Summertime

Today is the first day of summer. So far so good. Things at work have been the busiest they have ever been but I am so thankful and blessed to have such a flexible job doing something so worthwhile.

Max had his 4 yr check up and his immunizations. He is 46 inches tall and 45 lbs. 99.9 percentile in both areas. His eye sight in one eye is 20/30 and the other is 20/20 and his hearing is great. The shots were SO sad. He got 5!!! It was awful. He cried but was brave. Poor guy. Max is definitely my child and a total McLemore. He talks NON-STOP!! It makes me hate myself a little. ;). I guess I'm just getting a taste what I give to everyone with in earshot of me!! Ha!!

Maggie is chugging right along. She is ABSOLUTELY rotten. She is a very busy little girl and super head-strong. She is so defiant at times I really just don't know what to do. But we'll figure it out. She is still wearing 18/24 month clothing. She still doesn't talk a lot but she is getting better. We are working really hard on making her use words rather than allowing her to just scream at us. ;). She still has a great appetite. This weekend she wanted to eat off pops plate. He told her no. So she got a chair, pushed it right beside him, climbed in it, and basically begged for food. It was hilarious. Luckily, Sugah saved the day with maggie's own lunch. She has really gotten to be more loving. She gives kisses and hugs and it's PRECIOUS!! Melts our hearts. Maggie was eaten up by mosquitoes this weekend. She was SO swollen. It was so sad. And she just scratched scratched scratched. Maggie is pretty jealous too. She didn't like when I held Banks and even climbed in his little bed. She keeps us on our toes!!

Max is definitely started to exert a lot of independence. It's can be hard at times and I'm unsure how to handle it at times - so we are working on figuring it out. It's so hard to know the right way to handle every situation when your 4-year old absolutely won't do what you say/want. For example, He had a splinter when we went to the lake with Kelly's entire family. He WOULD not let me get out bc he was scared and it hurt. I was so worried it would get infected if it stayed in and then he got in the dirty lake water. And he was complaining/crying that it hurt. So i felt like it really needed to come out. I tried MULTIPLE ways to get him to let me help - nice and not so nice. Nothing worked and at one time he kicked me over -not cool. Needless to say I have had some less than stellar parenting moments but I guess that's to be expected. He is still such a sweet little boy. Kelly asked him why he climbs in bed with mommy and he said so mommy can love on me bc mommy loves lovin' on me. It was so sweet. He is doing great writing but it's hard for Kelly and I to really help him hold the pen/crayon bc we are both left handed and max writes right handed. Poor kid. He still LOVES super heroes. He loves action figures and will play for long periods of time by himself. Sugah said Kelly was like that as a child. I think we are going to sign him up for soccer this year and t-ball next year. I've also been thinking about enrolling him in first tee, which is a golf program. He loves wrestling with Kelly and I've thought about karate classes or something. But we will see what he's interested in and decide what to enroll him in.

We went to the lake with Kelly's entire family. It was so much fun and great to see everyone. We also spent some time with Kelly's parents when Kelly was out of town. They are such a blessing. Max and Maggie got in lots of good time with sugah, pop, Memaw and papaw.

We will go to florida in July and can't wait to get our hands on baby Finn. He's soooo precious!!

Enjoy some pictures. Have a great week. Love and hugs!!

Ridin'

Things have been going so great at the Mcnulty house. I've been super busy at work - good thing I love my job! Maggie and Max are growing like weeds. Maggie's main means of communication is screaming. If she's thirsty she goes to the refrigerator and screams. Likewise, if she is hungry she goes to the pantry and screams. It's not fun! We are trying very hard to learn words and make her say something before complying with her requests! She's pretty strong willed - defiant may be a more accurate description. She is very social. She stands in the front yard and waves at every car that passes. She does the same when we are shopping. She's precious! Max acts like a pre-teen sometimes with his mumbles and back talk but he's a great kid! He loves doing hard work with Kelly and is such a boy. He is still learning lots and loves letters. He is 100% my kid. He talks ALL the time- to the point I actually hate myself. Really!
In other news Kelly got a new truck!! He totally deserved it! It's great!!! We took a trip to home depot and the kids loved it!! They acted like they were riding a roller coaster! I'm including pics.
Have a great week! Love and hugs, us!

Sweet babies

While I was getting ready for work this morning the babies decided to play in Maggie's room. They usually really play well together. I walked in on the sweetest sight - minus the gigantic mess of toys.

Happy Easter

This has been a most blessed Easter Sunday. All week max has asked, is today Easter? Is Jesus alive? On morning this questions lead to, will I die one day? Will I go to heaven? I tried to explain yes that everyone dies one day and he wanted to know if everyone dies who will be left in the city - so then I had to explain that we wouldn't all die at the same time. That hopefully we wouldn't die until we were very old. He responded with you mean I'll die when I'm really old like shugah and Memaw or when I'm REALLy old like papaw? I couldn't call linda fast enough I was so tickled with that statement.
We went to mass this morning. Maggie doesn't usually join us in church because it is during her nap time. And just as we feared. She was tired and pretty rotten. She refused to be still and just really wasn't happy at all. Kelly left with her and she fell right asleep. Max and I stayed and he did great.
After mass we drove to pine bluff to visit Memaw and papaw. It was great visit with lots of outdoor play. Afterwards, we went to owen/Shannon/ag's house for dinner and egg hunting. Chris joined us. It was great to spend so much time with family. We had two wonderful visits.
Hope you all enjoyed your Easter as much as we did. Love and hugs!!

Enjoy pictures from our day (I'm blogging from my phone which means I not only cannot not provide commentary on the pics as they post but apparently I can choose the order either - maybe this app will improve one day, until then a blogpost is better than no post at all!)

Maggie is 15 months

My sweet baby girl is 15 months old!! She is growing up way to fast - just like her brother. We went to the doctor on Thursday for her checkup and the dreaded shots.
I left her stat sheet at the doctor but she weighs around 23 lbs and is about 39 inches long (that can't be right but I'll check)! I don't remember the actual circumference of her head but I do remember it was her Hughes percentile in the 80s - most of her other stats were mid-range as usual for her.
Maggie is still not a big girl. She is tall but pretty slender (except she has a nice round pot belly)! She wears lots of 12 months, some 18 months and a few 24 months. She has some dress that fit Perfectly except they are WAY to short that are 6/9 month! I bought lots of smocked dresses that are the right ankle length but she just doesn't quite fill them out - whatever will we do! The larger head actually makes sense as LOTS of shirts fit her length etc but are super hard to pull over her head - o well I'm sure it is due to her massive brain.
Speaking of, Maggie is really smart. She still has a small vocabulary of words that she actually speaks but understands almost everything you say and communicates her point pretty effectively. She is still taking two naps a day but I'm thinking she may be trying to transition to one.
Dr. Stewart was so impressed that Maggie follows two-step commands such as you can tell Maggie to get her blanket and go to bed and she will do both. She doesn't say yes or no but says uh-huh (for yes) and uh-hoh (for no and not sure how you phonetically spell that). So this morning she was still sleepy and kind of fussy. I asked Maggie do you want your milk she replied no and refused the milk. I followed up with do you want to eat and she answered yes. Not sure I believed she knew what she was saying I again asked if she wanted milk and she again said no and I again asked if she wanted to eat and she again replied yes. So I said ok, let's go eat and she immediately walked to her chair and reached up her arms indicating she wanted in. Then she ate breakfast - smart I tell you!
It is more clear every day that she understands most everything you tell her to do - it is equally clear when she purposefully choses not to comply.
She is still a very sweet baby and hands out lots of kisses especially if asked but is VERY strong-willed. She knows what she wants when she wants it and not much can change her mind. She has no hesitation to express her displeasure.
She LOVES to climb especially into chairs and stand as you can see below and can be quite mischievous. I'm posting a picture where she thought it was great fun to empty Max's dirty clothes bag and had no remorse when caught in the act. She likes to run from me. This week she ran to escape me and feel down the hill in our back yard - she got pretty muddy and was scratch just a little but was more mad that I made her go inside than hurt from the fall.
One of my favorite things it to watch her toddle along. She's a cute little walker. I also loves when she leans in to request a kiss by making the mmmmmm sound. She adores max and Kelly. I feel like she has even started to kind of say Max. I love when she makes her sounds/says thank you. It's so sweet. Max is so good with her. He chases her and includes her in lots of his games.
Maggie is such a blessing. She keeps us on our toys. I'm so happy to be her mommy. I pray everyday that God helps me be a good mom for her (Max to of course).
We had a great Easter. I'll do an Easter post next. Happy easter to you all!! Lots of love and hugs!!

Here are some pictures of my sweet little girl:

Time out

So Maggie likes to hit and it hurts! Lately (as in today) I've been trying to redirect her with a "time out.". The time out usually consists of me placing her hands in her lap and sitting her away from the person she is hitting. She doesn't like it but so far it hasn't stopped the hitting. She usually gets up and walks immediately back to the person (usually Max) and begins hitting again while staring me in the face. So it's OBVIOUS she knows it's bad behavior - the power struggle has begun! As you can see from the pictures, she does not enjoy the time outs but as I just said it doesn't appear as if they are working yet. I have a feeling things may get worse before they get better (for both of us).

Here are a few pictures from her time outs today. It's so sad (but funny). Check out the lip!!

Pray for Maggie (and me) ;)

Love to you all!