Monday.

So, it's been quite the week here at Kimchi central. As I mentioned before I went AWOL, Jeff was on vacation all last week, which was REALLY REALLY nice and we're both depressed he had to go back. Thankfully after 7 years of marriage (as of yesterday,) we still prefer to spend the majority of our time together and having him home every day was delightful. I had hoped to have some really awesome stories about our exciting adventures but we ended up having regular, non-exciting adventures like grocery shopping and cleaning things. BRACE YOURSELF. It was a very low-key week but Max got to spend a lot of time out in the backyard playing "ball" and "step in the poop," the latter sadly more than the former. He got so used to Jeff taking him out to play in the morning that today he spent a good 20 minutes pointing to the back door and yelling "OWSIDE?" He forgets who his mom is. I keed, I keed, nature is glorious, etc. He's really been talking a lot, which is cute until he starts to yell which he does more than talk. He will repeat a lot of stuff we say (uh oh) and sometimes he'll just say something and we're like 'how did he learn that?? (also uh oh)" My sister Laura and I ventured out on Friday to try and cash in on all the Black Friday hoopla (not that great) and while we were in Kohl's looking at Christmas ornaments, he was trying to get her attention and suddenly yelled out "WAWA" and we were like holy shit, did he just say that but then he wouldn't say it again until we prodded him the next day. PERFORM ON COMMAND, KID!

We did get to go out sans child once over the week to meet some friends for dinner. It was so nice to be able to have a leisurely, margarita-filled dinner free of squirming toddlers, although the woman at the table next to us spoke at a decibel level that made your brain rattle in your skull so the loudness was still there. Max is at the stage where, despite the fact that we've taken him to restaurants since we brought him home and he should know the drill, he will only last for a short time before he either starts to throw stuff, yell very loudly or squirm out of his chair. He used to be pretty good and I don't know what happened. We went out to eat for Thanksgiving (yes, we went out. To a restaurant. And it was fantastic and there were no dishes to clean and no drama and no random family members camped out on my couch that I have to stick a shoehorn under to get them to leave so don't judge.) and we were able to snag a private room so that when he reached his high chair limit, which he did in record time, we had somewhere to contain him. The waiter was really nice and brought him toys and crayons but they only kept him busy for so long. Is this just MY kid or are they all like this? Seriously. I thought this would get better as he got older. Anyway, I'll give him a grade B- because we were there for a long time and he never threw a tantrum or anything, he was just busy and loud. VERY EFFING BUSY.

One thing we did want to do while Jeff was off was to take him to the Museum of Transportation. My grandpa used to take me there when I was a girl so I have fond memories. Most little girls wouldn't be into trains but he would tell me about working on the railroad so it made it come to life and I liked to pretend I was in times of yore. I wish we still had fancy trains like that, although I'd probably be bored after a couple hours so scratch that. Max seemed to like it and spent the whole time pointing and yelling "RUCK" or "DONGDONG." Anything that is a car, truck, van, etc. is a "RUCK" and a train is a "DONGDONG" and no, the all caps are not redundant because those words are said AT TOP VOLUME ALWAYS AND REPEATEDLY. In fact, while we were in the children's play area of the museum, which for $1.50/hour is a spectacular bargain for indoor kiddy fun time, Max was playing with a train set and another boy came over to use the same toy. He was older but Max knows no strangers and immediately sidled up next to him and began to yell "RUCK" in his ear over and over while showing him the toy truck in his hand. The little boy was very polite and quietly said to him "could you please stop yelling in my ear?" but Max is a wild beast and heard nothing. He continued his verbal assault so I said to the boy in my most sympathetic mom-voice, "I'm sorry but he's still a baby and doesn't understand." He was like "well I'm 4 and I already know that." Oh snap. Let's just say I didn't hush Max after that. Here's photographic evidence of the day:
Hobos.

How dang cute are they? TWINSIES!

He's driving a coal train. He was disinterested.

On another note, it's officially The Christmas Season and I plan on making some treats so I'm going to post my recipes and pics as I go.