I'm melting

I made Max some popsicle's the other day. I just crushed some peaches and put the juice in water. Made some with watermelon juice too..those actually had a little flavor. The first day he loved them..now they last about 5 minutes and he loses interest. I figured they'd feel good on his crazy big top teeth coming in (see below at the freaky picture).

Most of you know I hate being hot. This 109 degree weather is not helping. I hate it!!!!Yes, we have AC here, but there is no point in going outside when it's this hot (unless you're swimming). I'm just really ready for winter. Oh how I love the cold weather! This is one of my favorite poems as a child. And, it's sort of what I feel like now. Bleaghhhh!

It’s Hot!

By Shel Silverstein

It’s hot!I can’t get cool,

I’ve drunk a quart of lemonade,

I think I’ll take my shoes off

And sit around in the shade.

It’s hot!My back is sticky,

The sweat rolls down my chin.

I think I’ll take my clothes off

And sit around in my skin.

It’s hot!I’ve tried with ‘lectric fans,

And pools and ice cream cones.

I think I’ll take my skin off

And sit around in my bones.

It’s still hot!

Class picture

The Vallejo Times-Herald did an article about Erik's paramedic class. Click here to read the article (it's short, but really nice). They didn't have pictures online so I took a picture of the paper. It's a little blurry but you get the idea. Max made it in too! (He really liked the guy next to him). In the caption, it said "Erik Mrazek with baby Max"...my boys are so cute.

First Day of School here too!

Today was Erik's first Day of Paramedic school!! He was such a good sport at letting me take a picture of him. This class is offered by Napa Valley College and it is the first time they have ever held a paramedic course. We heard about it about a year ago and have been waiting for it to start. Erik finally heard, in July, they were accepting applications. Erik got the (huge) application packet together and had to start the testing within about a week. The testing and interview process took a couple weeks and Erik learned there were about 100 applicants..... there were only 12 spots available for the class. After passing the written test, he had to pass a skills test, then move onto an oral interview in front of a panel of directors.

He got a call within three days of the oral interview that he passed with very high scores. They offered him a position as a paramedic student and he happily accepted. The class is being held at the Fire Department in American Canyon. Today was the welcome luncheon and Max and I were able to attend. He cuddled into Erik's arms and was immediately named the class mascot.

The classroom was packed with supporters. There were representatives from several fire departments around the bay area, professors, instructors, photographers, reporters..the list goes on. Apparently this NVC class has been in the works for quite some time and has the support of many state fire chiefs and multiple types of medical personnel. We met some very nice and encouraging people.

The students were very motivated as were the families that we met at the luncheon. It will be a fun group to get to know over the next year and a half. We are so proud of Erik and all of his hard work and dedication to his field. Good luck with your class, we'll be by your side 110%! We love you!

2008 Summer Olympic Games

We've had a lot of fun watching the Olympic Games this year. It's fun to watch USA get the gold so often. They deserve it though, they train so hard and are so dedicated to their sport. I bet it feels great to have a gold medal placed around your neck. Erik and I are always amazed that these athletes make their sport look so easy.
The 1984 Games were probably my favorite. They were held in Los Angeles, when we lived down there. I remember pretending I was Mary Lou Retton ,with my sisters and friends who thought the same thing, and trying to bend our bodies like her. We would copy floor routines and pretend the back of our couch was the balance beam. We'd spend hours in the pool trying to master synchronized swimming and diving. It was a lot of fun.

My Dad was able to volunteer at the games and when I think of it now, what an amazing thing to do! I remember he had to wear a teal-ish blue coat and had a specific tie to match. We would be asleep before he'd make it home at night but there was always a treat for us the next morning. Apparently he had access to all the free M&M's and Snicker's he wanted. (That is really cool when you're seven!) We had a freezer full of candy. We did get to tour the stadiums and he got a lot of souvenir's. I found my postcard he mailed me from the Village. We all got one and I thought I mine was the best because it has a swimmer on the front.

(note the mailing date---I pulled this out of a photo album last night! weird!)

Congrats to the USA athletes! We're rooting for you!

Bite me

Obi got a new toy. Get it? I think she likes Jacob...in that furry sort of way (which by the way, I'm taking my time reading BD but I did read a spoiler earlier today. What the...? Creepy.)
Now that Max can crawl (fast!) he is learning to use his muscles to pull himself up. The latest is standing in his crib and reaching for anything that can be pulled to the floor. Cd's, clothing, sheets, bowls, and now books. He tasted every book before he dropped it.

This is just a fun video. Playing fetch. Maybe he will be the next David Beckham.

Like Father, Like Son

"Hey everybody....

... I can crawl !!! "Max has really taken off with the crawling thing. Literally. The video below is day two of crawling and he's becoming more confident everyday. I had to persuade him with "Douglas" his most favorite monkey. (It really is. If you ask him where Douglas is, he will look around and dive for him when he finds him). It also shows how Max eats everything...including the camera.

ignore his bedhead. i do.

Model Crawler

Max has been on the verge of crawling for about a month now. We have seen him move a little but we know he can do it on his own. Twice now he's moved around without us watching. Once in his room, he got stuck behind his bedroom door, and yesterday on the kitchen floor. I call him the closet crawler.

Yesterday he gave himself his first fat lip. I don't know how it happened but he hit his lip on a pizza stone in the kitchen (the kitchen is not child proof yet). He bled and screamed. I laughed and called my Mom. It's fine today just a red mark on his upper lip. It matches the ones on his forehead.

Okay, here's the big story. As most of you know we are house hunting. Today we went to a few open houses then tortured ourselves into looking at model homes. Way out of our price range, but so fun to dream. The first model we looked at had great carpeting so we put Max on the floor to test it out. Then we saw it. He came out of his crawling closet. He crawled all over that model living room. It was so adorable.

Off to child proof....

Garden Babies

We've had pretty good luck with our garden this year. we're happy with it anyway. We've had a lot of good tomatoes, hot and sweet peppers, lemon cucumbers, Kohl Rabi, radishes, ....and we tried a carrot and corn recently too. Here are some "babies" just starting to grow. They are so cute! Teeny tiny cucumber. The only other one we have is about 5 inches long and about and inch or so wide. Almost ready to pick! There are about 5-6 babies like this one.
These are baby lemon cucumbers. YUM! We've had a ton of these already, the plant took over half of the raised bed and the fence close by. There is one at the bottom of the yellow flower and another just touching the fence post.
Little zucchini. Not as cute but still nice and little. Erik grilled these one night on the Q. Double YUM!
This is my favorite. We gave up on the watermelon plant and whah-lah! We now have a four foot plant! This tiny baby watermelon is about the size of my thumbnail. It's the cutest, hairiest baby! I'll do my best to update with the garden. Probably just the watermelon though, it's the most exciting to me. I hope he survives.

Yesterday was plain awful...

Daddy Warbucks: You can say that again.

Annie: Yesterday was plain awful.

Daddy Warbucks: But that's.

Annie: Not now.

Both: That's then.



Continue with tap dancing down the mansion stairs to the circus, as seen above.

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Okay, yesterday was a bad day. It started bad and just seemed to get worse. I won't go into details because it was just one of those days. They pass. (Although it was nothing like Annie had to deal with like running from bad people and being rescued by Punjab and a helicopter. Might I add that scene is terrifying to watch as a child!). Today was beautiful. Max took TWO naps just short of two hours, he sang to me while I took a shower (I even saw him sort of dancing at one of his musical toy things) and was just charming all day. So thank you to Max and thank you to Mom, Kelly, Carla, and Erik who all had to deal with me yesterday.



Tonight was cute too:





I think this was the funniest for me. I made spaghetti for dinner tonight and decided to start a food fight. The fight (which consisted of me throwing a piece of spaghetti onto Max's head) turned into a photo op because the piece stayed there for about 20 minutes. Max looked at it a few times (cross-eyed) but never pulled it off. So here are some funny pics of dinner tonight. Alaina, we are telling him all about the "Noodles" here.
After he tasted it. He liked it a little, until I finger-swooped him and pulled the chunk out. I'm getting pretty good at the swoop.
Happy to be noodle-free. But such a good sport so mommy can have her fun. After dinner as Erik was taking him out of the bath. Nice ending to a nice day.