Maddox Turns ONE!!!

Where did the time go? Good grief. Our little one is a year old (August 6). Sometimes it feels like he's always been a part of our family, and other times it seems like we just brought him home from the hospital. 

On Saturday (Aug. 4th), we had friends and family over to celebrate with a popsicle party. Our friends are opening a new store (go "like" Hill Street Market and Gourmet Pops on Facebook) and made popsicles just for the occasion. Watermelon, peach, pineapple, and strawberry, and they were GREAT!

My color coordinated balloons...that floated away 30 sec. after I snapped this.
Grrr...guess I didn't tie them down well enough. My children unfortunately witnessed a mommy tantrum.

A year of Maddox (sniff)

This guy LOVES the water

Mmmm...popsicle #1

Cousins on both sides of the family, what fun!
Clockwise: Lailey (3), Sadie (4), Titus (2),  Addy (15 mos), and Maddox (1)

Popsicle #2, complete with a strawberry goatee 

After two popsicles in the pool, he was frozen and required a "thawing out" in a warm tub.

All dressed and ready to eat cake!

"Aunt" Stephanie came all the way from Ghana, Africa for the occasion (she's actually on leave from the Peace Corps and it worked out perfectly). 

Happy Birthday to Maddox! 

Let the cake eating begin.

In true Maddox fashion,  he happily ate his cake, unconcerned about all the party commotion around him.

Because I was opening presents with Maddox, I didn't get any present pictures, but he got some wonderful toys that he is thoroughly enjoying. He can now walk across the room with his push toy. It won't be long before he's on his own.

I must admit, we did birthday pancakes a day late. I thought I didn't have any pancake mix, but found it when I cleaned out our pantry. Maddox said  he won't hold it against me.

Mmmmmmmm.

 At 12 months, Maddox is crawling, pulling up, and walking with a push toy. All three of these milestones happened in the last month! He took his time to start crawling, but once he figured out he could get around, he's been doing more every day.
He is a very happy and social baby.
He weighs a bit over 19 lbs. (estimated from last appointment)
He sleeps 12-13 hrs. and still takes two naps, though occasionally he has to miss one if we're busy.
He sucks his left index finger whenever he's sleepy, which is why it's red all the time.
He adores his sister, laughs at her a lot, and likes to pull her hair.
He only gives hugs to Mommy :)
He calls me and Davey "dada," but he can repeat "mama."
He also says "nigh-nigh" (night-night), "uh-uh" (uh-oh), "da" or "da-da" which is also his "bye-bye," and repeats "heh" for hi.
He LOVES food, and doesn't eat hardly any baby food anymore.
His favorite foods are applesauce, black bean burgers and quinoa burgers (he ate about 3x what Lailey did), grilled cheese, pb & j, Cheerios, and mostly anything else I've given him.
He likes to move and dance to music.
He has two bottom teeth and one top one that just cut through this week.
He digs almond milk. We've been going through it like crazy. (We don't do a lot of dairy in our house)
He can sign "milk,""more," "please," and "all done." He's not quite consistent but getting there.
He clears all the food off his tray in a big swipe when he's finished eating.
He's down to one bottle a day and doing great with a sippy cup.
He likes to make his silly face (scrunched up nose while sniffing) and his mad face...

Lailey and Sadie

My, have these sweet little cousins grown up. It seems like yesterday they were just babies, and now they're best friends. They have enjoyed spending the night with each other and playing a lot this summer.

I wanted to take advantage of Imagine It! that has free admission every second Tuesday of the month, and I offered to take Sadie along with us while Davey stayed home with Maddox. We decided it was a "big sister day" because all three of us are just that. I knew we could wait awhile outside, but we ended up waiting over an hour since they can only let so many people in at a time. Everyone else wanted to get in free too. We finally made it in and headed to the restroom, but then encountered some potty drama from kids not wanting to go. But we prevailed and finally, finally made it in to play. It was worth the wait and the girls had a good time. I think next time we go we'll just buy tickets because the free day was a little craaaaaazy with so many unsupervised children running around.

Down the banana slide

Milking the cow

Sadie playing with moon sand

more moon sand

Down the tube slide

Up to the treehouse

Fishing

Riding the plane

Painting the wall

Due to the long drive, long wait, and long bathroom time, we only had an hour, but they had a really good time. We finished off the day with a trip to the Cracker Barrel. Here are the cuties enjoying their biscuits. Mmmmmm!

At Sadie's next visit, we wanted to take a trip to a local indoor playground and splash park. We have had bad experiences in the past with them closing without notice, not opening when they're supposed to, and not answering phones. So I made sure to call in the morning, asked about the water area (which is a separate fee), hours, all that. I got the girls dressed in bathing suits, sunscreen, the whole bit, and when we got there, the girl told me they were closed for repairs! To make matters worse, the water area had been closed ALL DAY, which means the person who answered earlier had neglected to tell me that!!!  Poor Lailey, she burst into tears, I was mad, and Sadie was crying because Lailey was crying! Well, after I vented to Davey on the phone, we went home and decided to have even more fun. I got out the sprinkler and the girls played for two whole hours in our backyard. They had a ridiculous amount of fun and the best part? It was FREEEEE! Well, except for the .17 cents of water we used.

Gotta love being a girl! Happy one minute...

Mad at each other the next!

These girls seriously love each other though.

This one makes me laugh every time.

We finished off the night watching Up.  Lailey has been learning about how we treat our guests, so she had to let Sadie pick. I think they look tired!

High Falls

After a trip to Florida, Grandpa Jim went with us to High Falls State Park and the nearby water park. We played on a playground, hiked down by the falls, got hot and sweaty and then went over to the water park. It was small but really perfect for us with kids this small. Lailey enjoyed the pirate ship and fountain area, but she also went down the big slides with me and Davey. 

Maddox enjoying the water with Grandpa

Jumping in!

When Lailey went down the tube slide with me, it was rough, but I had no problem hanging on to her and staying upright. However, after going down with Davey, she came off all upset and water logged. Apparently, she had tipped over on the slide and got away from him a little. He swore the left slide was "way more rough and fast" than the one I took her on, but when I went down alone, I thought they were about the same. It was not until I saw these pictures (from Grandpa's camera) that it made sense...

He was laying down!