Max is now enjoying answering the phone. We are trying to teach some etiquette, so it’s not just, “What? Who is this?” I guess it must be rubbing off on the little Miss, because she handed me her toy phone this morning, after saying into it, “Just a minute please.” Max and I were reading our children’s story Bible, about Moses. The Hebrews were hungry and complaining in the desert, and Max piped up, “This is where God sends them some mayonnaise!”

Max has lost his first tooth. He spent Wednesday night twisting and pulling and wiggling his tooth until his mouth was a bloody mess, but the tooth wouldn’t come out. He started to cry in frustration and so we told him that he couldn’t play with his tooth any more that night. The next night, after Awana, he immediately ran to the bathroom and started playing with his tooth. Toby and I were talking about something and didn’t notice what he was doing. We wanted to avoid the tears and blood (no sweat) of the previous night, so when we did notice what he was doing we told him to stop. But he had news for us. The tooth was already out. He had quietly plucked the tooth from his mouth and was examining the new hole in his mouth. I can’t believe how small that tooth is.

First tooth out

Max and Lucy love their mom. When I get Lucy out of bed on the weekends, the first thing Lucy looks at is our bedroom door to see if Toby is awake or not. Since Toby likes to sleep late on the weekends, the door is always closed. On these weekends, I make the breakfast for the kids and then they play in the living room after breakfast. But no matter what they are doing, they are waiting for Toby to come out of the bedroom. They listen intently to hear the door open and then they run screaming and yelling to wrap their arms around mom. This morning was no exception. The kids had been awake for about an hour when they heard the creak of the door that signifies mom is at last awake. They both ran over to her, Toby hunched down so that she could surround them both with big hugs. As Toby was telling Max how much she loved him, Max pulled back and said, “The air coming out of your mouth is smelly when you blow.”

Two weekends ago we were able to steal away from the kiddos for an entire day! (Thank you Yaya :). Our adventures ranged from the industrial centers of Oxnard to the rolling hills of way-north Goleta. The main attraction was a tour on the Santa Barbara Landshark bus/boat – SO great. Their website is www.outtoseesb.com. It’s a vehicle that goes on land like a car, then all of a sudden you drive into the harbor and – hey – you are in a boat! You ride about 8 feet up on the street, and the day we had was clear and beautiful. We actually learned a whole lot of interesting things about this area, too. Bonuses in the day also included some techie stuff Matt got to pick out, and the extremely yummy facial that I had. We had a delicious dinner with my sister Kelly and her husband Ray (also celebrating their anniversary) at Louie’s. A really super day. 🙂

Do we look old enough to have been married for 9 years? Wait – don’t answer that. 🙂

Matt and the Land Shark

Dinner with Kelly and Ray

We had some great fun this year with our kiddos. Max was Darth Vader and Lucy was a 70’s Disco girl (thanks for the outfit, Mom!). Our little downtown street does trick or treating in the afternoon in the shops – and that was very cool! Lucy mastered ‘Trick or Treat’ and ‘thank you!’ very quickly. We took Max’s good buddy Mac (a robot) with us.

Official pumpkin carving (and no – Lucy has not just seen a ghost – she’s trying to smile)

Robot Mac and Darth Vader Max

Lucy the Disco Queen and Darth Vader Max