1/12 (family photos)

This year we're taking a family photo each month. It's not something that we don't do already, but I just really wanted to consciously plan for a family photo (and actually use my real camera. ahem. after month one apparently.).

Evan bought me a new camera and so we packed ourselves up to go play with it but then we got hungry and the wind came up (and you know, wind + expensive cameras = no) and so we propped up the good ole iPhone on a makeshift tripod (a railroad tie I found laying in the middle of this place) and took a picture of us.

I think the graffiti really makes the picture. It also makes me laugh because it says "thank you" and then above it "who wrote [arrow to the thank you]" HA HA HA.

ten months//dear maddox

Dear Maddox,

I have to say it, obviously, but this ten-month stage is so much fun. You're still a baby but you're surely becoming quite the toddler. You interact with us and talk to us and we have a lot of fun. You're a big flirt, too. Everywhere we go you're flirting with everyone around us and everyone still compliments how happy you always are.

Oh, but you have thrown quite the temper tantrums, too. Most of the time these happen when you're exhausted and boycotting your naps or you're hungry; but all of the time these happen when I've taken something away from you. Usually it's something inappropriate that you want to put in your mouth (keys, phone, power cords, etc). You immediately ball your hands into fists and stiffen up and let loose a scream or too. But you're easily distracted and these tantrums only last for a few seconds.

We began feeding you meats after your nine-month checkup. We've given you tuna and chicken and eggs and you are a big, big fan. You've also had pancakes and pasta and I'm having way more fun coming up with meals for you rather than browsing the produce aisle at the grocery store.

Here you were with just two teeth (so we thought) and I checked your upper gums last night to find your top two teeth peeking through! Once again you haven't made one complaint or shown any signs that those buggers were coming in; although you have been chewing on your blankets quite a bit. But we're so thankful that you're an easy teether.

You, little love, are quite the ham. You absolutely love to make us laugh. You make faces and noises and play peek-a-boo until we're hysterically laughing at your antics but you never stop. You are constantly learning new things and showing us how very smart you are. For example, I have a book on my bookshelf with a teeny tiny picture of a baby on the spine. If we ask you where the baby is, you'll crawl over and point right to the baby. Even if we move the book you can still find it amidst all the others. You point to the baby on the box of diapers and on the back of the cereal box and in your books. You absolutely love babies and we're so glad you're friendly and loving and want to make friends. You've also started pointing to things that you want like the dog or to us or to other babies in public.

I guess everything that you do amazes me. I can't believe that you've grown this much in ten months. I can't believe that you understand clapping and "bye-bye" and that you pull yourself into a standing position 393 times a day. I can't believe that you can push a box across the floor and walk behind it and you taught yourself that without any help from anyone. I can't believe that you can climb the stairs like a big boy. I can't believe that you say mama and dada all day long and call pretty much everything else "bah!" (emphasis included). I can't believe that you know how to get our attention by yelling (bah!) over and over again until we stop what we're doing and give you all of our attention. I can't believe that you sleep through the whole night and take long naps in the day and thrive with a schedule (okay, I can believe that. You are my son after all). You've not only reached each milestone but you've blown by them and proven to us that you are such a big boy.

We love you so much and we are so blessed to be your parents. Did you know that in the Old Testament God blesses so many mamas and daddies by giving them babies? Through our devos we've been reading about God's blessings and we agree that children are the greatest blessing, the most precious gift. Every single day, each smile, each laugh, each slobbery open-mouth kiss and each hug after nap time blesses us more than we ever thought possible. We wake up each morning loving you more today than we did yesterday. All day I repeat James 1:17 in my mind: "Every good and perfect gift is from above." Because it is true; you are our good and perfect gift, knit together perfectly. You are so loved and so prayed for, dear boy.

I can't stop thinking about how close your one-year birthday is. Which makes me think about the things I was doing a year ago to prepare for you. A year ago we were building your crib and registering for the baby shower at Target and researching car seats and strollers and doing baby laundry. We were having baby showers and having last dates just the two of us. We were finishing the nursery and the bathroom remodel. I was still picking out baby names (in my ever indecisive way) and picking which blankets to bring to the hospital and picking out pictures to hang on your walls. I was making a mobile to hang above your crib and building a dresser and thrifting a table. I was doing all of these things in preparation for your arrival and suddenly I'm at that place once again. Except for this year I'm planning your first birthday and picking out cupcake flavors and sewing you a blanket. I'm reading you lots of books and tucking you in at night and blowing kisses on your sweet belly. I'm counting your fingers and toes and prying your hands out of my hair and out of your dad's beard. I'm giving thanks every moment of every day for your sweet life and these past ten months. Life looks different now that you're here but I wouldn't change one single thing because everything is perfect.

I love you past the moon and the stars, forever and for always.

I love you, I love you, I love you.

Mama

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Maddox's new favorite game is when I pick up all of his toys and fill up his toy basket so he can pull them out one-by-one with a vengeance. My favorite is when he stands up on the basket and leans into it to get his very favorite toy out of the pile.

Coming in at a quick second place is the new toy that arrived in the mail yesterday: A cardboard box. He's been standing up against it and pushing it across the floor. I suppose it's sort of a poor man's walker. I have a pretty cute video of him pushing it across the floor which mostly includes his left leg taking giant, extravagant steps and his right leg not bending at the knee whatsoever. He half hobbles along as he pushes the box and runs it into everything. Whatever keeps him occupied for 13 seconds so I can pee in peace, am I right?

Sleep talk with evan v.4

I have thee best story to tell. Evan says I'm not allowed to tell it but this is me telling it anyway because it's hilarious.

Sunday morning we all woke up and laid around in bed playing peek-a-boo with Maddox and generally being lazy bums. Evan got out of bed and said, "I have a secret to tell you. But you can't make fun of me." And then proceeded to tell me this:

In the middle of the night, he had an incredibly vivid dream about needing a tiny, baby screw driver for a picture frame. And so, in the middle of the night, sleeping Evan got out of bed and rummaged through our junk drawer in the kitchen to find a little baby screw driver WHICH HE PROCEEDED TO BRING BACK TO BED WITH HIM. He told me that he slept with it curled in his fist until morning when Maddox woke him up and he realized that he had just slept with a screw driver all night OMG. So he put it on the ground and went and got the babe.

Don't worry, ya'll. Maddox doesn't sleep in our bed. It was just me. Only my life was endangered in this story.

Evan is the best at hilarious antics in the night time. If you need further proof, here is this post from right after Maddox was born (with some of my funnies as well) and if you go all the way to the bottom of that post, you can find even more posts that contain extra, extra funnies from Evan. Good times, ya'll. Good times.

best of 2013

And that's a wrap. Thanks for being so good to us 2013. We loved you a lot. Now onto 2014. Bring it on!

christmas

I love Christmas. Out of all of the seasons and times and holidays throughout the year, Christmas is by far my most favorite. But having a baby and experiencing Christmas with him in awe and wonder of the lights and the magic and everything else has made me fall in love with this season yet again.

Monday before Christmas we went to see Santa but because the line had been so long the other times we tried to go, we decided to get there bright and early when Santa first arrived to be at the beginning of the line. You guys. When I heard Santa walking up behind us, his bells jingling on his heavy boots, I almost cried. I was saying, "Look Maddox! There's Santa!" I had the youngest child in line and I was the most excited parent by far. By leaps and bounds, actually. And Maddox couldn't have cared less (except he was thinking, "Gimme that beard! I wanna pull it!") and he sat on Santa's lap and gave the biggest, best smile and we all melted.

That afternoon Evan had two Christmas Eve services to work at church and I had a list of things to finish before Christmas and so Evan went off to work and I went to my mom and dad's house. Evan surprised me a few hours later and told me to pack it up, we were going on a date. So we did. To our favorite brewery where we had big kids drinks and big kid conversation and there were no cheerios involved and no diaper bags in sight.

When we were leaving, Evan made me put on a blindfold because he was taking me to my Christmas present which was a surprise hour of private ice at our little ice rink. You guys. I died. I was SO surprised. When I saw where we were I was so excited and then when we walked in to an empty building with fresh ice, I died again. So we skated for over an hour and I missed my old figure skating days so much. But this just made me so excited to teach our children how to skate. Because you know I will.

This gift he gave me was so thought out and such a sign of his love for me. It showed me how much he loves me far better than any gift wrapped in pretty paper and topped with a bow ever could. I kept saying that we needed to go on one last 2013 date and then he pulls this out of his pocket and blew my measly "date night" out of the water. I love him so much. I can't even.

And then obviously we opened gifts on Christmas morning with the babe in tow. I tore open his presents and then tried to get him to rip the paper but all he wanted to do was eat the bows and pieces of tape and ribbon and then eat Evan's candy bar and pull on the tree. So we opened his presents and ooh'd and ahh'd over all his new toys even though Maddox could not have cared less. But it was still magic and it was still the best first Christmas.

We did Christmas jammies for Maddox (found here). They are the cutest, softest things and I'm probably going to buy 15 more pairs because seriously. How cute?!

And now the tree is gone, Christmas is put away, the Christmas clearance sales have been shopped and I am so thankful for this first Christmas for our baby boy. It was pure magic.