Today at the park

After work today, I met Richard and Mack at Gold Park. (This park is just one of the many many outdoor rec areas near where we live. We are so fortunate to have so many options for enjoying fresh air.) Richard had picked up some delicious and nutricious Bojangles for dinner and we sat down at a picnic table to eat. Mackey was much more interested in getting back to the slides than he was in eating his mashed potatoes. I let him get down off of my lap since he was being so squirmy and little guy just started walking off toward the playground! To top it off, as he was walking away, he waved his hands and (back still turned to us) said "Bye bye!". We were floored. This was the first time he struck off on his own without us.

He didn't get far until I had him back in my arms. If only I would be able to get him back so easily every time he decides he's ready to go off on his own.

Big shoes

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Sun shiny day

Finally! Some fresh warm air and sunshine. Appreciated by boy and his dog...and mama!









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My new word...

(Still won't say dada though...poor Richie.)

Happy Birthday Mama C!

Mack went to Charlotte to visit his MamaC on her birthday.



My mom's friend Tina painted a watercolor of Mack for her birthday present...how amazing.



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Our big boy

I can't say exactly when it happened, but sometime recently, our baby boy turned into a little boy. It's just wild. Here's a quick & random list of Mack-things that have been going on recently:

1. He is getting very good at anatomy (I think he's going to be a doctor). He knows where his hands, feet, toes, arms, legs, belly, mouth, eyes, nose, ears, and hair are. The cutest is when you ask him where his belly is and he lifts up his shirt and pats his tummy. He LOVES to brush his teeth at night before bed and enjoys brushing his own hair after his bath. He will usually help Richard and me brush our hair, too.

2. Mack also still loves to make his animal noises. He likes to bark at our doggies, he moos at the cows across the street, and he roars at the lion and screeches at the monkeys that are on his bedroom wall. This is Mack playing with Lil today (yes, it's an empty yogurt container that Mack is throwing to her. That's a normal dog toy, right?):

3. Dinnertime: Mack only likes to eat real-people food...no more baby food for Mack (it's been that way for a while). And most of the time now, he'll only eat something if he can feed it to himself. He knows the signs for "more" and "eat" and he uses them often. The dogs also love mealtime with Mack and hang out at the table right under Mack's high chair. The sweetest part of dinnertime is the blessing before we eat. Mack knows when it's time to hold hands for the blessing and reaches out for Richard's and my hands, then he bows his little head for a second before smiling and looking back up at us. Then after we say "Amen," he claps. How awesome is that?

4. Walking - oh my goodness. He still can't go far solo, but he's getting better every day. And when he's not sleepy and when it's feasible, he'd rather be walking around holding our hands than being carried or crawling. The funnest is when we're all sitting around together and he'll walk to me, then turn around and point at Richard, and walk to him. Then he'll point back at my sister (who's living with us now)...and round and round we go! And of course, he expects applause after each set. He's figuring out how to turn around while standing up without any support as well. This is Mack walking around the Museum of Natural Science on his birthday (I promise I will get around to posting birthday pictures soon...oh, and Christmas pictures, too.)

5. His current stats: At his 1 year old check-up, Mack weighed 25.2 lbs (75th percentile - he's slimming down with all his walking!) and was 31.5 inches tall (90th percentile). He has 6 teeth now, four on top and two on the bottom.

6. More SNOW and an icky sick bug! We had another snow weekend this past weekend. We were able to get out in the snow a little bit on Saturday (it was soooo cold and it snowed/sleeted all day) . Then Elizabeth and I became horribly ill on Sunday, so Richard and Mack played outside together. Sunday night though, Mackey got sick, too! It was horrible. This was his first throwing-up sickness and it completely broke my heart (not to mention that he's still on a second antibiotic trying to get rid of a double ear-infection). But he's much better today (we all are, thank goodness). Here are a couple of snow pics:

More snow pictures from this weekend: http://www5.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=3371152008/a=76796422_76796422/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/