Talking on the phone

Max just LOVES talking on the phone. (I guess he always has).When he hears the phone ring he runs on over and points because he wants me to answer it so he can also have a chance to talk.

Here he was this evening after his cousin (my niece) gave us a call. Long after she hung up, Max was still talking on the phone!

Typical morning

Brush your teeth...(half sleepy)

...and off running!

Sundays during football season

Bed head, 49ers shirt, reading the Economist with Daddy on the iPad before the games start...gotta' love football season!

Daddy daycare

That's what this past Sunday was like around here...at least for an hour.

While I was driving Marissa back home, Leon & Max were having breakfast with Chris and his daughter Teagan. They went out to the park afterwards, and then headed back to our house. Brett ended up coming over with Henry too and all the dads were here with the kiddos. I came back just in time to see them all. I felt a little left out being the only mom there :)

Max isn't in alot of the photos. Why? Because he was running circles around the house of course. Exciting to have all his friends over I guess.

Henry & Teagan 

Chris & Brett contemplate leaving their kids with me 

More Teagan & Henry

My one shot of Max (wearing his niners shirt on Sunday!...it's kinda tradition now)

Henry & Teagan once more (Wait! I spot Max& Tank in the background)

My niece

I haven't mentioned it before on my blog, but I have a niece and nephew that suffer from a rare liver disease. My nephew had a liver transplant when he was 5 years old and my niece was able to have a special surgery to prolong the use of her liver since she was 8 months old. The disease has progressed, however, and she is currently awaiting a liver transplant.

We are hoping she will find one soon (we are testing a family member). In the meantime, I was able to attend a fundraiser last week in Stockton to help raise funds for the transplant surgery should we find a donor.

Although it was hard on the family at first, we are staying very positive about the situation. Marissa exudes positivity right now and couldn't be any happier that she finally has enough energy to attend school (it's her first year of high school). Love her and I hope we have some good news on this soon!

My sis Hong, me, my sis Nga 

Marissa, Hong, Johnathon (my nephew)

Reserved for Marissa!

Gramps with Max (Max would NOT let anyone else hold him that night!) 

Leon chasing Max (BTW, this was how most of the dinner went w/ Max)

Max points something out for Grandma

Max & the Grands

Hong, Marissa, & John (Marissa's Dad)

Marissa giving her thank you speech

This past weekend, I was lucky enough to steal Marissa overnight and we had an all-out shopping trip up in San Francisco. What a great time!

Marissa also got to spend some time playing with Max. He was being pretty coy and shy around her at first (um...not Max's usual M.O.) then once he warmed up, he didn't want anyone else holding him! So cute to see these cousins together.

M & M - cousins!

Halloween - the evening

And then we roll into the evening. Big big props to the Paulson 5 for bringing the full family in tow to come celebrate Halloween/my bday with us! Thank you Paulsons! Wow...I can no longer complain about trying to get Max out to any event after that.

Henry and Max were matching pirates and I made the radio flyer into a pirate ship for them to ride around in. Charlotte & Ruby donned the CUTEST hallo-headbands from "Crafty Jan" and rode in the stroller.

What a great night, I can not wait to do this again next year :)

Vampy pumpkins

Our carved pumpkins

Tank's costume...hee hee

Max & Henry ready to trick-or-treat

Charlotte & Ruby...SO CUTE!!! 

The pirates in their ship

All the boys

Oh yes Brett DID roll up on the lawn..had to! It was a pirate set up! 

Surrender it!!! (this house kinda had a creepy lady...like for real creepy, not just Halloween creepy)

Angie gets the boys in action

Arrghhh - Max spots the treasure and Hank says "You sure?"

End of the night, let's throw candy around!

A knife in the bday cake for Halloween, perfect!

Thanks to the hubs for getting me awesome tix to Cirque for my bday which we'll be seeing tomorrow afternoon! :)

Halloween - the afternoon

After stopping by work, I dropped off Max with his nanny Paola and her son Ayrton (Cooper tagged along too!). They took him over to the Stanford mall to check out the giant pumpkins and hang out with everyone else in costume. Wow, they really did it up and put me to shame (first year in a long time I have not dressed up).

Max looks like he had a great time and the fun continued!

Max wanders around

Cooper, Paola, & Max

Max & Ayrton

Paola & Max 

Max the pirate checks out the rough waters

Halloween - the morning

I do love Halloween. How fun to get dressed up, stay up late, and collect candy...and then to have a bday too? Great stuff.

I had the day off, but I stopped by work so Max could show off his costume. He LOVED it there! He was having a ball running around the cubes and offices. He did take a spill when he went full-speed into an office window (oops!) but when we were all laughing, so was he.

Tough pirate

Happy pirate 

Hat-hair pirate

Thanks for the pics Wente!

The real gym - Little Gym

Saturday morning we found ourselves at the Little Gym. Max had a blast at this indoor playground. He didn't really participate in the structured "circle time" but he came back when it was time to run in circles - go figure! Should the times work out, we may be coming back.

Gym practice

Last week we turned the couch into a jungle gym for Max to get him ready for his trip to the Little Gym. Here some videos of him having fun with it.

Friday at the park

Wow, what a fun-filled weekend we had this past week. Let's start off with Friday night when Max was a but squirrelly so we took him to a local park to get his ya-ya's out.

Ready to climb the stairs

And then back down again

This is a great game...up & down the stairs 

Mama and Max

Daddy playing w/Max on the sand table