Christmas Day 2014

Maxwell was really excited about Christmas.  It's been so fun to enjoy it this year with him and also to have our sweet daughter here as well.

Ready to go out and see what Santa brought

Silly faces

I wanted some Christmas flowers so I got this arrangement from a local florist.  It smells fantastic.

Ooh!!

Sunglasses are always a hit with Max

Such a helpful Aunt Kimi

The Mejias

Kait and her haul

Ty and his mom 

(Notice how there are presents everywhere?! Christmas with 11 people means lots of presents)

Thanks Aunt Tawny for the soccer ball!

Patiently waiting for his turn to open another present

Tyler and the present we gave him. 

Max is excited to have Kaity around. 

Kimberly surrounded by her gifts (and getting suffocated with all the scarves she got)

Finished product on the monkey bread

This year Maxwell got a ton of games.  We are going to have fun playing all of them.

Tyler was so sweet with Emmalyn.

Emmalyn took a nap during part of the present opening so she got to open most of her presents later all by herself.

Putting together Max's big present - a zip track with cars

My sweet Ty, he had no fear of babies.  He is getting so grown up.  I wish we could have spent more time with him but he left halfway through the day to go spend the rest of the holiday with his dad in OK.

The typical Christmas morning disaster

Gorgeous sunny weather the kids were enjoying outside

Time for another nap...

Emmalyn got this cute puppy from my dad.  

He sent presents for her, Maxwell, Emmalyn, Landen, and Hayden.  He's never sent presents for Christmas as long as I can remember and certainly not since I've had kids.  It meant a lot that he thought of the kids and made sure the presents were there before Christmas.  Thanks Dad (grandpa!)

Giving kisses to the puppy

Reading with Aunt Kimi 

(isn't it great how much attention she's getting from other people?  it's a nice break for me)

Playing with some new toys

Breaking in our new Jenga game

Busy Christmas days require naps.  :)

Video - Emmalyn has learned how to make the sign for "more" and she shows off her wave

Meltdown and Gym Time

Another fun week!  Every week is a fun week with Max, even when it's a completely normal non-eventful week.

Video - Max is so stinkin' cute when he asks for things.  He's got a great combination of the sign for "more" and also says "more please".

Happy Max

When Max carries things, he frequently lifts them on his shoulder and presses them to the side of his head (as if he's talking into a phone).  He does this with blankets, toys, etc.

Now for a real treat.  I captured one of those special moments on camera.  That's right, I captured a meltdown.  So Max was enjoying playing with the balloon and then Hayden knocked it out of his hands.  This is what followed...

Brittany trying to give Max the balloon back.

Max is now MAD MAX so he knocks the balloon away.

He's devastated.

Still very sad but not as mad.

Thinking about taking the balloon and playing again.

Okay, all better.

Whew - that was fun!

There have been quite a few lunches lately where Max sleeps the whole time.  :(  I hate not being able to play with him during lunch but I know if he's still sleeping he needs his sleep.  A part of me always hopes that when I'm quietly sneaking in to take a picture, he will sense my presence and just wake up.  I miss him when I don't get to see him in the middle of the day.

Needs a haircut but other than that look at those cheeks and teeth!

Brittany took the boys to the part during the day.  Max had fun splashing in the puddles at the bottom of the slide.

I finally convinced Peter to come to Max's gym class.  (He's never been to Kindermusik with us.)

Enjoying the ball pit.

What he really enjoyed was throwing balls out of the ball pit so mom could pick them up.  :)

Playing basketball with dad's help.

Climbing through the tunnel.

This one was tricky.  Max did a great job!

Unfortunately I had to travel for work again.  This time to Chicago.  Just in time to enjoy a huge snow storm.  I am glad I don't have to break out the wool coat and scarf very much at home in Dallas!

Look at all those stickers - heaven for Max!

Dinner while mom's away - Scrambled eggs cooked by dad.  Max was happy.  :)  Peter does such a great job of taking care of Max on his own.  I am so grateful that he's willing to do that and support me in my job.

I was happy to get home to my boys.  Even 1 night away is tough.  Look at these two buddies!

I am lucky to have these two as my family.

I love this picture.  He's such a cute little boy.

Video - Max is FAST!

Max lately...

• When he wakes up, Max stands up in the crib and grabs both his blankets so they can come out of the crib with him.
• He's been waking up with a diaper that's leaked in the front.  GRRRR
• We have been giving him the iPad first thing in the morning so we can sleep in just a little bit more since he is getting up so early.  He sits on the bed and happily plays.
• When he cuddles at night before bed, he rolls from mom to dad to mom to dad, only spending a few moments with each of us.  It's really sweet.
• He still won't eat veggies.
• He loves playing with the sound machine on his own.  He turns on the white noise or the lullaby music and then sways to the music.
• He stacks blocks and plays with the shape sorter I brought him from Canada.  He is also starting to do the shape puzzles we got him for Christmas.  He does a good job with the vehicle one.
• When he says goodbye to his dad, he mimics back what he's heard Peter say, Bye buddy".
• He says, "nope" and shakes his head when he says no.
• He now drinks whole milk with no problem.
• He is super picky on food lately, for example, dinner was a slide of bread and applesauce.  I feel bad but he is getting vitamins so he should be okay.
• He has started hitting me when he gets mad.  (not okay)
• He gets super happy when we give him snacks.
• He was getting too attached to the iphone/ipad in the morning so we did a tech free morning and he was NOT happy.  (exactly why we did the tech free morning...this could get out of hand if we don't)
• I noticed that his wave has changed from the pageant wave he did previously to a wave that's more like a clam opening and shutting.
• I have been writing his name and saying the letters for him plus showing him the letters on the ipad.  He can now recognize "m" and "x".
• He does not like apple juice.
• His top 2 canine teeth have broken through!