Max's one year photo shoot

I finally got around to scheduling Max's one year photo shoot. He got his very first haircut a couple of weeks ago in preparation for this event. His hair was standing up straight for a long time until it got so long that it started laying down flat. So we thought it was finally time to cut it. Here are some of my favorite shots.



Jalen was a great helper at the photo shoot, propping Max up in the group shots. He was a real ham, just having a great time and laughing up a storm. He looks so mature in these photos, you couldn't tell that he's not even 4 years old yet. He looks so grown up and handsome!


These shots of Max and Jalen together are my absolute favorites. These images feel like sweet rewards of all the hard work we've put into raising our kids.

Max is one year old!

My baby turned 1 on Feb. 1, 2011. We celebrated by going to our neighborhood Red Robin. Max devoured a whole half of avocado, nibbled on some french fries and then got his first taste of ice cream. Because it was a Tuesday night, Red Robin made a special appearance which didn't faze Max at all but totally freaked out Jalen.

On Friday, Feb. 4, I took Max for his one year check up. He was 20lb 11oz (10 - 25%) and 31" (75 - 90%). His weight gain growth curve has slowed down since he was in the 50th percentile at his 9 months visit. I explained he recently transitioned to table food from baby food and just started day care. The doctor said it was understandable given the circumstances and asked that we follow up in 6 weeks to check his weight again. So now I have to focus on fattening Max up!

Max's first birthday party

I had a long struggle figuring out what to do with Max's first birthday party. We hosted Jalen's first birthday party at our house when we had about 10 kids around the age of 1 and their parents. The kids were easy to contain and the adults had a good time. This time around, the same 10 kids are 3 years old and will have too much energy and not enough space to work it off if I were to have the party at home again. At the same time, I really didn't have the time or energy to clean the house pre party and post party. I didn't want to have the party at a bouncy house or something similar because then the party would be for the siblings and not really about Max. Maybe I was making things too hard for myself but my criteria for the party were: 1) not at my house 2) a buffet style lunch. After some trial and error we found the perfect location at Rick's friend Duke's restaurant. They had a private area for parties where we had 2 dedicated waiters. The party went off without a hitch and I was very relieved and happy at the end of it.

Tales from daycare

I've been in pure survival mode the past 4 weeks that I haven't been able to update the blog. On Jan. 17, Max started daycare at Newport. He was fine at drop off but at 12pm, I got a call from the school. They said he was very upset and not eating or drinking! I was frantic, trying to figure out how to clear my schedule for the rest of the afternoon so I could rescue him ASAP. Daddy's suggestion was to just leave him there. No way! Apparently he cried himself to sleep around 1pm and slept for about 45 min. I picked him up at 3pm and he was desperate to see me. For the rest of the first week, he ate very little and drank very little. So I had to make sure that I fed him as big of a breakfast and dinner as possible. I typically pick him up around 6pm and his face is always raw and red from crying and being tired. It's so hard to see that. On top of everything, Jalen came home with a fever of 102 that week and was sick.

The second week at daycare, Max was sent home Monday with a fever of 103. As per standard school policy, he had to stay away a minimum of 24 hours. I was stuck since I had a meeting I had to go to the next day. Luckily, my former nanny was able to come that day and relieve me.

Now he's in his 4th week of daycare and he's doing a lot better. It's amazing how quickly kids adapt to their environment. During week 1, he didn't drink whole milk and he didn't know how to use a sippy cup. Now, he drinks whole milk out of a sippy cut and self feeds. Here's a video of him eating spaghetti.