Dancing Boy

Here's a video of Max dancing. He loves to dance lately! He'll hear the music in the background of a commercial, or on a cell phone, and just start bopping away. He prefers electronic music, like in some of his toys, so we turned on some techno music and let him go.

First Steps!

Yes, it's true! Max took his first steps tonight. He's been happily cruising around with his push toys foe awhile now, but tonight he let go of our hands and took several steps on his own. We ran and got the video camera, so here's a clip! He'll be 10 months old on Wednesday. It's crazy to think that he could be trucking around the house by his first birthday!

Chasing Max

Max loves to be chased. If someone is walking behind us he'll turn and start to laugh because he thinks they will chase him. Even the people helping us out to the car with the groceries! He isn't really into the catching him part, just the chase.

Happy New Year!

Here are some pictures of the past few weeks. Video to come soon!

Max and I getting ready for our houseguests- Grandma and Grandpa Blaker and GrandmAmmi would be arriving soon to stay with us for a few days. Notice that despite the pack-n-play and excersaucer in the background Max is hanging out in his prefered spot- on my back. Can I have my AP card back now???
On Christmas Eve we went to Grandma and Grandpa Brooks' house for a delicious dinner of Great-Grandmas spaghetti (we just call her Great for short!). We had missed the Hannukah celebration in Seattle a couple of weeks prior, so Max opened his Hannukah gifts. He got some really nice toys, and a beautiful fabric doll that his Great Grandma Blaker brought home for him from Israel!

We had christmas dinner at our house. Here's everyone except Ron, who is taking the picture. Grandma and Grandpa Blaker, Uncle Larry, GrandmAmmi, Great, Grandpa and Grandma Brooks, and Max and I.

Max, in his cool new outfit from Auntie Barbara (The shirt says, "Oh come let us adore me") riding on the vehicle that his dad made him. That's right, Ron made this cool wooden ride on toy. It is beautiful, and much to our surprise, Max stands up and walks around with it already!

And riding on the Grandpa-Sam-Mobile!

No comment necessary for this next pucture!

Playing with Uncle Larry

And GrandmAmmi
Sleepy Max at the end of the day.

On New Years Eve we had Rich, Breana, and Kaden (and we missed Kylin) over along with Nadine, Mahlon, and Josie (we missed Naia) to ring in the new year. It was fun seeing the babies play together! Max pushed Kaden around in his wagon that GrandmAmmi got him for Christmas. He loves that thing!
Poor Josie... Max tried to steal her toys.

Kaden and Max conked out at the end of the night.

New video!

9 months old!

Max had his 9 month check up this week- he's 22 lbs. 30.6 inches... he is soooo close to walking unassisted. We put storage bins up to block the fireplace andhe walks from each one to the next, to the couch, to the ottoman, all while just touching a bit for security. I still think he'll have his first step by Christmas! He's got 7 teeth, and puts EVERYTHING in his mouth. He's had a really bad cold the past week or so, but we seem to be on the tail end of it. He babbles more and more, like he's having a conversation in another language. Very cute! His favorite "word" is "doot!".

Here are some pics from the past few weeks.

Eating Gorrilla cereal (like Kix) this morning. He is so cute feeding himself- he pinches the piece of cereal and nibbles on it between his front teeth. He eats that tiny piece in 3 bites!



We had some serious baking to do for the neighbors. He spent a couple days on my back while we made cookies and homemade Irish Cream. Yum! Don't let the PJ's decieve you, this was about 3:00 in the afternoon. .. We went to a nearby christmas tree farm with grandma and grandpa Brooks to get our tree this year. It was a very cold morning! It was fun to pick our tree and watch them bang the loose needles and wrap it up with their string machine.
Trying to get some cute pictures for a holiday card...

I know it's blurry, but it's just so cute! He gets really excited sometimes and the energy just rushes out of him...
We went to an MDC cake party last week and met TONS of local mamas that I have only known online. Max loved crawling all around and stealing other kids' toys. Here he and Kaden were battling it out for the block...

Photo

This is the picture that was in the LA Times and Chicago Tribune. Photographer Craig Mitchelldyer was nice enough to send me a high resolution image so we could get a good print of it. Photos of the Portland nurse-in also appeared in newspapers in China, Africa, and Hong Kong!

We had a great Thanksgiving up in Seattle with both Rons and my families.

With Auntie Pam and Uncle Gardner With Grandpa Sam and Auntie DebbieMax has a bit of a cold, so we missed Fionas first birthday. Happy Birthday, Fiona!