Crib Transition

Max is trying to make the transition from his bouncy chair at night to his crib. He really doesn't like to sleep flat on his back, but it must happen eventually. So around 3am when we feed him, we sneak him into his crib as he falls back asleep. Last night was our first real try and we thought everything had gone just fine. When we found him this morning, this is how he looked. It looked like he had a serious wrestle with the inevitable...and lost. Sorry little dude. Accept your fate.

More Max Peeps and Fun

As our Boise trip continued, Max was introduced to more peeps and fun that is the motherlandia. I would like to point out that not pictured in this post is the Smiths, including Nats who brought up her three kids who ended up being too sick to hang out with Max. Also not pictured is D Boyle, who had a kid of his own while we were in town!

Okay, back to the pictorials.
The Woodronis: Jans, Ewood, Lills and Annnnnnnns party it up with Max. For many of my friends, Max is a "see it to believe it" situation. Could Mulcock really reproduce such a magnificent child? They forget to take into account my wife's beauty in this equation.

Lills showed us her new amazing trick - which is to play around on this ball until she falls and smacks her head. After showing us twice successfully, I awarded her the gold and she retired to nurse her pain with some cartoons.

Yep, he's cute.

Later, we went out to Orchard (I'm serious, I know) to get some empanadas from Tango's Subs and Empanadas. I was excited to see an Argentine place in Boise, and found it to be delicious.

Big D enjoyed his empanadas and crinkle cut fries to the core.

I got my favorite - a choripan with chimichurri sauce. It was awesome. Right now they are using Mexican chorizo, but will have Argentine chorizo by April.

Que riquisimo!

We took a trip downtown to see Ben Wilson's fantastic art exhibited in The Basement Gallery. After enjoying that, we went over to the Record Exchange.

I bought Max a new outfit for when he hits that 6 month mark, starts eating solids, and his craps become stinky. I'm so pumped.

Pam found herself a nice, used classical music CD to buy.

Then Max had pretty much had about as much fun as he could have for the afternoon. He wanted to get home to the Olympics and the boob.

Before we left Boise, we had the pleasure to have Ben Wilson himself come over with his own crazy coo son Cannon. He is smooshy people.

Nicks remembers the day when her son was small like Max. Was he ever as small as Max? Maybe not. We discussed important issues and recalled the good ol days while still loving the good now days. I found out Ben loves romantic comedies. Who knew?

When we got back to Evanston, Max got a visit from his super aunt Chunqing! Sorry Wortley's! You got beat by Chunqing on seeing Max! Chunqing was great and put Max right to sleep with her loving stares and bouncing. Oh Max, you are so blessed.

I Was Freakin' Serious

Some people are all talk, no walk when it comes to dieting. Those people are not me or Caitlin. We are serious...this time. It has now nearly been a week of our diet and we have not bended on any rule. I cannot tell you how many vegetables and fruit I have eaten. The above picture is just an example of one of our many healthy and well portioned meals that we have consumed this week. It was a fresh vegetable tuna pita (peppers, grapes, tuna, Dijon mustard, parsley, onions) in a whole wheat pita, grapes and grilled zucchini.

As a result, I lost 8 pounds this week. Boom. Take that haters.

(In complete honesty, I'm not sure if there are indeed any haters out there...but I feel like there has to be some doubters)

Introductions Part 2

The Mulcocks also love Baby Max. Big D met Max for the FIRST TIME when we went to Idaho a few weeks ago. He took naturally to being a grandpa - loving him and holding him whenever possible.

Caitlin and I really love where Grampees and Papa D live near the Boise river in Eagle. We took many walks with Baby Max to enjoy the 50 degree weather in Boise.

Their neighborhood has calming waterfalls (softened by an extended exposure with my camera) and ducks. What more could you ask for?

Big D was always the navigator for our strolls and lead Max in the ways of good walking. He and Caitlin took the time during those walks to bond.

So much so did they bond that I needed to take this precious couples photo. Cute.

With the sun setting in the west, it was a great opportunity to try some shots with my camera.

I really liked this one.

Then there was the introduction of Max to Unky Mike. At first Mike was very scared of Max, let's be honest. Mike has no experience with babies and a natural fear of babies, which is funny for a man who loves animals so much. But eventually he was prepared to embrace him...and then he was in love.

The men of Grampees life.

We were lucky to be in town during Grampee's birthday! Caitlin and I got up in the middle of the night while we took care of Max to decorate the kitchen with decorations.

Balloons, banners, crete paper, and cards. Don't forget the party style table cloth!

We also had all the siblings and Papa D write their favorite things about mom and then we put them on these paper balloons and hung them all along the banister. 57 nice comments about mom for to read to celebrate her 57th birthday. They were some tender, some fun - all true.

Nice touch.

For mom's bday dinner - we went to the ever awesome Red Robin. Technically we tried to go to Macaroni Grill, but we realized it was the Saturday before Valentine's Day on Sunday in a heavily Mormon town. Yeah, we couldn't get in.

So many options!

Big D got fish and chips, his favorite.

And I got my favorite - the Blue Cheese Chipotle burger. It is so amazing, I miss it so much now that I'm on my diet. Whoa, I'm actually crying as I write this.

Then back to home to celebrate with carrot and red velvet cupcakes with candles.

Mike is so proud of mom for successfully aging.

Let's be honest - she has aged pretty well!

She blew out her candles and I hope her 2010 wish comes true - unless that wish is for me to move to Boise this year and live in her house with Max. That's just not going to happen in 2010.

Mom - we love you!

Introductions Part 1

Our first stop in Boise was with Judes and crew. While the grandparents had already met precious baby Max, he was now five weeks older and extra, extra squeezable.

Lidia meets Max and just wanted to touch him so much, but we had to watch her because she is still so little herself and has not mastered the tender touch.

Abigail, on the other hand, became very skilled and giving Max nice and soft touches on the face. She loved Max. Cousins united!

We went that night to The Cheesecake Factory for Carley's birthday. As you can see, there were a "few" salads ordered...complete with sauces galore.

Birthday girl and Jonathon await their delicious meals.

And after the food - birthday celebrations thanks to the TCF. Nice touch TCF with the writing.

Then we went to the mall to find Carley presents. Abigail tried to play with her Papa, but he was wayyyyy to tuckered out for games. So she would turn to her fallback buddy - me.

We played a lot of hide and seek/tag with my camera. Abigail would try to hide and run away from my picture taking, but I would capture her.

You can run but you can't hide ABS!

Meanwhile, Papa chills with Lids - a more relaxing affair.

The next day we watched the Super Bowl at Jonathon's house and he spent the evening rubbing the score in Caitlin's face...until The Saints passed by Indianapolis and Caitlin had the last laugh. The commercials? Mediocre.

I spent a lot of the time watching Max. He's more entertaining then football, let's be honest.

He looks, he scores!

Then on Monday it was Carley's actual birthday, so we took her to Costa Vida for lunch. We got their early and decorated our table with birthday surprises.

Happy Birthday!

Serious party favors man...that was our plan. We were fortunate to be in town for fun events like birthdays. More to come with Pam's birthday and other adventures from our trip to Boise.