20×2 7.0: What If?

20×2 was tonight, and I was #8 in the lineup. Max and I created the movie below, and it was shown tonight… the “world premiere” if you will. Here is it, if you want to check it out. I was thrilled that people laughed in the right spots, and it got some big applause afterwards.\
A huge thank you to the star of the movie, Max, for sitting through my silly questions and giving such thoughful answers. I’ll try to put together an outtake package of the stuff that was funny but didn’t quite fit into the 2 minutes. But, right now, it’s sleepytime!\

<embed src=”http://www.vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=153002″ quality=”best” scale=”exactfit” width=”400″ height=”300″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash”></embed>
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<a href=”http://www.vimeo.com/clip:153002″>20×2 2007: What If We Put Max in Charge?</a> on <a href=”http://www.vimeo.com/”>Vimeo</a>

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Categorized as Max, sxsw

Max Loves the Wii

Since we were out of town for Christmas, we had a New Years Eve Gift-Giving Extravaganza at my parents’ last night. Aaaand, my mom got us boys (Brian, Max and me) a Wii! We hooked it up in their basement to try it out, and Max is hooked. I took a little video of Max playing Wii Sports Boxing to show just how hooked the boy is (and I’m playing with Dreamhost’s new flash movie stuff):

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Calvin and Hobbes

Show Me Your "Tiger" Face

The boys were the illustrious Calvin and Hobbes for Halloween this year (Max’s idea). Max was actually dual costumed, being both Calvin (seen here) and Spaceman Spiff. Lots and lots of pictures are over here. Brian totally dug Halloween and lasted much longer than Max when it came to trick-or-treating. His bucket came back full and then he hung out with us on the step stealing candy from his Aunt Heather and trying to blow out the candles in the jack-o-lanterns. Fun was had by all.

Kevin!

My husband comes home today! Yippeee! And there is a new Supernatural episode on tonight! Yippeee! And Max has been cleared of all breathing/lung/pneumonia/coughing problems! Yippeee! And I am going out to lunch today. Yippeee! Did I mention that my husband is coming home tonight? Yippeee! And he will probably be willing to watch Supernatural with me. Super yippeee!\
It is ok that NONE of you commented on my awesome link in my previous post. Really, I don’t need validation for the effort I put into this blog. Really, I don’t. I am fine. Just keep reading and not leaving comments. It’ll be ok. No skin off my nose…

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Categorized as Kevin, Max, tv

The boys

Random stories:\
I got tired and dizzy playing ring-around-the-rosie with Brian, so I transitioned us into a new game: I would dance in one spot while he ran around me. This morphed into us just dancing. At one point, I got really into the music and started getting crazy. I ran my fingers through my shoulder length hair and pulled upword, so my hair was standing on end with my fingers tugging to the beat. A moment later I looked down and saw B pulling on his short hair too, trying to dance the way I was.\
Brian turned down a chocolate chip granola bar for an apple & cinnamon rice cake at snack time. The boy is whack. Maybe he pulled too hard on his hair.\
Max started and finished his first fictional chapter book today, all 235 pages. Hurray! This makes me deliriously happy.

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Categorized as Brian, Max

Brian’s 2 year old check up

Height- 37 1/4 inches, 97%\
Weight- 36.1 lbs, 100%\
Head circ- 20 1/2 inches, 100%\
Brian is a little shorter than Max was at this age. If we estimate their heights according to the old wives’ tale of doubling their height when they are 2, Max will be 6’4 and Brian will be over 6’2.\
Brian is healthy- yay. He is behind in his speech development, however. Brian was nervous and wouldn’t talk to the doctor at all, answer any of her questions, or follow any of her directions. She said he should be talking more, putting together word combinations, and using personal pronouns. If he isn’t doing this by the end of the summer, we should have him reevaluated for speech therapy. Also I was scolded for him not knowing his animal sounds. Right now my mom is thinking, “those damn animal sounds again!” I still have the animal toy, so I don’t know what Brian’s problem is. Heh.\
No shots this time. And he still isn’t allowed to have peanut products. (Hear that, Babba?)\
Ha, I kind of want to tag this as “development” but I don’t think that is how Kevin uses the development tag.

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Long-ass life update

Brian has completely left babyhood and has entered toddlerville. He’s the big T-W-O now! He has tantrums, gets into all sorts of trouble, and tries to do please-let-me-have-my-way, puppy dog eyes. When it doesn’t work, he laughs sheepishly. So adorable. He watches Blues Clues, loves bubbles and drawing. He loves his blankets, but isn’t really into stuffed animals. At the end of the day, his feet stink-eww, the number one sign that he isn’t a baby anymore. He can say: ball, bubble, apple, moon, car, and sign more. That one sign was a huge wahoo! moment for us. Mostly he just points vigorously. Apparently I have watched too much Prison Break while Brian is around, because he sneaks into the dishwasher for a butter knife and then proceeds to slip it into the window casing. Silly kid. He is a great helper and assists with the dishes, laundry, and putting trash in the trash can. I know he will grow out of this soon, so I am taking advantage of it. I can’t put dishes into the dish washer when he is around though, because he keeps trying to “help” me by putting the dirty dishes away and then he cries in frustration. So I just wait until bedtime and then procrastinate doing them anyway. Heh.\
Max is a kid, no longer a baby or a toddler. A real kid. At six, he is one of the smartest people I know. (Which, I only know like four people, so take that for what it is worth.) He is very creative and lovable and tall and funny. He started soccer this Spring. He has been really enjoying it, but is really bad at it. I read somewhere there is a Fall league; I am going to sign him up for it too. I also want to get him into karate. Maybe take it with him, as a mom/son bonding activity. I don’t want to hit or kick blocks of wood though. Hmm, do you think he’d be embarrassed to take karate with me?\
Kindergarten finishes up in 2 weeks, then I am enrolling Max in summer camp. They have all sorts of cool activities and field trips planned. It sounds like a lot of fun. So only 2 more weeks of Max only having half-days away from me. Soon he’ll be spending as much time away from the home as he does at home, awake. Eep! I still have things to tell him: don’t eat before you swim, always wear sunscreen, and it’s okay to use some phrases ironically like “raise the roof” but when in doubt just don’t. Speaking of talks, I was giving Max a refresher about people not seeing/touching/showing private parts and penises and Max was all, “I know, Mom” with an eye-roll tone-of-voice.\
I am a mom of two real kids now. They interact like real people. I even have to seperate them sometimes! It’s odd and cool, at the same time.\
I am at home, as usual. Now that Brian is officially no longer a baby, I have been looking into doing some volunteer work. The local shelter doesn’t need any help right now. Isn’t that just bizarre and, I suppose, a good thing? The Red Cross is currently at the top of my list, but I am not sure what to do with Brian. I think I may have to put this off for a few more years. I can’t find a daycare place that will let me do a half-day. Their definition of part time is all day Tuesday and Thursday. Eh. I guess I could go that route, and then just pick up Brian early. We’ll see. Money is meant to be spent, right?\
I am also looking into joining a gym, one that has daycare attached. That way, I can sit in the locker room for an hour each morning and have some peace. Ha! I am going to make Kevin come with me. Ideally, I’d like someplace with an indoor track, but they seem to be in short supply.\
My biggest dream right now is to spend 24 hours in bed with Kevin, only getting up to answer the door for takeout and for the bathroom. I have been trying to finagle this for over a year now, since I stopped nursing Brian, but so far no luck. We’ll lie in bed together, watch movies, eat takeout, listen to music, take a nap, talk, and it will be marvelous. Ahhh. Doesn’t that sound nice?\
My BFF was telling me that a lot of her friends are constantly fighting with their husbands. I said “I’m not.” She said, “I know. You don’t have to convince me of that because I know.” Isn’t that a great compliment? I am not sure how or why I got so lucky with Kevin. We have a great marriage and I am so thankful for him. Maybe because we are sometimes laid-back about the same things (how to spend money, the house) and other times only one of us really cares about other things (where to vacation, what kind of car to buy). Whatever, it works. Viva la KevandJen!\
Most of my tv watching happens between 6am-10am when I am awake but don’t want to be and the brain isn’t functioning yet. Thank heavens for Tivo, so I don’t have to watch The Today Show. Tivo is also how I am able to provide you such witty and purposeful tv commentary like I sometimes do. I know you are all appreciative even if you don’t comment. Jerks. Hey, there is a new show starting in a couple of weeks called Wind Fall. I expect it to be bad, but since this is summer hiatus, I will take anything.\
Kevin has started traveling for work again. He didn’t finish his physical therapy before the travels kicked up. I am not sure whether he will start it again or not. He is supposed to be home most of the summer, so maybe that is something he will look into. He has been really busy, happy, and successful with work. So busy in fact, we haven’t had the time to buy the new-to-us car we’ve decided to get. Sad, isn’t it? Yea, I don’t know what else is going on with him. Read his blog to the right <———— to learn more. 🙂

Speaking of crappy tv…

Here is some kiddie TMI. Max has been having a frequent urination problem for the last month. He has to go about every 10 minutes and it is causing a lot of problems. His poor teacher has called me three times about it. I took him to the doctor immediately after the first call, but the doc didn’t do anything except determine Max didn’t have a UTI. We went again, this time to see our regular caretaker. She was very thorough and even sussed out that he had strep throat even though he didn’t have any symptoms! Yay for her. We love her. I should totally send her a muffin basket. Anyway, after some X-rays, it was determined Max was constipated. Poor kid. After a week of prune juice and 4 days of a prescription laxative, he finally pooped lastnight. Twice. Yay for doodoo! Brian keeps sneaking off with the prune juice, so his diapers have been extra full lately. So, in essence, yay for poop.\
ETA- wow, there isn’t a poop tag already set. That is really funny to me considering the family I married into. I joke that the Lawver Sr family motto is “It all comes down to poop with this family” because whenever the four kids (who are all adults, actually) get together, stories get a little personal. Heh.

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Weekend Update

Max had another soccer game on Saturday. He has so much fun there, I have to recommend it to all parents of young children. It is so much more interactive and physically demanding than tee-ball or little league. (It’s practically non-stop running for an hour, instead of standing around waiting to bat or for someone to hit the ball your way.) It’s kind of hard to watch though, because he tends to stop paying attention. Which is fine since he is only 6, except I want him to pay attention and get better. But I don’t want to be one of those overzealous parents you hear so much about. In practice all of the boys seem to be getting better at the basic skills, but come game time, they just kind of do a “Lord of the Dance” imitation when they get near the ball. If the teams kept score, you’d note that they are relatively high-scoring though because 1) we don’t use goalies and 2) once a kid makes a good kick, he can usually follow it through to the goal because there is almost no defense on the field.\
Yesterday was the first day in nearly a week that I didn’t have a horrible headache plaguing me all day. Also, Kevin only worked 11 hours. Coincidence? I think not.\
Tonight is the series finale of 7th Heaven. Sniff. Let’s all take a moment to reflect on this horribly written and horribly acted show. The fans will miss the many non-interesting story lines filled with hypocrisy, manipulation, backstabbing, and outright lying. I guess they’ll just have to pay more attention to the Bush Administration to get their fill from now on.\
In Brian news, he has been wearing only one sandal for almost 2 hours. I don’t know why.\
Kevin told me he gets teased by coworkers about my numerous Veronica Mars posts. Hmm, I guess this means I shouldn’t post my thoughts on under-wire bras.