BEST Birthday EVER!!

While this blog is mostly all about Max, I just wanted to post up what a wonderful weekend I had for my birthday. Tyler surprised me with a romantic drive up the coast and a stay at the Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo. AND, the best part was that we left Maddox at home!! Okay, so I did miss him while we were away (surprisingly), but it was so SO nice to go somewhere and not be on "baby time" but on our own time, doing our own thing, being completely spontaneous and taking as long as we want to go wherever we want.

Maddox stayed with my mom (she was wonderful to watch him and Mattie for the weekend) while we stayed one night in the Wilhelm Tell Room -- a surreal experience to say the least. This entire hotel is composed of the most zany, off-the-wall, interesting looking rooms. Like this one and this one and oh, my, this one! Take a look at the website for pictures of all their rooms. This place has no words to describe it. It's gaudy and loud and bright and as Tyler so aptly commented, "so Italian".

We wound our way down the coast, through Oxnard and Santa Barbara. It was beautiful! And mother nature gave me the best present -- RAIN!! If you know me at all, you know how much I love rain, gray sky and blustery cold weather. So it was the perfect weekend with spurts of rain and crisp weather -- it felt just like the real Fall season (you know, the one in New England), my favorite time of year!
We had dinner in the steak house at the Madonna Inn. We split a steak that was really yummy. But Tyler will agree that the best part was the men's restroom. The urinal was a huge rock waterfall. When you stood in front of it, water came pouring down the face of the rocks to wash away the pee pee. It was really funny -- and yes, I went in to snap a picture, albeit not a great one because I was too nervous someone would walk in.

The dining room was so elaborately decorated it almost gave me a headache. But like I said -- there are no words to fully describe this place. It is a MUST SEE if you feel like heading up that way.

On our way home we checked out downtown SLO and Santa Barbara, stopping for a couple of burgers and some onion rings to watch some of the football games. It was really fun. And of course, no vacation is complete without lots of ice cream, which we had at Cold Stone.


I wish the weekend had never ended!! It was wonderful and romantic and just what Tyler and I needed, especially me.

So thanks sweetie for giving me a birthday I'll never forget!! (Isn't he just the greatest??)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Now that I've lived a quarter century I am much smarter and wiser.


Yeah right. Basically, all that has changed is that now I have to check a different box on surveys and forms for my age group.


I do find some solace in the fact that I will always be younger (and smarter) than Tyler.

So Happy Birthday to ME!!!

Language Skillz

So Maddox has turned in to quite the little chatterbox lately. He babbles constantly but with a definite purpose. He tells stories and points at things to tell me what he sees. He doesn't know the words so he makes up his own. It's adorable, of course.

He points at planes and helicopters in the sky or just points up towards the sky when he hears them. He will point out the window in the car and just start talking and talking.

He does say a few words clearly. The only new one is "YA!" for yes. He understands TONS of stuff and I think we've entered the land of having to spell words out now.

List of phrases he will say "ya" (yes) to:

Do you want breakfast/lunch/dinner?
Do you want to get in your high chair?
Do you want to take a bath? (He will also run over to the bathroom)
Do you want to go outside?
Do you want to a snack?
Do you want your milk?
Do you want to watch a show?
Do you want to go to the park?

I'm probably forgetting some. When he says "ya" he makes this cute little smile and claps his hands together. It makes a mommy's heart melt. What makes her heart melt even more is how amazingly fast he learns and understands things. I'll be glad when he can actually talk though. I think we will be able to sidestep a lot of whining and tantrum throwing (which has become a regular part of our day now!! Yippee for me!!)

Quarantined

We've had to quarantine Max the last two days. Okay, so not really, but he does have a rash that in the olden days would have made him quarantined. On Sunday morning he woke up with what looked like little swollen mosquito bites on his face. By the time he was done eating breakfast it had morphed into this huge red patch and spread all over his cheeks, arms, legs and bottom. It wasn't on his chest, stomach or back though.

We took him to the emergency room, not because it was an emergency, but because it was the only place open early on a Sunday morning. We waited for three hours to finally be seen for (literally) 10 seconds by the attending physician. All of that for him to tell us that he needed some Benadryl and rest.

Poor little kid, we doped him up with Benadryl and put him straight to bed and he slept for like four hours.

He woke up this morning still covered in rash and it had spread to his chest. My step-dad said that it wasn't that big of a deal. It's nothing serious, just some kind of rash caused by a random virus. It looks a lot worse than it is. And, Max is lucky that it doesn't itch since it covers every inch of his body, including his joints which are swollen. His ears were pretty swollen, too.

Let's hope he gets better SOON!!

Here's a slide show to get the full effect:

FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am happy to announce our new arrival:

MAX'S FIRST TOOTH!!!

It's a miracle above all miracles. It's like when the United States Hockey Team won the gold in the Olympics by beating the Russians. It's like when one of those guys with fake legs wins the 100 meter dash. Or like when Rocky came back and... oh wait... he didn't win.

Okay, so Max didn't beat all odds, because odds were that he would have had to grow a tooth eventually. I googled it and found not a single viable source for anyone born without teeth altogether.

I wish I had a picture but so far it's just a sharp little piece of gold sticking up out of his bottom gums. And the second one is soon to come, too!

At least I know he won't look like this until he's elderly:

Actually, I hope he never looks this scary.

Oh, and EVERYONE is invited to his first tooth party!! After almost 14 months of waiting and finally going through some miserable teething time I think he deserves a party, don't you?

The Throne

No, not the porcelain throne, but Max's new throne, otherwise known as a HIGH CHAIR. Maybe this needs a little more background. So when Max was big enough to sit up and eat in his own seat we talked what kind of high chair to get. The first chair was this one:

And although it served us well for some time, the pediatrician recommended we get a seat where he is able to sit right with us at the table and not so removed from it. This suggestion was made because Max's height and weight gain weren't up to par and thought that sitting at the table with us would encourage him to eat more. So we bought this one:

Which also served us well -- sort of. Shortly after attaching this to our kitchen table Maddox learned how to stand up in it. We would reprimand him over and over to sit down and would strap him in, but to our horror he had also learned how to wiggle out of the straps. One morning while eating breakfast Max stood up and fell out. That was when I put an end to this chair, drove to Target and bought THIS:

Max's new high chair! This kid LOVES his high chair. He will sit in it for hours eating snacks or watching TV. It's hilarious. He cries and throws tantrums just to get in it and sometimes doesn't even want to ever get out and I have to pry his little sticky cheese covered fingers off of it just to give him a back or put him down for a nap. I'm not complaining! Seriously, this new high chair has been a gift -- a sweet sanity saving mind numbing gift.

Happy Eating LITTLE MAN!!