In Under 5 Minutes...

Ha! This was back in April when he was sick for so long. Thank you Lord that he's been much better...for a long time now. Sweet boy - he LOVES that blankie ("ya-ya"- don't ask me why) and paci ("papeece").

I'm Here!

A HUGE thanks to my sis-in-law, Erin, for her (always) brilliant comment to make my pics smaller before uploading them. (duh.) It took me a while to figure it out, but MY GOODNESS it's so much faster now. So, here's some recent kid pics. No cohesive theme or anything funny...just our household over the last few weeks:

Max LOVES reading. Crazy - he'll be quite in his room for up to 15 minutes (!) just doing this. He likes to sit in this chair in his room or the recliner in the living room to "rock-rock" and read books.

We went to a park a couple weeks ago. He still LOVES balls...mostly "be-be-ball" (basketball).

Jake has been practicing writing his name at school. Funny - at home he doesn't want anything to do with writing or even coloring, but he comes home from school every day with papers from practicing the letter of the week. Glad Mrs. Parker (or maybe just watching the other kids) motivates him! So I was surprised when he wanted to do this on a magna doodle...

all by himself - I asked what letters it spelled. Thought that third letter was supposed to be an "a" but then he read out "J-K-Q-E." Ha. At least he knows what he wrote...

I'm learning to encourage practice without correcting too much. My instinct is to correct, but he gets discouraged so easily and hates making any mistakes. At this early stage of writing as his motivation and self-confidence are so small, I'm trying to praise any effort. We'll correct soon enough...

Kicking a ball with Daddy

We didn't catch the beginning of the soccer season this year, but we want to do Upward soccer next year...

Before church the other day...

Sweet boys...

Max Sings

Out of nowhere while I was dressing Max this morning, he sang,

"B-B-C-D-C-C" (or something like that) and then, "YAAAYYY!" with clapping --

the ABC song! I could just eat him up these days...

(at the park the other day - he saw a "buppy" (dog) and does

this hugging thing when thinking about cute animals!)

My Harmonica Dad & Son

A big part of who I am has to do with my amazing dad (I love you Dad!), who happens also to be an incredible harmonica player. I loved growing up seeing and learning what I did because of my dad and his music. Jim (my brother) and I grew up with Dad always playing (practicing) while driving down the road, amplifiers throughout our house, travelling to cool places for gigs (sometimes getting backstage star treatment), and lots of education about musicians like Toots Thielemans and Muddy Waters.

Even though I was used to my dad's playing, I've always had an appreciation for what he could/can do. There are several songs he plays (one of them below, "Use Me Up") that I love. I remember being a little girl walking with him in the woods in Tennessee (right, Dad?) LOVING hearing him play "Mercy, Mercy." I've heard it so many times, but never get sick of it. It's a good song, but it's more because of my dad playing it. It sounds cheesy, but my heart swells with pride every time I hear him play on stage.

Unfortunately, I never got interested in any instrument, although my brother is - he's an amazing guitar/bass/whatever-he-wants-to-play player...

And I didn't even know this was out there (shouldn't be surprised), but I found a few videos of my dad and his buddy Smokey Logg on YouTube:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TK2ue1kc9Mo (couldn't embed this one)

Needless to say, we have a few used harmonicas laying around the house. My sweet Max has taken it up a bit:

Can you hear the loud in and out blowing? He loves it...

Blowing through the side - doesn't work as well.

Hands-free...

Thank you, Dad, for your many gifts to me. I love you.

Lucys

The boys thought my Lucy wig was funny...

I thought it was funny to see it on their little heads.

I can hear my Ricky saying I have some splanin' to do for posting these...

YAY Max!!

He's a little walker!! These videos were from last night and today he's been walking around even more - maybe 75% of the time. For a few weeks he's been taking steps, more and more each day. Yesterday and today he's been walking, almost everywhere. He'll just come from around the corner walking. He loves it. He's finally realized, I think, that it's so much better than being low to the ground. We're so proud of you Little Man!

Max-isms

Max, being the 2nd child, hasn't gotten as much written in his baby book, poor guy. I haven't recorded every little word or new trick. (In fact, horrible -- he has about 4 new teeth that haven't been written in his book!!) But I started thinking about all Maxer says and wanted to blog it...I think I'll even print it out and stick it in his book!

Words and signs used together (not all official baby signs or even exact ASL):

• bye
  
• ball ("ball-ball")


• more


• teet-teet (with sign for bird)


• kack (with sign for duck, which is basically the same as bird)


• banana ("nana"), his version of the banana sign is really cute


• airplane (accompianied by the vrumm noise)


• hi! ("ah-uh!" with a little inflection and a wave)


• yes (with big head nod)


• rain (says "ra-ra")


• no-no ("nah-nah") with little wagging pointer finger

Words only:

• Mama! (he's been yelling this from his crib or highchair)


• Da! (for Daddy)


• "sat?" "sis?" (what's that?/this?)


• moo (for cows)


• cookie ("du-dee!")


• "vrumm" for cars or trucks


• no ("nah") when he doesn't want something


• water ("wa-wa")


• bubbles ("bubba")


• "weeeeee" going down slides or swinging
  

Signs only:

• eat


• drink


• paci


• blankie


• outside (one of his FAVORITE things)


• bath


• please

(saying please)

• thank you (only when he feels like it - working on this one)


• finished


• help


• book


• light


• hear that? (puts hand to ear - here, the train in his hand was making noise)

Among his favorite things also - the vaccum, swiffer or dirt devil.

Sweet boy...

It's Official!

Max took steps!!!!!!!

If you know our little scooter, you know this is HUGE! He's almost SIXTEEN months old and happily bottom-scooting/crawling everywhere. We still have a precious occupational therapist (through ECI) come out every other week to work with him.

Well, yesterday she was here and noticing how much more "brave" he's gotten -- cruising on everything, "bridging" big spans between the couch and coffee table, standing for split seconds on his own, and able to walk with someone only holding one hand (for the longest, he had to have both of my hands to feel comfortable enough moving his little feet.)

Just out of nowhere she sat on the floor behind him standing and I was about 3 feet away. She let go of his hands and he walked/ran to me! He loved the big hugs and cheers at my end, and did it about 4 more times!! It was more or less like controlled falling :) but it was the most he had ever done.

THEN huge developments today! He seems to be so much more comfortable with whole walking thing! He was asking for a cookie (a graham cracker - "du-dee"). I got it, stood him up about 4 feet away from me and used the cookie as bait. He stood there grinning (this is COMPLETELY new for him) for about 6 seconds, then he walked toward me and the cookie! It was NOT controlled falling, but more like taking steps, stopping to regain balance and taking more steps. YAY MAX!!!! He's also been standing up randomly in the middle of the floor just for kicks. We all holler and cheer and clap, so he likes it.

I'm sure we still have some time before he fully walks, but I'm beside myself with excitement!

Butt-prints in the Sand

Fuzzy Balls: Max's Little Slice of Heaven

Stevie Wonder Baby

Max's First Haircut

This was before my trip. (I have a long list of blog entries I've been meaning to post...been slacking lately.) He did so well the whole time. Didn't really watch the Baby Einstein video she put in, but he was happy.

Before:




After!

Ear Tubes

It went beautifully!



In case some of you didn't know, Max's ear/nose/throat doc said he needed tubes in his ears. He has only had one ear infection, but the fluid has lingered for a long time. He failed a hearing test - one ear was completely blocked and the other was half way blocked -- poor guy! Because it could also be affecting his balance and motor develpment, we decided to go for the surgery. I'm looking forward to seeing if he'll get around better or hear us better, and therefore talk a little more clearly (you know, for a 1-year-old!).

His teeny hospital gown!








Starting to get a little fussy. He had been up since 5:45 (now 7:30) with nothing in his belly.
















Starting to get punchy. They gave him what they called "drunk medicine" to relax him before taking him into surgery where he would go under with a mask. He was SO funny -- really limp and laughing at Andy and me over anything. HA!















He kept leaning WAY back. Wheeeee!

Max's E-I-E-I-O Party

Sunday afternoon we had Max's 1st birthday party at a local park. It was a pretty good spot --warm but not too bad in the shade. I liked the idea of a farm party (want to do the cute baby things like that before we get completely into Spiderman and Transformers :)). We had lots of farm/country decorations and Andy even had bluegrass music playing! It was a fun little party. Thank you sweet friends and family for making it fun!

I found these marshmallow farm animals at Toys R Us (of all places). They were perfect for what I had in mind. Pretzel fence - Andy's sturdy design; mini wheat cereal for hay bales; and a comb through the field to make the soil look "tilled." The past couple years I've gone to this website for great cake ideas.Max's chick cake
Grammy and Old MaxDonald
walking with Grandpa Bob

Grandpa Clay (aka Papa) with Aunt Erin and cousins Elysa and Emilyswinging with Grandma and Grandpa PaulJake and Tyler being airplanes
big brother helping open

not sure what to thinkwe don't need that anyway!he found and really liked the marshmallow chick

See the flying cake? YAY!!he always has his feet crossed :)the only thing he really cared about - the balloons

Grandpa Clay's gift - neat push around car

Happy Birthday sweet boy!

Thank you Lord for these and so many blessings.