The Brown Brick Road

Capturing our adventures one photo at a time...

Haircut!

We had a good weekend – and it’s not over yet!  Thank you MLK for the day off!

One thing I learned this weekend – cutting molars is the PITS!  Maxwell must have all of his molars coming in at once because he is miserable.  The poor guy is clearly in pain and drooling like I’ve never seen.  Sleep just didn’t happen on Saturday night – for him or me.  He did get a nap in on Sunday afternoon but it was while laying on me in the rocking chair.  Let’s all just hope those darn teeth come on through quickly because I’m not sure how much more of this we can take.

In other news – Maxwell got his first haircut!!  We went to Jean Anne at The Hair Studio and she was great.  She gave him just a trim, just like I wanted. His hair is shaped up, out of his eyes and he’s looking sharp…but because she didn’t cut off those curls he’s still looking like my baby!  🙂

One last shot of his shaggy do…

And we were ready to go…

A snip snip here…

A snip snip there…

Jean Anne was so sweet…but I guess that’s just how you are when you look at life through rose-colored glasses!  🙂

Maxwell was wholly unimpressed with the whole operation…

But we took snacks and Nanner to entertain and keep him happy…

The whole process didn’t even take 5 minutes and went great.  Phew!  When we got home, Maxwell was proud to show off his awesome new do!

I think he likes it!

I do too!

On the porch

I don’t know if I can officially call Maxwell a walker yet because he still prefers to crawl but, he can definitely walk when he wants to!  He sticks his arms straight out like Frankenstein and it’s just the cutest thing ever.  We always cheer for him after he walks and he just beams with pride!  What’s that?  You want to see his Frankenstein walk?  No problem!  Just click here and here!

Watch out world, here comes Maxwell!!  🙂

In other news, there is no news…and no real story behind these pictures.  I just thought he looked cute in his tractor suit with his red shoes so I got out my camera.

He didn’t really feel like smiling but I didn’t mind…

Especially since I managed to get a little one out of him anyway.

I have my ways.  🙂

See you tomorrow!

Double Trouble

Happy Monday everyone.  As I mentioned on Friday, Maxwell wasn’t feeling so hot last week.  I was really hoping he would wake up Friday feeling better, but he didn’t. He was worse on Friday actually…just a generally miserable little guy.  I took him up the doctor and we got the dreaded diagnosis – double ear infection.  Ouch.  The doc said the right one was definitely very infected and the left one was just starting with lots of fluid built up.  We were sent home with an Amoxicillin prescription, ear numbing drops and advice to give him Advil every 3 hours. By that night, after 2 rounds of Advil, he was already doing much better.  While he’s still pretty pitiful…mainly because of the insane amount of snot coming out of his nose (really, it’s insane. I’ve never seen so much snot)…he’s on his way to recovery. I’d like to thank his nursery school class for so generously sharing their germs to build up Maxwell’s immune system. 🙂

Robert and I were supposed to go to a wedding down in Tuscaloosa on Saturday night.  Once we got the dreaded diagnosis, we debated about not going but, after seeing that he was feeling better Saturday morning, decided to go on and make the trip.  He was left in the very capable hands of Susan so I had no worries at all.

Here’s Maxwell Saturday morning before we left…dressed to cheer on the Tide!

I’ve only been down to Tuscaloosa once and it was for an AL game. There was no game in town this past weekend so it was a good chance to explore a bit and check out some of the devastating tornado damage. So sad.

We did take time to stop into the Bear Bryant museum…

and now I can say I’ve done that. Yep, that’s about all I can say.  🙂  In all honesty, it was interesting…and I’m glad they only charge $2 to go in!

We then got all dolled up to go to the wedding of one of my Vanderbilt friends, Kate. The ceremony and reception were at her home and everything was just spectacular.

Please notice Robert’s awesomely tied bow-tie that I tied for him (with a little help from YouTube)!

It was so fun to see a bunch of friends that I hadn’t seen in quite a while, like Adrienne and her husband, Josh.

Kate looked beautiful and her dress was gorgeous…

Too bad you can’t see her dress in that picture. I need to give Robert a less on taking pictures of the bride!

We had a blast and danced the night away…

but couldn’t wait to get home to this guy the next morning!

I’m hoping we’ll get our little buddy back to normal this week.  Being sick is the pits!

School!

Maxwell went to his first day of school yesterday and I think he had a ball! I say school but it’s really Mother’s Day Out from 9 to 1:00 2 days a week. His class is kids 6 months to 18 months so he’s right in the middle.

First day of school pics on the porch…maybe this will be a tradition?!

1st day of school

When we got to his room, Maxwell immediately took off and started playing. I don’t think it bothered him one bit that I left!  After the new parent meeting I snuck one last peek into his classroom and this is what I saw…

See him back there? playing with a little friend. Something about this picture just pulls at my heart…my baby is such a big boy. After seeing that he was more than fine, I walked back to my car, called my mom and might have shed a small tear or two.  🙂

Robert went with me to pick him up and we were so glad to see his smiling face as we walked in.  I think he was glad to see us too! The teacher said that he did great and was such a happy guy.  But we already knew that!

Happy after his first day…

and totally worn out by the time we got home!

It was a great first day of school!

Have a wonderful weekend!

A Birthday Party!

First, thank you for all the comments yesterday! I love hearing from so many of you and know Maxwell will get a kick out of reading them someday too.

Second, how about a birthday party?! To celebrate Maxwell’s birthday, we just had some of our immediate family over for lunch on Sunday…that didn’t stop me from doing a little decorating though!  🙂  My baby boy is only going to turn 1 once so I wanted to make it special, festive and fun for all!

Like all 1 year olds, Maxwell loves balloons.  He also loves his friend Little Al (seen in our monthly photo shoots).  So, when I saw this invitation…

it all just fell into place.  Lots of balloons and lots of happy colors!

I ordered the Happy Birthday banner off of Etsy, made the centerpieces with candy and cardstock, and blew up all the balloons myself with a helium tank from Party City.  easy!

I also made banners out of all of his monthly photos to display on our mantels.  I think everyone loved getting to compare all the photos side by side and see how much he’s grown in a year!

The brick mantel had my favorite individual photo from each month and the living room mantel had all the Little Al photo favorites.

Maxwell loved having the fam in “his house” and getting to play with (almost) everyone. We missed Aunt Mess and Holland and Keath, Jen, Delaney and Nate.

Maxwell especially loved getting lots of grandmother love!

grandmother love

Along with the banner, I also ordered this cute birthday crown off of Etsy for Maxwell to wear. Let’s just say it didn’t go over so well.

Crown attempt #1…

Fail.  The grandmothers sure got a kick out of it though!  🙂

Crown attempt #2…

Fail. Oh well.

We knew we couldn’t have a party without feeding our guests well so Robert and I cooked up quite a feast.  Luckily I got to prepare my portion of the meal inside in the kitchen. Poor Robert had to sweat it out at the grill.  It was worth it though!

You know what comes after the birthday lunch don’t you? Birthday cake!!

A smash cake for Maxwell and cupcakes for everyone else.  All from Olexa’s and all really good. Like, ridiculously good. Yum.

Obligatory pre-cake family photo…

Thanks Jenny!

I had no idea how Maxwell was going to be with the cake but he quickly showed us all that he’s got his momma’s sweet tooth!

I couldn’t help getting in a little lick of that icing myself!  🙂

I then cut the cake up a bit for him and that’s when he really dug in!

A very happy birthday boy!

And a very messy birthday boy!

He even played patty-cake with his cake…naturally.

Love him.

We then tried for crown attempt #3…

Fail.

Little Al ended up wearing the crown for most of the party…

little al

Success!

(please note how Little Al has a balloon around his trunk just like the elephant on the invitation. I was quite proud of that! It’s the little things.)

Maxwell might not have liked his crown but he loved his cake and that’s what matters!

The party continues tomorrow with presents, presents and more presents!  It’s good to be Maxwell these days!  🙂  See you tomorrow!