Out of the Office

Thank you for visiting the Orwin family blog. We are currently out of the office due to prearranged family time. Please stay tuned for photos and blogging about our exciting trip to the great state of Utah. See you next week.

PS If you have a moment to say a little prayer, we'd appreciate it. The last plane trip with Max ended with vomit and tears from both mother and son. Thanx.

Daddy Told Me To!

For the record, I was not an actual witness to the following events and am just retelling them as they were told to me.
The other night a friend and I went out for a girl's nite and I left my boys to fend for themselves. Evidently all went relatively well until bathtime. Max decided he didn't want one. Rather than obeying his father's request to get into the tub, Max instead ran off to find an adequate place to hide or something. Well Jeff filled up the tub and then went to go chase the clever, little fellow.
Jeff eventually found Max--sitting FULLY CLOTHED in the bath tub, grinning ear to ear and saying "Daddy, I wet!"
Boy, I can't wait to have TWO of them!!!

IT'S A ......

BOY!!!!!!!!

Yes we are having a baby boy. We had the big ultrasound this morning and everything looks good. Brain, heart, arms, legs, fingers, etc are all there and all looking good. This picture doesn't actually show his little boy parts, but there will be plently of time and opportunity for naked baby pictures later! We are very excited to have another boy. Now Max can be best pals with his new little brother.

We went out tonight to celebrate over ice cream sundaes at Baskin Robbins. It's been a good day.

Now we have to decide on a name. We already used our boy name on Max, so we have to come up with another one. Any suggestions, send them our way!

Kids Say the Darndest Things

Max talks a lot. I mean A LOT. Even if no one is listening, he always got a running monologue about something. Here are some of his latest phrases that we hear quite frequently. I tried to put them in his dialect, but I'm sure it's still cuter in person. It certainly is louder in person!

"How's it going, Daddy?" "How you doing?"
"Need some help here please."
"Mmmmm, dat's good stupp."
"I paying wif my grawp cubs." (playing with golf clubs)
"Oh my goodness!"
"I need to cry."
"Hush, I try to read!!"
"I workin on my compoodar."
"I a berry good helper Mama."
"Go to McDoonals for some hagrammer wif cheese."
"Need ketchup. Dip it wif da fren fries"
"I need have dat now, Mama."
"Hiya, stupid dog."
"I so cute. Berry handsome boy."
And my favorite...."My eyebows hurt."

My Daddy Dressed Me!

Dallas, Anyone?

Does anyone know anything about Dallas? Jeff has a week long conference there in August and has invited Max and I to join him. I hesitate to go on these kinds of trips b/c I know it will end up being just Max and I trying to drive each other crazy while Jeff is in meetings. So does anyone know of anything fun to do in the heat of August with a grumpy pregnant woman and a hyperactive two-year-old? Or should we just hang out here like we usually do?

Baseball Game

We have a minor league baseball team in our town and go to a couple of games a season. We went last weekend and here are some pictures. Max didn't really seem to care that there was a sporting event going on; he still thinks all the crowds are cheering for him! But he did once again prove himself a true fan of the game. Everytime the people clapped he would yell "Go Tigers!!" and once he got his nachos he was a happy guy. His Paw Paw would be so proud. Anyway, here are the promised pics. Enjoy.

Heat Wave

Our current heatwave is starting to cause blackouts in the area. We lost our electricity for several hours yesterday. Fortunately it didn't happen until around 7:30pm so we were past the worst part of the day (110 was our high yesterday). Max thought the blackout was great. We let him play outside until it was really dark and then we went inside and gave the kid a flashlight and he had a ball. I've never seen him so amused for such a long period of time. The only strange thing was that he seemed to think that because it was dark, he had to talk louder. I guess he thought he needed to yell in case we couldn't see him as well. It makes sense I guess. So last night wasn't too bad but I don't want to make a habit of losing electricity. It's quite inconvienient. And I'm certainly glad Jeff and I decided to get an air conditioner this year!
While I'm on the topic of weather, I just want to comment, "What is going on?" The elements are certainly in motion and it's getting pretty crazy. Between the fires, the tornados, the earthquakes, and the flooding it doesn't seem to be giving anybody a break. And here in the middle-of-nowhere desert we've had triple digit tempetures for nearly a month, 40-50mph winds constantly, and it hasn't rained since Thanksgiving (literally). I don't know what's going on, but it makes me concerned for the upcoming hurricane season. Nearly everyone I know, love, and/or am related to lives on the coast of something. You guys may have to evacuate to the desert one of these days. Just remember your sunscreen.

Ewwwww!

Mommy: Max, what's in your mouth?
Max: A bug
Mommy: What?
Max: I eat a bug.
Mommy: Why?
Max: It yummy.
Mommy: No, that's gross. We don't eat bugs.
Max: Oh.
Then he pulls the wings out of his mouth and hands them to me.

Now what?

His Life is Hard Work

Max made his first trip to Bounce U today. For those of you unfamiliar with Bounce U, basically it is a big inflatable playland for kids. I was a little uncertain about spending money to bring Max to a place like this because in the past he has been absolutely terrified of anything inflatable. But being the "good" mom that I am, I forked over the big bucks (it's actually not too expensive) and dragged him in.
As I expected he immediately began crying and clinging to me like a baby monkey. I had to pry his little fingers open to get him detached from my head. After he watched his friends playing for a few minutes in the little bouncer, he decided that must not be too bad. He finally climbed in it and surprised himself at how much fun it was.
After he got comfortable with that, I decided it was time for him to try the slide. So we started all over with the crying and the monkey climb until he decided he could try the slide. Once again it was a hit.
This is how it went all afternoon; moving from one thing to the next crying and then laughing, over and over again. My only regret of the day is that I didn't bring my camera. I did get a picture of him after we got home. As you can see the bouncing really wore him out. I think I'll have a pretty decent amount of nap time today, so I'm going to finish this post and enjoy the peace and quiet!

Had a Bad Day

Yesterday was not a good day. I was going to post pics of my bad day, but the camera has dead batteries (another thing to add to my list). What list you say....here you go.
1. Woke up at 4 A.M. and couldn't go back to sleep.
2. Found a dead rodent of some sort my my doorstep. Simon the cat needs to stop bringing presents.
3. Dog ate Max's $20 floaty swimsuit thingy. Can't go swimming again till we get a new one.
4. Max refused a nap and screamed for nearly an hour instead.
5. Max cried hard enough to make himself puke, one of his special talents. He chose to do this all over MY bed instead of his. Comforter will need specialized cleaning.
6. Pool sprung a leak and filled the sandbox with water. Backyard is now quite soggy. Need to by duct tape.
7. Lost my shoe AGAIN.
8. Oh and did I mention that Jeff is in Atlanta this week and there is no hope of my getting relief till Friday.
That's my list. Jeff did call last night and claimed to have had as bad of a day as I did, something about getting lost and being late and sitting through boring meetings and having to eat at a fancy restaurant or something. I told him when his bad days involved dead rats, vomit, and duct tape, he could talk to me about bad days!

By Self

"No mamma, by self" is heard around my house about a million times a day now. I know it's typical for this age and I usually go along with it even though it takes a hundred years to do anything (get dressed, brush teeth, eat, etc). Today at the park was much of the same.
Our park has two areas of playground equipment that each have four or five slides. Before today, Max had mastered all but one of the slides and spends most of his park time sliding down them screaming "By self!!" Well today he decided he was going to conquer the Big Slide. This slide is about 5 and a half feet high and you have to climb up this maze thing to get to it. Until this afternoon I didn't think he could even get to the top, much less be brave enough to slide down.
He did get to the top and I stood next to the slide and asked if he wanted help to slide down. Of course his response was, "No mamma, by self!" So I stood by gritting my teeth and feeling proud and a little sad that my little guy was getting so big and let him slide down himself. This seemed like the right thing to do, you have to let them grow up and be independent and try things on their own. Boy was I wrong!!
Max is a very small boy who only weighs 22 lbs with shoes on and the momentum he worked up as he slid down that slide was a little more than either of us had anticipated. Instead of slowing down at the bottom, he was lifted into the air and was catapulted several feet past the slide and landed face first in the sand.
We both froze for a second and then I picked him up. He had sand in his eyes, in his mouth, and up his nose. His little body was just trembling in my arms. I felt like such a jerk of a mom to have stood by and watched this happen. And then, and I'm not making this up, he looked at me with a quivering chin and tears in his eyes and said, "By self, I slide by self mamma" and then he started to cry.
Does that not just break your heart?
So at the end of the day we are both a little braver and a little wiser, so I suppose it is a good thing. Although I think he'll be sneezing sand for the rest of the week.