Spiders on Halloween? Go figure.

I put Max in his most "Halloweenie" outfit. Nicole made this jumper for her kids and now Max is cruisin' in it. Later he will be dressed as pirate and his stroller will be transformed into a pirate ship. Above is Max when I told him to say "Cheese!". Below he's checking out his Halloween books

Now...onto the real post...

I wake up on Halloween morning and everything is going smoothly. Max isn't fussy, Erik gets off to school okay, I'm actually able to empty the dishwasher before noon. In fact, it's not even 9 am and my kitchen is CLEAN! After breakfast and a diaper change (for Max, not me) I go around the house to open the blinds and curtains.

I see my cute little grapevine pumpkin near the front window..... and this on top of it: My sister Kelly just posted abut finding spiders in her house and much like her, I HATE SPIDERS!!! I can handle bugs and other crawlies and insects. But spiders really gross me out. They are sneaky and fast and they bite! (sort of like kids, but creepier!).

Erik likes to catch unusual spiders and find out what kind they are so, being the nice wife that I am, I tried to catch it. But he disappeared...into my cute little pumpkin. So I grabbed the BBQ tongs and took the adorable fall decoration outside to spray the living daylights out of it and get that spider!

I found some Lysol. Ready....aim....fire... The little bugger came crawling out for air. He surrendered. As I was catching him, his partner in crime came flying out of nowhere (remember we are outside...in the rain) to rescue him. So now I have a stupid white spider (with wings?) messing up my morning as well.

The white spider got away. But it's outside and I don't care. The black spider (which I learned is a BLACK WIDOW) is curled up in a dead ball of spider mess. But he is in a container, as my trophy. Outside.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN !!!

Holiday!

Last Sunday The Mrazek's celebrated (the 90th!!) Czech Independence Day at Lubor and Ariane's house in Emeryville. They live right on the water and we took a walk with all the kids to the pier. We played games and ate delicious food prepared by Lubor and Ariane. A quick game of Simon Says with Christian, Roxy and Julianne...

...the game spectators....

...the games continue with Aara as "Simon"...

...then we moved down near the water. Christian, Julianne, Roxy and Vivian.

The girls posing for a sweet picture.

Lubor gave us a little history before cutting into the cake. It's hard to see in this picture, but the windows in the background look over the water. It's really beautiful.

Thank you Lubor and Ariane for a fun day!

Trip To San Diego

My Mom invited Max and I to go visit Addy for her 1st Birthday in San Diego. We packed up the car and crossed our fingers that Max would be okay during the long drive. He did surprisingly well. We had to make a couple stops and let him wiggle his body, but it went pretty well.

The first night we stopped in Placentia to visit my Aunt Patty and Uncle Scott. They take a square dancing class with my Aunt Jeannie and Uncle Ron so we went to check it out. It was so fun to watch. My cousin Jennifer also stopped by for a visit. Below is (l to r) Patty, Scott, Jeannie, and Ron. Patty and Ron are my Dad's siblings. Max had a good time playing with Uncle Scott, who had him giggling within moments of our arrival. The next day we were off to San Diego to see Addy, Melissa and Ryan. Max slept the whole way this time before he was able to terrorize his cousin. Overall, they were okay together. Max is very pushy...and just plain strong. Addy held her own though and by the time we left, she knew just how to keep him out of her way.
Uncle Ryan holding the babies. Addy is 6 weeks older than Max.


When Max disappears, he gets into things. He pops lids off with his teeth and goes crazy.

This was on Addy's actual birthday wearing her "I am 1" shirt. She learned to watch Max very closely as he got into mischief. I hope she didn't learn any of his nasty tricks.

I love this picture of Addy. It shows how pretty her eyes are. She makes the best faces too.

Addy getting ready for her party. Little princess.

This is what Max did during her party- snuck under people's chair's to steal their stuff. Lovely.

Max also got to fly for the first time. I was really nervous about it but it couldn't have gone smoother. Our flight wasn't full so we had the whole row to ourselves. He loved the air from the vent and watching the lights on the wings. As soon as we took off, he cuddled in my arms and fell asleep. He woke up as we got off. PERFECT! Erik met us by the baggage claim where there is a glass wall to look down from the upper level. As we walked to the elevator Max spotted his Daddy (and got the attention of several groups around him) and gave him probably the biggest smile I've ever seen from him. It was so sweet.

(Max at the airport watching all the moving vehicles from the window)

Thanks Mom for the fun trip. You are a great travel partner!

Pumpkin Patch

We took a trip to the pumpkin patch in Vacaville a couple weeks ago. We were not very impressed with the whole set-up (in a parking lot, right off the highway) but it was the only time we had to go so we made the best of it. Max loves pumpkins and we found these tiny ones that he got to choose from. It's hard to make a baby pose. He looks squished, but he was okay.

There was no way he was going to look at the camera when there are fun colored "balls" laying all around him.

Happy Halloween!

Max has been busy too!

Max learned to clap last weekend. If you know Max, you know how funny it is to see him clap because he has HUGE hands. It's like watching bear paws pat together.

We got Max a little walker and he loves it. Our house is small but he takes full advantage of his little space. Here is a little clip of him using it this morning.

And just a few Max bits for us to remember:

Notice the mirror leaning against the coffee table? BEST THING EVER! It's just a cheap wall mirror. Max talks to himself and giggles to himself in it. He gets really close and looks around the room looking for our reflections.

He really is a funny baby. He copies our noises and laughs with us. He "goes crazy" (flailing his arms and shaking his head) in the bath tub. He loves to grab my ears and give me kisses. He LOVES older kids and thinks he can do what they can do. Every time he plays with his tractors or cars he makes the motor sounds...boys just know. He screams at me at the top of his lungs (not a cry, just an opened mouth, high pitched SCREAM) when he wants something that he can't have. Erik thinks it's cute. I think I'm going to lose my hearing before he's one. Then he'll dance to music and make me forget all about it.

And now the little stinker, I mean charmer, is awake.

Here's to 60 more!

We've been a busy family lately. the blog has been pushed to the side a little, I'll try to be better to catch up. Last weekend we went to Redding to celebrate Grandma Gail's 60th birthday. Everyone was able to go for the weekend, which is sometimes hard to do. We had a great time. Good food, good company made for a good trip. Special cake made by the girls.
Max and MorMor walking together.
4 generations: Vivian, Nicole, MorMor (Dora) and Grandma (Gail).
The group.

Brian and Nicole, thanks for hosting a fun weekend!! Happy Birthday Gail!

Sanding away...

Do you know what this is?
I didn't know either until a few days ago. Sometimes garages produce little miracles and this happened to be one. My Mom and I figured out how to use it and quickly turned into pro's. Those baseboards sure look good in her kitchen! Maybe I'll be a carpenter in my next life.

Quite the Journey

I got Erik tickets to see Journey for Father's Day. After a few months of waiting, we got to go last week. Heart and Cheap Trick opened for them so it was total 80's rock! All bands did great and the crowd was good too. (Arnel Pineda sounded AMAZING! And, I just learned that he joined the group on Max's due date). We had seats in the grass so we got to relax and Max was able to crawl around. People loved that there was a baby there. He was great. He fell asleep right before Journey came on and slept almost through the end. Go figure. It was a fun night and we look forward to taking him to more concerts as he grows up. Getting ready for the show!
While the baby sleeps...
I love this picture. Max woke up and Erik sang to him. It was so cute, Max giggled while Erik did his guitar solo.

This picture was taken before he fell asleep and he was so interested in his collapsed stroller. He kept making funny faces at it and singing to it. (When he hears music he "sings" along).

Let our Journey continue...

Changes

Time for some updates. Max had his 9 month appointment last week. He weighs 21.2 lbs and is 31 inches long. That means he has grown 10 inches! He hasn't even gained 10 lbs yet, but we will forgive him for that since he came out obese. He's recovering from a cold (we all are). He's feeling fine-nothing stops this little man- but I'm getting tired of being used as a tissue. Ew. His latest favorites are opening the cabinets which forced us into the horrible life of child-locks. Ugh. I hated these while I babysat growing up and I hate them now. We only put them on the "danger" cabinets and he can go crazy with the rest of 'em. He's getting three more teeth (which will make 7) and he looks so goofy with them. He likes to smile though and show them off.
He also LOVES cars and balls. Anything with wheels will make him smile. The red tractor above was Erik's when he was little and Max loves to push it around. It's metal so we've had a few "marks" from it but, again, nothing stops this little boy. Actually, every day he gets at least three bumps on his head from crawling around. He's always taking the "hard route" and then tries to squirm his way through. He likes getting chased by us and giggles so hard that he gives in and throws his arms up (it actually only lasts about two or three feet, but that probably feels like a mile to him) He likes emptying containers or bags and dropping things from his high chair (my least favorite). He's getting more confident with standing (holding on) and reaching for things. He sort of pounces when he thinks he's close enough to his target. We think he'll walk before he's one. I'm in no hurry for it though.
We hung out in the front yard for a little bit today. Max likes to "show" things now. Here, it's a leaf. The final days of our garden are slowly approaching. Above is the only watermelon. All the other buds disappeared. This one is about the size of a ping-pong ball. We are still getting tomatoes, cucumbers and maybe some zucchini. We've had some good meals with our veggies. So tasty! We will try and have a garden every year now.
What else....

Erik is still enjoying school. He has a really good group of students with him so that helps. He said it's starting to get harder now, as expected. It's nice that it's only two days a week. He studies every night so he doesn't get to see us (meaning Max) as much as he'd like. We keep thinking in only a year and a half and our lives will change so much when it's done.

We are still in the process of house-hunting. It's been nice for us to watch the home prices drop because we never thought we'd be able to afford anything in California. Now we just might. We are in no hurry so for now we are just checking out some homes and watching how things change.

I have really enjoyed the last week or so with the cooler weather headed our way. I love fall. The colors are so pretty. Our droppings from our pecan trees are horrible this time of year (well, in about a month or so) but I thank them for the shade they provide in the hot months. I found the domestic side of me..it took a while, and she might disappear soon ...but for now she's fun. I made bread from scratch (my first ever!). It's really good and I made 4 loaves. What are we going to do with 4 loaves? I have no idea. They are in the freezer until Miss Domestic tells me what to do. There have been a lot of good meals and treats produced lately. Miss Domestic will have to lay off the sweets soon though...chub, chub.

Here is a video of Max and his tractor. Enjoy!

Beach Day!

We decided to take advantage of the hot weather and get out of town! (That and Mommy needed to get out of the house!!!) So we picked up Grandma and headed to the city to go to Baker Beach. So did about 2000 other beach bums. It was a beautiful day, the breeze was mild and the sand was warm. We take him to the beach and what does he want? Car keys.
It took a little bit but Max liked the chilly water. There were a lot of dogs and other kids for him to watch.
He did get a little scared and held on tight.
Playing in the sand.
Playing and singing with Grandma Gail.
After a long afternoon of playing hard, he crashed. He crawled up into Erik's lap, sang a little, chewed his toes and within minutes he was out. His toes are squishing his nose here. We had a great, relaxing day!