One Year Old!

Our boy is one. I can’t believe it’s been a year since we welcomed him into our lives and changed our world for the better forever. Can you believe he was ever this tiny?

We were talking the other night about how tiny and squishy and wonderful he was then, and how we are loving the stage he is now so much. It is so much fun to see him learning things and figuring out how the world works. Max says “Dada” but no “Mama” yet. The other day he started signing “milk,” it was like the light went on…I had just given him a sip of milk with dinner and he looked at me, did the sign, and then looked at his fingers as if to say,”Did I just do that?” We haven’t seen any other signs yet but he does do the motions to “Patty Cake” and yesterday he started attempting to do the spider motion for “Itsy Bitsy Spider.” That one will probably take some time to master. Maxwell loves to wave…bye-bye to us, at cars driving by, at people in the store…it is so cute!

We had a birthday party for Max last weekend. It was wonderful to celebrate with friends, and Jeff’s family was able to join us as well. We’ll do another celebration with my mom’s side of the family up north soon. Max enjoyed the cake, he didn’t eat a lot of it but did have some frosting. He tried really hard to push it over the edge of his high chair tray but couldn’t quite get it. My friend Justine (she of the fabulous J. Shelton Photography) took pictures of the party for us. There’s a sneak peek of a few here:

Max has his one-year checkup on Monday, so I will report stats after that. He is officially on one nap a day now…for several weeks he has been battling the afternoon nap and would be up in his crib for an hour, rolling around and talking, and not sleeping. So I finally gave in and moved the morning nap a bit later. He still gets tired pretty early in the evening, I am hoping that we can gradually move the one nap a bit later so it’s not such a long haul until bedtime. However, you won’t hear much complaining from me because he still sleeps 12 hours just about every night. I hope I haven’t jinxed myself by posting that publicly.

Justine also took one year photos of Max and some of us as a family. She did a great job as always. Here are a few:

Max had a great time with his Oma and Opa:

Remember last month I wrote about how hard it is to take the monthly Max and Chester pictures? Well, thank goodness he is a year old, because it is just about a lost cause now. There’s no way that Maxwell will ignore his good friend Chester sitting right next to him. Oh no, Chester must be hugged,chewed on, and tossed off the couch. Here’s the best one I could get. I know you can’t even see the number 12 sticker and it’s a bit out of focus, but I love his smile and his cute crossed legs:

And here’s a cute one that shows the 12 month sticker. He likes to tuck his hands under him like this when he’s sleeping too.

Happy Birthday, little bug. Daddy and I love you so very much!

11 Months Old!

Yes, I’ve been a slacker blogger lately, I’m sorry. My goal for Max’s next year is to post something once a week, even if it’s just a picture or a brief anecdote. We’ll see how that goes. Max is one year old next Friday…I don’t know how it’s possible, and I’ll no doubt write a nostalgic first year post in a week or two, but for now at least I’ll get something new up here, including Max’s 11 month pictures. We had a great visit with my dad this past weekend. After his initial “Um, who is this guy in my house?” reaction, Max warmed right up and he and Grandpa had a great time together. The time went by too fast as it always does when family is here.

Max has four teeth now and a fifth just poked through this morning. He has been refusing his afternoon nap most days, which leaves him a tired fussy mess by late afternoon. He does still take that afternoon nap at day care, so I figure we will get through the Daylight Savings adjustment (whoever came up with that idea certainly didn’t have kids) and the first birthday and then work on moving the first nap later and officially going to one nap. Maxwell definitely has opinions about what he wants and lets us know, which consists of a lot of “Unh, unh, unh” and reaching for the object of his desire. He is figuring out how the world works; tonight after his bath I brushed his hair and then handed him the hairbrush and he reached it up and moved it around on his head. Smart kid! Still no crawling here but he loves to stand and play with things. He can’t stand unsupported but does well leaning against a table or standing on the floor and holding on to the bars of his crib.

We entered Max in our local paper’s “Cutest Baby” contest. The top 15 vote-getters will advance to the final round, where a panel of judges picks the cutest. The winner gets a $100 gift card to a craft store plus of course, bragging rights. You don’t have to live locally to vote! Go to The Everett Herald Contests

and click on “Cutest Baby.” The annoying part is you will have to register but it just takes a couple of minutes. Then click on “Vote Now” and search for “Maxwell Nicholas.” The picture of Max on the heart backdrop should pop right up, then click to vote for him and then “Save Vote.” Thank you!

Taking the 11 month photos was quite the challenge. Even with Jeff there to help, there was no way we were getting a shot of Max sitting next to Chester. Here’s the best one of the bunch:

Most of them look more like this:

Here are a couple cute ones sans Chester:

Here he is showing off his standing skills:

The boys on a walk:

Max with Grandpa, showing off his “cute head tilt” move: