LEED Certified GOLD!

11/13/2012
Today we found out that the house is officially LEED Certified GOLD! Yippee!! You have no idea what a relief this is and how challenging it was for us to get this accomplished -- what I mean is that the challenge was not to design and build a LEED certifiable house - it was getting all the "paperwork" together and submitted and through the process.  I have to thank the Florida Solar Energy Center for being extremely helpful and cooperative in getting things finalized and submitted, too! It has been a learning process for us as home owners and as architects too.
Now to meet our other goals - to hopefully get published, and maybe submit for a couple awards or something - we shall see!

Max's first haircut and Karmann's fun with the camera

This weekend I finally took the kids to get their hair cut. This was Max's first and Karmann's 2nd professional cut. I went to a walk-in salon in Baldwin Park, as I figured it might not be busy and if it was we'd have a place to walk around. It was busy, but we were told it would be a short wait. 45 minutes later, Kar was finally in a chair. Thank goodness for running into Doug from work and his wife, who helped kill time in the waiting area. Karmann was a big girl and talked the hair stylist's ear off. Max was as good as gold while waiting, but was clearly fed-up by the time he was to get a trim. We decided it would be best to hold him in my lap, which only worked so well. But, he was good enough to get the top, sides and very bottom trimmed in the back. It looks much better at least. Karmann helped me out by first learning how to take a picture, and then trying to take some of Max while he was moving around while reacting to the noise of the scissors. Then, once she figured it out, she kept taking pictures - of everything she saw in the place - it is a pretty thorough photo essay of the place, to say the least. The pictures are pretty funny, and it was even funnier to hear her tell me what all the things were when we went through them together. Some of the examples are below - ENJOY.

 Max in dire need of a haircut...

 She's a little nervous about putting her head back...

 Happy and looking good!

 This photo represents the exact moment that Kar figured out how to take a picture with my Iphone. It also shows the first few cuts of Max's first hair cut - without Kar, this moment would not have been documented.

 Max not so sure about this....and to his limit of waiting!

 The following photos are a result of Kar's photography debut.

Christmas Decorations are up!

 A quick photo in front of the new stockings.

 Max trying to untangle the lights.

 Max completely engaged in helping Grandpa with the tree.

 Kar posing in front of the tree like a ballerina.

 More poses in front of the tree....

 The last ornament placed was "dogfish" - seen here lying on the floor, but attached with a bungee. 

Thanksgiving weekend was a low-key weekend. Kris made an awesome turkey, stuffing, and two pies. I managed to at least make mashed potatoes. Aunt Keri, Uncle Choy and Amara, and Grandpa came for Thanksgiving lunch. The weather and company was warm and enjoyable! We are so thankful for all our blessings that we have in our lives! We avoided shopping all weekend, but did manage to put up our Christmas trees and a few decorations. Grandpa came down to assist again this year and it was a lot of fun! Max liked playing with the lights and touching the tree, while Karmann was Chief Ornament Placer. I must say, she did a very nice job! We all had fun listening to Christmas music while decorating the tree - with a few dance break-outs here and there - it was a a memorable event. Max practically slept through the whole decorating portion, so when he woke up, he was in awe, and headed right to the ornaments - lake any normal one-year old. It only took about 10 times of "no no no" before he behaved and would stand in front of the tree, look back at me, and smile while waving his finger signing "no no no". Its quite comical that at his age, he clearly understand "no" and can wave his finger as good as his mother!  

ONE YEAR OLD already!

Well, Mr. Maxwell is officially one year old! He is a whopping 30 inches tall and only weighs 22 lbs. So his qualities of being a big baby have changed - though he still is eating us out of house and home. The day before he turned one, he made it quite clear to me that he wanted nothing to do with nursing ever again. It was a mutual agreement, and he hasn't thought about it since! He does still like to be held before he goes to bed, so he hasn't forgotten about me completely. We celebrated his birthday appropriately (I wasn't going to feel guilty again this time!) and luckily Grammy and Papa were here to help with the party. Trust me - with out the help from Deb and Steve, the party would not have been this organized! It was a halloween theme - so Kar and Max could wear their costumes one-more-time. But I think Karmann was the only one dressed up for the whole time. See some of the photos below. We all had a great time.
Max had his check up soon there after, and with him walking at 10 months, eating normal food, drinking from a cup and straw, climbing up stairs - and on top of tables!!, playing peek-a-boo, blowing kisses, waving hello and good-buy, playing the kazoo, clapping to music, dancing, and trying to jump up and down on the bed (with karmann), he's doing just fine and growing up very fast!
Karmann was also excited about Max's birthday - she is the ultimate party girl and makes up reasons just to have cake! She got a good deal out of the weekend as Papa and Daddy built a swing set in the back yard! It will be the center for many parties to come, I am sure.
Thanks to everyone who helped celebrate and esp. to Steve and Deb for all their help.

I forgot to mention earlier, that I made the cake FROM SCRATCH, and the icing too for Max's birthday. It must have slipped my mind, as it was such a tramatic stressful situation, that I had already blocked it out of my short term memory. Though, the cake and icing was pretty darn good! Let's just say, I am not at all on the level of Marth Stewart's magazine, as the recipies were out of her article and pretty much over my head - but I did it! And, my understanding of a complicated recipe totally changed me. Let's just say I will probably never make a boiled caramel buttercream icing again, but will never forget how to make it, either! Thanks to Richard at work for giving me (way too much) confidence, and to Deb who kept me going and convinced me not to give up! 

On a walk

(Written 10/25/2012) Mr. Max is very close to turning one. He officially became a walker about a week ago! It started with just 4 steps. and within a week he has become a fully mobile pedestrian! He is so confident and can even stand up on his own if he falls down. He's become a pacer - he walks from door to door in the family room looking out and then turning around and walking back. He does it upstairs, too - going from the kitchen to the front deck door. Now I need to get him shoes - as he's only had shoes or socks on his feet maybe 5 times since he's been born. I'm sure that is going to be an adjustment.
The next adjustment is going to be stopping nursing. I've already been weaning him for a while, and my plan is to stop completely next week. I think he's ready, as I can get him asleep with out nursing and he's starting to eat from the bottle as well as a cup. Max finally has two top teeth to complement the two bottom teeth, but thats it. With those teeth, he loves to eat regular food, too. Its funny that he's starting to be picky. For example, tonight we had breakfast for dinner - waffles and scrambled eggs. He started to eat the eggs, which he likes, but as soon as he saw the waffle and had a bite - there was no going back! He's a carb lover too. So I've learned to only put the veggie or fruit on his plate alone first. Then when he's done, I'll introduce the other stuff. If you put it all on his plate at once, he'll pick what he likes more, and only eat that.
His words are limited to ma-ma and da-da, but he speaks in many other languages. His good morning speak is short little grunts. His "I want more" speak is more like a scream, and his jibber jabber sounds like he's saying sentences - where he even repeats the same sounds and pattern of sounds as if he's trying to tell you something over and over again. I am going to assume that he's going to be a pretty good communicator.
Karmann is just realizing the implications of Max being on two feet. When he first started walking, she would observe while giddily laughing. I don't think the thought had ever crossed her mind that he would be walking on two feet like her. But, she's loving it. She is so sweet and proud of her little brother! She introduces him to all her friends and new people she meets! She says I'm Karmann, and that is my brother Max! Its quite polite! She also likes to share with him (for the moment) but she is very clear that anything RED is hers and he can have anything else that is any other color.
Kar is also starting to learn how to write. She knows how to write her name, but it is very difficult to get her to do it on demand. She says she can't and needs help. I'm working on her confidence and and trying to encourage her to write other words and letters. She's made progress! She does like to write "Max" as its pretty easy for her.

We are looking forward to Halloween. Kar is a strawberry and Max is going to be Albert Pujols - as a Cardinal, of course. We picked out pumpkins last week, and carved one of them this past Monday. Max's 1st birthday is going to be Halloween themed, too. Really, that is just another excuse for both of then to wear their costumes one more time. We are looking forward to the party!