Monster Birthday Bash!

Max had his little birthday party today and it was a lot of fun! It was monster themed and was just a very simple get together with our friends Greg and Erika and their two cute girls Julia and Sariah. Max loooooved having the girls over to play with and followed them around everywhere they went. He especially loved Sariah, who is 16-months-old, so I think he liked having someone else his own size around. Poor Sariah though, I don't think she appreciated it as much. Max kept giving her hugs and wanted to play with the toys she was playing with (I honestly don't think he was trying to take them from her, he just wanted to play too). We don't get out much and it's usually just me and Max in the apartment, so it was cute and fun to watch him interact with other little kids. Again, Max just LOVED having them here. Near the end, Max insisted on being nursed and couldn't wait, so I took him to his room to nurse him (it's too much trouble to do it in front of other people now with how much he wiggles and such) and before we were done, our friends had to leave. Max didn't know this, and was so excited to go back out into the living room, but when he saw that everyone had left, he started crying and crying! I felt bad. I really think Max should have been a twin: he loooves other kids (hates adults though). Anyway, we opened presents, had cake and cupcakes, and played Mario Party 9. Simple, but successful.

 Ok, so the icing wasn't as thick as I would have liked and totally started melting off the cake and the cupcakes.

 The leftovers now look so much worse than that bottom right one does here. (PS. The likeness to Mike from Monster's Inc. is unintentional).

 About 95% of the presents are from his very generous two sets of grandparents.

 Julia helping Max open his presents. Max wasn't very interested, so she ended up doing most of the work (which I don't think was work to her).

 (Bryan took these pictures and didn't do the best job of getting everyone in them AND I forgot to get one of the whole group. Sad.)

 So you know how everyone has those awesome videos and pictures of their babies burying their hands and faces into their 1st year birthday cake? Well, not us. Max had no idea what to do with this thing. Even after I put his fingers in the cake and made him eat it, he still did not want dig in and would only eat it if I gave him a piece.

 This is the only way he would eat it on his own. He certainly did not have the reaction to chocolate that we were hoping for.

 At least he liked it. (Though not enough to finish it, he was way too interested in getting out and playing with the girls.)

12 Months

12 Month Stats

Weight: 21lbs 13oz - 25-50th percentile

Height: 30in - 50th percentile

Head: 46.5cm - 50-75 percentile 

I know I posted yesterday for Max's birthday, but I wanted to write about his actual birthday and his doctor's appointment. Max's percentile weight has dropped again. The doctor isn't too concerned, especially with him walking so much. She says it's pretty normal for those still breastfeeding, that he just needs a little more food and he should get back to normal once he's on whole milk full time. Max HATED the doctor's. He cried anytime someone came into the room, before they would even touch him, and eventually got to the point where he was getting shaky. It was the saddest thing in the world! All he wanted was to be nursed, but I couldn't even do that. At least the doctor got some smiles from him while she was just talking to us. The moment she touched him though, it was all over, again.

We're having a little birthday party for Max on Saturday so I'll probably be posting again about it. Hopefully, you don't mind :). Max had a great day yesterday. We let him open a few of his gifts, which was fun. I feel like most babies seem to like ripping off the paper more than the actual presents, but Max opened first a Yo Gabba Gabba board book and all he wanted to do was look through the book instead of opening the rest of the presents. He also got some toddler crayons and a big dump truck that has balls that pop up when you push it. He loved all of them, which makes me excited for him to open the rest of his gifts on Saturday. We Skyped with both sets of grandparents. We hook up the laptop to the TV so it's like they're in the room with us. Max somehow knows though that they are talking and interacting with us and it's not just a regular TV show. He kept getting really shy when my parents would talk to him. Also, we didn't get a chance to Skype with them, but his Uncle Johann, Aunt Deborah and cousins Henry and Thea sent him a super sweet video of them singing Happy Birthday to him. Since he will be having cake on Saturday, we wanted him to still have some kind of treat for his actual birthday, so we got him his very own ice cream cone from McDonalds. It was super cute because he kept getting the chills while eating it. Oh, for dinner he got a Happy Meal and orange juice all to himself (we don't usually give him juice). Our wonderful little boy chose the apple slices over the fries and chicken nuggets (though he ate some of those too). We love our Maxie so much and were happy to celebrate his special day, even though he probably had no idea what was going on.

 First thing in the morning before daddy left for school.

 Here's an example of Max's silliness. All day, whenever I would try and take a picture of him, he would smile, squint his eyes closed and throw his head back. What a weirdie.

 He's getting too big!

 I turned around to collect the hangers he threw around and when I turned back, he had hopped into the laundry basket. And again, the funny face.

 Finally a normal face from him.

 He is listening to Abuela's birthday voicemail. He loves listening to people on the phone, but refuses to talk back.

Last picture of his birthday. My sleeping sweetie-pie.

A Very Merry Birthday to Max!

MY BABY IS ONE!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAXIMUS!!!!!

Newborn

 1 Month

2 Months

3 Months

4 Months

5 Months

6 Months

7 Months

8 Months

9 Months

10 Months

11 Months

12 Months

Apparently age 1 year is when babies officially become toddlers. Sad day! Max is such a joy to have in our lives. Every day I can't help but be amazed that this little boy is here with us and dependent on us to take care of him. Bryan and I have been so blessed with such a wonderful child who puts a huge smile on our faces every day. He is such a happy baby and is constantly smiling and laughing. Here's is a little about Max:

- He is walking full time now. He started walking about a month ago and it only took him a couple weeks to perfect it. He LOVES to walk and walk and walk. He does it more for recreation than for getting from one place to another. When we take him to the park, all he wants to do is swing and walk.

- He has 6 teeth and no sign of any more coming soon.

- He still has blue eyes! I've told Bryan over and over that I'll be more confident in Max's eye color when he turns one and here he is, 1-year-old and he still has blue eyes. (I had blue eyes until I was a year old and now they are hazel and Bryan had blue-ish eyes until he was 3-5 months old and now they are green). If Max's eyes stay blue, I guess they must come from my dad.
- He loves ANY kind of fruit and will choose it over chicken nuggets, fries, cheese, anything!
- Max is figuring out what it is that makes us laugh. He purposefully tries finding things to do that will make us laugh and he finds it, he will do it again and again, just busting up laughing himself. Once he knocked his head on the sliding glass door, on purpose, and just waited for me to laugh. I laughed and asked him what he was doing, so he just kept bumping his head on the door over and over laughing when I laughed. (I put a pillow there so he wouldn't hurt himself).
- He is so smart. We just have to show him how to do something once and he'll pick it up. For example, he was playing with my brush and I showed him how to brush his hair and then Bryan's and he just continued brushing Bryan's hair with it.
- He says "MAMA" now!!! I don't think it means me yet, but I LOVE hearing it!
- He loves to give us hugs. He will go back and forth between Bryan and me just giving us hugs.
- He is really silly. He loves getting shot with the nerf gun and runs away laughing. He'll ask us for our food at dinner and when we put it up to his mouth he just smiles instead of eats it.

I love watching Max enter each new developmental stage. He is such a sweet boy and we know that he loves us and we love him more than he'll ever know.