Dear Max: One Year Old Today

Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Dear Max,
Today you are one year old. I can hardly believe it. I was talking to Grammie the other day about you turning one and how unbelievably fast this past year has gone. I told her that I would give anything to live this year over again. I think your daddy and I were really in shock for the first 4 or 5 months! I know that we just sat and held you and loved on you...but it feels like we didn't get enough. Who knows maybe we will always feel that way. As you know we were not together one year ago today. So daddy and I decided that we wanted to spend the day together, just the three of us, since we didn't get to do that last year.

We started the day off going over to the bank and opening your very own savings account. Daddy and I decided that's what we would give you for your birthday. We started you off and will continue to do our best to grow your account for your future. The ladies at the bank were of course so excited, and thought you were the cutest thing ever! They were all going crazy over you and you were giving them lots of little flirts to keep the oohing and awing coming (daddy and I are IN TROUBLE!)

We then went to what we think should be your favorite restaurant given your love for pancakes. We went to breakfast at the Original Pancake House. We ordered you your first official kids meal all for yourself. A plate of pancakes (6) and an apple juice. They were small pancakes, but you ate 4 of the 6 and loved the apple juice. I think it's time to start moving over to the sippy cup world. You are going to like this!

Then we went to the movies. We saw Christmas Carol in 3-D. A movie in the middle of the day on a Wednesday...you can imagine how packed the theater was. We shared it with one other family. We got there a couple minutes late, and when we bought the tickets I asked the lady if the movie was full or if we would be able to find a seat arriving late. She simply said, we would be fine. She was right...we had plenty of seats to choose from! You didn't care for the 3-D glasses, but you did like snuggling between us and watching the fuzzy film. You seemed to like it, I was really nervous, cause some of the ghosts are kind of scary, but I guess you don't really have a gauge yet of what scary is... so it was a walk in the park to you! You did fall asleep about 20 minutes from the ending, so I guess we will have to read the story this Christmas so you can find out how it ends!

On the way home we stopped by the park to play on the slides (next to the swings your favorite). Unfortunately the park we stopped at didn't have kiddie swings so we went with the slides. I'm telling you Max, when we are together... it always seems like an adventure, and the park was no different. So we headed over to the little slide. We set you at the top, Daddy would let go (he's tall, so he can just set you at the top of the slide) then I wait at the bottom and catch you. You giggle the entire time and it's a lot of fun. We repeated this for about 10 minutes, when your daddy started scoping out the big kid play stuff. He looked at me and said:
"We should try the big slide"
I said, "Are you going to hike your but up to the top of that sucker and ride it down with Max?"
"Nah...I'll carry him up and then put him on the slide and you can wait at the bottom"
I'm not really sure where my mommy common sense went, I mean with you turning one and growing up so fast, it seems like you are moving out of the baby stuff and on to the big kid stuff, maybe that is where my mind was going, but regardless, I agreed to let this happen! Oh, please don't take our baby away from us!! We really are good loving parents!
So daddy hiked up to the top, I waited nervously at the bottom, thinking... This is like sending your child down the Der Stuka. Max, I don't think you know what the Der Stuka is, but it is bar none the scariest water park slide in the world. They had one at the water parks when we were kids growing up and only the really brave kids (not your daddy or I) would go down. It was a straight down slide, I have a rule, if I have to cross my feet and hold onto my heart in order to ride something, it just isn't going to happen. Anyways....as my mind is reliving this part of the my life...
Daddy set you on the top of the slide, you didn't go, you were stuck! So you started to turn over to crawl (a natural reaction) and your jeans hit the slide and caught the needed inertia to get you going and away you went! The next thing I know is my baby, my sweet, beautiful, calm, loving baby is flying around the final turn upside down and head first. "OH MY!" I grabbed you at the bottom. You weren't crying, but you grabbed onto me and did a kind of half smile, laugh and I think a little bit of a "are you freaking kidding me!" sound.
Then daddy says... "I know what went wrong, I didn't give him a push. I just sat him down and Max panicked cause he wasn't going. Let's try it again, and this time I'll give him a push!"
Again, Max, I know that I am your mother, your protector, your safety, and I really didn't think that the emergency room on your first birthday would be fun, but I knew your daddy had something to prove. So the next thing I know I'm handing you back up to daddy to try this again, and this time with a "push" oh my! Well, the end result was no different, the speed was just greater. My baby coming around the corner at the speed of light, head first and on your back. I grabbed you again and quickly looked around to see if child protective services was anywhere to be found. We figured at this point, we may have damaged your confidence for slides, so we headed back to the kiddie slides for another 20 minutes, making sure you left the park with great confidence in your sliding abilities... see we are good parents!

We headed back home for some afternoon naps and then Auntie Andrea called and she came over with some outback to go for dinner and the DVD "UP" we ate some dinner, you had your very own dessert with a candle while the three of us sang, "Happy Birthday Song" to you and daddy blew out your candle. You are a lover of the sweets and your ice cream dessert was no disappointment to you! We watched "Up" which was such a cute movie and that was the end of our day. It was so fun to spend the day with you Max. It is unbelievable to think what a difference a year makes. We feel so grateful to have you in our lives, you are a true miracle, an answer to prayers and I know that you are so special to so many people, cause you not only rebuilt faith to your daddy and I that our Heavenly Father knows us and loves us, but to so many other people, that knew of our situation and had the same questions. You are a true testament of faith, hope and love. We love you with all our hearts and look forward to celebrating so many more birthday's together. I just can't wait, until you out grow your daddy and can push him down the slide! We love you Max, and Happy Birthday!