First Birthday

Today was Maxine's first birthday. I now understand that at every one of my birthdays my mother relives my birth. What it was like, what I was doing at each time of day, what she ate, what it felt like (emotionally and physically). It started yesterday with me telling Ben, "This time last year I was drinking castor oil mixed with frozen orange juice and vanilla ice cream." Then Maxine had a nightmare at 2:20 am and as I rocked her back to sleep I told her how at that time last year we were getting ready to go to the birth center because my labor was becoming more painful (I laugh at it now... THAT wasn't the painful part!). Then, we woke up at 6:00 am and I told her that I was pushing at that point. Then, at 7:59 am we played Maxine her first song that she ever heard "Lay Lady Lay" by Bob Dylan. I took the afternoon off and we went to the zoo. A sweet 5.5 year old and her grandmother sang happy birthday to Maxine. We had a get together at the park in the evening with Maxine's friends Evie, Edie, Zev, Isaac, Eva, and Atlas. Maxine was so excited to see all of the kids that she spent the entire time practicing walking with her little lion walker... I caught the few interactions with people below...

Last Saturday we had a family party for Maxine. Grandma Gerry hosted with Auntie Lisa making a cupcake-shaped chocolate cake and a tower of cupcakes for Maxine. Grandma and Grandpa Wallace, Uncle Nick, Uncle Ted, Cousin Ben, and Cousin Henry were there to celebrate, as well. It was her first cake and the sugar high was awesome! She did everything she knows how to do ultra fast... clap, clap, bounce bounce, bark bark, screech screech... and then start over again. It was pretty cute. I got all emotional as I walked out of the kitchen with the candle lit singing.. she just sat there wide-eyed wondering what was going on and why was everyone singing... ahhhh, hormones and motherhood.

The past year has been totally not what I expected and absolutely wonderful. Maxine is such a happy, laid back baby. She has a fantastic smile and sense of humor. I can't wait for what the next year will bring us... she is full of surprises!

I am very overdo on an update. I will write more soon but here is a synposis of the past three months:
Maxine started crawling the week after the post below. She has three teeth 2 bottom front and 1 top front. She stands on her own and walks holding our hands or with her walker. She barks... we are so proud... she plays chase with us (she is a very fast crawler) and tries to play chase with Rana but Rana just sighs and goes into the other room. She loves books and we think she is saying "fish"but it sounds more like, "Shishhhh". She also can climb very well... onto our bed, onto the couch, into the dryer... gettin down has not yet been mastered, yet.

I will be updating regularly now. We have had a full few months because of travel, work, and we just found out we are moving to Ethiopia! So, I will post more photos and give an update on how Maxine weathers the preparing for a move around the world and the ACTUAL move...