Life in the Max lane

Okay- so I'm trying to do this more often- I know I've been lax on the blog front- so here goes- new leaf hopefully.

Max is nearly 11 months old and I can't believe how much he's changed and grown. It's amazing to watch. He is a total handful and always gets into everything. For some reason the lid to our guest room trashbin is one of his favorite things of all time- you can imagine his glee at combining it with a shoulder ride from Daddy. I know his glee is not evident in this photograph, but trust me, it's there. :)

Once Daddy gets home it's pretty much super fun happy play time. I typically worry about feeding him, keeping him safe and clean, that sort of thing and Jack is just better at playing than I am. We have our fun, don't get me wrong, but it's nothing compared to Daddy-time. Jack always gets the all-out shrieks of delight.

We're slowly but surely working on the casa. We want it to be a bit further along for Max's first birthday in February when we have the in-laws up since it will be their first time seeing the house. We painted in the kitchen and decided on the paint colors for the exterior and a couple of rooms. Outside: Sycamore, Sweet Maple, Shangri La, and Honey Moth. Here's the Bitter Chocolate that went up in the kitchen (as you can see by our convenient label) to much success.

We also purchased a pot rack recently and I love it- it was sadly from Wal-mart.com but it's a Coq Au Vin style and it's brown iron with a rooster and curlicues all over it- I love it. Max, as I said, is getting into everything. He walks for good little stretches now and cruises along like a pro on whatever is handy. He loves to stack blocks and has gotten them as high as three on his own- I'm pretty excited about his fledgling cognitive skills- they're really fun to watch. He's way more of a rummager/destroyer than Dicey. Here he is eating her toys.

In terms of me and what I'm up to I'm thinking about "extended" breastfeeding. The quotations are because what most women apparently dub extended is much longer than I will go, but technically extended in our country means anything past 12 months. The World Health Organization recommends breastfeeding until at least 2 years of age and this also greatly reduces my risk of breast cancer. I've read a lot of women's stories that say that their children self-wean sometime between one and two years of age. This is what I'm hoping for. I am not going to be creepy with my giant son breastfeeding when he really shouldn't but I am going to shoot for 2 years and see what happens. Also, in TMI news, after nearly 22 glorious months, my Aunt Flo has finally returned. *le sigh*