1.1.11

happy new year! hope everyone had a very merry christmas and enjoyed bringing in 2011. we had a wonderful christmas in ohio with my family. max and i drove to ohio on sunday with josh and sarah. we drove in two cars and one of them rode with me at all times to help with max. he was a perfect, sweet, happy baby getting love and attention from his aunt and uncle for 9 hours. scott flew up on thursday night. due to his job change of sorts he had no vacation time through the end of the year so he was only able to take off a couple of days over the holidays. we were so glad to have him with us when he finally arrived. every time one of the dogs at my mom's house barked he said "dada?". it was precious. the three of us drove back home on monday. it was so great being with my family for christmas. i am thankful to scott for understanding how important it is for me to be with my family when i have time off from work. they were so glad to get that time with us and max too.

we want to wish josh a happy birthday! it was his birthday yesterday, new years eve. we love you! thank you for being an amazing brother and an even more amazing unlce to max. he adores you. i wish i could post a video that would do justice to this story...each morning in ohio max would go into josh and sarah's bedroom to wake them. when he sees josh he just stares at him adoringly. he doesn't do that to anyone else. each day he would go to josh's guitar and carry it to him to get josh to play and sing for him. he will not give up until josh starts to play (not that it takes much). while josh plays max will just stare at him for awhile. when josh plays the song lion man by mumford and sons max will start to dance and yell and clap. he loves music so much. his new form of dancing is to twirl in circles and to step repeatedly on one foot. love.

max is 15 months old today. he has learned so many new things over the past month. it is unbelievable how amazing and precious and smart he is. okay, maybe not that hard to believe, but he is all of those things and much much more! here goes the adorable baby max's 15 month update...
*max has been talking alot lately. he seems to learn so many new things when i am home on breaks which i am thankful for being witness to. here is an updated list of words in max's vocabulary: mama, dada, baba (banana), go~with a short o sound (dog), eyes (my mom swears he said this while looking at a child's picture of a reindeer and pointing to it's eyes while we were visiting her at her school one day. i heard it too and wasn't sure if it was purposeful but she says yes) quack quack, up, and go (the last two are hard to come by).
*as i mentioned above, twirling and foot tapping dance moves have been added to his list of skills.
*piano playing while grinning at mommy and daddy while he "plays".
*vacuuming with his  very own dyson. he loves that thing. so glad i found it for him. wish it really picked up dirt.
*shooting baskets in his new basketball hoop. he is really talented at hoops. he can wing that sucker from pretty far back and really hard and make it nothin but net. he also palms the basketball and with the other hand hits the side of the ball a few times before he shoots. where does he learn this stuff?
*jarrod gave him his first haircut. just a little off the sides and back.
*first sled ride wearing a snow suit and snow boots in my mom's backyard. he loved it. not so much when jasper did a flying leap over him and his back legs caught max's head and he went face first into the cold, hard snow, but he recovered quickly.
*still does his where thing with his hand and now does a "eh" sound that sounds like he is questioning something when he does it. he does this frequently and every time we start a sentence with a question word he can distinguish this and does his little where/what thing like he is trying to figure it out.
*loves to sit at child size table/chair to color or draw his own picture. this is precious to me. he really concentrates. maybe he will have the glaze artistry gene?
*he is a one nap a day baby now.
*he is no longer nursing at all. wow, i never thought we would make it a month when we first began nursing and now look how far we've come.
*still an outdoorsman and loves mowing with his new fancy lawnmower.
*he loves all his new toys and gear he received from his family for christmas (dad, you were so right about the two toy bags). thank you all. and santa too. he loves santa. when we went to visit him at perimeter mall max kept doing where when i would ask where is santa. when it was our turn santa asked max to give him a high five and he did. he sat on santa's lap, no tears, and even stared up at him. he wanted to find all the santas at my mom's house everyday and if he was upset about something and we asked him where santa was he would immediately stop crying and do where and look for santa.
*l.o.v.e.s. animals. check out the photos below to see the proof. he wants to love them, hug them, play with them, follow them, pick them up, roll around on them, anything to be near them. he pats his belly to tell our dogs to come to him. he insists on giving them their biscuits when we leave each day. he has to wave goodnight to rex and lucy before he can go down for a nap or bedtime everyday.
*said his first sentence. scott said "i'm going to eat your banana." and max said "dada baba?"
*he listens to and understands everything we say even when we think he's not listening or he wouldn't understand. i.e. my mom said one morning (max was playing nearby) "grammy forgot to finish her wine." her wine glass was sitting on top of the entertainment center from the night before. max stopped playing and went over to my mom and pointed up to where the wine glass was sitting. i was sure he was pointing at his picture of santa that we had been looking at each day. she took him over to show her what he was pointing at and he pointed to the wine glass. too funny.
*adores his daddy. he loves that man so so much.
*loves and needs his momma especially when something doesn't go his way or he is feeling blue.

we hope everyone has a happy and healthy 2011.

climbing behind the tree to get to the cat. he toddled around in circles following kate the cat the entire evening at my dad's. he never stopped. he loved her so very much.

chasing the cat. yes, he is climbing over presents to get to her.  

he wanted to pick up my dad's cat so badly. 

 my dad's dog. he lets max ride him.

loves grandpere and his animals. 

seeing his presents from santa.

 shopping with daddy.

sing us a song piano man.

 opening his dyson.

 the newly engaged couple in the background.

aunt sarah gets a laugh.

 loves jarrod's dog, jasper. wants to pick him up.

thank you for a wonderful time, mom.

other special news: my lovely sister jacqueline has graduated with a masters degree in early childhood education. in order to work towards being hired  as a teacher in georgia for the upcoming school year she will be moving in with us and begin substitute teaching. oh, and she got ENGAGED on christmas to her boyfriend of many, many years, ty! they will offically relocate to georgia together this summer. wedding date t.b.a.