Baseball Birthday Party

One thing to keep my mind off the big man turning one, was to throw a baseball themed birthday party. This kept my mind on the fun details of the party and not on the fact that my baby is getting older. I made some very cute baseball invitations.

My wonderful friend Amber made the concessions banner that was hung up.

I put together cute centerpieces.

Of course there were hot dogs and brats.

Can't have baseball without popcorn.

My mom made the baseball cupcakes.

I had a bat engraved and asked all the guests to sign it as I thought it would be a nice keepsake.

The star of the party wore a very handsome baseball themed onesie. It said Maxim since 2013 on the front and had a big #1 on the back. Super adorable!

I would have done a whole lot more if I didn't have to plan from afar, but I must say it came together very nicely. Especially since I planned it from AZ.

Travel to Wisconsin

Andy and I had a wedding in Milwaukee to go to, so we booked our flights and headed back to WI. With the wedding and the "tour of Maxim" we did not have much time for anything else. There are a lot of people I did not get to see and a lot of things I did not get to do. I do apologize if you are one of those people and I hope to see you the next time we make it back. Mr. Maxim takes up a lot of our time now and when we are back in WI everyone wants to see him and there is only so much time in a day.

First, I must say the big man was an excellent traveler. We had no idea how this was going to go, but I hoped for the best. He slept for an hour from PHX to MSP and then the whole way from MSP to MKE. He enjoyed watching out the window for takeoff and landing. He also thought the other planes on the runway were pretty cool. When we weren't taking off, landing or he wasn't sleeping then we had to entertain him. This got a little tough, but we managed and he did well. He did so well that we actually got compliments from other passengers after the flight. This mamma was proud!

While in WI it was rainy most of the time, which meant it was VERY HUMID! This does not do well on my hair. It was a hot mess that took 40 minutes to blow dry! I am not interested in that anymore. I also was sick the whole time I was there and this made for a very miserable trip. I even lost my voice...not fun!

Maxim spent a lot of time with his grandparents. He had a blast with everyone. Grandma Vicki and Grandpa Jeff took him to the park for his first swing and he really liked it. They also took him shopping for a toy...and of course he loved that too. He did all of this while we were in MKE for the wedding.

He also got to spend time with his Grandma Laura and loved playing with her piano.

Grandpa Tim and Grandma Shelley also entertained him.

He's a lucky little boy that he gets to spend time with his great grandparents!

Fun times with his cousins!

We also had his birthday party in WI so all of his grandparents could be there to help celebrate. It was three hours long and to my surprise he held up the whole time. He enjoyed his hot dog, opening presents, and playing with his cousins. He did not enjoy his cupcake though!

And he was exhausted after three hours of partying.

Until next time WI!

Happy Birthday: 12 Months

I cannot believe Maxim just turned one! Where does the time go? He is 30 inches long and 20 lbs 12 oz and growing. That is a two inch gain on length and two pound gain in the past 3 months. He comes in at the 97th percentile in length and 85th for weight for his adjusted age and I don't know what it is for his actual age. This boy is growing! It was hard to get the 12 month picture taken because he is not into sitting still. He either kept crawling away, wanted to play with the blocks, the dogs and everything else he could reach. He's a very busy boy!

Maxim, it has been an amazing year with you. You have brought us so much joy and happiness that words can't even describe. You entered this world very early and gave us a scare, and now you are full of energy and tons of fun.

You have had quite the busy month and quite a few firsts. Your first tooth came in...well, it's halfway in. You were such a trooper during this event. I barely knew you were teething.

You started crawling and now you are a baby on the move...and you move fast.

Your crib had to be dropped because you figured out how to pull yourself up and I enjoyed watching this from the baby monitor in the bedroom.

You experienced the pool and you really like it.

Your first experience with sugar. The first cake episode you were not a fan of, but once we got home and tried the cake eating again you really liked it. We gave you cake at your birthday party and then again on your actual birthday and you still did not care for it...very interesting!

Your first swing at the park with your grandma and grandpa while you were in WI.

Besides all of these firsts you also traveled to WI to visit your family and we had your birthday party so all of your grandparents could attend. You were such a good traveler and I couldn't ask for a better traveler than you.

Your favorite foods right now are hot dogs, bananas, mac 'n cheese and of course beef and potatoes. You just love beef and potatoes.

You are quite the chatter box. You always talk our ears off. Right now you say "yeah, da, ba, ma." It's kind of hard to determine if you are actually saying mama or dada, or if you are trying to say ball or dog. It's not quite clear right now.

Your favorite toy right now is a ball. You love balls and love to roll it back and forth with us. You point at balls and say "ba" all the time. You say "ba" to many things though so we are not sure if you are actually trying to say ball.

Well, Maxim, this first year has been amazing. I never imagined how much love and happiness you would bring me. I just love watching you grow and learn new things. I look forward to what this next year will bring and all the new things you will learn.

Love, your mommy

Happy Father's Day

I hope everyone enjoyed their Father's Day weekend. We had a busy weekend and the big man enjoyed it. It was filled with first's and plenty of activities. This past week one of his teeth poked through and is pretty sharp. Soon he will not be a toothless baby. He also started to crawl today, officially crawl. He was army crawling, but this morning he figured out how to actually crawl and now we have a very mobile baby on our hands.

His new bath tub arrived and he just loves it. 

He also took a nap today in his crib all by himself. Ok, it was only 20 minutes, but it still counts. We are working on that because right now he naps in our bed. He sleeps in his crib no problem but he likes to nap in our bed. This is a slight problem because someone (usually me) always has to be in the room with him.

On Saturday we headed south for his one year photo shoot. I was really looking forward to this and can't wait until I get to see the photos later this week. He's such a smiley baby but he didn't smile very much during the shoot because he was more curious than anything. I also planned for a cake smash...and that didn't go well. I ordered the cake and had it delivered to the photographer and was so excited to see the big man go nuts. He saw the cake, got all excited, put his fingers in and completely came to a stop. He started to cry and did not like the frosting on his hand. I tried a few different things to get him to change his mind, but he just was not having it. So, that was an epic fail. We brought the cake home and gave him a bite today, and he LOVED it...as long as I fed him and he didn't have to touch it. Apparently my child doesn't like to get messy. This will be interesting next weekend for his actual birthday party.

After the photo shoot we headed back north to the JW Marriott to meet with some friends by the pool. The big man just LOVED watching all the kids playing. He also enjoyed all the females stopping to say hi to him and tell him how cute he is.

We also had a nice Father's Day where the big man definitely wore out Andy. We had to get some Fathers Day pictures in the backyard to commemorate this special day.

Happy Fathers Day to all the dads out there, especially to Andy. He is an amazing father to Max and I enjoy watching the two of them laughing and playing together.