Max's Scrunchie Face

 For about a week now Max has been making the elusive schrunchie face. It cracks up both of his brothers and his mommy, but it comes and goes so fast I've been struggling to get a picture of it. It's sort of mischevious, with his little nose all scrunched up combined with a big toothy grin.

He does it whenever he thinks he's done or seen something funny, like making the spider motions for Itsy Bitsy Spider, or Gabe falling down and screaming "Oooof!" for Max's benefit. It's always a quick, fleeting expression, but now when he's doing it Gabe starts exclaiming, "He's making the face again! There's that scrunchie face we love!" It's a real crowd pleaser around here!

Tossed in a bonus pic of Gabe and Ben being nice to each other - so long as we're looking at hard to take pics!

Happy 1st birthday, Max!

I almost can't believe it, but our little Max turned one today! I remember when Gabe had his first birthday and we thought he was such a big boy...today we looked at Max and he was so small! Max is not quite walking yet, and he takes in everything with a thoughtful eye.

We had a super fun Winter Wonderland Brrr-thday party with good friends, yummy food, and silly games and playtime. Everyone had a good time playing Marshmallow Max. Ben and Sean mostly ate marshmallows, and Gabe preferred to play with two fistfuls of marshmallows at a time, bettering his chances. We had "ice fishing" under the (blanket) igloo in the corner and balloon snowballs to toss about. Max even ate some of his cupcake, though by that point he was one tired baby. Here's a video of the big (not) blowing out the candle moment - Max got a helping puff of air from big brother Ben, who just wanted to get a cupcake of his own!

Here's a slideshow of the photos from today.  We want to thank our wonderful friends for celebrating Max's first year with us today, Happy 1st Brrr-thday, Max!

Max's First Haircut

Last night I loaded the kiddos up in the car and we hauled our cookies (OK, a lollipop, some cheerios, and some multi grain crackers) to Pigtails and Crewcuts for Max's first haircut. Not a carefully contemplated trip, just up and decided to go. Gabe and Ben were thrilled - I've been cutting their hair with the clippers at home for the amazing low, low price of 1 lollipop per haircut, so we haven't been to the "haircut place" as Gabe fondly calls it in forever. You can see the older boys are jazzed to be going back to the haircut place, especially since neither of them have to get a haircut there.

The haircut place has a very nice train table, with all the tracks attached to the table in a complicated configuration that even Ben can't seem to remove from the table. There's even usually trains on the table to play with - not always the case with public train tables. It always astounds me how the boys will spend 40 minutes taking turns playing with one ratty, chewed up no name train at a public train table but demolish any track on their home table that is more complicated that a simple circle in 30 seconds flat while arguing endlessly over the approximately 4 billion Thomas the Tank Engine trains in the large under-table storage drawers.  Nathan loves their train table. William loves their train table. Gabe and Ben...prefer to play trains anywhere else but home usually. The trains are always greener on someone else's table.

 

 

Back on track now - Max's first haircut. He doesn't really have a large amount of hair. All the hair on his head might equal one of Nathan's sideburns, or half of Penny's bangs. It's patchy and uneven on the top, but he's got a super crazy patch of hair going on behind the ears that I slick down many times a day with a baby wipe so he won't resemble Albert Einstein. On a bad hair day.  How something so baby fine and soft can stick out so far from his hear is beyond me! 

 

So we cruise up to Pigtails and Crewcuts in the big red car, of course, and the two older boys take off to the train table. I won't see them again for a while, allowing Max some rare uninterrupted Mommy time...during which I'll hand him over to a stranger to get shorn.  Max was super excited, because his haircut took place in a firetruck, which to him was basically a taller big red car with a shiny silver steering wheel - sweet!

 

There was a boy in the taxicab next to Max, maybe 7 or so - way older than Gabe in any case. He was crying and carrying on - he did NOT want a haircut. Max just sat quietly in his firetruck, and let the stranger cut his hair. No fussing, barely any squirming. When she did the top of his do, he did try to look up a few times, but I rand the fire bell on the front of his fire truck and he soon was sitting quietly again. Towards the end she gave Max a blue comb to hold so he stared obligingly down at the comb so she could cut the back of his neck. I thought, Dude! I could have cut his hair if I'd know he was gonna be so accommodating...although, since we do not have a tall red firetruck chair with a shiny silver steering wheel, attempting to do it myself might have resulted in a trip to the emergency room for Max's first stitches...

In the end, Max came out happy, neat, and tidy. The older boys got train table playtime, lollipops, AND prizes from the prize bin since Max was too little for either reward. And Mommy got a half an hour of quiet, non-fighting play and a lot of cute Max pics. Win, win win for all... we won't talk about the dinnertime temper tantrums, eh? Till next time....

Chinese noodles are delicious!

One of the boys' favorite things to eat is Chow Mein Noodles. It's the go to choice if we're out at any type of food court setting - they will always eat the noodles, and they both love broccoli, too. But the fast food stuff is so bad for you - so I've been experimenting with making Chinese noodles at home. It's been a big hit! It's way lower in fat and I load it up with lots of veggies. I use a mandoline to slice at the veggies super thin. They wolf it down with nary a complaint - a nice change of pace where Gabe is concerned!

Tonight Baby Max got in on the noodle action. He shoveled in as many noddles as he could at once, so I had to give them to him a couple at a time to prevent suffocation by Chinese noodle, but he ate almost as many noodles as Gabe did! Since he's mostly rejecting the sippy cup and baby food, it's nice to know there's something the little guy can eat without spitting up!

Here's our recipe:

1/2 cup Chicken or veggie broth, divided in half
1 tbsp cornstarch
2 tbsp canola oil
1/2 cup cashews
1 pinch crushed red pepper flakes
8 ounces sliced mushrooms
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
4 green onions, sliced
2 carrots, finely sliced
2 stalks celery, finely sliced
1 zucchini, quartered, then finely sliced
1 tbsp garlic, minced
1 tsp ginger, minced
1 bunch broccoli, steamed and chopped into small bites
1/2 head napa cabbage, shredded
4 tbsp soy sauce (low sodium)
2 tbsp mirin or rice wine vinegar
1 package chow mein noddles - not the crunchy ones for salads, the white steamed ones in a cake

Boil off the noodles and drain; set aside.

Combine half the broth with the cornstarch; set aside.

In a wok or a large pan (I use my biggest soup pot), saute mushrooms in canola oil until browned. Tosh in cashews a minute or so before the mushrooms are done. Transfer mushrooms and cashews to a bowl.

Heat sesame oil in same pan. Toss in all veggies except cabbage. Stirfry for a minute or so to soften veggies. Add cabbage, garlic, and ginger, cook one minute more to wilt cabbage. Stir in remaining broth, red pepper flake, soy, mirin, and cornstarch mixture.  Cook stirring until sauce coats veggies, about a minute. Add noodles and toss to combine.

I usually grind a bit of black pepper over the adult portions before serving. You could probably just toss on some bottled teriyaki stuff too to save the effort. Yum-o!