Milestones!

Its do fun when the kids hit milestones together! This is a delayed post...

Max is reading his bob books recommended by his awesome pre school teachers! This is fun! I think he is memorizing it and guessing.. He knows the letters and sounds but hasn't out it all together yet, but he's trying! We will keep working on it! He recently got a new bike for dan the bike man! (My uncle fan who owns a bike store!) it is the next size up but also has gears and handle brakes! He can do tricks on his bike. He can come to a sliding sideways stop and go no feet! 

Gracie's is getting used to her bike! She can go on a full dog loop! By the end she's tired but wow! She's fallen off a few times as all beginners do so she isn't totally gung ho as much anymore. 

In other exciting Gracie news, she's wearing undies! For a long time now, probably close to 6 months she's been pretty good about going potty on the potty. A few ups and downs but she didn't want to wear the undies! She's doing it!! Since late April early May she has been rocking it!! It's do cute to see her little bum in shorts instead if pull ups! She's waking up dry more often than not! 

Hooray for Gracie! This opens up preschool, vbs, and so many other options! 

Finally, Gia bug... Where to begin with this little love? Some where right about 10 months so late April I was in Las Vegas and daddy was home with the kids. He got the training going well and I came home to a pretty awesome walker!! So she is up and down stairs independently! This scares most people but we say "feet first" and she gets down and toboggans down the stairs! She has started to try to face forward and scooch down on her butt. That's more scary, so we try to help her feet first but she's got a mind of her own! 

So much fun and activity here! 

Last day of Pre School!

May 20th 2014

And we have a kindergartener!!

He is so ready! And we are do excited to have a fun filled summer! We will start with a BBQ at his future school and then a BBQ to dedicate the acquired green space from preschool tomorrow! Should be fun! This weekend we will make our summer bucket list! 

Max was the treat sharer today! We brought m&m's and apple and grape packets! Mac wanted to make sure everyone could have some! And there is a gluten free kiddo in the class!

Cheers bud! Next step kindergarten!

Kindergarten

Our little man is getting ready for kindergarten! Yikes! He's ready. I like his fall birthday. I liked the extra time I got with him. Things will be so different this coming fall. Our boy at all day school, our middle in Prek Tuesdays and Thursdays like Max is currently. That leaves just my little Gia bug home with me!

Want to know something funny?! He will go to my elementary school! I'm excited to go there and see it as an adult! I'm sure lots have changed in 30 years! 

Max at 5!

IAt 5 Max is really an awesome human being!!! He loves building Legos, he wants to learn to read ( which I wish I knew how to help him), he still loves his stuffed animal puppies and he still loves playing with cars. He has started having play dates and sleepovers! 

He can count to about 30, maybe more if I pushed him. He knows his letters and can write his full name. 

He loves listen to books! All kinds of book! Books From the library, when dad read box car children, dr Seuss and so many more!

He loves anything to build and create. When asked what he wants to be when he grows up he said " a fixer but I'm not really thinking about that right now"

His best friends are the neighbor guys and Adam and Ryan, his cousins! He feeds the dogs and is especially good at making breakfast! His specialty is washed berries, raisins, some sort of cracker and yogurt! 

He is a first born, people pleaser! He is very sweet to both of his sisters and only occasionally gets grumpy with them. He is a good helper. He learned to ride his bike this year with out training wheels, passed his swim lessons and played soccer and t- ball. He has run a few 5ks with intermittent stroller breakers !

He attends pre school at Zion Pre Kthis year he is in the 4's class with Mrs Spiess and Mrs Hartle. He school gave him a special birthday ribbon and birthday book ! He also got to bring snack that day and be the class helper.

Maxwell is 5!

Saturday, Nov 23rd, 2013

We started the day as the birthday boy wanted, with donuts from our favorite corner store! Then we cleaned for the big 'old skool' Super Mario Party! For the first time Max got to pick two friends to invite and he named the neighbors, which immediately put him over budget since 'the neighbors' is 3 boys! And then his buddy from his school Sammy. We also had all sides of our immediate families so 8 kids total! It was a whirl wind! 

Robb made a super Mario shooting gallery for the kids to knock down with a beef gun, and stacking the boxes. We had a super Mario cake pan we had found at a nisswa flee market years ago! 

The party was great, he got so many presents ( lots of Legos and some $$) and then we were able to work out an impromptu sleepover with cousins Adam and Ryan! We were very jazzed as it was the first cousin sleepover! Can't think if a better gift for Max! ( I remember over a year ago we were driving home from a play time with our friends the Westies and Max said  "mom I want to sleep at their house"-- I was like oh my goodness my little boy is getting so big ! He wants to have sleepovers)

We got papa Murphy mini murph's pizza for dinner and played a video game then tried to wrangle 5 kids to sleep! It was a great day! 

The next date we had a quick family picture session, and I mean quick! 15 minutes outside in the freezing cold! 5 year and Christmas pics !

Then we took the kids to their first gopher vs UMD bulldog hockey game! Our friends Autumn and Jason who I had gopher season tickets with in college have them again and we were able to get them for this weekend!

Happy birthday buddy! We had such a fun weekend!

Max's sweet bike skills

Tonight we took a family bike ride. We did the north loop of elm creek. 11.5 miles! All of us! Max on the eve of his first week of learning to ride a bike did an 11.5 mile loop! My victory, I pulled the buggy! We came home and had coconut Popsicles! It was a good day!

And they're off!!

One thing on our summer bucket list was to take off Max's training wheels. He gets around quite well with those trainers even doing 11 miles once this past spring! We knew he was ready! It was just a matter of taking them off. 

Tuesday was the day. We were waiting for nana to visit us like she usually does every Tuesday. To help  pass the time Robb took them off. Then we spent the better past of an hour with Max. Getting started was tricky, trying to figure out balance and the footwork. We would set a pine one out a slab or two as the goal to reach before he crashed. He did well that first day. He was pretty jazzed about it and didn't want to come in the house for bed. By the end of the night he could almost do the whole block of sidewalk in front of our house. 

Wednesday he was raring to go!  He practiced and practiced. He mastered getting started. He could finish the sidewalk, turn around in the road and come back. That night we had him try to ride our "dog loop" walk with Libby and Dakota. He didn't make it very far and was getting defeated. Just gave up. Got really grumpy. I knew it had a lot to do with his previous night of sleep. He seemed most upset that he would have to start over learning how to ride his bike. That some how he lost all ability and would need to start from scratch! No reassurance helped. 

Thursday he hesitated to get on the bike. Once he came around, it was flying! With the getting started mastered I had him turn at the end of the block into the cul-de-sac and do the loop before coming back to our driveway. A few runs of that and it's in his blood! I took a video and sent it to Robb, my mom and sister Lisa. When Robb got home he wanted to show him so the boys geared up and went around the block. Then max wanted to do an Elm Creek loop. That's 11 miles. We opted for an abbreviated 5 mile course and set out as a family with the girls in the buggy. We stopped at our local ice cream shoppe in celebration. Max did awesome all 5 miles! So proud of our little dude! 4.5 years old and the training wheels are off! So excited for our adventures to come!!

Catching up

So today is May 23rd. Max was born a year and a half ago already! Most days go by and I spend time thinking what I would write if I did a blog entry, so today I thought I should do it instead of just thinking about it. This has been a big and unusual week for the inhabitants of the Akerson Book nook. Monday was Max and my last day of ECFE, he was really changed quite a bit since we started the class. He talks 100 times more and he loves to watch what the other kids and teachers are doing. I think it was a good thing to do and will probably do another class in the fall, much to the chagrin of the teachers from the spring class, who would like to see Max take summer classes!

Then Wednesday was the day of the big MNA vote to strike or not down in St Paul. Luckily, I found a spot in a meter ran in, cast my vote and was outta there in 10 minutes. But that night we found out 9000 nurses voted and 90% voted to strike. That is overwhelming.

Thursday, Max and I had a fun day out for a walk with a few stops for park visits then we went to watch Robb play softball. His team won both games.. While there I started to bleed a bit. Being 9.5 weeks pregnant that is not a good thing. But, that is a norm for my pregnancies. I bled at least four times during my pregnancy with Max. So we went home and took it easy and it seemed to slow down. Friday morning I was scheduled to work my first twelve hour shift. It was going pretty well until about 1pm. I noticed the bleeding was picking up a bit. Luckily I work with people who have connections and in the same relative area as my doctor. He was nice enough to encourage me to rest that night and said he would have me come in the next morning for an ultrasound. So, I went home went straight to bed and took in plenty of fluids. Just as the MD ordered...

Saturday AM I wrestled with the idea of going in for the ultrasound but the advice that "knowing what is happening" is peace of mind won out. There was a wonderful thunderstorm as we drove down to Eden Prairie. Foreshadowing??? The results of the ultrasound were not favorable and our hopes for an extra special Christmas present were dashed ( our due date was 12-21-10). It was so nice of my doctor to take time to meet us on a Saturday to help give us some answers. And it was wonderful that Robb could express that to him, since I was unable at that point. After that we had to proceed on with our day... That was a difficult feat, but we had a wedding to attend. We had already made the tough decision to forego the wedding to have the ultrasound so we had to book it up to Brainerd to make the wedding reception. We are so glad we did it was so great to see old friends and catch up a bit with them. And beside to see Spence and Jen all gussied up on their big day was priceless. It's fun to know both the bride and groom individually before they get together. They make an awesome couple. We were lucky enough to have Robb's parents near by to watch Max for a few hours so we could talk with out interruptions. We had to head out to exchange cars with them and head home about 930 pm so we were party poopers. It was nice to have the time to drive and talk about our day. It will take some time to digest the day's events. And we will now play the waiting game for things to happen physically. I am hoping to not need a D&C.
Today is Sunday and we are taking it easy today. Max is watching Cars for the thousandth time and I got a nap in already. It think it's time for Max's nap now. But that's the scoop from here.