Reading Mama a book...

Sweet Maddox read me a story yesterday. I couldn't quite catch every word he said, but I definitely enjoyed it...

Walking

We are getting much better at the whole walking thing! He has been walking around scaling the room for what seems like months now, so we were so excited to see him finally start to let go. Here he is a few weeks ago when he first started letting go and walking on his own:

And here he is tonight cruising around the house. He has gotten so much faster and so much better at keeping his balance. He hears Blake bouncing the ball in the other room so he is trying to get there fast. He may be running before too long!

Happy Birthday Daddy!!

Happy Birthday to the best daddy (and husband) in the whole world! Maddox loves his daddy so much! His eyes light up when he walks in each day from work and he gets so excited to play with him. He especially loves when Daddy puts him up on his shoulders and does flips with him on the bed. Unfortunately Blake is away tonight (boo) at a retreat for work. He was chosen to participate in a leadership program for Southern Company and tonight was their first function. He would say it isn't a big deal, but I think it is and I am so glad that they recognize his hard work and see just what a valuable and important employee he is. Maddox and I are proud of you and love you very much!

Since Blake was going to be gone today, they celebrated his birthday at work yesterday with yummy cookie cake (Blake's choice of course). Maddox and I went and ate lunch with Blake and stuck around for cake. Naturally Maddox was quite the entertainer and as one would predict from his past experiences with cake, he loved it! Since it was St. Patrick's Day, the cake was covered in green icing and since the cake was covered in green icing, so was Maddox's face. He even had icing in his shoes by the time it was all over. Here are a couple of pictures that one of Blake's coworkers took with her phone.

Maddox also really walked for us for the first time last night. He was carrying around a spatula (go figure) and I think he forgot what he was doing and he just started walking across the room. He was still a little wobbly, but he made it where he was going and we clapped for him and he was so proud. He did it a few times at random, but still won't do it regularly. I wish I had captured it on video. I am hoping to get that this weekend.

Starting to walk, no more bottles, and new pictures!

Yesterday was a pretty big day for Maddox. He finally walked hands free for the first time. Sally said he was pretty much walking across the room holding onto his little blankie. Of course when I picked him up he wouldn't do it for me and he wouldn't do it last night or tonight either, but hopefully he will show me soon. I'm sad I missed it but I'm sure he will do it again for me in his own time. He did take a few steps for me, but after that he did not want to cooperate any longer. Yesterday was also our first bottle-free day. I was afraid to completely take him off the bottle because he is so obsessed with it, but it was actually quite successful. For the past week and a half or so he has been taking his milk with breakfast and lunch in a sippy cup and I have been holding off cutting out that last bottle for fear that he wouldn't do well at night without it, but I was wrong. Last night and tonight at dinner he drank his milk down in his cup easily and he went to bed no problem. Hopefully this will last!

On another note, Maddox's one year pictures are up. They turned out pretty cute, but what's not to love about a little one shoving cake in his face? Here is the link if you want to check them out: http://melissahardin6013.zenfolio.com/p592166146.

Maddox's Birthday Party

Maddox's 1st birthday party was last weekend. We had so much fun and were so thankful that so many of our friends and family could come celebrate with us. Maddox was a little cranky before everyone arrived, but fortunately he snapped out of it pretty quickly and had a great time. Of course he enjoyed eating all the good food and he also had fun opening his presents. It seriously looked like Santa had come again and dropped off enough goods for the whole neighborhood. He got so many fun new toys, some big boy clothes, and even three new pairs of shoes (which is great because he didn't have any that fit him before then). We have tried putting shoes on him a little lately. He's not the biggest fan, but he has successfully worn them on a few occasions so we're going to keep working on this. Here are a few shots of Maddox opening his presents and having fun at his party.

I think Maddox's cake was his favorite part of the party. He had the cutest cake that my friend Kim made. I decided to go with a sock monkey on the cake since Maddox has pretty much been branded as the sock monkey kid. I thought it turned out great! It was almost too cute to eat!

Maddox even had his own mini sock monkey smash cake, which he didn't waste any time digging into. It is so funny to watch him eat because he still waves his hands in the air and makes excited whining noises when he sees you coming toward him with food. He started off by picking off each one of the icing polka dots before he dug into the rest of it. He ate a good bit of the cake and I'm pretty sure he would have attempted to finish it off if we'd allowed him too. He was a not too thrilled about having his cake removed from his tray before he had finished, but I think it was for the best!

Thank you again to everyone who helped make Maddox's birthday so special. We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family. And we are blessed beyond words to have the most amazing beautiful little man. We love you so much, Maddox and can't wait to see what your second year has in store for you!