Happy 2nd birthday, Maddox!!

Maddox turns 2 years old tomorrow, and we had a birthday party for him yesterday.  The theme of the party   was "choo-choo tains" and we invited several of Maddox's friends over to play.  We had a really nice time and I think Maddox enjoyed himself.  Though, I'm sure if you asked Maddox he would say the highlight of the day was having access to endless peanut butter sandwiches that he could wander around the house with.

Before our friends arrived...

"Happy birthday!" choo choo

Playing at the art table

 The spread... we had Maddox-requested food: peanut butter sandwiches, bananas, oranges, and cheese.  We also had veggies, chips, and tortilla rolls.  And awesome Elmo cupcakes made by our friend Ali.

"Yay, food!"

Elmo cupcakes

Peanut butter sandwiches cut into train, car, airplane, fish, and duck shapes.  Huge hit.

Singing happy birthday... he wasn't too sure about the candles.

Such good friends...

Maddox, Ali, and Iona (wearing a carrot mustache!)

Iona, Ronan, and Ronan's parents Johnny and Erin at the art table.  Maddox being goofy.

So much fun playing :)

 The party was awesome and we had tons of fun.  Maddox received a lot of great gifts, many of them were art related.  He has finger paints, chalk, an artists smock, big paint brushes, and fun colored paper.  He also got his first DVD-- Finding Nemo.  He likes the "fishy mooie".  :)

Blog Slacker

Ok, I will freely admit that going a month between blog entries is far too long.  My deepest apologies.  We are all doing very well.  We returned home from our holiday travels a few weeks ago and I immediately jumped right back into school.  Busy, busy, busy!

We do have a few big milestones coming up... in just over a week we will have a 2 year old.  I'm not quite sure how that is possible being that just yesterday Maddox was a newborn, but there you have it.  There will be a party thrown in his honor next weekend, and I promise to post pictures of the big train ("choo-choo!") themed event.

Around the same time that Maddox turns 2, we will enter into the third trimester of our pregnancy.  The arrival of our second little guy is drawing closer and we are all very excited.  Maddox can't wait to meet his "lil bebe botha".  :)  We aren't really sure how much Maddox really understands what it means when we tell him there is a baby in mama's belly.  What we do know is that whenever we talk about when baby brother is born Maddox responds with "toys?".  Also, assuming baby brother really turns out to be baby brother (versus turning out to be a baby sister), he will be known as Quinn Michael.   :)

And now, some very recent pictures of Maddox Ammon:

The face he makes when you say "smile, Maddox!"  And look, Grandma... crocs! 

Taken this morning.  Because apparently it is perfectly acceptable to dress in shorts and short sleeves in January in New Orleans.   High of 75 today.  

Merry Christmas!

Santa Claus dropped presents off for Maddox last night.  Maddox wasn't really sure what was going on at first, but he quickly got the hang of opening up his presents.  He got lots of good stuff... two "big trucks!", a few books, some blocks, a puzzle, and snuggly clothes.

Merry Christmas!  We hope everyone has a wonderful holiday.  We love you!

Christmas adventure: Part 1

We are on our annual Christmas vacation.  We've been able to visit with Grandpa John ("Napa") and Great Grandpa Bud and Pam.

Fun at the park!

Story time!

Picture time with Dada

A family portrait

Having fun visiting with Napa Bud and Pam

Smiles and hats

He likes hats.  And he likes his cheesy grin.

Smile

Halloween!

We took Maddox trick or treating for the first time this year.  I was a bit nervous about it because I wasn't sure how he would react to seeing people dressed up in funny costumes.  We have reason to suspect that Maddox has a very active imagination, and I could only guess what his 1.5 year old brain would think about strange people dressed up in strange costumes.  But, we did the best we could to explain to him that on Halloween people dress up and if you say "trick or treat" they give you candy!  We practiced saying trick or treat, put him in his puppy costume, and set off.  We went to a well known trick or treating street in the city, and arrived around 5:30 (when we knew the other toddlers and babies would be out).

Maddox and I walked hand in hand up to our first house.  It was decorated and the woman handing out candy was dressed like the Bride of Frankenstein.  Maddox walked up the steps (with me), said his "tick o tet", and was rewarded with a few pieces of candy.  Then he looked up.  And saw Bride of Frankenstein.  And promptly burst into tears.  It's important to mention she didn't try to scare him... he just didn't like the look of her.

Mama carrying baby puppy to safety after the scary encounter

He was a bit upset by the whole thing.  Luke and I tried to explain to him that the nice (scary looking) lady gave him candy!  How cool!  But, being that he has never had candy before, so he didn't know what it was, he wasn't that impressed.  So we decided to get serious.  We didn't want our child to be afraid of trick or treating.  We bribed him.  We broke open a small pack of M&Ms and popped one in his mouth.  He stopped crying as soon as that little piece of chocolate hit his tongue.  "See!  That's candy!  That's what you get when you say 'trick or treat'."

I like this candy stuff!

"Do you want to go to say "trick or treat" at another house?"  "Yeah!"  So we went, hand in hand, to our next house.

Success!  No tears!

And our night was pretty uneventful from that point on.  Maddox walked from house to house, even getting so brave as to walk up to a few without holding either mine or Luke's hand.

Trick or treating with Dada

Look, Mama!  I did it!

<3

So, Maddox did end up enjoying trick or treating.  He was very disappointed when we called it a night and headed home.  And you'll be happy to know he has yet to ask for candy since Halloween.  So we haven't ruined him yet!