Our Easter

What a great day! We woke up to this:

The day prior, Maximus colored some eggs and made a little hanging circle Easter craft.


The Easter bunny enjoyed hiding eggs in the snow!

I found out my dear friend, Heather, was going to be in Denver during Easter weekend. I was SO excited to see her. The last time I saw her was when Maximus was 13 weeks old. She's one of my closest friends- we met as roommates in college and have been best buds ever since. We've been through a lot together and once we saw each other, we were back to our gutter humor, tears and hugs within seconds. She was in love with Maximus. She couldn't believe a 3 year old could be so personable and friendly. She held him close, told him she loved him and kept kissing him. He was in love with her too.

And he loved Heather's husband, Cleon. Oh man, they even danced in the restaurant!
He also loved Heather's niece!

As I hung out with Heather, Jesse went and rode his bike. He rode a great mountain singletrack trail, then I forgot to pick him up so he ended up riding 47 miles around Denver. In the rain. Then got lost because there are two Wadsworth Streets and we couldn't find him. 47 miles later, I located a tired and wet Jesse.

The drive back up the mountain to our home.

It actually was a great Easter. Maximus really enjoyed finding coins, raisins, dinosaurs and finger puppets in plastic eggs hidden in the snow. Jesse got a great ride and I saw my dear. We all slept like rocks that night.

Strider Model

Click on the picture to see it up close. That's my kid, Maximus as the Strider poster child at the bike shop- Bike Pedalers. When our business partner sent me the picture, it brought tears to my eyes. What a stud. And oh, how I miss Lincoln sometimes...

Working with Kirsten

This video may not seem particularly interesting to most people, but it is to parents of children who have speech delays. Maximus LOVES his speech pathologist, Kirsten, and he excels when working with her. His buddy, Parker, doesn't speak very much at all and has never combined two words together, but can say single words very clear. They work well together because Maximus talks non stop and most people can't understand him, and Parker rarely speaks but is usually understood with single syllable words. In the video you can see Maximus saying things that are a HUGE improvement and Parker sounding out the first sound. "Bike" was "gike" until a couple weeks ago and we have yet to say the word "dog". I cannot express how much I adore Kirsten. She's full of energy, loves the outdoors, buys Maximus healthy crackers out of her own pocket and is a great match with him and us.

Hair and Goggles

Look at this hair! No wonder women come up and pet him at the store.


We got him some goggles. He thinks they're the coolest things on the planet. A much needed accessory for the Sharkimus.

Niner Jet 9

How to impress your woman:
Come home from work and tell her you ordered her the Niner Jet 9 full suspension frame and Rockshox Reba XX fork.

I can't wait. What a guy.

Fits

This morning I woke up to this:
I think it's beautiful! Anyway, Maximus and I had a great morning together before I took him to school. He giggled as I got him dressed, ate his oatmeal with his Scentsy monkey "Molly", drank a protein shake with me and we sang on the way to school. He was such a buddy. Look at his beautiful hair, I cut the bangs out of his eyes. Jesse wants the entire thing trimmed and frankly, I think he's daft.
When I picked up Maximus from school, he had that "look". I knew he was about to be a total butt face. His teacher told me he was good, but he was a little feisty. He ran out of his classroom and into the boys' restroom and screamed. Like, that super loud scream that makes your ears pop off your head. I bolted straight in and picked him up and all hell broke loose. I carried him out of the school screaming, kicking and slapping. I felt so bad that he disturbed the other classes! He threw his fit nonstop during the drive and for 45 minutes at home. I don't let him throw fits around the house, so he has to stay in his room until he's calm, says he's sorry and can tell me why he was put in his room in the first place. Dude, that took forever. He screamed in his room, threw books, kicked the door, even tried to pick up his bed to tip it over. Seriously, kid? He held onto the train conductor hat my parents brought to him when we lived in Lincoln. I made him clean up his mess and told him to lay down with the hat and he did. He fell asleep within seconds holding the hat. Geez...I was seriously beginning to think he was possessed. Worst fit ever!

Ants!

Maximus (left) eating pineapple because he didn't want birthday cake. Success!

Maximus went to his buddy Bryon's 4th birthday party yesterday. It was fun! All his buddies from school were there and he had a blast playing with them. One of the funniest things I've heard from Maximus came out at the party. One of the games they played was to eat a pudding pie thing as fast as they could only using their face. Maximus didn't want to play because he thought the chocolate sprinkles on the pies were ANTS! Everyone thought it was a hoot.

During the party, Jesse and I couldn't believe how much candy and sugar was around. Like, each reward was sugar. Don't think we were there telling him "no" and taking candy out of his hands. Not at all. We were impressed with our 3 year old for making decisions on his own! He didn't want any pudding, he didn't eat any candy because he was too busy with balloons and he refused birthday cake when he was asked if he wanted any. We were so proud of him! They did play a game with marshmallows and he ate a few before we left and became a total spaz after. I know I sound like a broken record, but each time we allow him to eat junk sugar like that, he acts out! It's like we poured him a Pepsi and handed him a Pixi Stick and white bread. Once we got home and gave him some real food, he was Maximus again.

When he plays with his friends from school, it's adorable. I can't wait for his birthday to have them all over.

26.2 Miles

I've been running a lot lately. I love it. I'm training for a half marathon in June. It's not a huge event, I'm going to run from Copper Mountain to our town on the paved trails. Jesse will pull Maximus behind his bike and supply me with support and water.

After the half marathon, I'll be training for...do I dare say it? A marathon. Like, a full one. It's October 9th in Denver and with my weekly trainings, I should be ready for it. My only goal is to finish the thing. I don't care if I'm fast and I'll probably cross the finish line like this guy:
I figured I should do something cool during my 30th year of life. Here's to the next 6 months of intense training!

Easter Goodies

Since candy and junk isn't a part of our lifestyle, I have found little creative cool things to put in plastic Easter eggs for Maximus. Plus, I took him to the dentist last week and I can proudly say NO CAVITIES FOR MAXIMUS! Anyway, finger puppets are a total hit! I'm also using coins (Maximus is a money junkie), marbles, sidewalk chalk, Micro Machine cars, Legos and this one might sound lame...little rocks. Rocks...aye...every time I do a load of Maximus' clothes in the wash, I ALWAYS find a load of rocks in his pockets. Annoys me, but he loves his rocks.

We're going to hide hard boiled eggs and plastic ones all over our yard. We might have the best yard for it- we still have a snow drift in the front (perfect!), a large rock planter with landscaping that lines the backyard, about 20 trees, 2 decks with stairs and just a ton of space. I love this place. Pictures of Easter will follow!

Googoo the Warrior

I took Goog running this morning and she amazes me. We ran over 4 miles and the terrain was very steep for the first half. She kept up the entire time. She even fell in a creek over her head and was able to climb out. For an old dog, she does well.

Spring!

Look what's coming up in the yard! The aspen trees are sprouting little furry things too. What a relief after a harsh winter.

3 Year Old Boys

These two had a blast playing the other day. They are insane. Once, they were really quiet upstairs and when I checked on them, they had found 2 dodos that Maximus hid and were sitting on the bed together sucking on them and watching cartoons. So cute.

Mountain Boy

First off, I just took Maximus to the Spring Carnival. I told him about all the fun things to do, all his friends would be there, he'd win prizes and it'd be epic fun. We got there, I bought a boatload of tickets, he saw a clown and wigged out. We left in less than 20 minutes. I selfishly was looking forward to socializing! Boo. Now we're going swimming instead.

I took this picture today. Maximus and I rode our bikes to the Blue River that runs through our town and played. He told all the fishermen "nice fishing guy!" and he threw rocks into the water. We have these beautiful trails that run alongside the river and all through town. This is one of the prettiest places I've even been to and I get to live here! Look at this stud:


We stopped on a bridge and I tried to get a good picture of us, but Maximus is three:


Jesse's mom sent Maximus a care package with cool little things inside of it, so I put them all on the bed and waited for him to wake up. They sat there for a while!


Potty trained champion!

Just Maximus and Mama

This weekend Jesse is in Nebraska doing bike stuff, so it's just Maximus and Mama. We have a lot of fun things planned to keep us busy. The weather is gorgeous too! We're starting things off right with some whole wheat pancakes and a greenish smoothie!