not 3 years old and his organizational skills are better than dad's

we had an adventurous thanksgiving weekend in Washington's north cascade mountains: snow, ice, tire chains, broken tire chains, stroud's shuttle service, abandoned car, sleepy kids, great views, sled riding, snowmen, tea, yummy turkey, friends, more sled riding, a birthday party, mancala, santa, cold, overpriced dinners, bungee corded tire chains, snowy roads, more broken tire chains, stalled cars, rescuing friends, snowy mountain passes, 4.5 hour trip home in 10 hours. one of those weekends you look back on and smile but one you might reconsider if you only knew then........BUT, Will was into sled riding which pleased dad greatly and he helped out on his first snowman ("dadda, i think we should use this stick for his nose instead of a carrot"). and the biggest news was that he sat on Santa's lap for the first time (for the record he asked for an airplane and only when prodded by dad asked for a guitar too). and Max was happy because he got to sleep in the same room as mom and dad and thus didn't have to cry his little head back to sleep in the middle of the night.

he has been eating bland rice cereal for weeks, but this past weekend Max took the big step of eating his cereal along with some sweet potatoes, apples and/or peas. he really likes his peas. he is sleeping very well, hasn't taken a bottle at night in 4 days, and even completely slept through friday night. his nap schedule is getting better too. morning 9am nap is very consistent but the afternoon nap still varies depending on his activities with dad--which have included a lot of outside walking time as the rain has been giving way to some sunny daylight.

after his second interception, Will yelled out "Big Ben should go in the garbage!!" Dad is angry too, but he had to explain to Will that he was being a bit too agressive in his criticism.

yesterday when dad told Will that he was getting a new job, he got really sad and said in a sad, whinee voice: "noooo...you can't leave us daddy." i then explained that I'm not switching families, I'm only switching the place where i go to work. then he said "but are you still gonna live at our house?" i assured him that yes, i will always live in his house. i'm not sure he's convinced.

last night Will wore his last diaper. we have been counting down the supply, and when he went to put it on we realized there was only one more left. from now on he will sleep at all times in his underwear. he is very excited. he knows that if he wakes up and has to go, he should come to get mom or dad or even go all by himself. he also understands that while we try to avoid accidents, if we have them it is ok and that no one is mad at him for it. it has been explained that even adults sometimes have accidents--like uncle jon--he has accidents all the time.

today max and dad spent the morning practicing sitting up (propped with a pillow), playing with the earth beach ball and reading books; then we went for a long walk through the neighborhood and bought some tea. max slept for a 2 hour nap after putting himself to sleep, then woke and slept on dad for 2 more hours. he is doing very well with the sleep habits and hopefully will be trained in time for the trip to his blood home in mid-december.

max has been on a streak of waking up after 25 minutes of sleep and then not going back to sleep (but instead crying for 45 minutes)--until just now when he woke after 25 minutes, cried for a few, and then went back down. seems like progress.

today is max's first day of crying himself to sleep for naps. set him down at crying at 8:20am; he was asleep by 8:25am--we will see how long it lasts.

max's music listening list for the first week at home with dad: monday-johnny cash, tuesday-pre-electric dylan, wednesday-cowboy junkies, thursday-hank williams, friday-david bowie (ziggy stardust). max seemed to take to bowie the most, so we spent the afternoon wearing makeup and women's clothing.

max went to sleep after crying for 50 minutes. then he woke up 40 minutes later and fell back to sleep in 15 minutes. it is time to close your ears and remind yourself that you aren't a bad parent even though your kid is in agony. the nice thing about getting max to bed this early on his own is that mom and dad were able to spend time alone with will, playing and making muffins. we look forward to more of these evenings.

tonight we are officially letting Max cry himself to sleep for bedtime. we'll see what happens. it's time he gets trained.

dad's first day with max went very well--will is the one that had a hard time adjusting to the new routine of going in the car with mom to daycare. for once he was asking for his daddy as he left home. max had a physical day as dad started him out on training with the balls--he likes to roll ontop of the big purple rubber one on his tummy and he likes to lie on his back and hit the inflated beach ball. on his tummy he squirmed about 4 feet in 4 minutes--rumor has it he will be an early crawler (see image)

this is what will wants to tell you all today: "i love your trains; i love your doggy; choo choo; i love your vacuum; i love you grandparents. i was in pittsburgh and i played with grandparents. bye bye