busy, busy, busy...

well...just a few updates from the hicks household.

drew has been hard at work preparing his classroom, prepping lesson plans, and starting his new job teaching 7th grade social studies and language arts at st. joseph's middle school in appleton.

we have put an offer on a house in appleton and are awaiting final approval from the bank. we've done the inspection, they've done the appraisal, and now we are just waiting for the "all good" from the bank. when this happens, our closing date will be somewhere around october 1st.

i am entering crazy time at work. we are getting things in working order for our annual haunted house project and fundraiser. it lasts throughout october and this year we are adding a third attraction to celebrate our 25th year. whew!

max is doing great. he's adjusting to daycare quite well and having lots of fun exploring everything new around him.

fun evening in oshkosh...

today max and i went to oshkosh with becky.
we went to the menominee park zoo and then played on the playground.

the zoo was a bit of a disappointment.
max liked the llamas and the elk...but there really weren't too many exhibits.

after the walk around the zoo we headed over to play at the awesome playground.

max loved playing with this steering wheel...

look at this! he looks like such tough stuff!

he saw some bigger kids hanging on these rings and wanted to give it a try.

so glad i caught that smile!

after the park, we headed to catch some dinner and then drove home.
thanks for a fun evening becky! :)

new playhouse...

well...max discovered how to climb into the dog kennels.
goodness gracious...what won't this kid get himself into!?!

14 months...

here are a few pictures that i took today before we headed to daycare.
he looks like such a big boy.
and...i think this is my new favorite shirt of max's.

max...

today you are 14 months old.

your vocabulary is growing like crazy.

you love to read books, play with your cars, and throw balls.
(you have even started to memorize the pictures in one of your books)

you are becoming a pickier eater. we are having to try to sneak in your vegetables.
you love fruit and cheese the most!

you are finally starting to walk without putting your hands up in the air.
you are fascinated with trying to climb the stairs...we have to keep a very close eye on you!

you give kisses and high fives to everyone.

you can "pound it," cheers, and blow kisses.

you never miss pointing out a car, kitty, or a baby.
you wave to everyone but your "bu-bye" is usually about 5 seconds late.

you make us laugh with your awesome dance moves and will bust them out whenever you hear music that you like.

we love you more and more every day!

a cherry on top...

there is a new ice cream shop downtown neenah that i have been dying to check out.

i called becky this afternoon and she agreed to go with me and max.

max got to enjoy a scoop of rainbow sherbet.

i got it in a cup because i wasn't quite prepared for the mess that a cone would bring.

he did a really good job with the spoon.

i'd let him feed himself but for the sake of portion control, i filled his spoon for him.

he loved the treat!

i'm so glad that he is feeling better...it's so wonderful to have my baby back!

celebrating my birthday...

we celebrated my birthday with family on sunday.
mom was nice enough to host dinner at her house.
we had hamburgers, homemade baked beans, salad, corn on the cob and baked chips.
everything was delicious...thanks mom!

uncle denny was being silly and entertaining max.
had i taken this picture 5 seconds sooner...you would have been able to see max CRACKING up!

mmmmm....a giant chocolate chip cookie for dessert.

i thought max's face in this picture was too funny!

i got spoiled this year. thank you to all of my family for the thoughtful gifts!

look at these beautiful green plates that linda got for me!

and from becky...a new packer shirt!

i'm pretty excited about this one!!!

relaxing saturday afternoon...

we did a whole lot of nothing today.
max has a pretty yucky cough...and add to that the fact that is breathing is loud...and we figured it was safer to stay home and avoid the dirty looks!

what a handsome little guy!

this is what you get when you give a baby who is sick and also teething a sippy cup full of water!
what a wet mess!

playing with one of daddy's hats!
this one is from great grampa's sherrif's citizen academy.

i love this one...he's clapping about something.

peek-a-boo!

still just those two teeth on the bottom...but there are 6 on the top.

and we finished the afternoon off with some reading!

sign of a future career...

future deejay, automotive engineer, or mechanic?
what do you think grampa mark?

must be feeling a little better...

max is feeling a little better.

his fever broke yesterday evening.

now we are just fighting a stuffy nose and a cough.

he has to be feeling okay to make this kind of a mess.

first week of daycare = sick baby...

well...max is sick.
he's got a cold and a cough.
wednesday night was rough!
i don't think i got more than 3 hours of sleep and it was all about 20-30 minutes at a time.

he barely ate anything yesterday and was just pitiful.
last night was a little bit better and this morning his fever seems to be pretty much gone.

i sure hope my little guy starts to feel better soon!

daddy's tired girls...

i don't know if it was the stress of max starting daycare or the busy start to my work week but i was exhausted on wednesday night.

drew snapped some pictures of his girls all asleep in the living room.

ready for day two...

max was busy on wednesday morning watching our road get resurfaced.

he was amazed by the big vehicles and all of the noises.

he even got in some serious snuggle time with his blanket!

we headed to day care and got there right when they were starting lunch.

max was very excited to see his new friends and join them at the table for sandwiches!

day two went great...no incident reports and he took more than a 20 minute nap!

ready for his first day of daycare...

tuesday was max's first day going to daycare.

here is our little guy all ready to go!

you can see...he was much more exited than mommy!

had to take one with daddy too!

this was the only one where all three of us had our eyes open and were actually looking at the camera.

max did great when we dropped him off.

just went exploring around the room and played with everything he could get his hands on.

i shed a few tears in the parking lot...but did much better than i thought i would.

things went great for max until after lunch...and after i called to check on him.

daddy had to sign two incident reports when he picked him up.

max got bit and fell while trying to climb up on a couch.

he's doing fine...but we just weren't prepared for that! :)

first day...

i just called to check in on max at daycare.
i was worried about being one of "those" parents...i'm not even sure what that means.
the teacher assured me that i could call anytime. there are some parents that call everyday.

max is having a great day. he hasn't cried at all. he ate great for breakfast and lunch (no surprise there!) and had fun playing outside.
i'm curious to hear how naptime goes...i can't imagine him sleeping on a cot and not in his crib or a pack 'n play.

i did pretty good this morning. only a few tears in the parking lot.
i'm really excited to see him when i get home!

morning at the park...

since max starts daycare tomorrow, i took today off so we could do something fun together.
i wanted to take him to the children's museum...but go figure, it's closed on mondays.
i checked all the libraries for a story time or something, but they all start back up in september.
i looked into the y...but pools weren't open until the evening for little kids.

so we went and spent some time in city park.
we had fun...did some swinging, some sliding, some wood chip eating.
it was nice to share the morning together.
i sure hope i get through tomorrow morning okay.
wish me luck.

bay beach...

i can't believe i forgot to blog about this.
not this past weekend...but the one before...a friend asked max and i to join her and her son for an afternoon at bay beach.
it was max's first non-family play date.
he was excited.

these boys were ready to go.
c'mon moms...let's play!


conner was showing max the ropes.

conner wanted to drive with both steering wheels.

next...time for the race cars!

he was really getting the hang of it...and having a blast!

max wasn't too thrilled with this ride.

max and mommy on the train!

having fun on the carousel.

he was one tired boy when we were done.

feel asleep within minutes on the car ride home!

thanks for the invitation...we had a great time!

haircuts for the boys...

we decided it was time for haircut #2 for max.
we went to aunt nancy at her new salon.
max was a little unsure of what was going on.
so...i broke down to bribery and offered him a lollipop!

it definitely helped to stop the tears and to keep him still.

mmmm....blueberry!

we had him sitting backwards in the chair and the cape didn't cover him completely...so he ended up with a furry bottom!

next it was daddy's turn.
i think this cape might be a little too small!

my two handsome boys.
by the way...this is the first picture i've taken where you can see the gap between max's two front teeth! :)

chicago trip - day 3...

day three of our trip consisted of breakfast, packing, loading up our car, and driving home.

we had to head back so early because mommy and daddy both had afternoon meetings for work.
we had a great time and consider our first family trip, of just the three of us, a success!