Max Goes to the Zoo - The Movie!

This is my first attempt at a mini movie, so don't judge me too harshly. 

I had so much fun figuring out how to do this though! Hopefully there will be more to come. Maybe a Halloween one??

This is a bit small, so to see it bigger you can view it here.

Enjoy!

max goes to the orchard!

10 months

I have been realizing lately that my baby is turning into a little boy. How quickly he is changing!

Max, here are your 10 month stats:

- You have FOUR teeth!

- You love opening doors and cupboards

- You cruise very fast around furniture

- You are learning how to give hugs

- You love giving high fives

- You can throw a ball and kind of play "catch"

Maxwell, you bring so much joy to our lives. You make me happy when skies are grey.

max goes to the zoo

 We took Max to the zoo for the first time over Labor Day Weekend. He LOVES animals so we expected him to be super into it, but there is so much to look at besides animals at the zoo that he didn't quite have the reaction we expected.

Max checking out the polar bear

This is towards the end when he was pretty much done with his stroller and done "looking" at animals. Can you tell??

He loved the carousal for the first 30 seconds and then got scared, so I held him for the rest of the ride.  

Such a fun family day! I'm working on a video of our zoo visit so you can expect to see that in about....a year. 

the fair

Oh how we love the Great Minnesota Get Together!! We were fortunate enough to be able to go twice this year. We went spur of the moment with Anna and Danny on a weeknight and then we went again on a date day -we left Max with my parents. We liked this arrangement so much, I think we will do it like this every year! That way our kids will get to see the fair, but only for a few hours when it's not so crazy busy and then Dave and I can take our time and enjoy a date a different day. Here are the highlights:

One of our favorite bands, Farewell Milwaukee, happened to be playing the night we were there. 

So fun to see them!

If you remember, Dave wears his Genie shirt every year. You can see past years here.

He got several compliments on it this year. Mostly from young kids. And one police officer.

Dave met and chatted it up with a local coffee roaster.

We love Spring Grove Soda. They are a local soda company that makes fun flavors like Rhuberry, but one of my faves is Black Cherry. This is me shouting "BLACK CHERRY SOOOOOODAAAAAAA" Oprah style.

Thanks to my parents, we found a super secret, shady spot to rest in for a few minutes. We gathered up our strength so we could consume more fried food!

And consume we did. This turned out to be my favorite thing and will be added to the MUST list from now on: deep fried chocolate chip cookie dough. It was AMAZING!

I look forward to the fair for 11.5 months every year. I'm always a little sad when it's over. Especially since I have to wait that long for more deep fried cookie dough!! Goodbye State Fair. I'm already looking forward to you next year! 

the nursery

Max is almost 10 months old and we JUST put the finishing touches on the nursery. Everyone who told me that I'd have plenty of time to finish the nursery after he was born, you lied. But no matter, it's done now and we love how it turned out!

This is how the room started out

And this is what it became! 

His room is filled with special homemade gifts from family and friends. His Auntie Chloe made him that super cool night light above his crib

That is David's baby blanket hanging on the back of the chair. 

His Auntie Kellie helped to reupholster the chair. 

The picture on the wall is from Where the Wild Things Are - partly where his name comes from!

The letters of the alphabet were made by my dear friends at one of my baby showers

The 'M' was made by his great aunt Laurie

And this growth chart was made by Janet!

There are many other handmade things that aren't pictured here like blankets and keepsakes. 

It turned out to be such a unique, special place - a room full of love!