Max Takes Over the World

prepare to be overwhelmed with adorableness, everybody . . .
behold, the world's cutest being!
Max and Julia in an early courtship ritual.
This outfit is actually supposed to be for a twelve-month-old, but observe how our four-month-old son is busting out of it! What a burly man-baby he is!
Max and his granddad share a reflective moment (actually, Max is trying to see the television. He has become very interested in television recently, a development which disturbs his parents greatly, since they both have a TV addiction problem. We are trying not to watch it around him anymore, or to turn him away from the TV when it is on, but he is sly like a fox. His technique, seen here, is to overpower the adult holding him with the magnitude of his adorableness, and then sneak peeks at the television while the adult recovers. He is, predictably but disturbingly, smarter than any of us, and will inevitably conquer the world. We can only hope he is a benevolent ruler).

Just a few pics

Just a few quick pics of the last few days. This is Max's new skill...Reaching for stuff. That's right, Max can now reach for stuff upon ocation. He also makes lots of sounds...he is trying to talk. Won't be long now.

This is the Habanero Pizza I made as a special request for Chelsa's Mom last night. Those relations that like it mild...you know who you are...you might want to avoid this bad boy, featuring three sliced Habanero peppers, rated up to 350K on the scotville hot-ness scale. Jalapenos rate at like 10k. Thankfully, it rated tasty on the Mother in Law scale.

This is Mike and Sam with Max. If you look closely, you will notice he is holding a "type S" X-Box controller. I believe he is playing old school classic "Street Fighter II". Ah, the classics.

Anyway, just a quick round of pics for you people to look at. I will make more soon.

Max's Adorable Parts (Plus Breakfast)

Ian has been doing a lot more cooking lately, due to Max's constant breastfeeding and my constant need to be where the breasts are. He is becoming quite accomplished, and, with characteristic modesty, has taken to photographing his work. This piece is called "traditional diner breakfast", or "eggs cooked in a style that Chelsa would never, ever eat". (Ian's note...check out the cappuccino!)

Max is becoming really charming, and is getting more and more flirtatious. I was trying to get a picture of him in this t-shirt to send to my sister, who gave it to him, but the hamming it up for the camera was an unexpected surprise. Later, he can wear this t-shirt and eat the breakfast in the previous picture!

A woman I was talking to recently was telling me about this photography book that featured black and white pictures of baby hands, feet, ears, etc. I liked the idea, and I feel that Max's hands, feet and ears are cuter than anyone else's in the universe, so I thought I'd try some shots. These did not quite come out like the artsy, serious shots I was anticipating, largely because I was trying to hold Max's foot up and take the picture at the same time. You can, however, still get a sense of the cuteness of Max's extremities.

Pizza

More Max pictures soon, I promise. So with Max taking up lots of time these days, I have been doing lots of cooking. I just had to show off this piece of the pizza I made for Chelsa and myself tonight. Crust, sauce, all Ian. Oh yes, that is fresh basil on the top, thank you very much. And yes, it was tasty. More Max pics soon everybody. It's about midnight now so I suppose I should probably sleep.

Finally more Max Pics

Well, for those die hard magic number fans who have not completely given up on us yet, here is our new blog for the new year! Sorry about the long wait, but we were extremely busy preparing for, and then recovering from, Max's first Christmas.


Ian, while an avid Christmas tree enthusiast, is not a huge fan of decorating the tree, so I was very excited to have a partner this year. Max is kind of yawning and complaining simultaneously, but let's employ revisionist history and say that he was practicing Christmas carols.



Max is smiling and giggling frequently now, inspiring all who know him to make the strangest faces, noises, and gestures in an effort to get a grin. It is hard to capture a smile on film, because they tend to come and go, and to be accompanied by a lot of squirming, so this picture is as rare and valuable as a shot of bigfoot or the loch ness monster ( but way cuter).

My sister Dillen came all the way from New York to bask in Max's first yuletide experience. While she was here, we left Max with her and went to see King Kong with our friends the Lindsays. This was our first time leaving Max since we brought him home, and I found it highly traumatic. I struggled through bravely, and ended up enjoying the movie, although I may have shed a few anxious tears in the secret darkness of the theatre. We chose the Lindsays to share this outing because, having witnessed them leaving their kids with various relatives, we felt that we would not need to be embarrassed by any emotional outbursts.

Max is doing some intellectual expanding here, and is clearly soaking it in like the sponge of genius that he is.



We had to work hard to find a picture of Ian with Max that met with Ian's approval. This one doesn't really have a story attached to it, but it is fiercely cute.














This is Max the day after the final festivity concluded New Year's Day. I think the look pretty much says it all.







I know we have said this before, and we will probably have occasion to say it again, but we will honestly try to post on a more frequent basis in the future. We know that we are the only means that the world has to see Max pictures, and we take the responsibility seriously.