Christmas 2013

Christmas was spent visiting many family members in Pennsylvania (both Erie and Washington).  Max got lots of Elmo themed gifts, and has since lost interest in Elmo. His favorite gift was a weeble school bus from Nana. 

Happy Birthday Nana Gloria!

In honor of Nana's big birthday yesterday, here is a blog post to break the silence of news from the Max world recently! But before I begin, in my defense, it is REALLY HARD to capture this little ball of movement with my 2008, point and shoot digital camera! Believe me, I've tried. He's usually a bundle of movement that turns into a blur on film. So, sadly, until I get a new digital camera or figure out how to transfer my Iphone pictures to the blog (anyone? help!), documentation might be a bit spotty.

Helping us bake Christmas cookies

Hiding from Nacho to eat a cookie!

Big boy haircut!

Playing at the Strong with Marc

Vacation and the Pox

Our vacation to Lake Placid was thwarted this year as Max came down with the chicken pox ON THE DRIVE there. We stuck it out a few days before throwing in the towel and coming home early. I'm finally getting over the anger that our pediatrician inexplicably vaccinates for the pox at 15 months, rather than 12 months, which would have saved our vacation! Or maybe I need to breathe through it a little bit more while you enjoy the sparse, kind of crappy pics that we managed to scrape together when the Pox Outbreak hit.

Max's favorite room in the hotel suite

Olympic ski jumping

More ski jumping, did I mention it was rainy and cold too?

My pox baby

Reminiscing

While working on Max's baby book, I started looking through old photos of my time spent pregnant with him (September 2011- May 2012) and just had to share some of the more flattering ones with everyone. Now that I'm pretty much back to my pre-baby body (only with more stretch marks and a stubborn belly pooch that isn't going anywhere anytime soon), I have all but forgotten what it felt like to be 50 lbs heavier and carrying an alien creature that poked me from the inside. Its so humbling to be pregnant, especially in the third trimester when you're huge, unable to sleep, your clothes no longer fit, and the fear of labor and life with a newborn is looming. While I'm now thankful to be 15 months beyond that stage, it was a very real part of Max's development and life which I will never forget!!

6 weeks along.

NYE 2011, 4 months along

8 months, at my baby shower

Past due at this point and feeling HUGE

Don't worry, more Max pics coming soon! :)

Max's words

While T, M, and I are eating breakfast this morning, we're working on a list of Max's new words as they're popping up faster than we can remember them. In order of appearance:

Dada (more recently "Daddy")
Mama (sometimes "Mommy")
Doggy
Hi
Balloon ("boon")
Ducky
Banana ("nena")
Book
Block
Yummy ("mummy!")
Birdy 

There are also a few more sounds he makes consistently that we can't quite figure out what he means by, but he says them pretty confidently then looks at us like "come on you morons"!. (Meena, bwicka).

Commands he can understand/follow:
Peekabo
Blow a kiss
Wheres your hat? (Puts object on head)
Give a kiss to doggy, kitty, stuffed animal, person

He's still not walking, but is talking up a storm!

Max's First Birthday

Our sweet baby turned one on May 31st!! We celebrated by having a circus themed party on June 8th. Max loved visiting with his grandparents, auntie, and friends, and did a good job charming everyone by ripping his cupcake in half and smooshing it on his face during the cake eating event. He also loved playing with his dear friends, Ellie, Ari, Eli, Emmie, Lisa, John Henry, and Townes. This past year has been wonderful, and it has truly flown by in a flash. Happy Birthday to my new toddler!!

Car from Grandpa!

Max on wheels

 Max has been out in his Chariot bike trailer twice now, and both times have thankfully been successful! Despite all the work Tony and I put into researching bike trailers, searching craigslist for the one we wanted, finding a bike car rack to transport our bikes, and digging out and fixing up said bikes, we never stopped to consider that Max might not approve of this activity until we put his helmet on and he started crying uncontrollably. Uh oh! Luckily, he pulled it together once we started moving and even seemed to enjoy it!
So far, we've taken one short ride around the neighborhood before bedtime (hence the jammies in these pics), and a longer one on the canal in Pittsford. I'm looking forward to a long, beautiful summer with lots more rides ahead of us!

Mother's Day

Cards, flowers, and homemade waffles!

 I had a wonderful first Mother's Day last weekend! Tony let me sleep in (probably the best gift anyone could have given me!), then made delicious waffles and fresh squeezed orange juice for a special breakfast treat. Everyone took a nap while I got some alone, quiet time (another amazing treat!), and when they woke up we went to Eastview so that I could do some shopping while Tony wrangled the baby. We later went to King and I for dinner, but Max's patience with the day was wearing thin at that point so we had to eat and dash. Oh well, overall it was a wonderful day!

Max enjoying my Mother's Day waffles

Pittsburgh visit

While visiting Pittsburgh, we were busy busy busy as usual! We went out to eat many times (which Max finally learned to accept), went for walks, shopped, and visited the Children's Museum among other things. Max got to sleep with us several times in the family bed as he was being fussy at night, which we were finally able to do without fear of smothering him. It was pretty amusing how he loved to grab Anthony's face as a wake up call when it was time to let us know to get up.
It was great to visit family and Mommy's hometown. We hope to go back again this summer!

Big boy!

Max's new favorite thing is hoisting himself up on us so that he can get a better view of the world, like in this adorable picture. I can't believe my little tiny baby is now 11 months old!!

Other new things are, he now refuses to have baby food fed to him (i.e., the jarred purees or anything that involves a spoon, other than full fat Fage yogurt), preferring instead to eat finger foods. His favorites are clementine oranges, bananas, strawberries, avocados, and mozzarella cheese. Couple this with his tendency to play with his flowing, curly hair and this makes pretty much every meal time end in a need for a bath!
His sleeping has improved a ton since his terror days of being up 3-4 times a night, although he still usually gets up around 3am for a quick feed. He does well going to sleep on his own generally, although he does depending on a strict nurse, book, song, cuddle routine before going to sleep for the night.
Speaking of books, he loves to read stories and will sit very quietly and snuggle for stories usually 2-3 times a day. His favorites are "Goodnight Max", "Peek a who", "Andy Warhol's Colors", "Goodnight Moon", and "Where's Spot?". He especially likes books with actions, where he can pat the fluffy creatures, touch fabric curtains, etc.
I think he is saying about 3-4 words right now. These are "mama" (when i'm around, or when hes upset or sleepy), "dada" (a playful, good mood sound, or when daddy is around), "baby", and"doggy". He loves to babble and make lots of weird sounds during the day!

More pics from Baltimore

Stay tuned for pics from our upcoming trip to Pittsburgh!

In front of the Capital building

Sea captain baby!

Playing with Ashlynn!

Max's trip to Baltimore

Last week, we got to visit Aunt Stephanie in Baltimore for the first time since Max was born. As an extra special treat, Gma Gloria and Papa Pete were able to meet us down there. We were busy busy busy! We went to the Baltimore Zoo on Tuesday, where Max enjoyed seeing the Giraffe, Antelope type creatures, and Monkeys (as shown by his new thing, waving his hand up and down to indicate excitement and greeting things he likes) then, on Wednesday, spent the day in Annapolis where we toured the Naval Academy, looked at the water, and ate at an awesome baked potato restaurant which Max particularly enjoyed. (Since then, he has steadfastly refused to eat his jarred baby foods, preferring instead to cry and open and close his mouth while staring at whatever we are eating!) The ride back was a little rocky (9 hours for a  5 1/2 hour drive!), and punctuated by mama's occasional declarations that "I'm loosing my mind!", but now that we're home and rested, I can't wait to travel with the crew again!

Max's first Noodles and Company!

At the zoo

Why can't Sofie come out and play??