Smocking 101

Here is my first smocked outfit. Ann (Ben's mom) was so nice to show me how. She has a little machine that pleats the fabric. Then you watch a lot of Jane Austin movies and follow a pattern. It is really fun and I have another that I am working on for Christmas. He wore this on Sunday and I thought he looked so cute! This other one was an Easter present from Grandma Ann. Cute huh!

Rain Rain

The past few afternoons we have had some awesome thunderstorms roll by. Max and I got stuck in the rain one day and got very wet. It was lots of fun to teach him what rain was. He kept singing water, it was cute. So the next day when it rained he wanted to go outside and play in the rain again.




Don't you wish you were little again! I love the rain, I remember playing outside in the rain with my brother Mike. We lived at the bottom of a really big hill so the water would come rushing down the gutters. We both would sit or stand in the gutter and let the water run over our feet and play human dams. It was great.

Belated Birthday

We are back home sweating it out in Florida. It is so hot here! It was nice to experience a 40 degree temperature change. I love Utah in the spring time...the smells, the flowers and the cool morning air. Here it is just hot and humid ALL the time. No good smells like Utah or Hawaii. Mmmm, Hawaii...the ocean breeze, the plumeria trees and hibiscus. Every new place comes with their own sounds and smells. Florida sounds like loud thunder and frogs at night. I haven't figured out a smell yet.
So we are back home after a great trip to SLC. Max loved spending time with the grandparents and the dogs and I loved spending time with Ben, alone. It has been just over two month since Ben and I have had time to spend together without Max. It was so fun. Max had lots of fun going to the zoo and the park to feed the ducks. Jumping on the tramp and playing with the dogs. It was a good vacation and we look forward to another one soon. Hopefully the flight will be better next time around. Here is my theory on why that flight was so horrible. 1) All the flights before this one Max wasn't walking. 2) We woke him up from his nap early. 3) It was right during bedtime, which we though would be great cause he would just fall asleep. 4) I wasn't really prepared with the best toys or treats. At least the flight home was not as bad as the one going to SLC. Grandma Derrick bought Max a DVD player with some movies to watch on the way home which he loved. Thanks goodness for Signing Time. I came prepared with better snacks and toys and a squirt bottle! He did a lot better and I think having his own seat really help both of us out. It was great to not have to hold him the entire time and try to kept him from bothering the people next to us. All though the guy in front of us wasn't to keen about having Max sit behind him. He and his wife kept giving me the evil eye through the seat. What do they expect a one year old to do just sit there? It would be nice, but give me a break! Max would play with his tray table, stand up to look at the TV screen that was on the back of the headrest and bump the seat a little. I understand that this could get old and I did my best to control it. Hey at least he wasn't screaming his guts out! I would gladly trade him seats, hahaha.
While I was in SLC I got Max's birthday pictures from April that we left behind when we first came out here. I had his B-day party the day that we were leaving to move out here and I didn't have time to download the pictures. So here is Max's first birthday party.

Aunt Mieken, Uncle Mike, Uncle Jon and Grandma and Grandpa Derrick over for Max's party.




Max's birthday hat.

An airplane cake for Max and yummy cupcakes for everyone else. Mmmmm sugar rush just before we head to the airport.
Uncle Ted gave Max a snugly soft monkey for his birthday. Max found its nose. Max kept giving it hugs and kisses, totally unprompted, it was so cute! He would just snuggle it. Needless to say it is one of his favorite stuffies.

Terror Flight

Oh man! What a crazy flight we had last night. I can't believe that Ben and I are still alive. Max has always been such a good traveler. Walking on to the plane should have been my first indication of how the rest of the flight would be. Something just set him off and he cried the whole way down the isle to seat 40C, which is pretty much the back of the plane. Of course I was the last person to get on the plane and I know everyone was looking at me passing by thinking GREAT I hope she isn't my neighbor! I know because I used to be one of those people. Max thankfully stopped crying but he was super wiggly the entire time. I have never been so exhausted in my life. I tried everything I knew to keep him entertained. We did have some quiet times where he would sit and read some stories and I though he would doze off but it was just the calm before the storm. It was four hours and forty minutes of a sleep deprived, board, hyperactive child trying to be held in one position. Two things which are totally contradictory in my book. I can get Max to sit through the sacrament, not sacrament meeting, just the sacrament and that is all. He is not one to sit and be held. All and can say, and Ben would totally disagree, is that I was so glad that he was there to share my pain! So what things keep your children entertained? Ben keeps saying NyQuil over and over but I think that it would have the opposite effect on Max. I need some tricks now cause I am not looking forward to the return flight!!

¿Cómo se dice beach ?

On Saturday we went to New Smyrna Beach again but this time we had friends. These are our neighbors from Columbia! Senor Roger, senora Syda and senor Roger peqeño. They speak very little English and we speak even less Spanish but somehow we manage to communicate. Our conversations consist of two dictionaries and charades. Ben met Roger and little Roger at the pool on afternoon with Max. About a month later Ben went over to their house with a calendar and a dictionary to figure out when would be a good time to have dinner together. After two hours Ben came home and said dinner was next week. It was six o'clock and dinner was right on time. Usually I am way ahead or way behind on dinner but tonight I was right on time. 6:20, 6:30 and nobody yet. Ben and I laughed and said maybe our communication was wrong and we got the dates mixed up or something. No they were just an hour late. Aside from that we had a good time. Max slept the whole time and little Roger watched Stuart Little. We laughed showed pictures and had a good time. Roger says that Ben is his English teacher and I look like Miss America. Aren't they nice? Any one who says I look like a Miss America is my friend. They have lived here about a year. We don't know any details but in a nutshell they had to move away from Columbia for their safety and they came here not knowing any English (leaving their jobs behind, Syda was an accountant and Roger served in Iraq and was an Engineer). Syda works 60 hours a week for minimum wage and Roger just got layed off. We all have our own trials but I would not like to go through what they went through. Anyway we went to the beach on Saturday and had lots of fun. Little Roger was really scared of the ocean and Max loved it. We saw dolphins swimming and jumping. I just followed Max around while he looked at sea shells, did hand stands on his head and played in a little water pool.

Little Roger is 3 and isn't to found of Max since Max is always trying to play with his toys. Max commandeered Roger's beach chair but he was nice and let him sit in it. Big Roger always like to point out how dark he is compared to Ben and Max. Here he is showing the contrast.

We had lots of fun and we love being in a beach state!

Toys

Max is so disenchanted with baby toys. He likes them but he like things like vacuums and hairdryers so much more. I don't get it...anything but toys! His number one thing that he LOVES is the vacuum cleaner. He will stand at the closet door, knock on it and rub his chest saying please for the vacuum (along with a very agitated whine). Other things that are on the top of the list are the hairdryer, iron, sonic toothbrush, water spray bottle, egg beater, broom and of course our cell phones. He also loves to help me do the dishes! I put dishes in and he takes them out. Just the sound of the dishwasher door opening and he comes running. I guess it is a baby thing...anything that we use seems so much better to them.