Happy First Birthday to Max!

So, it turns out I only blog about every six months now. And only now because I am MAKING myself because Max turned one. Why is this so hard for me?

Max is the most delightful child. He's been so easy this past year. The kids and I took a trip to Utah in October and when we visited Uncle Jon and Aunt Jessica, Jon made the comment that Max's resting facial expression is "slightly delighted," and I think that describes our happy sweet boy perfectly.


- He is working on walking. He loves to practice walking back and forth between Danny and I and makes sure everyone claps for him when he makes it.
- Max LOVES FOOD. The kid eats more than Nora at most meals, I'm quite sure. His favorites seem to be peanut butter sandwiches and any kind of meat we shred up for him. He still nurses 3 times a day but is good with milk too.
- He powers up the stairs like nobody's business but can't get back down by himself. Occasionally he will get upstairs and stairs crying and banging his head against the wall (why?) until someone comes to get him, but more often he'll just go into Ollie and Nora's room and work on emptying all of the toy bins.
- He is loud. There was a time when he was tiny where he would burst into tears whenever the other kids were yelling. No more. He can yell with the best of them.
- Whenever we put him in his high chair he rocks back and forth like a maniac. The high chair is strapped to a kitchen table chair and he has rocked it a good 10 feet backwards. Rocking and yelling through all mealtimes. The only time he is quiet in that high chair is when he's taking a drink.
- He loves his family. Nora and Ollie make him laugh and laugh and he puts up with them burying him in blankets and shoving toys in his face and taking toys from him and singing him songs. He knows who is Daddy is. This morning Ollie and Nora were running up the stairs to get Danny out of bed and Max went tearing after then shouting "Da-da!! Da-da da-da dada!!" It seems that lately he only wants Danny or me, and sometimes only me. We were at Danny's parent's house the other day and Grandma was trying to hold him and he was crabby, and Danny was trying to hold him and he was crabby and crying and straining to reach me. As soon as I grabbed him he started laughing like crazy.
- His favorite toys are an old cordless phone we don't use anymore and the tv remote. He'll slide them along the floor in each hand while he powers his crawl with his legs.
- He is a chewer. He has gnawed much of the finish off of his crib rail and started in on the walls last week. I found him with chalky white all over his face and assumed he must have spit up, until a few minutes later I saw the big chunks he had taken out of the paint on the window sill.