California Highlights - 1

We were blessed again this year by Bryan's parents, to fly down to California again for Christmas! We knew it would be warmer, but boy, we were not prepared for how HOT it was most of the time! In the time it took for us to exit the plane in California and get in the car, all three of us were already sweating pretty badly. My parents were making fun of us because for them, that was light sweater weather. It would only get hotter too. Not that I'm complaining too much. We haven't seen the sun here in Spokane for a few weeks now and it's really bringing us down. It's one thing to not give us sun, but to also not give us any snow during that time is just unacceptable! Our first thoughts back in California were, "Wow, it crowded!", and "if it's this hot in the winter, I can't imagine how hot it will be in the summer!", but after being there for just a short time, we remembered the feeling of home that it brings to us and I miss it so dearly.

Max found his beanie while I was packing and insisted on wearing it. (He loves his "bee-yah"!)

Flying
Max was SO GREAT for us flying both down and back. Our flight was at 6 in the morning, but Max had a rough night and was up at 3am. He really enjoyed being able to come into our bedroom and watch Wonder Pets in our bed while we got ready. He was terrified of the plane at first, but once I pulled out the Kindle and he got some juice and cookies, he was perfectly content. In fact, we had one plane change and as soon as we got on the second plane, he pulled the tray down and asked for food and drink, already a seasoned flyer! He ended up sleeping the entire flight (and since I didn't wake him on the way down to eat or drink anything, he screamed the whole descent from an ear ache. I felt like such a horrible mother!)

 Layover in Salt Lake City

 It's only on planes that I get to see that "I'm so tired" head bob thing. It's super cute to watch!

Trains, trains, trains
Max is beyond obsessed with trains! Papa Jones bought Max a pass to ride the train at the mall 10 times. Max is so funny, because he's just so ornery during the train rides, but as soon as it's over he asks for it again.

Our first real adventure was going to the Orange Empire Railway Museum in Perris. We started out with a train ride (I think Max likes looking at trains way more than he likes to ride them) and had the cousins together again for the first time in a year. Max's oldest cousin Henry loves him so much! I can't wait until Max is old enough to love him back. We spent probably a good hour at the museum before it closed and Max, I think, enjoyed it more than I've seen him enjoy anything else!

 Max and his cousin, Henry

 Cousins Henry, Thea, and Apollo

*If you notice, it was so hard to get good pictures of Max because he was constantly running from one thing to the next.

My dear nephew Apollo. Max took over his crib and we all took over his room while we were down. He is a year younger than Max and is such a content little boy. Apollo LOVED to follow his older cousin around wherever he went, and would copy anything and everything Max did. One time even, Max coughed, and Apollo "coughed" right after him. Max still doesn't know what to do with other kids and probably didn't even know he was there half the time. I sure do love and miss my little nephew!

*Haha! I just realized Max is wearing the same sweater in ALL of these pictures! I guess it was cooler at the beginning of the trip. I promise we changed his clothes underneath at least!

Our Christmas!

We celebrated our Christmas super early so Max would have time to play with his toys before heading down to California. This time Max knew exactly what to do with the presents under the tree! It's so fun to see how different everything is each year with him. This year he didn't need any help opening the presents, he knew there were toys inside, and he was excited to move on the the next one (though after he opened each one, he always went back to the train, which he had opened first).

 I kept seeing people making super cute Christmas stockings for their kids and I felt bad that I still didn't have one for Max, so I pulled out my felt and made one for him. I intended it to just be a filler stocking until I could get a real one to replace it, but I actually kind of like it.

 My wonderful in-laws are the reason for any of us having any presents this year and we thank them so much! Bryan and I bought ourselves a combined gift and got a Wii U (we sold our old Wii and a bunch of games for a really great price). Everything here is for Max.

 Max walked over to the presents and started signing "train". I figure there are two possible reasons he could have been doing this: 1) he hoped there would be a train there, or 2) he thought the long present was actually a train.

 My guess is that he predicted the long one was a train because that is the first thing he reached for to open. He is such a smart little boy!

 My sweet boy :)

 He made his own pile of wrapping paper. After he opened every gift, he would take the wrapping paper over there.

 The play kitchen was a huge success! I'm so glad I was able to find a nice, small, great priced kitchen for our little apartment. Though it took me 3 hours to build it while watching Sound of Music Live, it was so worth it. Poor kid wanted to wash his hands and thought real water was going to come out of the sink.

 The greatest success of all! We bought him a slide and he is so in love with it! He wakes up in the morning and goes to slide on it first thing. We'll probably have to store it on our balcony when we get sick of it taking up space; though it is a really good size; big enough to get a good slide out of it, but small enough to not take up too much space.

 Shopping cart and register from Abuela. This thing is awesome and I can't wait to really start doing more pretend play with Max. 

 Max was using it as a chair to watch TV.

So Merry Christmas to us! It's been so fun these last couple years having Christmas at the beginning AND at the end of the month. I don't know how I'm going to be able to wait until the end of the month next year!