Madd Max Attend A Gymnastics Party

 Later in the day, for Emmett.

Sam thought it was almost as cool as Max.

The Scrapper Packs

For his trip to the East Coast. This will be the first trip as a family of four, the packing beginning at 9 am and continuing until 10pm.

Madd Max Shows Tio Greg The Park

And how slides aren't just for little kids.

And can sometimes be quite calming.

We headed home from the park in time for dinner with Mimi.

Where she took us all out for pho, and then for dessert, some Nutella, strawberry and ice cream crepes. Oo, la, la!

The Scrapper Meets Emma

After a pediatrician's check-up, we headed over to Tak and Val's to introduce them to Max. They have been working everywhere from Pittsburgh to Japan, finally returning to LA, making it a long anticipated meeting .

Emma was the first to notice Max awake from his nap, and gently said hello while tickling his foot.And now for Max's stats from today.
Max is almost 4 months old.
Height: 24 1/2" (25th percentile)
Weight: 13lbs. 2oz. (20th percentile)
Head Circumference: 17cm (75th percentile) - although the pediatrician believes he received extra credit from the nurse doing the measuring.
He is following his growth curves perfectly, and the doc referred to him as a "possible gymnast, showing off all that head and leg control."

Slappy Experiences XMA

A tense Steeler Sunday at the Leonhardts.

All fans riveted.Something was needed to break the tension - shoulder rides around the house did the trick.Followed by a pretzel sharing - one end for Maddie, one for Belle.After nap, a move to XMA (Extreme Martial Arts) World Headquarters for Maddie's first birthday party of a friend, who Jess did not know the parents of. Gaige is one of Maddie's music class buddies, and his nanny handed out invites during class. We arrived to a train in the parking lot.
This is also Maddie's first ride. After about 2 times around the parking lot, she made the sign for "more." She had been seeming slightly scared of the ride, but Jess told her there was more coming. Maddie immediately realized her mistake, and began signing "all done" over and over. The next ride we watched from the sidelines, and she asked for more, to watch, and meant it.Gaige is in his train phase. Please note the animal crackers in the middle train car.That's the birthday boy.

Maddie had a great time at the party, particularly on the trampoline, where she showed caution by remaining sitting there for about half an hour, while the other kids bounced, propelling her. Jess felt like she had experienced a rite of passage - something slightly awkward, but necessary and good.

They returned home to Mimi and Tio Greg making mushroom soup, applesauce and artistic sandwiches.And Tio Greg impressed all again with his get-Max-to-sleep skillz.

Madd Max Has Two Balls

Now that's it a little colder in LA (about 70 degrees), Maddie has been trying out the indoor spaces at Kidspace.

It has challenged her, in that there are awesome balls to carry, which means creative ways to climb everything she wants to climb.

Max's balls come from the fact that Jess left him playing on the ground while a dozen new toddlers barreled their way to their goals right by his head.

The Scrapper Watches The Steelers

Over at the Leonhardt house. Maddie and Lilly pulled out their black and gold in support.

Max began to get schooled by John on the intricacies of the game, and vowed to try to sport more gold then just the hint on his pacifier next time.

Madd Max Stays Home

While Jess headed out with Elizabeth, Marissa, Aarin, Erin, Suzanne and Liza Mae to celebrate Erin's upcoming nuptials with brunch and mimosas.

And of course, a stop at David's Bridal to see just how much tulle one can shove a tiny friend into. Please note, everyone except Erin pulled dresses for her, as her real dress is at home. Oh yeah.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, no pictures were taken, but when Jess arrived back in the late afternoon the living room rug was missing. "It was an impressive sprinkler impersonation. Sofa, coffee table, netbook power strip + 5 SqFt of carpet while slowly turning looking for me," Sam described the puke that had wrecked the living room. Maddie had tested her Dad's stomach and love, by catching the flu.

The Scrapper Likes Big Sisters

Weather they are Elizabeth's or his own.

A little photoshop can make these two pictures into the perfect smiling one.

Madd Max Carves

Pumpkins that is. I blame the length of this post on our friends being so cool.

Halloween began with the search for the perfect pumpkin.Although in reality, Sam did most of the searching, and Maddie's opinion of the entire thing was more like this.Once found, Sam headed over to Feldie's Annual Pumpkin Carving Party to get some hard core, power tooled, work in before Jess arrived in a few hours with the kids.By the time the rest of the fam arrived to greet a happy Feldie, Sam was complete.Then he filled his hands with one of our little pumpkins - yeah, I said that too.Liza, Arthur and Erin were all in the beginning stages of their design.Alex had flown in from Florida to begin stacking his pumpkins.Hunvey also had some serious carving to get done.And there were some who were in costume - Aarin is a tour widow (Drew is on-tour with Jay Z) - and some who were their fabulous selves - Scott and Kathleen. ELF dressed as the cutest garden gnome.Holly Rose was a dirty housewife. Remember this costume - it plays an important role later on.Elizabeth was a very tired pumpkin.Greg and Suzanne were lightening bugs - their booties even blinked when dusk fell.Our grumpy strawberry finally found solace in the her rightful place, in the dirt with a dump truck. Things took a sad turn when the dump truck's owner asked for it back, and Sam handed her a spoon to dig with, which she used appropriately, spooning the dirt right into her mouth.John and Erin had offered up their backyard as a venue for the party, and John played the happy host very well.
And now for the pumpkins - here's the majority of them. The following pictures give you some close-ups with explanations to wow you.

Alex's tragic scene. The pumpkin man in the middle has a hole that is oozing green goo. In the pineapple man's pasta fork hand is the pumpkin man's oozing heart (ie tea strainer covered in green goo). This won 2nd place.

Greg's pumpkin is smoking a pipe - that's a tea light at the end of it. This won 3rd place.

Elvin pumpkin.Arthur's is entitled - "Los Angeles Burning." Inside the pumpkin, there is an additional smaller pumpkin cut into a flames silhouette, which sits on a rotating disk. The entire thing is lit through LEDs.Crazy cute eyes.

Even the cupcakes were well designed, courtesy of Alison.

Upper right corner is a Charlie Brown and Snoopy. Boo-ya!

Upper left corner is a pumpkin snowman.

And now the winning pumpkin - remember Holly Rose's housewife costume. It went along with the easy bake oven pumpkin. There is actually a small pie inside the pumpkin (held up with bbq skewers, and the top has electric burners cut into it).We did not get to stay for the actual judging, as we headed back home for trick-or-treaters (Jess did return for the after party after the littles were asleep). Sam set up his pumpkin on the front porch, which drew many comments on the small pumpkins - one being, "When you carved the small ones - were there seeds?" As our street goes nuts on Halloween, not only was it packed, but some neighbors set out a chocolate fountain, and others brought out margaritas. We got a total of 256 trick-or-treaters, ranging from teeny witches and firemen to a Hooters girl.

Jess with her pea and her strawberry.