Our biggest surprise

On Wednesday, I realized it was February 1st (when you don't work, you often REALIZE the date, not automatically know it like I used to because I wrote it a thousand times a day). Two years ago, on February 1st we got a huge shock. We were going to have another baby. I do believe I laughed like a hyena, and the 3 hours I had to wait until Rob got home so I could tell him in person, were the 3 longest hours of my life. I know people that wait to tell their hubs for days, even weeks. 3 hours was all I could do.

I was advised to get a pregnancy test when I explained some symptoms to a coworker. I thought she was probably nuts, but I took her advise. I was so sure that it was going to negative that I purchased a pregnancy test, a bag of bulbs to plant in the yard that day, and a diet coke, full of bad stuff for a fetus.  Yeah, the (half drank, oops) diet coke went in the trash and I returned the bulbs later that week, so freaked out by all I had to do, the thought of sticking some bulbs in the ground was daunting.***

Eight months to the day later, we had our Max. I can't imagine a world without our big surprise. He has been a joy. The first year of his life was tough, only because adjusting to having a two year old and a baby is always hard, added to the fact that we had an amazing amount of illness to boot. Max was, one of the easiest, happiest, babies I have ever been around. He slept good, ate good, played good. If he hadn't had a million ear infections and projectile vomiting, I would have worried he was a little too perfect!

He turned 16 months on Wednesday. He now weighs 24.2 pounds. Compared to his brother, he's my little shrimp! He can say dog, cow, mama, daddy, Lola, all done, hat and ball. He can do the sign language for more, all done, dog, and hat. He is also starting animal sounds and has duck, dog, cow, and monkey pretty much down. He very much enjoys playing in the toilet, cleaning out the canned good cabinets, running anywhere, and anything having to do with dogs. He has a dog calender in his room and, almost every day, we'll hear him crying miserably for us to come get him, when we go in there, he shuts off the crying, points and says "dog!"

I cannot express enough how good of a surprise he was for us. Love him, love him, love him.

 First candy cane, looks like a crime scene

Santa visit before surgery, he wasn't impressed

If only this was actually helpful

Happy baby, he can already climb up the stairs to the jungle gym himself

Getting IN the toybox is important to him

Rocking a good, post dinner hair-do. A sign of a good meal, is if he rubs it in his hair.

First corndog. He approved.