...

By the time we made it to the wagon ride, miss alex was hungry. Here's a half shot of that unhappy face.
Many, many hours were spent at this sandbox over the summer.
Trading glasses.
And my happy girl who LOVES seeing her daddy-o as soon as he walks in the door.