Weekend after Max's soggy party...

So of course.... the next Saturday was 70 and sunny; exactly what I was hoping for for Max's party! We did take advantage of it and went to the park to walk around. And its so nice to have the big front porch to play on!

FIVE years!! Happy Anniversary to us! What an awesome 5 years it has been. But even through the moves and the house, this year has definitely been the most life changing.... all for the better of course. We couldn't be happier.

We went out for our anniversary and decided to take Max along. I had been craving Mexican forever and I couldn't eat it while I was nursing because Max's stomach is sensitive so I finally got some good Mexican food. Of course this is a far cry from the cocktail dresses and cloth napkins of the 4st 4 years:)

Max's Party

Well, God has a sense of humor....Friday we had a beautiful day setting up for the party since we knew we may get some rain. Saturday we woke up to freezing wind, which though it did get warmer, the rain started about 2pm and just continued for the rest of the day. Luckily it was an open house so the first group of people got to be out under the tents for a little while. But, since you had to go through the "shade" canopies to get to the good water proof one, by the 3rd hour or so the shade canopies were wet through and everyone was basically in the house or on the porches (thank goodness for big porches!). We did have about 10 people cancel last minute (we missed you guys! Lots of bugs going around); I believe I still counted 46 adults and children in total. So....either everyone was just trying to be nice because they knew I was so disappointed about the rain, or they were being sincere, but everyone said they had a nice time. It was total chaos but we had fun. And most importantly, Max did great despite the craziness. He kinda clung to mom, dad, grandmas or Aunt Ellie but spent lots of time down playing with all his friends (who he was a little iffy about sharing all his toys with, especially the new ones!). We were so proud of him for being such a good boy and he's still sleeping well from it days later to recover, lol! He did like his cake, took him a little while to "get it" but then he surly made a nice cake mess and enjoyed eating it off my fingers. We got lots of great stuff and just want to thank everyone for all the wonderful gifts and putting up with the craziness!

And the best part is, that he's not really one yet so I don't have to get too worked up about it for another week or so!

Now... the VERY unfortunate part is that I didn't realize I hadn't taken pictures until the last hour or so, so despite our "shanty town" in the back yard, all the fun decorations and proof of 46 people in and out of my house.... I don't have much to show for it other than photographer Aunt Ellie snapping lots of shots of the B-day boy. So here's what we have!

You could rent Grandpa Ken out to entertain at kids parties!

And balloons are always a hit!

It took a little coaxing from mom's finger, till he learned how yummy and messy it was!

Max had lots of help!

It was fun to be making breakfast Sunday morning and hearing all the new toys playing... but only for about 5 minutes...Sometimes he even found the presents (instead of the card envelopes and wrapping paper...)

It was a little overwhelming for him.... he probably just stole this back from his bud Colbie:)

The BIG 3 0

I guess I’m ready to face my own birthday finally. First I’ll start by saying how nice all my celebrations were. Besides our trip to VA compliments of Melody and Jeff, and our Broadway tickets compliments of the Browns, Ken & Diana (and some beautiful fall flowers from Ken & Diana); Kris and Wendy got me a beautiful sapphire and diamond necklace and my mom got me a somewhat matching sapphire and diamond ring that I can’t wait to get re sized and start wearing. I also have 2 beautiful yellow mum plants that I was surprised with from some $$ that Grandma Nancy sent in from CO.
Nate took me out to dinner Saturday night to a nice restaurant…. (The funny part of the evening was that we were kinda rushed through the meal and wanted to take advantage of Grandma Melody, so we had over an hour to kill before we got home in plenty of time to put Max to bed…. So we did some birthday party shopping and got Max the cutest dragon Halloween costume. All dressed up, stuffed from dinner- and errand running, which goes much smoother just the 2 of us!). Sunday my mom made a great birthday dinner for us all. And then for my birthday the boys made me French toast for breakfast and then chicken parm for dinner! Apparently I have another gift from them on its way too….. so it was a VERY nice birthday!

But now I’m just old…no longer a “kid”, “girl”, or “miss”. I’m not sure why it bothers me since I’m probably the oldest 30 year old that I know, but there’s just something about that number. Even 40 doesn’t seem bad (I think of the 30's and 40's about the same for some reason). But all in all, God has been very good these 30 years. I have wonderful family and friends, a good part time job in my field, a beautiful home, loving husband, most adorable son ever and of course and you can’t forget the mini van…. While I sometimes I wish I wasn’t so, I think my practicality really has paid off or I don’t think I’d be where I am. I know the next 30 years will probably be just as different and exciting as the first 30 and I do look forward them and just hope that I always remember to take time to enjoy the moment. God only put us on this earth for such a short time so all we can do is live for Him and live each day to the fullest.

11 months

I swear our genius child remembers what George on sofa and mama with the camera means because he would never just sit like this, especially with the full on pose! What a ham!

Daddy always makes him laugh!

Just had to show off the curls:)

Wow, 11 months....hard to believe. What lucky parents we are. As trying as the 10 month has been some days since Max has developed quite a little temper, we still just feel like the luckiest parents ever.

Max just seems smarter to us every day. He knows everything you're saying, things you would have no idea but he looks right to the right place (button, necklace, airplane, etc). He's walking with his push walker and all along furniture. The other day he stood for a few seconds before he realized. I'm sure he could walk if he wanted but he's a champion crawler and really just has no desire at this point. He's also become quite the climber these days too....we've started to call him a little monkey, the most random things he'll find to try to climb up or in to. Its a good thing we have the pac-n-play downstairs yet as a play pen because you really can't leave him too long, even in our "baby-proof" house! He's said dada a few times but besides mama, ball and book the rest of his speeches (which he gives very serious ones, waving his fingers and all) are pretty much jumble. But he can make any kind of spitting or lip movement noise imaginable! He's becoming more clingy and shy around strangers. He still loves his cars and trucks. He has a few riding toys but almost prefers just playing with them while sitting next to them rather than riding on them.

He's sleeping and napping well for the most part, two regular naps still and I don't see that ending any time soon because he's exhausted by 9:30am! He's eating well...... but we're still on baby food. The Dr. told us months ago we could eat what we eat but he has a texture issue. He'll eat any flavor baby food, fruit or crunchy thing but he won't eat any real people food otherwise. We've managed to get him to eat a few spoonfuls of scrambled egg (but again, has to be on a spoon because he won't pick it up or let you hand put it in his mouth) but he's still refused even mashed potatoes. So we just keep trying and realize that its just not something to get too worked up about and hopefully Gerber won't be in his lunch box when he starts school. The good thing is, besides his crunchy snacks, he's still eating all fruits and veggies and yogurt with some baby food mixtures of meats and pastas so he's a very healthy boy! (Just meaning we're not on the chicken nugget and hot dog diet I'm sure is to come.) He still takes 3 or 4 bottles a day but less and less in them so he'll be ready for milk when he turns 1.

So that's our 11 month update.... the next one is just too sad to even think about!

Max with his walker....he just loves this thing!

And of course, tada..... Max finally got some teeth! These bottom two came in together, his first and only so far. It seems like his next will be on the bottom towards the outside too.

Mamma Mia

We know a star!! Pearce Bunting as Bill Austin.

For 3 years we've been talking about getting up to NYC to see Nate's cousin's husband in Mamma Mia on Broadway and finally Ellie had picked this weekend to go and as a special treat, her family, and Ken & Diana got us the tickets for a birthday gift. We rode up with them and then took the train back home in the evening. While it was the longest I've gone without my baby (and first time mom or dad didn't put him to bed) we had a great time. My mom was there all day and Grandma Melody came over for a while in the afternoon too and he did good. He wouldn't let me leave him in the church nursery on Sunday but I owed the lady who was in there some help anyway so I didn't mind staying in. It was a really nice treat for Nate and I. Besides the evening in the ER when Nate put a drill bit through his finger a few months ago, it was the first time we'd done anything alone since we went out to dinner for Valentines Day!

So..... we hit up the big Apple! The show was excellent and we even got a back stage tour. And we got a quick visit with cousin Steph and Milo.

You can't take pictures during the show so we just have before or after.Backstage.... Pearce does wear this for the finale!! (And wears it well:))Emma loved running on the stage after the show!Star/Tour guideThese are the sound booths back stage where the casts sings. Everything is done live, the singing and music. There is one conductor directing the actors on stage but she sits half under the stage where the orchestra pit is so she can direct them as well. Then it can be broadcasted on screens too so the actors can keep looking up at the screens for ques if they need and others can play music or sing from other rooms if necessary. All very impressive. Those people all work very hard, and 2 shows Saturday and Sunday.

As a side note if anyone is wondering.... I watched the movie that just came out last night and its all very similar. The movie is almost the exact same as the show, with the exception of a few small scenes missing and moved around at the very end. Some of the movie acting may have been a little better (I mean its Pierce Brosnan....) but I'm really not a Meryl Streep fan in general, though she played the role well. The Broadway singing was far better. I did like the girl who played Sophie in the movie but liked most of the smaller role characters better on Broadway. So I have to say I was impressed that the movie was such a close adaptation. But I did like the Broadway production better!

VA Trip

We had our second little vacation of the summer down at Shenandoah Crossing, birthday compliments of Grandma Melody & Grandpa Jeff and we had a great time. Vacations are definitely different these days with 2 naps, 3 meals, 2 snacks and 4 bottle feedings to work around but that's why going here was such a perfect spot. We had a 2 bedroom cabin so Max had his own room and there is so much to do there that we never even left. Plus my aunt and uncle who live in Richmond also have their time share there so they were there and my mom came down some of the time to stay with them so we got to visit with them for some meals and pool time. And the Browns came out Friday for a while because they were in Charlottesville for a camping trip so Grandma Melody also stayed with us Friday night (poor thing had to sleep in the couch since Prince Max had his own room!). So we had some fun visitors too. They also just built a whole new pool area which was really fun. Unfortunately Max wasn't a huge fan of the boat because it was just a Jon boat so he had to wear the life vest and his tolerance wasn't too high when we tried to do some fishing (we're going through a moody month) but it was nice to juts relax and its truly a vacation for me to have a dishwasher:)

Chilin on the porch:

A Max size rocker!

Max loved to play in these fountains at the new pool:

The view from our deck

There were 30 seconds of a smile, then we docked and Max and mom got off so daddy could fish in peace!Dad brining it in....

Saturday morning Nate went fishing with Josh and his brother at a secret fishing hole in Charlottesville.... Nate doesn't usually have the best of luck fishing but this truly was a sure thing (they were nervous because they kept saying how great of fishing it was but didn't want Nate to come up empty handed). Needless to say, he had a GREAT time!

On the way back we stopped at Aunt Ellie's for her big birthday and spent the night. Max always has fun playing with his cousins and we had a nice afternoon at the playground!

Summer fun...part II

Max with his favorite thing, a truck! He's such a boy and is obsessed with wheels, balls and anything that spins.
A tractor ride at grandpa's:

We had another summer picnic with some grade school (one pre-K) friends. Its so funny to think HS was 15ish years ago, this is the big year we all have or will turn 30, and with a crazy house full of kids we were commenting how we still feel the same, just like we're playing house or something. This was last year's shot. It was a bit calmer last year, there were only 3 of them.

2008:

Out came...... 2009:

This is the whole crew: (Presley and Max- 10+ months, Bayley- 3 yrs, Ellie- 1 1/2, Mallory-3 yrs and Colbie- 8+ months) - this was after they ALL decided they needed baths so they're ready to sleep in their jammies!

I should have gotten a belly shot but there will be at least one more next year from the Brown's! Maybe it will be a boy so Max isn't so outnumbered next time.

In other news.... Max has teeth!!!! After 10 1/2 months, his bottom 2 teeth are popping up. It was a slow process and there has been a lot of miserable moments on his part but he's been a trooper. Since he throws an absolute fit when I use the baby oragel (though if I actually can get it on there it does help after a minute or so) so we've been using tylenol and some cold chewies. Luckily there hasn't been a lot of drool, but there has been a lot coming out the other end, which I believe is a teething sign also.... not sure which is worse...

So on that note, just in time for my sake....

Last week Max is officially a bottle only baby. I nursed him for the last time Thursday so Friday morning, during our normal nursing he took a bottle. (He takes 4 a day now but we're trying to make them smaller and smaller for when he'll be stopping in a few months.) Of course he's always preferred a bottle so he was just fine and I got all my tears out the night before so we all survived. From the start I only ever did nursing for 'feeding' so he's never needed it for the comfort factor anyway. I had only been nursing him first thing in the morning for weeks because he was so distracted and rammy that it just wasn't worth the struggle anymore (no idea how people nurse older babies and toddlers!) but he had been nice and calm and was always good in the morning. Luckily I still have enough frozen that he should get one BM bottle a day and he takes the formula just fine. (Though I do feel sorry for people who've had to buy formula the whole time, as I purchased my 2nd jar the other day, thank goodness for generic prices!!!)

Nursing has been an interesting process and I think, like most aspects of parenting (beginning with pregnancy and labor), its just so different for everyone. Max was, as was my biggest fear, a SLOW nurser. I would talk to new mom's who were baking and trying to find time to fill their days while at home with a newborn/infant and I couldn't find time to cook or eat or go for a walk, let alone do extra stuff. Then it dawned on me a few months ago that he was nursing for 8-10 hours a day so we spent a LOT of time like that. I don't regret a second of it and thank goodness for being able to pump (a bottle takes about 10 mins) and he had slowed down some in the last few months. But there were some nights when we just nursed on and off all night long because one or both of us would fall asleep in the middle of a an hour long nursing and at 2am its not easy for a sleep deprived mom to stay awake. Nursing was something I was definitely apprehensive about but I'm so glad and blessed that it worked out the way it did. (Also, its a huge plus to be back to pre-birth weight in 6 months!) Now....I just have to make sure my second child has a totally different nursing experience because I am quite sure I will not have such time with the Maxwell running around!

The best part has been to put all the nursing/pumping gear and clothes away and not worry about dragging it on our vacation to VA Thursday. We can't wait!