1 year!

September 25th, a special birthday! Maddox is such an awesome kid; he really is just a happy, content little guy, and Scott and I often talk about how blessed we are to have him in our family. As cliché as it is to say, this year has gone by so fast, and sometimes it is hard to believe that he isn't this small anymore...

September 25, 2012

And here are some pictures of the birthday boy!

To celebrate, we started off the day by greeting him with some balloons. Maddox loves playing with balloons, and he gave us the biggest grin when we walked into the room with them. Maddox also loves dogs, and he points at them and giggles when he sees them. So, we thought it would be fun to take him to a nearby PetSmart, which has a doggie daycare. There was a huge glass wall he could look through to watch all the "puppies," and Maddox was thrilled when one came and sat right next to him. We walked around and looked at the other animals in the store, and he thought that all the ones that moved were interesting enough. I was NOT tempted to bring anything home... Maddox thanked his mom for the fun morning with an awesome mess in his crib when he woke up from his nap. We'll spare the graphic images. He got his favorite, Mac and Cheese, for lunch. We opened his gift from mom and dad,  a walker (IKEA, $20), and he was ready to cruise with it before Scott even had it assembled. It was a lot of fun to see him just get up and go with it, no instructions necessary. Maddox chose Red Robin for dinner and shared the clucks and fries with mom. After being unsure with all the birthday singing, he was extremely enthusiastic about the dessert he was given. We had a really fun day together!

Maddox weighed in at 20 pounds 3 ounces (15th percentile) and 30 inches tall (50th percentile) at his 12 month appointment.

11 months

Maddox and dad have a lot of fun together; dad teaches him only the best...

Maddox's first parade.

I think this was one of Scott's proudest moments as a father. Maddox received this awesome Mater for his birthday from Grandma Quinton. Scott had to take the seat off to charge the battery, and Maddox watched his dad closely and then knew just what to do with the screw driver once dad stepped away.

We play a lot in our family...

Maddox is a good helper when it is time to clean up.

Maddox has four teeth on top and four on the bottom. He still babbles a lot, and added "hot" to his vocabulary last week. He doesn't really understand the meaning of the word yet, but he calls all food "hot" now. Meal time is entertaining more often than not.

Putting Maddox down for bed is a dream now. I would've laughed out loud if you had told me when he was 3 months old it would be this easy one day.

At 10 1/2 months, Maddox switched from his army crawl to a "normal" crawl. About this same time, he conquered the stairs as well. I had been working with Maddox for almost a month on how to go up and down the stairs. The first Sunday in August, Scott spent five minutes watching him and he magically had the ability to impress his father...

Maddox is doing a lot of cruising these days. He holds on to the furniture, walls, doors, your hands, his walker, anything really to help him get to the destination of his choice. It was pretty entertaining watching him figure out how to use those legs at first though...

We went to the bank one Saturday, and Maddox enjoyed his first sucker. I didn't realize swallowing the yummy saliva you create was something a person had to learn...

Maddox is a great storyteller.

Another new trick Maddox learned last week is to take his socks off and pick out the toe jam in between his toes. Haha. We love this kid!