Easter & Alabama

The bunny at the YMCA. Max is clearly thrilled.

I have dyed eggs with Anderson every year at Easter & each time I think he might be a little interested and then I am proven wrong. He kept begging to destroy the eggs & I finally let him. My rationale is that it is his childhood and if destroying eggs is the tradition he wants to start, I am ok with that. I LOVE hard boiled eggs, but it grosses me out to eat decorated ones, so I am just going to throw them away anyway.

We had an egg hunt with some friends at Noni's house. Do I just invite myself & friends over to my mom's house regularly, you ask? Yes. Of course I do. You would do this also if you had my mom as your mother. 

How fun are these kiddos? I love Anderson's themed shirt provided by GG. She loves a theme, too!

This was from a few weekends ago, but I wanted to capture another one of Max's cute outfits (Bobble Cole consignment sale shops) & his adorable grin.

A bit out of order....Noni & the boys at the YMCA egg hunt. I love my mom as an integral part of my kids' childhood. I also love those cookies with the icing & sprinkles.

We went to Alabama for Easter, which was so much fun! I love, love spending time with my Alabama family & to crash on a holiday had a nice twist to it. We sent the Easter Bunny an email to let him know where to find us & it looks like he made it!

Anderson said his favorite thing was his new* book, which made a certain Easter Bunny so pumped.

*Not new at all. I got it for $1 at the used book sale at the library. I am a year long clearance shopper & always have a stash of little things for stockings & random holiday treats, which means the book might have been the most expensive thing in the basket. He also loves the Jelly Bean fishing pole thing & I am super thankful he does not actually like jelly beans because I bought it on clearance last year & he should probably not eat them.

Thank goodness we found Max's real mom while we were there. Seriously, she would be the most awesome mom to have-she cooked a delicious Easter lunch, plays with my children, is always dressed super cute and has way more patience than I can imagine ever having. It is a matter of time before Max refuses to leave with me.

I look at this picture and I think, which one of these is not like the others? 

We had a massive egg hunt with the cousins & Anderson did pretty well because Kyler figured out which ones had money in them & traded all of the other ones to Anderson. Poor Noah only ended up with about $2, I think. If you love Anderson's shirt (& basket), you can thank GG!

Max pretty much destroyed Kyler's basket. He stayed pretty occupied during lunch, which was amazing.

How super cute is my family??

KYLER IS 18!! How did that happen....

I mean, they are troopers. Anderson is what one might call Intense, or Super Intense, just depending on how you look at it. Yet, my brother & nephews stepped it up the entire weekend & played like crazy with him. He would totally stay there & never come home with me.

GG got him this adorable outfit (there is a theme here) on sale last year not anticipating his chubbiness, so it barely fit him, but he sure looked cute shoved in there! I just love his little face & hair & basically everything about him. 

Anderson had my camera when we were packing up & took about 900 pics. 

Because I'm happy.

I truly am happy. It is a nice place to be. Last year was rough times with the whole career change with no warning to a job 45 minutes away, oh, and a pregnancy thrown in, just for fun. (I have no idea how to punctuate that sentence)

Hear me correctly: I loved being pregnant, I enjoyed my job last year, PHS is a great place to be, blah, blah, blah. 

But, it was stressful & challenging & just plain hard. 

Now, I'm good. I work many late nights, my dogs are crazy, I hate bills, I might never actually work out again and my entire house has a thin layer of sticky all over it, but I feel like I am in a room without a roof. Ha ha. But, no really. This is a good place to be. 

If this is a sign of things to come with these 2, we are going to be entertained/exhausted in our future. 

 This is the true story of my AMAZINGLY talented brother in law! He did this for the Market Square Chalk Walk & I am beyond impressed!

 Everyone is so happy that it is finally springtime. Anderson has been begging to play in his sandbox for years it seems like and Max just wants to climb up & down the ladder.

Someone is beyond spoiled. In addition to many basketball games, GG has now switched to playing teeball with Anderson!

But, the greatest show of spoiled rotten is the fact that these boys are truly lucky beyond belief to have so many grandparents in the front row at teeball games. Amazing. 

 Dinner and baseball date with Bop!

So, Clare grew these...what on earth. How is she even friends with me when I can offer nothing in return??

I made him! From nothing but a pile of clay! We have an amazing art teacher who had enough patience to let me spend 3 a day for about 4 weeks working on this. I don't really have a "lunch break" or a "5 consecutive minutes without a million fires happening" break, so it took many days, but I finished him & I love him! The blue glasses are a shout out to a bug, the crown is for my king of the wild things & the facial hair is for the hot hubs (who actually had shaved by the time I finished, but whatever.)

If happiness is not high quality mom pics like this, I don't know what is.

First haircut for my little blond guy. I mean, I literally cannot get enough.

To say it was time would be an understatement. 

Jpa came to cheer on soccer & help entertain a certain running everywhere Mr.

 Nothing makes me happier than watching Brandon help Anderson at his "games." Their interactions are so sweet and precious and Brandon is so patient. I knew he was the right choice when I first spotted him leaning on the wall at TGI Friday's and I am pretty glad we are still in this together almost 12 years later.

I love my children. #theykeepmeonmytoes

This? Happiness. 

The kid in the green glasses.

Just as it always does, the artwork hanging outside the classroom caught my eye. I began scanning the pictures looking for his name, not noticing the details of the pictures at first. Upon closer reflections, I realized there was a jumbled mess of "the same"-eyes, peachy circles, blobs of hair. 

"Maybe he didn't do one," I thought. "It must have been a project on a day he wasn't here."

And, then...this. 

My heart skipped a bit at this face. 

So many emotions. 

That is my kid; The kid in the green glasses is mine. 

Every single other picture could be any kid in the class-2 dot eyes, a line of hair, routine kid faces. 

But, there is no mistaking those green circles.

"He did a great job, didn't he?" asked the teacher. "He really captured himself."

Did she feel what I did? 

HE DOESN'T HAVE A PATCH ON IN HIS SELF PORTRAIT. 

And, he is very proud to be rocking some awesome green glasses.

This will be framed, in my house, for the rest of my life. 

 I am so crazily torn up about this picture because I had no inking that we would ever be at the point* where we are now.

*The point=patching vacation, "guaranteed success", amazing because my kid doesn't even see the patch as a part of who he is.

Please remember that the first PO we saw flat out said, "He will never be normal" in reference to my baby son. "He will never see well out of his left eye, he will probably not drive & he will always wear incredibly thick lensed glasses that make him look like a bug." (She did no say the bug part, but she might as well have said it because that is what everyone was thinking) I still shudder at this woman who very clearly was not a mother because WHO SAYS THAT TO SOMEONE?? 

My fear (beyond the whole blindness thing) was that he would be made fun of, that he would be "the kid in the glasses."

It turns out I was right. 

"That kid in the green glasses is fearless! He would run through a brick wall if he needed to!" was a comment I overheard at a soccer game. 

Followed by, "Watch how fast that kid in the green glasses is when he runs."

And, then there were the comments at t ball.

 "You have to be quick when that kid in the glasses is around if you want to get the ball."

"I think that kid in the glasses is going to get the ball every time."


Hmmm.

I didn't quite (ever in my wildest dreams) imagine that these would be the "glasses" comments I would hear.

Clearly my kid's ability to occasionally get the ball at a "game" is not any indicator of his later success as an athlete or scholar or non-nose picker, but it is an indicator that he is beyond amazing for overcoming a significant vision problem, access to only one eye for the majority of his life and, let's be honest, a neurotic mother.

I am so proud of him.

Turns out, Dr. Cogen is proud, too! We had our latest visit & Anderson was called a, "star patient." He truly was so good-answered all of the questions like a champ, posed for a pic with Dr. Cogen and most adorably, told Max, "I will be with you if you need eye surgery."*

*Max better NOT ever need eye surgery, but it was sweet.

We were told to only patch 2 hours a day & I asked if the margaritas are free on our resort vacation island (they are); he said no rec specs yet, a decrease in his prescription (we want this), 30% chance of strabismus (worst case scenario is eye muscle surgery, but he does not seem too concerned) and to come back in a few months because we are living in the "GUARANTEED SUCCESS" world and loving it!

So lucky to have this kid in the green glasses as my own:)

He is on the move.

Last weekend Max decided to start walking. I mean, he just up and decided it was time. Here is a little video of him taking a few steps. Now, he is walking everywhere. It is crazy.

Max walking to Anderson

Max-11 months

 Playing Peek A Boo.

 He is not really what you would call a "sitter." He can stand alone for a few seconds and has taken up to 5 steps at a time by himself!

 Anderson literally never held his own bottle, so this is beautiful.

Just one of many pairs of matching pajamas to come....

To be honest, he is even cuter in person.

Trying to put Anderson's glasses one day. NOT COOL, MAX!!

*This is the age where Anderson started patching, so I am extra sensitive to this situation. Patching. Right now. At this age. Wow.

I am still thinking about it. I might have to make a comment in each of the next posts for about 4 years, but I will never be able to get over the fact that we patched Anderson at this age. I am truly in awe of us.

What does Max like, you ask? 

These things:

-BALLS of all kinds

-Water

-Me*

-Truman Monkey Lovey

*I might be last on that list, but thought I would at least place myself 3rd. 

Hmmm. I am trying to think of some good info about him. He is a pretty good sleeper-bed about 7:30, up at 6 (he even occasionally sleeps through the night! woo hoo) and takes 2 45ish minute naps each day. We are working on the real food thing, but he will eat most fruit, cheese, cheerios, spaghetti and soups. I am determined that he will like at least one of the following; hot dogs, hamburgers, eggs, oatmeal, lunchmeat, mashed potatoes, or any other normal kid food.  I will literally feel like I have won a parenting award if I ever have a kid that eats a hot dog. 

 A visit to the zoo with Noni & Bop where Max and the beaver became great buddies. Nicole & I have decided that our personalities are really like beavers and not in a good way. We are ALWAYS going, constantly hoarding sticks in case we need a dam one day, not noticing that just down the path, the otters are hanging out without a care in the world. We need to remind each other to be otters occasionally or we might go crazy.

JPa's birthday was a few weeks ago and poor JPa was a bit under the weather, but he still wanted a Max snuggle. Because, let's be honest, who doesn't?

He will basically snuggle with any grandparent he can find. 

 GG will always give these boys the cutest outfits and, based on her choices, she loves holiday themes as much as I do!

 I cannot handle the cuteness. The blond, crazy haired cuteness.

 The boys tagged along while I "worked" a softball game at Powell. It is crazy how God knew I was going to have boys and made sure I snagged a job that allows me to expose them to a high number of sporting events.

 Max will try to make anything a basket to throw a ball into, which proves how much he is learning from Anderson. He spends so much time trying to make this ball into the basket and I don't have the heart to tell him that it is probably not going to happen.

 Why do my children never have on pants?

 I tried unsuccessfully* to leave Max in the childwatch at the YMCA so we could take the older boys swimming. I had to bring him in the pool with us and after splashing after a ball for a bit, I am pretty sure he is never going to stay in there again since he thinks this is what we are doing while he is not with us.

*I found him laying face down in a pool of tears & snot while moaning pitifully. If he wasn't such a faker, I would have felt sorry for him.

These boys. Sigh. 

 A visit with the BFF, Lucy! This grown up girl is walking everywhere & it is so adorable to watch!

 Apparently some babies don't have hair....and then there are my children who need haircuts within the first months of their lives.

He has blond hair. I will never get used to this.

Sweet Kennadee at the Publix! Marisa & I have totally arranged their marriage so it is a good thing they are getting used to running errands together.