Max Invasion

I have been terrible at posting lately for a couple of reasons. I don't seem to spend too much time on the computer & it has been really busy. The last couple of weeks were even busier than normal for 2 reasons. (1) we had Max with us for 8 days while Robb & Michele went to Cuba to celebrate their 10th anniversary & (2) I was preparing for a Halloween party- more on that later.

Having Max was a blast for the kids & pretty fun for us too. However, the following lessons were learned during the Max Invasion:

• getting anywhere with 3 kids takes longer than getting there with 2
• even one more child changes the volume level a great deal (& that volume level seems to stay even though the 3rd child has gone home again)
• since Sydney & Jason love to play "baby", Max taught them wonderful ways to make a crib (i.e. taking the cushions off the couch & placing them as walls, so now our cushions are forever lying around the basement)

Aside from moments involved in those lessons, it was pretty fun to have him here. I wonder what he truly thought of it. First, Brad & I are very different than Robb & Michele, so the experience definitely could not have been much like home. Second, Max is VERY attached to his mom & I was worried about how homesick he would be for her, but aside from the first night he did really well. Poor Robb, Max kept counting down the days until his mom came home & occasionally included his dad in the countdown. I know Max was happy to see his dad on their return, but it was his mom that he was itching to see.


The sleeping arrangements involved him sharing a room with Sydney. We knew better than to put them both to bed together, especially when Max needed to get to school every morning so the giggling before bed needed to be kept to a minimum. Sydney claimed that Max did not understand how you sleep with another person because she claimed that she laid straight & he took up more room by curling in a ball. But the photo below shows that Sydney got in Max's personal space too. Sydney claims that her dad put her arm around Max, but that is not true. The last night that Max was here I went to check on them & Max had an arm on Sydney's shoulder & the other on top of her head. By the time I got back with the camera, Sydney had moved so I missed the photo- but it was pretty cute.


Oh & the other lesson I learned is that you can never assume that all kids like to shower. I think I scarred Max for life by having him take a shower one morning. I felt like I was exposing him to a torture chamber. He did tell his mom about it, so I was right in my interpretation that he definitely did not like it.

Family game night involved playing "Life" because Brad thought that the kids would like spinning the wheel. Although that was true, it was a bit of a painful experience even though we played a VERY simplified version of the game. Note that this game if from our childhood & does not accurately represent a salary of today.