Pixapalooza

Whoa ... just realized it's been awhile since we updated this. The past couple months have flown by, with the holidays, our trip to Texas and getting back into the daily grind here. Daddy has been slammed at work too ... he needs another vacation already!

So here's a big photo dump from the past month, featuring some shots with Joi's new Nikon D60.

Here's an instant classic with Paw-Paw, Max and GJ:


Max has gotten into astronauts and spaceships ... so he got Buzz Lightyear for Christmas!


Max and Diego rockin' out.


Some shots at Paw-Paw and GJ's house in Texas.




Checking out a present from Grandma ...




Max also knows several yoga poses ... here's Warrior 2 at Grandma's house.


After getting a new haircut ...


The Beene boys ...


With big Sam Houston near Huntsville, TX ...

Playing with the jack in Paw-paw's shop ...



We're in Texas ... gotta drive a tractor around!

Beatles & Birds

As we've mentioned before, Max is turning out to be quite a musician. Whenever I pick up my guitar, he picks up his and goes to strumming. He walks around singing all kinds of random songs, sometimes making up his own lyrics. Lately, he's gotten into the Beatles and he loves "Ob-La-Di-Ob-La-Da" and "Bungalow Bill". Whenever I come walking in from the bus and have my headphones on, he immediately wants to put them on listen and dance around. You can see he and I rockin' out below, and him getting his groove on to the Fab 4.

Another recent Max obsession: puzzles. He loves them. He'll sit and do 4 or 5 of them (the 24-piece kind) in a row. I help him a little, but he mostly does them "all by myself" ... as he likes to shout when he's done. One funny thing recently: His friend Diego was over for a playdate the other day and he and Max were doing a puzzle together. Joi said she heard Max telling Diego "So look, the ones with the straight edges go on the outside" and "Match up the colors" ... all the things I say to him when we do puzzles together. My little puzzle protege.


And he's also starting a typical boy phase: dinosaurs. He can point out the names of 8-10 different ones. Tonight at the dinner table, he told me that I was a triceratops and he was a spinosaurus. I'm not sure that at 3-years-old I knew what a spinosaurus was. He's really turning a corner ...

'Tis the Season

What a difference a year makes for Max and Christmas. Last year, Santa kinda freaked him out. This year, it's all he talks about. He walks around saying "It's going to be Christmas soon ..." and talking about the toys he wants. He's seen him a couple times at Swanson's Nursery, along with the reindeer and Curly the camel. Santa (and his load of presents) is pretty powerful bargaining chip with a child once he gets the concept of "who's naughty and who's nice."

On another note: Max is constantly saying the most random things at the most random times, like today, he had slept in our bed. He rolled over and looked at me and the first words out of his mouth were: "Daddy, do you have an electric toothbrush?" It just goes to show that you can never truly understand what's going through a toddler's mind and any given moment. Here's some pics of our tree, Max with Santa and the reindeer ... and the new cooktop and butcher block I put in this week! Yay for gas cooking!

King of the Wild Frontier

Max (aka Davey Crockett) had an eventful Halloween. On Friday, he went to a party at ELDC, then to an old folks home, and finally visiting Joi's co-workers. Then on the big day, we went to the library (this time in his cowboy outfit), then stopped to say hi to his neighbor friend Mason (some kind of superhero), then on to the Licton Springs neighborhood fest to meet up with his friend Spike (a little devil), Diego (a baseball player), and Elana (a puppy dog), where they got some candy, saw some skits and music and ran through the woods. Then off to trick-or-treat on a few blocks of our neighborhood Maple Leaf. Max's costume, often confused for Daniel Boone or a mountainman or a hunter, was a big hit. Max even learned the song from the old TV show. Enjoy!

Buggin' Out

Max and daddy had a creepy, crawly time at the Seattle Bug Safari downtown. It was basically a big room with lots of aquariums filled with exotic bird-eating tarantulas, giant Amazonian cockroaches, yellow centipedes and bright blue beetles. Max loved using his magnifying glass to see them and especially the flashlight to shine under the rocks where the big scorpions were hiding. Afterward, we walked over to the Pike Place Market and checked out the mob of tourists and had some yummy things to munch on. A fun day all around! Max's funniest line of the day: "When I grow up, I can crawl in there and eat the millipede's food!"

Max's 3rd birthday

Max had great fun at his birthday party with 10 of his friends from pre-school, daycare and other assorted ways. We ate mini-cupcakes, bowled for prizes, whacked on a pinata (that eventually broke with a little adult assistance) and played some in the backyard. Max's favorite present came from his freind Jonas ... a Batman helicopter! Super cool!

Hello, Cleveland!

After taking a break to work on other "side projects", Max returned to the stage to perform two of his latest favorites: Miss Mary Mack (with handclaps) and Twinkle, Twinkle, Traffic Light.