Happy 1st birthday, Max!

I almost can't believe it, but our little Max turned one today! I remember when Gabe had his first birthday and we thought he was such a big boy...today we looked at Max and he was so small! Max is not quite walking yet, and he takes in everything with a thoughtful eye.

We had a super fun Winter Wonderland Brrr-thday party with good friends, yummy food, and silly games and playtime. Everyone had a good time playing Marshmallow Max. Ben and Sean mostly ate marshmallows, and Gabe preferred to play with two fistfuls of marshmallows at a time, bettering his chances. We had "ice fishing" under the (blanket) igloo in the corner and balloon snowballs to toss about. Max even ate some of his cupcake, though by that point he was one tired baby. Here's a video of the big (not) blowing out the candle moment - Max got a helping puff of air from big brother Ben, who just wanted to get a cupcake of his own!

Here's a slideshow of the photos from today.  We want to thank our wonderful friends for celebrating Max's first year with us today, Happy 1st Brrr-thday, Max!

Twas the night before Christmas...

and all the boys are in their Christmas jammies (Santa Monkey jammies for the kiddos, A Christmas Story "It's a Major Award!" jammies for Daddy). We let the boys unwrap one present tonight - usually it would be their jammies, but we already let Gabe wear his holiday jammies to school for hibernation day, so we let them open a board game to play together for family time tonight.

Gabe and Ben were super excited to open a present together, and they shared the opening process so well! Max was just happy to get his little baby paws on some paper - I think that's why we couldn't get a pic of him smiling, since he was nervous we were gonna take the shiny crackly paper away from him. Merry Christmas - we wish you were here!

All I want for Christmas is a Buzz Lightyear bike!

Grandma and Papa are here visiting from California, and they brought Christmas a little bit early. Seems only fair that they should get to witness the opening of the presents they brought with them while they are actually here. Turns out they have a direct line to Santa, and he told them about Gabe's fondest wish! It's the (infamous) Toy Story bike! Hooray! Thank you, Grandma and Papa!

They also brought a super cool Wheelies Ramp car thing for Ben...which is the favortie toy of all three kiddos now. Max can use it to stand up - woo! Gabe can race Ben down the double ramps - woo! Ben can bring his cars to the top in the super noisy elevator - woo! They can all play on it without fighting (if they want to) - woo!

Once we got through the present opening and got everyone all bundled up, we took Gabe's new bike for a spin. While Ben was thrilled at another shot for a trike walk, Gabe was...well, less excited about riding his bike than expected. He rode it carefully around the living room twice before we put the kibosh on that action. Then he sat on it for like a half an hour while everyone bundled up. Then he danced around imaptiently while it was carried downstairs. He took off with Papa before we got the little boys settled onto trike and big red car...but by the time we got around the building to the mailboxes, he was complaining it goes too fast! He rode the brake and did stop and go "riding"...more stop than go...around the complex one time. Then he was done. He has not asked to ride it again.  We'll have to try again on a path that's more perfectly flat - hopefully he'll stop being scared of the bike. Which is exactly like the other bikes he's been riding in the last month, bumming rides off other kids and taking off at Walmart. While he still insists he wants the bike, loves the bike, is so glad they brought the bike...he mentioned he'd prefer to ride his trike. Welcome home, Buzz Lightyear bike!

Max's First Haircut

Last night I loaded the kiddos up in the car and we hauled our cookies (OK, a lollipop, some cheerios, and some multi grain crackers) to Pigtails and Crewcuts for Max's first haircut. Not a carefully contemplated trip, just up and decided to go. Gabe and Ben were thrilled - I've been cutting their hair with the clippers at home for the amazing low, low price of 1 lollipop per haircut, so we haven't been to the "haircut place" as Gabe fondly calls it in forever. You can see the older boys are jazzed to be going back to the haircut place, especially since neither of them have to get a haircut there.

The haircut place has a very nice train table, with all the tracks attached to the table in a complicated configuration that even Ben can't seem to remove from the table. There's even usually trains on the table to play with - not always the case with public train tables. It always astounds me how the boys will spend 40 minutes taking turns playing with one ratty, chewed up no name train at a public train table but demolish any track on their home table that is more complicated that a simple circle in 30 seconds flat while arguing endlessly over the approximately 4 billion Thomas the Tank Engine trains in the large under-table storage drawers.  Nathan loves their train table. William loves their train table. Gabe and Ben...prefer to play trains anywhere else but home usually. The trains are always greener on someone else's table.

 

 

Back on track now - Max's first haircut. He doesn't really have a large amount of hair. All the hair on his head might equal one of Nathan's sideburns, or half of Penny's bangs. It's patchy and uneven on the top, but he's got a super crazy patch of hair going on behind the ears that I slick down many times a day with a baby wipe so he won't resemble Albert Einstein. On a bad hair day.  How something so baby fine and soft can stick out so far from his hear is beyond me! 

 

So we cruise up to Pigtails and Crewcuts in the big red car, of course, and the two older boys take off to the train table. I won't see them again for a while, allowing Max some rare uninterrupted Mommy time...during which I'll hand him over to a stranger to get shorn.  Max was super excited, because his haircut took place in a firetruck, which to him was basically a taller big red car with a shiny silver steering wheel - sweet!

 

There was a boy in the taxicab next to Max, maybe 7 or so - way older than Gabe in any case. He was crying and carrying on - he did NOT want a haircut. Max just sat quietly in his firetruck, and let the stranger cut his hair. No fussing, barely any squirming. When she did the top of his do, he did try to look up a few times, but I rand the fire bell on the front of his fire truck and he soon was sitting quietly again. Towards the end she gave Max a blue comb to hold so he stared obligingly down at the comb so she could cut the back of his neck. I thought, Dude! I could have cut his hair if I'd know he was gonna be so accommodating...although, since we do not have a tall red firetruck chair with a shiny silver steering wheel, attempting to do it myself might have resulted in a trip to the emergency room for Max's first stitches...

In the end, Max came out happy, neat, and tidy. The older boys got train table playtime, lollipops, AND prizes from the prize bin since Max was too little for either reward. And Mommy got a half an hour of quiet, non-fighting play and a lot of cute Max pics. Win, win win for all... we won't talk about the dinnertime temper tantrums, eh? Till next time....

Actual Santa Pics

Ok - I know you've just been dying to see the actual pics with Santa we took. I had to go out to the little website and download the pics. There are three of them - all practically the same.

Gabe is grinning like crazy in each one - he wants to make a good impression on Santa so he'll get a Toy Story Bike. If he doesn't get a Toy Story Bike, he'll die! We now have a teenage girl living with us apparently.He is constantly worrying about whether or not Santa will be bringing the Toy Story Bike. It's almost gotten to the point where I long for the days of Gabe being terrified of Santa. Almost.

Ben is agreeing to be in the photo..barely. He's only there becasue Gabe has impressed upon him the importance of going to see Santa to ask for the Toy Story bike, which Gabe will never allow Ben to touch or sit upon, but it doens't matter because we HAVE to go see Santa, Ben. Come closer and smile for the picture, Ben. Ben! Don't you dare mess this up for me! Ben, you better stand next to Santa! 

Max is just, well, there. He's so chill and calm. He didn't smile, but he didn't cry. Gabe was smiling, so it mustn't be too big a deal to sit on the weird guy's lap. Onne the photographer was done, and Ben stopped looking quite so miserable, Max actually laughed and smiled at Santa. Of course, our turn was over, so we got stone faced Max on Santa's lap in the picture. I say all three of them were looking generally at the camera at the same time, so it's a Christmas Miracle.

We even wrote letters to Santa - Gabe wants to be sure he's covered all his bases. Heaven help us if he ever decides he wants a Red Ryder carbine-action, two hundred shot Range Model air rifle with a compass in the stock and a thing which tells time...