First Haircut (sorta)

Max had his first haircut yesterday at an actual haircut place (we had a friend come over and cut it a few months back). The place was a little silly, but they were able to handle him pretty well, so I guess it was worth the $20.

Spring Cleaning

It's been getting harder and harder to find time to make these posts. I'm going to try to get us up to date with this post.

Max is walking, fully walking. He walks wherever he wants to go, and wants to go a lot of places that he shouldn't. He went from standing to walking pretty quickly, and it took us by surprise. We still can't believe that anything that small should be walking around the room. Every once in awhile, Bobbie Jo will catch him walking by out of the corner of her eye, and it'll startle her. We've had him outside some of the last few nice days, and he's doing pretty well on the driveway. He has a bit of trouble in his shoes, but he's getting used to them.

A few weeks back, I was upstairs making him some lunch, he was at the bottom of the stairs crying (we have a baby gate there to keep him from navigating the stairs on his own). I heard a bit of a thump, and when I looked down to investigate, he had scaled the gate, and was making his way up the stairs. We now put the baby gate in backwards and it has worked so far. Next step will be either electrifying it, or adding barbed wire.

We've been trying to move him off of baby food, but haven't been having much luck. He doesn't like a lot of the new textures. He's good with smooshed up bananas, yogurt, and pizza. Other than that, he hasn't really liked much. We continue to try lots of new things, including most everything we are eating, but he's just not into it yet. If every meal consisted of Ritz crackers, cookies (chocolate chip), puffs, and animal crackers we'd be all set.

He's learning a lot, and very quickly. He's learned to clap. He can point at his "feets", as well as "mommy's feets", his belly (sometimes), and his head (once in a great while). He's working on his "roll it" (pattycake), we're amazed how it just clicked one day.

It's getting more exciting by the week!

Trouble

Bobbie Jo ran upstairs to get Max some milk and this is what she came back down to.


We're Screwed!

Some photos and video

Things haven't gotten any less busy around here, and now with Spring rearing its head, they aren't going to get any more relaxing.
I thought I'd throw up a few miscellaneous pics, and some videos of him walking- yes WALKING!




He loves waving goodbye to Grandma Camille



And here, he actually walks!



We'll try to catch up soon.

Max's 1st Birthday Party

On Saturday we had some family over to celebrate Max's 1st birthday. Unfortunately by the time we got moving, Max was pretty tired (and I think a little intimidated by all of the people in the house), and he wasn't terribly interested in his hat, his candles, or his cake (at first).

We really appreciated everyone who came, sent well-wishes, and gifts. We are so happy to have such a wonderful family and great group of friends!

Happy Birthday Bean!

I can't believe its been a whole year.

I had initially typed up a long retrospective, but realized it would be better to just keep it simple.

Max-
Happy 1st Birthday!
This past year has been more incredible than we will ever be able to express to you, and we owe every last bit of it to you.
We look forward to watching as you grow over this next year, and all the years after that.

We love you with all of our hearts, and then some.
Mom and Dad

Max's 1-year photos

Grandma Camille took Max out to get his one year photos taken. We think they turned out great.
Here are some of the best shots.

Our trip to the ER

Max has had the stomach flu since Thursday, and things got bad enough yesterday that the doctor recommended we take him to the ER to get checked out.

Around 3:30, I left work and came home to pick up Max and Bobbie Jo. He'd had been having trouble with everything we tried to feed him and had visibly lost weight. He was quite dehydrated.

They gave him quite a bit of IV fluid, and 5 hours later we were on our way. I'm pleased to report that he's doing much better and enjoying his sleep and his formula.

It's definitely been rough, his first major sickness. We're hoping it's a long time before the next one.

Look at me, I can STAND!

Max has had an eventful week. He turned 11 months on Sunday, and it seems like the newest developments are HUGE!
As you can see, he's standing on his own now. Not for long, but he does take a few steps from time to time, we've even caught some of it on video (see the video posted below).

His top teeth are now coming in, and just like with the bottoms, he doesn't like them one bit.

He's got two words down. Mom and Dad. "Dad", we're pretty sure means "dad", "mom" we're pretty sure means "food". Bobbie Jo is, of course, thrilled. [As I write this, Max just called one of the cats "dad"- either BJo has some serious explaining to do, or he's still fuzzy on the "dad" thing too].

He's eating these little "puff" things, which are little tasteless crackers. He grabs them in his chubby little fist and jams them in his mouth. For some reason they make him laugh. Amazingly enough we've captured that on video as well, and on the same video as the walking. Here it is:

He's drinking most of his formula from a sippy-cup now, he's doing pretty good. He switches to actual cow milk in a month. We will not miss buying formula every 5 days!

It's continued to be a ride. It won't be long and we'll be celebrating his one year birthday. Wow!

We're very behind on pictures, so here are some of the pictures we've taken over the last few weeks. Enjoy.

Update

On January 1st, I left for Vegas for work. I didn't return until Jan 13th. It was a LONG trip, and a long time away from Max. It wasn't easy, but I was extremely busy, and Bobbie Jo sent pictures and video when she could. We even found time for one quick video call. Bobbie Jo did come down for a few days, we weren't able to spend much time together, but it was nice to get away.

I don't have a whole lot to post, only that Max is extremely mobile; crawling a lot, standing as much as he can, and even attempting a few steps on his own from time to time. He's become a pro at the stairs, and we let him scale them at least once a day.

He's been a lot of fun, and I'm really enjoying my first weekend with him in almost a month. We play a lot, and he gets into everything he can.

One week from today, he'll be 11 months. It's sure gone fast!