We went out to lunch
and his Grandma and Grandpa Thomson gave him (and Turner) an airplane teeter todder! 
We made him a cow cake (since we always call him Moo.)
It was so fun and he really enjoyed his cake.
We all did :)
It seems as if he made us a couple with a child into a family- a real family. Max has been pretty easy from day one. His birth was amazing. I delivered him 100% natural- not even an IV. It was empowering and one of the best moments of my life. I truly came away from the experience in awe of the powerful bodies that our Heavenly Father gave us. 
He isn't feeling well and as I rocked him early this morning, thinking about his 2:49am delivery I had no bad feelings at all. I wasn't resentful for the labor as some women can be because it was wonderful and I had nothing except amazingly clear feelings of what a beautiful experience it was.
Max is a curious boy who loves to play. He more than anything wants to be right where his brother is. Turner and Max are best friends and love to play together. 
Nothing can make Max laugh like his big brother. He is curious and always into everything (like most 1 year olds.) He wants to walk everywhere and appreciates the hand. 
He has 6 teeth! He loves his sippy cup and likes his blanket. He is on cloud 9 just lying on his blanket suckn' on the sipps. His favorite foods are chicken nuggets, Mac and Cheese, veggies and fish. Anything where he can feed himself is much appreciated since he hates being fed. 
Max loves his dad and gets so excited when he walks in everyday. He was the master of the army crawl until very recently when he decided he wanted to crawl proper and now is on all fours. Max loves cars and playing cars with his brother. He pushes them around making a vroom vroom noise. In fact it doesn't even have to have wheels- the other day he pushed around a horse and did the same thing! We love you Moo Moo cachoo and can't wait for many more birthdays to come!
Max is going to be 1 on Tuesday! And he has been so busy lately! He is totally weaned and is addicted to his sippy cup! He enjoyed having my parents here. This is my Mom and Max on the "green bus" (Turner was obsessed with the green bus for a week) when we went to the Draper temple open house. 
OK he just loves to make a mess of his food! Actually it doesn't matter what I put in his hair (to try to get it to lay down) it sticks straight up! We love him and I can't wait to celebrate his birthday.
Although Max may look like the spitting image of his father, it turns out he may have a little bit of my personality in him! (Heather- how many pictures have you taken of me with my mouth open like this? I know the first one was in the MTC at the call center! It looks as if Max is getting an early start!) 
Here are the first two peeking through. He actually was in pretty good spirits that week and for the most part we have been just hanging out having fun. 
Some days I just wonder what in the world it is called when you have a group of boys? A gaggle of boys? 
Because last Friday I had 5 but I usually have 3 wed.-fri. and sometimes I just want to hold something with a ridiculously large bow on its head. It looks like right now girls are going to out number our boys in my preschool this fall though so that should be a nice change. 
The imagination is in full swing too. Lately he has been pretending he is Lightening McQueen and doing laps around the house. He makes the most amazing car noises and often stops and asks for a pit stop. He pretends to blow out a tire sometimes too- and I just can't help but to smile and just soak in how much fun he is! The next major thing is that he is obsessed with the Dr. and pretending he is a Dr. in fact he asks to go to the doctor all the time. He found the cigarette lighter adaptor for the traveling DVD player and used it as a stethoscope to give his little brother a check up. 
Max just wanted to eat it. Turner kept at it for a long time. I got a looked over to! Good news is that I am in good health. 
My cute boys!
Are they in jail or just in a cage like the monkey's they are?!
It was a great place to grow up and someday I would like to find a similar town to raise my little family in. For right now though we are in Utah and I am learning all the time ways to love it here. I have grown a lot since the last time that I moved here. I don't know if that has been time, my environment or becoming a mom.I have learned a lot becoming a mom yet I know I still have more to learn. I am not talking even about the big things, I really want to know some of the basic things. Like how do I really child proof my house now that I have 2 kids. It is so much harder because with Turner all I had to do was keep everything off the floor that he could choke on, lock the cupboards and cover the outlets. Now he can reach and climb and is such an explorer. 
I am not so worried about him but I am surprised that Max is still alive. The first incident happened not too long ago when I had got the febreeze out and left it on the night stand. We were leaving to go to an appointment soon and I ran down stairs to get something. I of course made sure that the baby gate on the stairs was latched and Max was were Turner couldn't get him. All of the sudden I heard Max crying and I rushed upstairs to find that Turner had soaked Max with the febreeze. He couldn't reach him with is hands but he sure could reach him with the spray nozzle of the febreeze bottle. I had to tip Max over the sink and run water over his eyes for 15 minutes. Tell me if you think that went too well with a baby who is upset? Luckily the worst that happened was that Max's skin got really dry but he was OK. 
The next MAJOR scare (mind you there are 10 minor scares a day) came a few weeks later when I decided to press my luck and hop in the shower. Max was secured in the high chair and I was only going to jump in and out. Well when I jumped out Max was fussing and ready for his nap so I went to get him and he had some fruity stickiness all over him. I was curious as to what in the world it could be since I didn't feed him anything like that. I then went into my bedroom and found a puddle of the same stickiness on the floor. I instantly recognized the scent as fruit flavored infant Motrin. Max had woken up in the middle of the night and we thought maybe he was teething (no he wasn't- 10 months and still no teeth.) and I guess in my grogginess I didn't put the lid back on so that the childproof lock caught. Again I found myself watching them closely, smelling their breath and making sure they didn't have any weird behavior changes. This morning was the worst of all though. I really want to know, how is a mom suppose to go to the bathroom? I seriously just ran to the bathroom really quick so I thought it would be safe to leave Max on the floor- wrong think again! We had been taking pictures of the boys this morning and I made sure my camera was out of reach but Turner got into my bag and found a bottle of hand sanitizer. He squirt most of it on the floor but he also decided his brother needed sanitizing. It was all over his head and chest. I smelled his breath and it smelled as if he had eaten some. I know you all got that email about those kids that died from licking their hands after their teacher put a glob of sanitizer on them. I panicked but somehow had enough sense to tell myself that it probably was nothing. I watched Max closely and sent Turner to his room. He seemed normal after a while and I decided that it was going to be OK. I know I probably should have called poison control but I didn't. These are only the major chemical issues, not to mention all of the body slams and "hugs around the neck." I honestly am so surprised that Max is still alive. 
Not to mention his own doing. Yesterday was first blood (besides induced by medical professionals.) He has now started to pull himself up on things. We have a polished stone fireplace and he was standing at it yesterday and feeling all proud of himself when he lost his balance and smacked his toothless mouth on his way down. It tore the piece of skin between the lip and the upper gums and cut open his upper lip. Oh it was so sad for me and for him. Yet it was nothing an otter pop couldn't fix. 
This morning I left my little babysitting charge sitting in his bumbo chair while I got my kids dressed for the morning. I listened to him chat away happily from the other room when all of the sudden it got a little too quiet. I walked in to check on him and found him sleeping soundly in his chair. He didn't hardly wake up when we peeled him out of his seat and put him to bed. (Yes peeled him out of the chair- he is 6 months and weighs over 20 lbs. He is a snug fit in the chair.)
I realize that most of my pictures of Max are in his high chair but that is when he will hold still- that kids is such a mover. As you can see he is enjoying "real people food" and refuses to eat anything out of a jar anymore. He turned 10 months last Sat.! He is into everything and hates to be put on the floor- he wants to stand. He has such a fun sense of humor already and laughs when he knows he is in trouble. He is such a cuddler! and when you pick him up he always just snuggles into you. He subscribes to the philosophy early to bed and early to rise and is a very light sleeper. We have had the boys sharing a room thus far but it looks like we may have to separate them as they don't take naps very well together. I really just don't want to have to pick up and heat another room- yeah I am lazy and cheap like that.
