Max is one. I still can’t believe it. He has come so far in the past month. At Christmas he was just getting proficient at the army crawl, and now he’s crawling, pulling up on everything, and even standing for a few seconds on his own. His newest is word is “block,” which sounds an awful lot like “glock,” but is still darn cute.

I keep thinking back to this time last year when we were clueless new parents with a sad, colicky baby. Boy am I glad to be where we are now. The little man is so much fun and has such a mellow, sweet personality. We thank our lucky stars each day.

This clip is easily the funniest thing I have seen in months. Jim and I were both in hysterics when we saw it Friday night on The Soup. Poor, sweet little Staines!

I heard a story on NPR this morning about mini Angus cows and of course I had to run and Google them. They are DARLING. But even as a meat-eater I find this website’s copy unsettling. Is it really appropriate to talk about cuteness and tastiness in the same sentence?

We finally bit the bullet and got a new car. It was an interesting experience, to say the least. After much debate that occurred over a period of months, we settled on a 2009 Forester. Once that monumental decision was behind us, Jim spent a fair amount of time on the phone and interweb, pitting two competing dealers against each other. The salesmen tried every trick in the book, but in the end I feel like we won. We got the car for less than $1000 over invoice, including the $400 “dealer fee.” We didn’t pay a delivery fee, and they gave us a discount card that allows us to get the first oil change and every subsequent 4th oil change for free for the life of the car. Not bad considering the Forester was voted Motor Trend’s SUV of the year and was recently ranked the #1 small SUV by Consumer Reports.

We sold my car in a day on craigslist. Apparently used Subarus (even those that are 10+ years old) are a hot commodity in these parts.

I was a bit freaked out to drive the new car at first, but it has grown on me. The best part about it is the extra room. We don’t have to worry about smacking Max’s head on the top of the car when we’re trying to maneuver him into his carseat, and we can actually put the umbrella stroller and all the groceries in the trunk AT THE SAME TIME. Once we procure a wire screen we’ll be able to entertain the idea of toting the dogs and Max around simultaneously, something that was previously impossible, since the dogs are wont to bounce from one end of the car to another like furry ping pong balls.

StoryCorps on NPR makes me cry EVERY FRIDAY MORNING. It doesn’t matter if the story is happy, or sad, or funny. Same reaction. Every time.  I wonder what is going to be like for Max to grow up with a mom who is so easily moved to tears. Though I’m sure he’ll get to the point where he just rolls his eyes and thinks “There she goes again,” just like his dad does.

Apparently Banjo knows the word “dat” too.

I have been wanting to create a Wordle for a while, but wasn’t able to on my old computer thanks to my ancient operating system. Anyway, pictured below are the most used words from my 2008 posts. The size of the words corresponds to their frequency of use. I guess it’s no surprise that “Max” is the most frequently used word, but I am kind of shocked at the prominence of “just.” I always think twice about using that word thanks to having an English teacher in college who would always say, “Nothing ‘just’ happens, there is always a cause. Just Say No to “Just”!” Sorry Dr. Dave, it appears I have failed you.

Image courtesy of http://www.wordle.net

There have been many factors contributing to my radio silence as of late. We traveled to Florida for Thanksgiving and Albuquerque for Christmas, and there was a lot of hectic working, shopping, living, etc. in between. Oh, and sickness. Max brought a cold home to the family in early December, and while he and Jim managed to recover fairly quickly, I did not. Or rather, I DID recover to some degree, and then took a steep downward turn when the cold mutated into a sinus infection and bronchitis. I went to urgent care before Christmas after the coughing rendered me essentially voiceless, but the doctor thought I should wait things out for a while sans antibiotics. So I loaded up on cough syrup with codeine and night and tried to tough it out, but finally lost patience earlier this week and returned to my regular nurse practitioner to get a script for amoxicillin. So now in addition to all the unattractive hacking and snorting I’m sick to my stomach, but I’m hoping to take a turn for the better soon.

The good news is that while I’ve been whiling away the hours with tissues clutched firmly in hand, Max has been transforming by leaps and bounds. He finally mastered the army crawl shortly before we left for New Mexico, and has started pulling himself up and generally running amok with much glee. He has been saying “mama” and “dada” on a somewhat regular basis for a while, and had almost mastered “dog” and “cat” before he recently developed a fascination with the term “dat.” We’re not sure if it’s a dog/cat hybrid (since our pets are the objects that seem to inspire the most enthusiasm and insistent pointing), if he’s saying “that,” or if it’s just nonsensical babble.  Either way, we’re pretty amused. I overhead a conversation between Max and Jim yesterday that went something like this:

“Dat?”
“That’s a LIGHT.”
“Dat.”
“LIGHT. La-la-la-LIGHT”
“Dat.”
“LLLLLLLLLLLIIIIGGGHHT. It’s a LIGHT, little man.”
“Dat.”
“Well OK, then it’s a dat light.”

In other news, despite the faltering economy 2009 is shaping up to be a year of big purchases for us. It’s time to replace my car, and we’re in the market for a new television so we can retire our antiquated, monstrous beast of a TV. We’re also hoping to make our living room more child friendly and rethink the bookshelf situation in the office. This all means lots of comparison shopping and a lot of searching to find furniture that meets our aesthetic requirements AND budget. Not an easy task.

Sandwiched between all the “to do’s” I’m still trying to find time for creative pursuits and reading my way through a stack of books I have in the queue. There never seems to be enough time for everything I want to accomplish.

Anywho, here’s a montage of images from our recent travels, holiday celebrations, first haircut travails, and developmental milestones.

Max isn’t crawling yet. He can get up on his hands and knees, but there is no forward motion. For a while I’ve suspected that his noggin is part of the problem, as in it is so large that he has trouble holding it up. I mean really, the boy has a big head. And I feel OK saying that because I’ve always had a bit of a big head too. Physically, I mean. Ahem.

Anyway, Jim took the little man to his 9 month appointment yesterday. I wanted to accompany them, but thanks to the fact that I had to schedule two other doctor’s appointments this week (taking Max for his second flu shot earlier today and an ortho appointment for me tomorrow to determine if I’ll need to have surgery on my #*$&%’ing ankle) I had to stay at work. But I digress . . .

The doctor didn’t seemed concerned that Max isn’t crawling yet because he’s rolling everywhere and otherwise seems developmentally on track. The most interesting part of the appointment had to do with his measurements. They were as follows:

Weight: 42nd percentile
Height: 41st percentile
Head Circumference: 66th percentile

The results cracked me up because everyone is always saying what a “big boy” Max is, and weight-wise it turns out that he’s actually a bit below average. It’s his HEAD that’s throwing everyone off. I think the grand circumference coupled with his glorious mane makes him look quite a bit bigger/older than he really is.

I’m perfectly happy waiting for Max’s upper body strength to catch up with his impressive melon. It allows us to delay the inevitable baby-proofing, and at the moment he’s delightfully easy to manage. Of course, if he’s not crawling by Christmas I’m sure I’ll be a worrying fool. It’s my big-headed, painfully analytical, ridiculously predictable nature.

It’s such an odd feeling to have an election night go my way . . . I had almost forgotten how delightful it can be. Not only did Obama crush McCain—Colorado went blue! And to top it off, voters here defeated a ridiculous “personhood” amendment that would have declared all fertilized eggs as “persons”. So now women won’t have to worry about nonsense like getting a court order to resolve an ectopic pregnancy, and I won’t have to worry about the potential effect such an amendment might have on medical treatment for infertility. Of course, I’m sure there are some pregnant women who are upset they won’t be able to ride in the carpool lanes. Ha!

I predict I will be grinning ear to ear for weeks.