Other December Pics

Better late than never right? Here's the pictures from earlier this month. There are a lot of pictures of Max at dinner because a) we were still getting used to the new camera and b) that's the only time Max is still enough to get really good face shots.

Christmas photos 2

These are mom's pics from her Christmas visit.

Christmas Day Pictures

Here (finally) are the Christmas pics, enjoy!

Merry Christmas

Wow, what a nice day it has been. Max let us sleep until 8am, then I got up with him and we went downstairs. Nanny gave him a wagon for Christmas & he thought that was pretty cool, but didn't initially pay too much attention to it (now, however, we can't get him out of it!). We have staggered his gift opening so as not to overwhelm him too much. He has gotten some fun toys: a guitar that plays tunes that were popular when Mommy & Daddy were young, so it makes us feel old, a Little People garage, the wagon, a wooden fire truck that has firemen that spin around when you pull it, a ride on Fire truck that makes lots of great noise.
There are other gifts still under the tree, but I think those will wait until tomorrow.
Anyway, we had a nice breakfast, then played with Max most of the day. Chris is cooking slow-cooked-southern-green beans right now & we'll have lamb & potatoes all together for dinner. We'll post some pictures later to show you how much fun we've been having!!

And now, some more pictures

Chris may want to add something later on, but for now, we hope you enjoy the photos!

A thought

About a week ago, I was having lunch with some friends & Jessica asked us this question, "what are the three most important things in your life?". I had several things that immediately came to mind, but only said, "Max" out loud - not "family", or "Chris", or any of the other things that are really important to me.
That really bothered me on several levels. Did I only say 'Max' because I feel my own importance is now inextricably linked with his, so therefore he was the only thing I could say out loud? Did, by not saying 'Chris' or 'family' out loud, mean they were not important to me? Max had been ill so I think I was feeling particularly "Mama Bear" that day. He (him?) & my protection of him, were foremost in my mind.
But what about my other important people?
My friend Barbara did not say her husband's name in answer to the question & when asked why, she said she felt it was a given because they had been married so long.
Hmmm
I realized that in the hustle and bustle that has become our lives lately, I have been so wrapped up in getting from one place to another, then getting something done once I get there, that I haven't stopped to take time to think about what I'm doing & who I'm doing it for.
Every once in a while, it is really important to stop and think about that.
Then, once you are done thinking - say it out loud. Don't think it's a given that your spouse, or the rest of your family are really important to you just because they have been there for so long - be sure and tell them so.

Happy Thanksgiving

We had to get a new camera because the old one crapped out on us. We will post more new pictures later, but I had to share this priceless one from our day yesterday.


Hope you and yours had a wonderful Thanksgiving

update

Max is doing so many new things lately, it's hard to keep up with all of them!
Language: All of a sudden, Max started using sign language. We were amazed! So far he uses "more" and "eat" quite fluently. Now, each time he makes a gesture with his hands, we kind of wonder if he is signing something that we don't yet know. I'm busy studying up on the information on this website though & will hopefully be able to teach and/or reinforce some other words he might be learning. http://www.babies-and-sign-language.com/index.html
In addition to the sign language, we are trying to teach him some things in Spanish. It's two fold- teaching him what things are - like the word 'moon', but then assosicating the picture in the book wth the moon in the sky and using the word 'luna'. When we say 'moon', he points to the sky, so I think he's starting to grasp it.
His English vocabulary is growing as well. He says: Hi, Bye Bye, Bath, Up, Down, Duck, Dog, Picture, eye, truck, Dadda, outside, pasta, bite, ball, yum, truck, shoe, rock rock (for rocking chair). Other words that we can recognize (that maybe others could not) are: airplane, bird, teddy bear, home.

He is running - literally. He is one fast little dude and enjoys pushing his cart through the house, as well as running around the kitchen island (and around, and around, and around).

He has also become a bit independent at meal time - indicating the food that he wants & then wanting to feed himself with the spoon. He also likes to have his food on his plate now, rather than just on the placemat.

Anyway, probably boring information to the cyber world, but I'm sure the grandparents enjoy getting a little glimpse at what he's doing.

Halloween and early Nov

Sorry it's been so long since the last post. I started a new job last week and life is moving at a much different pace.

Here are our Halloween pics. Max was a pumpkin this year. We had lots of trick or treaters come by and Max waved at every single one of them.

Max goes to a farm

We took Max to the Elgin Christmas Tree Farm last weekend for Pumpkin Fest . They are a working farm that, as you might guess, sells Christmas trees, but they have seasonal events as well. Max got to ride on a tractor, see some pumpkins and see all kinds of farm animals; horses, ducks, cows, lambs, and a pig. He even recognized the ducks and pigs from his farm book Gramma(Elaine) gave him. Whenever either one walked by he would shout out "Duk!" or "puh!".

Visit to Port Arthur

This past weekend we took a trip to Pt Arthur. We got to spend some time with Roy and Stephanie and Sam. Max and Sam played well together. Even though they are 9 months apart the age gap seems to be a little smaller every time they get together.

End of Sept and Early Oct

Here's some pictures from the last few weeks.

Dinoland

A few weekends ago, when mom was still here we went to the Dinoland exhibit at Zilker Gardens. A very cool exhibit, they have incredibly life like dinosaur models in a natural setting. It was the first time that I had seen a replica of any kind outdoors, usually it's in a museum with a cheesy background painting. I had as much fun as Max did looking at them.

Home Grown Tomatoes

This spring I planted a beautiful garden. The soil was rich, the foliage was lush, the vegetables were - well, what vegetables? All I got out of the garden this year was a few flowers, some dill, one eggplant, and three peppers. That's it. I planted 6 tomato plants, 3 pepper plants, 2 eggplants, and sowed 3 packets of seeds.

I decided I was going to implement my laissez faire method of gardening and pretty much just left it alone - stopped watering, stopped weeding, stopped even looking at it. I did not, however, pull anything up that was remotely still green. I kept the 2 eggplants & 5 of the tomato plants - I figured they were at least holding the soil in place so it wouldn't blow away & when they all turned brown and crispy, I'd remove them.

Well, they never turned brown and crispy. Yesterday, I decided to take a look over there, and what to my wondering eyes should appear, but tomatoes. Still small, and still green, but tomatoes.

Glory Be.

Here is the scraggly garden. It has certainly seen better days.

One tomato plant is barely even planted any more! The wind really did a number on everything & blew most of my plants over. I don't know how this thing has managed to survive.

Not only is it surviving, it has fruit.

Guy Clark said it best:

Home grown tomatoes, home grown tomatoes

What'd life be without home grown tomatoes

There's only two things that money can't buy

That's true love and home grown tomatoes

Moya park

We went to Moya park last weekend. Max loves to be outside and had a blast sliding and playing like a big kid on the playscapes.

September pics

One of the good things about the Ike situation is that Mom was here for over a week and got to spend some time with Max. Here's some pics from the first few days of her stay.

Visit with Grammie

Two weeks ago, which honestly feels like a lifetime ago, we took a trip down to San Antonio. Jen's maternal grandmother, Grammie, was there visiting an old friend and we trucked down with Max for their first meeting. Of course he was in fine form with all the usual charm. I think they hit it off splendidly. It was good to see Grammie, we hadn't seen her in almost 2 years. Now we just have to get another Wallace reunion scheduled and we'll be in business.

Ike damage at Mom's House

Mom and I drove down last Wednesday to check out the damage from Ike. From what we saw in our brief assessment I'm relieved to say that I don't think it's as bad a Rita was. Mom didn't have major structural damage. The house and roof, the shed and the carport all appear to have have held their own against the wind and rain. A tree on the lot behind her did take out a section of her fence and her trees are missing a lot of limbs. We got word that power was back so she is heading down today and I'll be down later this week.

Scully "Bug" 1996-2008

Last Friday we lost Scully "Bug" our Rhodesian Ridgeback. She was nearly 12 years old and we had her for 8 of those years. We often joked that she was part cat. In addition to being nimble and taken to the occasional fit of pouncing, when we got her she hadn't been around other dogs. We would go for walks and she would walk around water rather than get her paws wet. Slowly but surely she did become a dog, and a great one at that. So much so that she would swim along with Zooey and play in the water.



Buggy was an eccentric pet. She had her weird ways, she liked to block Zo while Zo chased the ball, she would never chase the ball itself, only block Zo. She was also a bit, well buggy. She never seemed to be aware of her surroundings, would constantly run into the table or other furniture, or people. For some reason she would be walking in front of you then suddenly would come to a dead stop. But she loved to chase sticks and especially squirrels. Even the "sq" word would send her into DefCon4 scanning for any movement to chase. Not to mention that she would frequently clear a room with some lethal fumes.



But above all of her many quirks and Bugisms, she was a very sweet and playful dog. She had a very expressive face. She loved to cuddle, especially if it was chilly, she always made a good blanket. After dinner she would get the full belly friskies and she and Zo would romp through the house.



She had always been active and it was very hard to see her slow in the last months. But up until the nearly the end Scully loved to go on walks, she was always good on walks. Sadly she declined very quickly last week and while it was very hard to let her go we know we made the best decision we could for her. The vet and staff were with us all and she was surrounded by love in her last minutes.



I'll miss her rubbing against me and leaning into me with all of her weight, the standard Scully greeting and expression of affection. I hope we gave her a great life. She gave us much love and many memories. We will miss Scully very much.

Life (and death) do not stop for a hurricane

So, I work for an electricity provider that services 14 counties in the central part of the state. When we were tracking hurricane Ike, many of the "spaghetti models" had it poised to hit & severely affect a portion, if not most of our service area.
*gulp*
When I say, "hit", I mean HIT - wide spread power outages, upwards of 200 people mobilized to either perform, or support the performance of power restoration, - the works.
I am the Food & Lodging coordinator for my company, which means I had to establish a plan, assign personnel, acquire food, secure lodging etc for all personnel working the storm. I've never done that before & while I have lots of people assigned to assist, it was (and still is) a scary undertaking.
Everything I was working on at work was immediately suspended in order to prepare for this storm.
Life, however, does not stop for a hurricane. There are still bills to pay, you still have to keep a child entertained, clean house etc. If you are hit by the storm, it's even worse - assessment & clean up, dealing with insurance agencies......
Death also does not stop for a hurricane.
Scully suffered what we feel may have been a stroke. At the vet appt Friday, the vet said she was beginning to go into heart failure. Things did not look good for Buggy & while we were preparing for that to be the case, we still had to make the tough decision to end her life. Her quality of life had deteriorated such that she could no longer run and play & rough house with Zooey, much less comfortably get off the sofa. Even if we had chosen to run test & begin treatment, she may not have ever fully recovered. We felt it was time.
We were so impressed with the level of compassion expressed by our vet & the technician that were there with us. Amy, the tech, has a Rhodesian of her own & Scully immediately took to her. Scully LOVED going to the vet. After we decided it was her time, both Amy and the vet came in to be with us & Scully in her last moments. They petted her, and cried with us, and you could tell they genuinely cared for her - not just as a patient, but as the good dog she was. We are very thankful to them.
Scully Bug would have been 12 yrs old next month and we were privileged to have her as part of our family for the last 8 yrs. I know Chris is going to write some about her & will post some pictures later on. We'll miss the old girl.
So, go hug your dog if you have one. Hug a person if you've got one. Hunker down for the storm - prepare for the worst & pray for the best.

Gustav evac photos

As most of you know, my mom lives on the upper TX coast. She had to evac for Gustav. Fortunately there was no real damage or problem with her area. Now if we can just figure out what Ike is going to do. Here are the pics from her evacuation weekend.









Mom's pics

End of August

More August photos

More August

Here are some more pics. These were taken with our video camera, so the quality is a little different. The trade off is this has a better zoom so there are some good close ups of Max's face here.

August

We are actually posting photos in the same month they were taken, hasn't happened much lately. These are from August so far. Earlier in the month our friends Roy and Stephanie and their son Sam came for a visit. There are some good pictures of the boys playing. We've also been going outside for a little playtime after dinner. It's nice having a quite street to let him explore. He even knows to put on his shoes before we go out. Max also started his new class in day care today. He will be 14 months in a few days, can't believe he's getting so big so fast.

more July photos

Max had his first trip to the Austin institution of Threadgil's last month. We also made it to a newer park that has a really cool water fountain. Max had a great time as you can tell.

July Pics

As y'all can tell we are about a month behind schedule on pictures. This past month has been a huge month o'motor skill and mental development for our little one year old. He's walking almost all the time now and growing increasingly confident on turns and pivots. He's been crawling/climbing all the up our 15 stairs and the other night he crawled all the way down them for the first time. The 25th will be a big day for him too; he will move up to the next room in daycare. I think we will have a harder time with that than he will. Here are some pics from the past month.

Switch Flip #2

Well, it seems this evening, Max's mobility switch #2 flipped. Tonight at dinner he began walking on his own.

*GULP*

First it started earlier in the week when Chris and I were practicing with him walking between us in the living room. He would take a couple steps before lunging toward one of us. Then he would take another, then another. Then, he stood still and balanced right there in the middle. The look on his face was pure joy - you could tell he had been puzzling about and finally the world was beginning to make sense. A couple more rounds and we were sufficiently impressed, and he, sufficiently tired.

Fast forward to tonight. Chris was getting something in the pantry and Max crawled in to "help". Chris came out of the pantry and Max was standing in the doorway, so Chris told him to "walk to Daddy". Well, walk he did! He took several steps out of the pantry and into the kitchen. A few minutes later, he stood up at my chair, held my hand for a quick moment, let go - and walked - and walked - and walked. He cleared the transition from linoleum to carpet like he had been born doing it, and made it all the way to Zooey's bed - a distance of a good 8-10 feet or so. He was smiling ear to ear and clapping his hands. I got a little teary.

Ma'x B-day Nanny Pics

Here are the pictures that Sue (Nanny) took from the weekend. We will publish Elaine's (Granma's) pictures as soon as she sends them to us.

Max's First Birthday

Well, it's hard to believe, but Max's 1st birthday has come and gone. The celebration began on Thursday when Nanny (Sue) and Granma (Elaine) came into town.

Friday we went to Kiddie Kandids to get "official" 1 yr pictures taken. We all piled into my car and zoomed up to Highland Mall to the place. We were really pleased with the staff there and the pictures came out great. No "freaky" child photographers like we experienced in the hospital, but ladies who were able to magically turn a very unhappy little boy into a smiling toddler with nothing more than a bottle of bubbles. We will post a few of the pictures here a little later.

Saturday Chris did all of the shopping and I stayed behind with "the moms" and Max to get ready for the party. They got to play with him, I got to play in the kitchen. All was well. 3pm meant party time. You know they say it takes a village to raise a child? It takes a village to pull off a 1st birthday party too - and we didn't even have a big one! The party turned out well though and of course we got the obligatory "icing face" pictures of Max (see the slideshow below). Incidentally, the recipe for the cake came from the back of the "What to Expect the First Year" book and is totally healthy. Made with wheat flour, wheat germ and no added sugar, it turned out tasty enough that even the adults liked it. Not sure I will ever make it again, but it was ok for a one time thing.

I thought it was really cool that Max enjoyed playing with his new toys. At Christmas when he got new stuff, he was still young enough that he didn't pay much attention to anything other than the wrapping and tissue paper. This time, though he didn't want to help unwrap anything, once it was unwrapped, he tested it out and started playing & is still playing with it today!

June part 2

Here's June part 2. One of the cool things we did this month was have an overnight trip to Houston. I was especially thrilled as the purpose of the trip was to see Tom Waits!!!!! Nanny was kind enough to agree to meet us there and to share a room and babysit while we went to the show. The concert was amazing. We also got to do some fun things with Max. We went to the Houston Museum of Natural Science and hung at the butterfly environment. The next morning we took Max for his first train ride on the Herman Park train.

June Pics

Hi everyone, June was crazy. Apologies to all looking for new Max pics. Much like rain in a TX summer, it's either nothing or a flood. With that in mind here's June part 1.

Better.....

Max is feeling better now - yay! He want back to daycare last Thursday and has been fine eversince. Antiobitics are an amazing thing. If I wasn't concerned about over-use and reducing their effectiveness, I would think that it be a requirement that all children in daycare be on an antibiotic at all times during their first year. I mean, given the number of times he has been sick, he's probably averaged a quarter of a year - why not go all the way?

Anyway, bet you are wondering what he is up to. Max loves music. He always seemed to like it, but now he is actively showing his enjoyment by swaying back and forth, "head banging", clapping, laughing etc whenever we have music playing. When he sees Chris's ipod on the docking station, he starts bobbing up and down. He has a couple musical toys that he really enjoys playing with. One evening two of them were on top of the coffee table and he was standing in front of them & hitting them to keep the music going & "dancing". I think we have a little mini DJ on our hands! Some of his favorite music is the tunes they play on "Classical Baby" (LOVES it). He also seems to like The Breeders and some hip hop tunes Chris has on his ipod.

Tonight, we started working on self feeding with utensils. Why parents always choose spaghetti as the meal to do this with, I have no idea, but we managed to fall into that trap as well. He actually did really well with some help scooping the food out of the bowl & raising his arm to get the goods in his mouth. He has also begun using a sippy cup exclusively at school - though we still give him a bottle at night before bed.

He is saying words that are sound more "real" every day. He can indicate that we are going up the stairs. You can also audibly distinguish his sounds for bite and bath. He loves to call out for Da-Da. He waves hello when he sees us- he even waves hello to the dogs, and I think he is starting to mimic Zooey's wine.

He is not walking on his own yet, but I exepect it will be very soon - especially when he figures out it is a much more efficient way to get around than crawling! He also has tried out the stairs a couple times and is thankfully taking them pretty slow - he will go up a couple, then down a couple and that's as far as he goes. *knock on wood*

Well, that's a little bit of an update. I'm sure Chris will post some pictures soon.

Life in the balance

This has been one of those weeks where the work/life balance has been tested. Actually, this has been one of those weeks where the balance of EVERYTHING has been tested. Last weekend was really busy with a couple of social events that I was involved in. The one on Friday took way more time that I anticipated and Chris ended up doing all of the evening chores; dinner, bathtime, bed time. I volunteered at the employee golf tournament Saturday morning and Max came with me. A friend said I could probaby call in and say that Max was sick & I would have a "pass" not to come. That little voice in my head said I should save that one for when I really needed it.

Lo and behold, we needed it. Max started running a fever Sunday and had a cough that wasn't getting any better. We took him to the dr's on Monday and she said he had an ear infection (what is it with ear infections around here????). So, we started him on antibiotics and tylenol and ibuprofin. Monday both Chris and I worked from home and were a tag team. Tuesday, I went in late and Chris had him the rest of the day. Today he was STILL running a fever this morning, so I took him into the office with me for a while, then had him at home the rest of the day.

And, Max is teething - cuting the top front two teeth at the same time. Dang he looks cute when he smiles, but boy-o-boy do I wish those freaking teeth would come in.

We are tired. We are not having a good time. The pendulum was nice and steady for about a month and a half, and now it it swinging wide into non-fun land.

Two new inventions:
Rent a Grandma - for those days when the kid is sick and you have to get into work - OR for just when you need a break from holding a whining child.
A pacifier that gives out small, controled doses of orajel - not enough to overdose, but enough so that if the kid is in a lot of pain, they can just nip it a little and get relief - like a little teething morphine drip.

Long weekend

We had a great long weekend. We both took Friday off and went to see the Indy movie, and had a good time up until the end of the movie which made no sense, but otherwise it was ok, really good just to get out together. Mom came up and we had a good visit. On Sunday Max had his first trip to the pool. He did great, better than I would've thought. He was a little freaked at first but got in and started to splash and any worry was gone. He was a natural, did so well we took him to the big pool and he even kicked and moved his arms. Of course he also enjoyed getting to swallow water, he got a couple of sips in before we figured out the right level for him. He had a blast, as did we.

Mother's Day wrap up & update

Yes, I would have to agree that Chris (and Max) did a bang up job for my first Mother's Day. Really, the whole weekend was a great one. Jessica offered to baby sit, so I got to surprise Chris with dinner out for his birthday. Saturday was the usual shopping day, then hang out in the afternoon. Sunday I got to sleep in & Max was napping when I got up, so I got to take my time waking up, drinking coffee and actually reading the paper. When Max woke up, the boys presented me with my mother's day card & gifts. The card was especially wonderful and was so sweet - I will cherish it forever. I also got some solar powered spotlights for the tree in the back yard and an unbrella to give us some shade in the back. I've installed the lights, but haven't used the umbrella yet - looking forward to using it though!

Well, Max is going through a wonderful phase where he doesn't like to take his bath in the evening. What started out as just being generally fussy has turned into a full blown, red in the face, not breathing, screaming bathtime. That has been compounded by the fact that we have tried to move bathtime upstairs to the bathtub in our bathroom - which has particularly good acoustics . Last night we tried doing the bath just straight in the water and Chris got in with his swim trunks on. No good. Tonight we blew up the cute duckie bathtub from our friend Marco & thought Max would be amused enough to enjoy bathtime a bit more. He wasn't. He was, in fact, freaked out & it just got worse from there. I got his regular bathtub, put it in the big bath & we tried it like that. Again, no good. Hopefully this phase will pass - if not, we may have to resort to just rubbing a bounce dryer sheet all over him once a day.

Max is talking a little bit. He loves to say "Dada" and has just begun to almost accidentally say "Mama". Really, when he sees me, he just makes an excited humming "Mmmmmm" noise. He makes that (and smacks his lips) when he's hungry too. That's ok - I'll take it. When he sees Zooey or Scully, he makes an "Ooooo" noise - it's very cute.

And of course, he is still a super genious. Today, he figured out how to hold his sippy cup in between his teeth & gums so he could crawl across the kitchen floor on all fours.

Mother's Day

We had a great Mother's Day. Despite my best efforts, I think I managed to pull of a good first one. Jen will probably do a separate post later.

May so far

Here's some of the latest from the month so far. Max is growing so fast. He's also, mercifully I might add, begun to sleep through the night for the most part. Generally at least 8 straight hours a night. The baby sleep gods are finally smiling on the Foery's.

I am on a really awesome HR message board & we have formed a pretty tight knit community. For Valentine's day, we could sign up to have a "Schmoopy" - essentially a secret pal. My Schmoopy was Footie from Oregon and she sent me some Jackson & Perkins roses. I planted them near the end of February, and to my surprise have not killed them yet! In fact, they have been blooming for about a week now & are really gorgeous. Thanks Footie!

Do you hear what I hear?

thump thump thump thump. Bzzzzzzzzz. what is that loud sound?
Oh yeah, that's a duet being played out between the ringing in my ear and my heart beat. It's an especially lovely tune because IT'S ALL I CAN HEAR in my right ear.
Yes folks, you guessed it, I'm having ear trouble again.
it starts with T
and that rhymes with P
and that stands for...

Sorry I got sidetracked.

Anyway, my ear started bothering me again late Tuesday. Continued through Wednesday - of course when I'm out of town at an off-site retreat for work. I awoke around 3am to a loud popping sound in my ear, followed by more popping sounds and a sound that was kind of like when you rub your finger on a balloon - kind of an "eeerrrrrp". That was followed by fluid and much relief.

until today when it's bothering me. the doctor said he thought it happened because the healed skin was new and not as tough as it normally would be. He's got me on antibiotics to be on the safe side & I will most definitely see the specialist now (long story, but my new doc looked at my ear early in the month, said it was healing well and that I wouldn't need to see the specialist at that time).

Oh well. At least I still have some of the good drugs left from last time.

April pics

Hey y'all,

Here's our April so far. Jen is feeling better finally. Her hearing is not back to 100% but better. In other words I have to watch what I say now. Max is doing great. He had his 9 month check up, 20lbs and 28.5" long. He's getting so big, he's starting to look more and more like a little boy.

We've got lots of pics of him moving and scooting about. He pulls up on everything in sight. He's also figured out how to open the cabinet doors, he likes to open them and then left it go and when it shuts he laughs endlessly. We got some wildflower pics too. They all turned out great which worked out well. We were en route to another patch to take some more pics but Max crashed on the way.

Go on, scream louder.....

I can't hear you.

Last Thursday I started not feeling well. Didn't make it to the doctor's until Monday when lo and behold, my right ear drum burst.

Fun.

Doctor said I had a sinus infection, and an ear infection

Double Fun.

So, since Monday, my left ear has been blocked due to the sinus infection and my right ear has been ringing due to the perforated tympanic membrane, so I can't hear very well. Actually, to be more specific, I can hardly hear shit.

• Low tones - like Chris when he speaks normally - can't hear
• white noise tones - like the sound of water running in the shower from downstairs - can't hear
• some high tones - like the sound of the alarm clock when I'm downstairs @ 6am with a child that didn't want to sleep in his own bed - can't hear
• Voices that aren't clear - like when I'm trying to listen and eat at the same time - can't hear.

What I can hear is about to make me insane

• the sound of water hitting my skull in the shower
• the sound my neck makes when I turn my head
• this INCESSANT RINGING IN MY EAR
• the noises I make when I eat. Carrots are ironically deafening.

I have a follow up appt. with an ear/nose/throat doctor on the 14th and they will do a hearing test to make sure my damaged ear drum hasn't caused a loss in hearing. Heh, just wait until they test my LEFT ear - my right one was the good one!

huh? What did you say?

oh, never mind.....

Daycare party

They had an Easter party at Max's daycare last week. One of his teachers, Diana took these wonderful pictures.

Nanny's Easter Pictures

Here are the Easter pics from Nanny.

March Photos

Finally have some new pictures to post. Max has had a busy month. Last week he made his first trip to San Antonio. We went down to visit a friend I work with, Barbara Peek. Although we are colleagues, she is based in Charlotte and we hadn't met in person. It was a wonderful visit, as you will tell from the pictures, they became fast friends.

We had a good Easter as well. Nanny came up and brought some goodies. Also got some good pis of him on Easter morning playing with some eggs.

New Pictures

Here are some pictures from the end of February. Mom, aka Nanny, came to visit this past weekend too so some of these are her pics.

Max is 8 months old today. He's been getting over an ear infection, but otherwise is doing fine. The new thing is he has begun to feed himself. If you put the spoon in his hand at the right angle for him since he turns the spoon up and to the right, he can get most of the food in, or near his mouth. Pride swells, he is after all a super genius.

pics from trip

Here's our pics from the recent visit.

Nice visit

Well, we sent Mom & Dad home today. They came in for a visit last Monday and I think we all had a really nice time. Mom was afriad Max wouldn't remember her when they got here, but they had hardly been on the ground 10 minutes before she was holding him and carrying him out of the airport. Some highlites of the trip:

• Max laughing. There are some really great pictures where you can see he was just having a ball laughing with Gramma and Chief.
• Two new teeth. Yep, our little guy started cutting teeth! He was playing with a spoon and we heard a little 'clink' and sho'nuf, there was a little tooth poking out. By the next day, there were two. We'll post some pictures as soon as we can - he doesn't like us to fool with them too much.
• New blinds/curtains for the sliding glass door in the kitchen. Thanks to Chris and Dad for hanging the track & to Mom for going with me on trip #2 to Ikea for more supplies.
• Trip to Shiner. Beautiful day, fun with family and free beer - doesn't get much better than that.
• Another birthday. Sure beats the alternative. My friend Jessica threw a really great party & I was surrounded by friends and loved ones - not a bad way to ring in another year.

January Photos

Here are pictures from the rest of the month. Max is feeding himself more and more. He also has foods he loves. This week he is a big fan of Cheerios and roasted potatoes. He has also begun crawling. Well, not exactly crawling, but scooting, inch worming, and otherwise in motion. Our days of setting him somewhere and not having to worry about him moving are gone forever.

Monday will also be a big day for him. I was told this morning that he will move to the next age group room at his daycare. It's right next to the room he's in now, but it will be new environment for him. The kids are a little bigger, they go up to 18 months, and he'll be one of the younger ones in there. But they let them mingle in the afternoons so they won't be total strangers, just new classmates.

The long & short of it

How is it that a period of time can feel so long, and yet so short at the same time? Take January for instance. We have a lovely LCRA Wildflower calendar on our fridge and I was checking it out last night. It was so hard to believe that Max's 6 month check up was a mere 4 weeks ago - I swear it feels like at least twice as much time as passed since we took him to the doctor! And yet, I can hardly believe the month has flown so quickly. The first of Feb is literally around the corner (and completely booked already!). Pretty soon, Max's first birthday will be breathing down our neck - as if time wasn't passing quickly enough already.
So, in my New Year's post I said that I had the goal to read at least one book this year - maybe two. I'm proud to say I am a few chapters away from finishing my SECOND book. Woo Hoo! The first book I read was a Christmas gift from Chris: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver http://www.animalvegetablemiracle.com/. What an amazing and inspiring book. Ms. Kingsolver can come across a little preachy in the beginning, but it's not a finger-shaking-you-have-to-do-this-or-you're-a-bad-human kind of preaching. It is more enlightening and informative, and the truths she reveals about our current food sources, and the tinkering we are doing with them, are truly terrifying. This book inspired me to get going on the planning for our garden this year. I was also inspired to try to grow heirloom varieties, so I visited the Victory Seed Company http://www.victoryseeds.com/ and bought seeds for 5 different kinds of tomatoes, some basil and sunflower. I plan to start all the seeds in the next couple of weeks with the intent to plant them in the garden mid-March. The book also talks about eating locally and in season. I have to say, now when I go to the grocery store, I am much more cognizant of where my food originated. Chris and I agreed that food grown in Mexico, while not local, probably consumed less of our earth's resources to travel to my local HEB, than did the produce from Oregon or California (you can justify anything can't you!). Sure is nice to live in a southern state & close to a country that has a long growing season. Incidentally, I find it interesting that HEB has begun listing the origin of the foods in produce & at the fish counter.
The second book I'm reading is On Her Trail by John Dickerson http://www.onhertrail.com/index.html. Chris and I listen to John on the Slate weekly pod-cast and attended the book signing last summer at Book People. It's an easy and pretty interesting read.

January pics

A Rose is a rose is a rose.....

I posted a while back about the strange rose that rooted itself in water and then produced a bloom. We cut the bloom, put it in water and then kind of forgot about it. Tonight, I go to throw it out and wouldn't you know IT has roots beginning to grow now too!

Here is a picture of the roots on the bloom.

And this is a picture of the roots that have grown on the original cut rose. I think it's time to plant!

Happy New Year!

I'm sitting here at the computer, enjoying a few blissful moments of "non mom time" as Chris puts Max to bed. The last few days have been pretty rough and I find myself feeling more "human" than "mom" as I get frustrated that the little one has woken up again. Poor Max. He had a cold through most of December, but it had gotten to the manageable stage. He wasn't too snot nosed, was able to breathe well, had a good appetite and wasn't too fussy. I think the extra days outside his schedule may have thrown him for a loop though & he kind of regressed. Now he is completely congested, isn't sleeping well at all (even when brought to bed with us which generally makes him sleep a bit better), and hasn't had much of an appetite. He even had his first fever on New Year's Eve [insert sound of a cork popping & party favors tooting]. So, tomorrow we are taking him to the doctors for the first time outside of his well-child check up schedule. I, myself, generally try not to take too many over the counter meds & really don't like to do a lot of pill popping, but man do I hope the doctor can give him something to help make him feel better. If I don't start getting some rest, I'm going to get sick again & then the whole cycle will start all over again.

Now that I'm done gritching, I will get on to my New Year's thoughts!

At the end of 2006, I had an idea of what to expect out of 2007. I knew we were going to have Max and that our world would change. I knew we would be moving to a new house at some point. As we embark on 2008, I have no idea what to expect! I don't have an overwhelming feeling that this will be a good year or a bad year -0f course there are things that could go very badly and things that can be great, but I don't have much of a sense of what and which way at this point. I generally try not to have New Year's resolutions because I think they suck and they set you up for failure because they just never pan out. Instead, I try to have New Year's goals and I make a list, albeit a mental one, of the things I want to accomplish or do in the new year. So, to put it in writing, here's my list for this year:

• We are going to create a will
• We are going to establish Max's college fund
• We expect to start working on child #2 (yep, I think I am officially certifiable at this point for even thinking about it)
• We are either going to go to Arizona or to a wedding in Florida to see family members who have not yet met Max
• We will get some official/professional pictures taken of Max
• Plant a "Max tree" in the back yard

I also have my "B" list of things I'd like to do, but won't feel like a failure if they don't get done:

• I'd like to start and finish two books (just two - that's all I ask!)
• I'd like to get some stuff in the house organized - book shelves, wall shelves, storage containers etc.
• I'd like to get the garage set up so that it's functional
• I'd like to set the garden for the spring & build a large compost bin

So, those are my goals for the year!

I hope this one is a great one for each and every one of you, and I hope each day brings something wonderful. Happy New Year