One Year already

Max's first birthday has come and gone- we had two parties to divide up the crowd a bit and both went well I think.

It's amazing how much has happened this year and how much Max has changed. It's so hard to imagine life without him now that he's here. All the cliches are true.

We made a "ball pit" with the aid of the Douglases inflatable pool and it is still in the office as Max

enjoys it greatly.

I could not believe how much snow fell this year! Max got more snow in a few months than I ever remember seeing in 31 years of living in Texas. His first Christmas up in Dallas was white and even though he was decked out with awesome jolly roger galoshes he was very uncertain about snow, but now that he's seen it THREE TIMES he seems to enjoy it. He smiles when it's falling and he was quick to tromp around in it in his Aunt Selah's front yard. He likes to taste it too. :)

This post is not particularly well-organized, so you'll have to bear with me. For Max's first birthday party Jack and I made 116 meatballs, balled fruit salad and a ball shaped cake along with some olives, pearl mozzarella and grape tomatoes for the spread. A cheeseball and crackers were also generously donated by the Douglases even though a pink-eye quarantine kept them from attending. The crowd was smaller than we expected but the event was good times nonetheless. It was nice to see the Wallaces with JJ, the three of them are very sweet together.

In other now-that-my-son-is-a-year-old-news, we've started him on a toothbrush. We got this Abby Cadabby one because it came with it's own toothpaste and was much cheaper. The toothpaste says it's okay to swallow and flouride free so I guess it's okay for little ones, I'm going to check with the doc on Monday just to be safe. Before I thought about it though we let him try it a few times and he LOVES that toothpaste- he will essentially brush his teeth all by himself just by chewing on the brush forever.

Here's the first cake that I made- both were pretty tasty, but had their own issues. I'm learning the quirks of dimensional cakes. This first one was the prettiest though, even though the top half was largely hollow because it ended up with a giant bubble crater in it during baking somehow. I filled it with one of the mini cupcakes I made.

My look for party was a bit slap dash as well, but everything still worked out good. Jack and I had been sick for a couple of days leading up to this party so neither one of us was as fully prepared as we had intended to be- it's probably best that the crowd was smaller than expected.

I like that Max and I have almost the same expression in this photo.

Max mostly just ate frosting. Honestly I should have probably just put frosting on one of his little beach balls and saved myself a couple of hours.

There are so many great pictures of him, and this one's a little blurry but it might be my favorite just because of his sweet little glee-face. Plus he's holding my hand and that's always wonderful.

His Grand Bears got him a Dallas Cowboys "Next Draft Pick" t-shirt and a matching do-rag. We laughed and laughed......

His second cake ended up much sturdier but I didn't bother with multiple frosting colors so it wasn't as magical looking. Max of course didn't care one bit and enjoyed the frosting just as much if not more than the first go around. This picture is totally Baby American Psycho to me. I love it.

He is learning all the time, we're working on a first word, I will be so amazed when I can start truly understanding what he wants/means. It's an exciting prospect. I'm trying to throw in a little sign language, I feel a little guilty about not having done any before now, but whatevs- moving on. He drinks through a straw like a champ now, I think I have Plum Tots to thank for that, their fruit purees in little bags with nozzles on them got him into the sucking action and then it was just the transition to a smaller tube. I should probably buy more straws, he's much more efficient with them than drinking from a cup. We're still practicing that though. Next on the horizon are St. Patty's and Easter- I'm looking forward to both and hopefully will get some posts up about what we end up doing.

Cheers.

6 months

Sorry it's been so long since my last post- my computer doesn't like to connect to Blogger very often these days. So this one has lots of photos.
Max is now SIX MONTHS OLD!!!!! This is very exciting and I am so glad that we are moving soon so that I will have big safe floors for him to explore and parks to take him to and a cousin and auntie nearby to play with! He weighs 20 pounds even (90th percentile) is 27.5" long (85th%) and his head measures 44.6 cm (75th%). So he's still real big and evenly so. It is getting harder to get these monthly shots because he likes to roll so much now- he is REALLY trying to crawl but it's a lot of coordination to put all together at once- so it's going to be a little while. Max as a 6 month old is happy and smiley, he likes to go to bed by 7 at the latest and he goes down pretty easily for naps and for nighttime. He enjoys his nightly bath and seems to like Jack reading to him as well- at least he quiets down for it generally.

As a 6 month old his personality is really beginning to show. He kindly puts up with his Mama's fashion whims,

Enjoys playing with a spare computer keyboard, (I'm going to cut off the cord, but he was attended the whole time- he likes to bang on the keys too)

He gleefully wrestles with bears,

Is getting more and more insistent when it comes to mealtime, (there is a big difference when your baby is yelling at you from when he is just expressing discomfort or frustration, you can really see the blame in his eyes).

He is apparently quite skilled at stoically avoiding feminine advances, (even from Ava Outlaw, our realtor's adorable daughter!)

So, even though he's getting so big everyday and I can really see him turning into a little boy soon (too soon) he is also still my sweet little baby, he actually curls up with a little teddy bear when he's real tired.
(I didn't intend to take a flash picture while he was sleeping, but he wasn't bothered in the least little bit)

And he still likes to snuggle up with me in wraps or in my arms- he's just starting to really hug and sort of kiss I think and it's like nothing else. Affection from an adorable baby boy of mine and my husband's making that I am lucky enough to spend every day with. Life is good.

And finally, he still pees all over us and himself sometimes (his face!) because even though my well-intentioned mother gave us "pee-pee tee-pees" he rolls around and curls up on the changing table so much that they just fall off and have never been peed on once. They have however become a favorite chewing item......