Max is ONE!

On Thursday, Max turned one.  It was a day I've been dreading- lame, huh?  I was teary a lot that day, thinking about the past year and how much he's changed and grown.  Every single second was wonderful (even the ones I wished away at the time) and I just wish I had more time to appreciate it all.  The problem is that I'm not ready to be 1/18th of the way done with him.



On Thursday, I needed some Max and Mommy time.  So I decided to treat Max like I'd like to be treated on my birthday- donuts for breakfast!  And after being asked what would be his birthday tradition, I decided that a mommy-son Birthday breakfast date is our birthday thing.  And if we ever have a girl, then she can have a Daddy birthday breakfast date on her birthday.  And Lord-willing, Max will want to have these birthday dates for a looonnnngggggg time- like even when he's in college.  Maybe if I offer cash....



Max, you are growing up too fast.  You're smart and wonderful and funny and the best dancer I've ever seen!  You love eating- it's your favorite 4-6 times of the day.  Your most favorite thing is fruit- you haven't found one you don't love. You love baths too.  You're still just fine with crawling, and you cruise around the furniture, and occasionally stand for a couple seconds, but you're completely uninterested in walking- which makes me VERY happy!  You have great hand/ eye coordination and you hate getting your diaper changed all of a sudden- I think it's because you're too busy for that.  You've moved up to 12-18 month clothes, and size 4 diapers.  You still only have 6 teeth, but number 7 and number 8 are on their way.  You look all grown up with your hair cut, and you act it too.  You still take 2 naps a day, each at least 2 hours, and you're very easy.  Ok, let me say that you're a little more high maintenance with me, but it's because you know I'm crazy about you.  If you miss a nap, you're still great, and you got many many people wrapped around that chubby little finger of yours.  You love your brother and your daddy, you think everything they do is funny and you're already wrestling and getting footballs thrown at you.  Your favorite toys are anything that sings songs and balls-- you love playing catch and you wind up to throw.  It's adorable.  Sometimes, you even grunt.  Daddy is teaching you to kick the soccer ball as well.



You're the best baby in the whole world.  I love you- but honestly, that doesn't even begin to explain what you do to my heart.  And I know your daddy feels the same way because I see the way he looks at you.  He is also spending a lot of time reading his bible and other books about being a dad, because he wants to be the best one in the whole world for you and Gabe.  I'm really looking forward to the rest of your life, and being your mom is the best gig around. You are worth every second of labor it took to get you here, and all the extra pounds I carry because of you.  You are worth the bags under my eyes, and the baby gates that adorn my walls.  You're worth a mini-van, and if I had to pick between you and every cool point in the world, I would choose you every time.  Thank you for being my sweet Max.  I know I'm not perfect, but I am being refined by our perfect Heavenly Father, and ultimately, trusting Him with your life and your heart.  He loves you enough to die for you, He created you and wants to be The Lord over your life.  I hope you let Him- soon!  I'm praying for you and loving you until I take my last breath.

Love, Mommy

The Circle of Life

Ok, this is seriously two weeks late, but it needs to make the blog!  Two weekends ago, I went and saw Romana and Beezus.  First of all, I read all of the Beverly Cleary books when I was younger, so as soon as I saw that the movie was coming out, I called to see if my two favorite almost teenage girls would go with me.  They are Chandler and Cameron Hall and it just so happened that the movie was also coming out on Chan's 13th birthday!  Anyway, our friend Maranda and me took the girls to the movie a couple Friday nights ago.

It was AMAZING!  It was clean and sweet and all the actors we so cute/ hot.  I seriously enjoyed that movie more than any movie I have seen in a LONG time.  If you read those books when you were young, you MUST see it.  And even if you didn't, it's still great.  It's so rare to see a movie that wholesome and enjoyable.  I've tried to talk Gabe into wanting to see it, so I could go again, but he isn't falling for it!

Here's the trailer just for kicks:



THEN, the next day, Chad headed over to the Hall's house to work for the day.  The Halls include Stuart and Kellee and their kids- the girls mentioned above and their eldest, Grant.  The brief backstory is that Kellee has been mentioned MANY times in this blog and in my every day life- she was my small group leader through high school and is a huge part of my story to this day.  I've been a part of their family and been babysitting for them since before Cameron was born-- she is now 10!  Anyway, I love these kids as much as you can loves kids that aren't yours.  I've watched them grow and learned from Stuart and Kellee each step of the way as they parent them.  Not to mentioned that they've loved me when I wasn't lovable! So anyway, the parents were out of town, our friend Maranda was keeping the kiddos, Chad needed to work, and the Halls have an awesome pool- so me and Max went with Chad and had a Saturday play day.

This is where the circle of life comes in- these kids that I took care of for years took care of my baby all day.  They loved on him and entertained him and babied him and carried him around and fed him and and dressed him up and fixed his hair and soothed him and swam with him and on and on and on. Honestly, I just followed them around and watched because it made my heart so happy.  And it also made my throat tight to realize just how fast it all happens.  I remember when Grant went to kindergarden and now he's in high school and getting ready to drive and playing football- I took my baby to his game.  I fed Cameron baby food and now she feeds my baby.  I carried Chandler around and did all her favorite things- even when she wasn't a baby anymore because I just couldn't resist her cheeks and her eyes- and now, not only is she a teenager who is taller than me with bigger feet than me, but she also can't resist my baby and loves on him with all she's got.

Ah.  I don't have anymore words to describe how wonderful this day was for me.  It just was.  And these pictures should explain why...

[caption id="attachment_864" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Chandler cuddling with Max"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_860" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="After the girls dressed Max up... he'll hate me for this later!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_862" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Grant and Max- handsome- despite the photographer"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_861" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Cameron and my baby man"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_859" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="The Tie-Dyed Shirt the made for him :)"][/caption]

Watching TV

DVR is really one of our favorite things.  We never watch tv in real time- we never have time to watch tv when the shows we like are actually on- but with one little button, we can watch them anyway, in half the time.  It's marvelous.

Or it was.  Until Max figured out what special things pressing the blue button can do:



So right when we get our DVR turned on and get to the "good part" of our show, then Max turns it off... and on.... and off.... and on... repeatedly, until he's had his fun, then he moves on.  And we're left to find out spot all over again.  Until Max returns and does it again!

But we laugh instead of being stern, so he keeps doing it.

So much for watching it in half the time!

Tricks

Some of my favorite things to do with Max are his "tricks".  His first good one was clapping.  With the word "yayy" he'd response with lots of clapping and smiling.  Then we taught him the wave "bye" and eventually added the word itself.  We practice everyday when Maggie leaves and now he'll do it to strangers in the store.  Of course, the doctor was proud of this one too as his last check up.

We'll since then, we've added a lot to his repertoire-- crawling, climbing, standing, clicking, saying "thank you", playing catch, giving kisses etc... the list goes on, but the common theme is that we've "worked" with him at all of his tricks.  (BTW, I've been working on blowing kisses for ages and he wants nothing to do with it!)

Well apparently, Max is so mature now adays that he can teach himself tricks- and very advanced ones!



Did you see that?  He can stand on his head!  And lift one arm up.  And no one taught him this.  He's AMAZING!

Delirious

Last night, we kept Max out past his bed time, and all of a sudden things got really funny!  He passed fussy and went on to better things.  Gabe is the videographer, and the noise that ensues is ALL Max-- and quite frankly, the best sound in the entire world!

Oh no, HE didn't!

Yesterday was super fun because my baby brother, Uncle Eli, came to town for a Max play day.  He called over the weekend to let me know that he had some time between his internship and when college started again, and he wanted to make sure he got Max time before the college craziness and football started.

So anyway, yesterday was the day for that- he came late Tuesday and spent the night, and then kept Max while we worked yesterday.

Well.... half way through my work day, I got a call from Uncle Eli that him and Max were going for a run and that "maybe" he had just cut Max's hair.

No, I'm not kidding.  These are the real words he said to me.

If truth be told, Max's hair was getting long- he may have had wings over his ears, and his bangs were in his eyes, and he definitely had a mullet- but I was hoping he would make it to his first birthday before his first hair cut- I just can't handle all these firsts and needed to prolong something.

BUT the kicker is that on Tuesday, I broke down and asked my cousin Lindsey who is a fantastic hair stylist if she would trim Max up the next time she was in the neighborhood and she agreed to make it happen.  Honestly, I was worried Max was going to start cussing me out in baby language for allowing his hair to get so long that it tangled in his eye lashes. It really just happened over night too- he was bald, like really bald, and then he had hair, lots of hair.

It's not my fault he's growing so fast- I told him to stop.

So anyway, back to the haircut.  Apparently, Uncle Eli had taken it upon himself to trim his bangs, around his ears, and his mullet.  Eli said, "I just left him in his high chair and got the scissors out and when I did, Max got really still"... well yeah, if you come at the child with a pointy weapon, I should think he would get still!

So I was NOT there for Max's first hair cut, I had NO say in Max's first hair cut, a professional was NOT involved in Max's first hair cut, there are NO picture of Max's first haircut, and a certain someone did NOT save a piece of Max's hair for his baby book.

Yes, I know, a travesty!

But lucky for Eli, and everyone that loves him, he actually did a really good job and I'm already laughing about this story.  So he gets to live :)

When I asked Eli what he was thinking he said, "Well it's 2 weeks before his birthday, so I figured it'd have time to grow out if I mess up!"  HA!

Here are some pictures from this morning of my newly spruced up baby, bed head and all:







And you want to know the best part?  When I called my Dad last night to tell him what Eli did, he started cackling only to tell me that when Max was there in June, HE had cut some of his hair!  And he was proud that he was smart enough not to tell me and had cut such a small amount that I didn't notice.

Oh Noblitt men!  They are something, aren't they??

Empowered

Gabe started 2nd grade today.  It's funny to watch little kids have grown up emotions, but yesterday and this morning he was filled with anxiety.  It was really ironic because if there is anything that Gabe is great at, it's school.  God has given him an incredible brain.



But that brings some more irony, but this time it's focused on us parents.  Yesterday at church, our new pastor Paul Alexander delivered a GREAT message, filled with scripture about parenting.  There were so many good parts, but the bottom line for Chad and I was that our job as parents is to empower our boys to be who God has created them to be- simple as that.  So instead of celebrating good grades and their brains, it's important to begin celebrating every characteristic that is Christ-like. It's a difficult switch to make, because it's easier to praise behaviors than character, but I'm up for the challenge.  Several times today, I've had to stop my praise from being "Good thinking Gabe, you're such a smart kid" to "I'm so glad you're using your brain that God gave you and working hard like Jesus wants you to" and so on.  But how relieving-- we don't have to come up with a plan or a dream for our kids- we don't even have to steer them down the path- God has already done that!  We just have to keep empowering them and encouraging them and teaching them to follow God and be who He called them to be.



I love that it's back to school in the Bowman household.  I love the structure and the routine.  I love our bed times and I even love that alarm clock- not because I love waking up, but because with structure comes productivity.  Especially in our spiritual lives. But with this new school year comes a new approach to parenting, and our mindset!  We may have a doctor or a lawyer on our hands.  We may have a computer guy or a garbage man.  We may have a contractor or a missionary.  But that part doesn't matter.  Our goal is to have Christ-followers, with a heart for the lost, who live and breathe where God has called them.



I'm pretty sure it doesn't get more exciting than this!