Happy New Year!

We took the boys to the Cleveland Zoo yesterday for a little celebration that they have for kids called "Happy Noon Year." The animal exhibits are open and at 12 pm they have a countdown and a ball drops and it's a nice little early version of the new year's celebration that the kids will probably sleep through at midnight.

We saw tigers, bears, lions, sea lions, giraffes, etc. Max's favorite was the camel because it was standing right up next to the fence and we could get really close to him. Jake liked watching the sea lions swim. Although crowded, it was a good time and a beautiful day weather-wise. As of today, most of our snow is melted and now everything is very muddy.

Last night, Max stayed at Grandma's house and we went to a friend's house for a party. There was a friendly ten dollar buy-in poker game. I am proud to say that I took down the 80 dollar prize pool. Jon was proud of me.

Max is asleep in his room so I am going to try to get some work done on the computer. I have lots of data to analyze!

More Christmas photos....

Me and Santa Max:
Max with Dad on Christmas morning:

Max with Grandpa Latsch:

The Christmas tree at our place:
Max and Jacob playing after dinner:

Max with Great Grandma:

Max with Mary:

Playing with my cousin Bill:

Phew...we tired ourselves out with lots of family gatherings. Max got a lot of toys...he hasn't even gotten to play with all of them yet! He really likes the leapfrog dog, Scout, that talks and shares all of his favorites (sweet potatoes, blue, giraffes, hehe). He's pretty interested in the book that lights up and talks to him. At first, he was kind of shocked that his toys were talking to him but now he just smiles and studies them intently. Overall, it was a great first Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

This morning Max was giggling in his sleep. Lately I really love watching him snooze. The other morning, I was sleeping on the couch and Max was sleeping here in his bouncy chair. I thought that I heard him wiggling around a little so I sat up and looked over at him and he was sitting there wide awake. When I looked at him, he got this huge smile on his face. It was just about the cutest thing ever.

Max tried baby food for the first time today! He ate the whole 2.5 oz container of sweet potatoes! Then he sat in his bouncy chair and kicked his legs like crazy. It was like he was saying, "FINALLY you guys gave me some real food!"