ONE YEAR OLD already!

Well, Mr. Maxwell is officially one year old! He is a whopping 30 inches tall and only weighs 22 lbs. So his qualities of being a big baby have changed - though he still is eating us out of house and home. The day before he turned one, he made it quite clear to me that he wanted nothing to do with nursing ever again. It was a mutual agreement, and he hasn't thought about it since! He does still like to be held before he goes to bed, so he hasn't forgotten about me completely. We celebrated his birthday appropriately (I wasn't going to feel guilty again this time!) and luckily Grammy and Papa were here to help with the party. Trust me - with out the help from Deb and Steve, the party would not have been this organized! It was a halloween theme - so Kar and Max could wear their costumes one-more-time. But I think Karmann was the only one dressed up for the whole time. See some of the photos below. We all had a great time.
Max had his check up soon there after, and with him walking at 10 months, eating normal food, drinking from a cup and straw, climbing up stairs - and on top of tables!!, playing peek-a-boo, blowing kisses, waving hello and good-buy, playing the kazoo, clapping to music, dancing, and trying to jump up and down on the bed (with karmann), he's doing just fine and growing up very fast!
Karmann was also excited about Max's birthday - she is the ultimate party girl and makes up reasons just to have cake! She got a good deal out of the weekend as Papa and Daddy built a swing set in the back yard! It will be the center for many parties to come, I am sure.
Thanks to everyone who helped celebrate and esp. to Steve and Deb for all their help.

I forgot to mention earlier, that I made the cake FROM SCRATCH, and the icing too for Max's birthday. It must have slipped my mind, as it was such a tramatic stressful situation, that I had already blocked it out of my short term memory. Though, the cake and icing was pretty darn good! Let's just say, I am not at all on the level of Marth Stewart's magazine, as the recipies were out of her article and pretty much over my head - but I did it! And, my understanding of a complicated recipe totally changed me. Let's just say I will probably never make a boiled caramel buttercream icing again, but will never forget how to make it, either! Thanks to Richard at work for giving me (way too much) confidence, and to Deb who kept me going and convinced me not to give up!