Our baby is 1

hard to believe... max is 1 years old. i almost can't remember life without him. we had a wonderful party with our family and friends at the science center.

11 months... November

we had a wonderful thanksgiving. the weekend before we went to callaway gardens with o-ma to see the christmas light exhibit. we also squeezed in the butterfly house, flowers, and walks on the bike trails. it was a wonderful trip. we headed to hartselle to spend thanksgiving with ryan's family. max got to see his cousins lina and rebecca, and his grandparents and aunt meg & uncle clay spoiled him beyond belief. before thanksgiving max got 2 top teeth. they have broken the surface, but have not come all the way in. another big change is no bottle. he refuses to take a bottle or drink milk of any kind, formula or cows milk. we are sneaking formula into his baby food.

i remember sitting in hartselle last thanksgiving big and pregnant. it is hard to believe a year has passed. we are especially thankful this thanksgiving for a healthy, happy baby boy. happy thanksgiving!!!

10/11 months.... better late than never

max is getting very used to communal living. since we have been living with o-pa there are extra arms to hold and spoil. it has been great having the extra help, but i am afraid max will be in shock when we move. o-pa wraps him in a blanket every morning and they get the paper.

10/11 months.... better late than never

max's 10th and 11th month have been very eventful. we have been living with o-pa and trying to remodel the bathrooms in our new home. everything is painted and we hope to be moved in by Christmas.

9 month pictures... old town helena

it was 5:30pm... max was tired, hungry, and not wanting to have his picture taken but our friend amanda was able to capture the sweet smiles we see everyday in-between bites of banana.

9 months

growing, growing, moving...

our 9th month was busy busy. we sold our first home. it was bitter sweet for me because this was the house where Ryan proposed, and max's first home. it holds special memories for us... but a 3 story townhouse is not ideal for a crawling baby. it will be missed.

8 months

we have had a very busy 8th month. max is now crawling, pulling up, and standing. he is also pushing a toy and walking a few steps behind it. still only the 2 teeth... i keep thinking we are going to wake up one morning and max will have a top tooth. busy times at the mccorkle house! we also had "baby bedlham" which is a family reunion we have to get all of the kids together. max was the youngest this year and he LOVED his cousins. all of the older girls passed him from one set of arms to another. it was lots of fun. we also took another trip to the beach in august with ryan's company. it was oma's first trip to baytowne in sandestin and we had a great time. max also had his first push-up/ice cream. needless to say he loved it!

7 months

it has been almost a month since my last post and our little guy has grown so much. at 6 1/2 months max got his first tooth. two days later the 2nd tooth appeared. two bottom teeth... perfect. i realized when we saw the first tooth that we would never see that precious toothless baby smile again. a reminder of how fast he is growing. i must admit (even though the teeth are precious) i cried a little.

max is also sitting up all by himself, eating "food" 3 times a day, and sleeping very soundly for 11-12 hours every night. these are very happy days...

we went to the beach again over the 4th of july with some friends. we shared a condo with our friends chaney and patrick. they do not have children but insisted that we stay with them. max was an angel but i think we have set them back at least 3 more years from having children. :-) one day chaney said to me "i feel like you have fed max 20 times today". i told her he only ate 5 times which is great compared to the every 2 hours they eat as infants. it was funny. max ended up having an allergy to either the sun or the sunscreen... still not exactly sure. we were prescribed steroid cream which cleared up the rash quickly but we will have to be careful with the sun/sunscreen until we pinpoint what the exact problem is. max loves the water so we knew something was wrong when he cried in the pool. the chlorine was irritating his rash... poor baby. all is well now and he is still loving the baby pool ryan bought for our back porch.

6 months!

so much has happened in the month since my last post. max is now 6 month & 1 week today. he is getting so big so fast. at his 6 month appointment he weighed 16 lbs and was 27 in length. he is in the 25% range for height and weight... but his "little" head is in the 50% range. big heads run in our family. :)

we battled his first ear infection which was not fun. i felt so bad for the little guy, but after 10 days of antibiotics he was all clear. after that passed we let him "cry it out". max was still waking up several times a night and once we knew he wasn't sick, hungry, or needing a diaper we let him cry. the first night was complete torture. he screamed for over an hour. the 2nd night he cried for 45 min (not the blood curdling scream from the night before) and by night 3 we were down to 15 minutes and he has been sleeping beautifully ever since. he still wakes himself up from time to time but nothing major. we are all getting more sleep and everyone is happy.

we also went to the beach with Ryan's family. it was a wonderful week and visiting with Ryan's brother and his family was an added bonus. we do not get to see them all that often so it was nice to have a few days to catch up. my mom tagged along so it was nice also getting to spend time with her. we went to the beach club at Ft. Morgan. school was still in session so we felt like we had the place to ourselves. in hindsight we chose the perfect time to go. since the bp oil tragedy there is oil and debris on the very beach where we played 3 weeks ago.

Almost 5 months!

hard to believe max will be 5 months old in 3 days. we have had lots of adventures since my last post. we surprised ryan with a visit to the "dropzone" to watch him skydive. it was a big weekend, a "boogie" as they call it. hot air balloon jumps, along with airplane jumps. o-pa flew up to watch for a few hours and grandpa joe also stopped in for a visit. it was a fun weekend.

we also took max on his first camping trip along with our good friends sean and ashley. we borrowed uncle jess's pop up camper and stayed 2 nights at desoto state park outside of gadsden,al. i have to be honest... i was nervous about taking a 4 month old camping. it was a beautiful weekend and max slept better with the fresh air than he has for many weeks at home. although max is still in his bed from 7pm-6am every night he has been waking up several times throughout the night. we try to troubleshoot to see what the problem is but i guess it is just a phase. my friends tell me he could be on his way to getting a tooth. i hope this is the case. i need there to be a reason for these long nights. :) you want to make him comfortable but you also do not want to break the routine we have worked so hard to master. nights have been difficult the last few weeks but max is still a delight during the day. he is now big enough to play in the exersaucer. he is starting to laugh out loud and there is nothing more precious.

max is also eating oatmeal out of a bowl. he loves it. we will start introducing vegetables this week. as you can imagine i got lots of baby cookbooks at my baby shower. i will attempt to make his baby food. wish me luck!

Happy Easter

it has been a beautiful day. easter at our house for the first time. o-ma, nana, grandpa joe, megan, and clay were here to celebrate our first easter with max. lots of food and lots of love. cousin maggie even stopped by for a visit.

14 weeks

max will be 14 weeks old on monday. hard to believe. ryan was out of town this past week for work. i thought it would be tough - but the little guy and I were just fine. we certainly missed ryan but we managed. he is now sleeping from 8-6:30 pretty regularly which makes life a lot easier. some nights i have to help him with the passie (several times) but i can't complain when he is sleeping so well. there is no better feeling than the smile i get when i look into his crib in the morning. sweet boy.

the picture above was taken during ryan's very lengthy bath preparation. max was so tired he crashed before we could even get the water warm.

12 weeks

3 months... where to begin.

max is sleeping in his crib... in his room. after a few rough nights of adjusting he has been sleeping from 9-5. we finally feel like we are on a "schedule" and we all feel a little more normal now that our little guy is sleeping well. i think it was harder on mom than max. it was nice having him in the bassinet next to my bed. i was able to hear every peep so i knew he was ok. i found myself waking up hourly the first few nights to look at the monitor. i can't explain the panic i felt when i woke up and couldn't see him in the monitor one night. i flew into his room and had to laugh when i saw him squished at the end of his crib. he somehow managed to shimmy down to the bottom of the bed. he was sound asleep. it is bitter sweet...

ryan's dad "grandpa joe" stayed with us and kept max for 5 weeks so i could go back to work. we were so fortunate to have him so max could stay at home. it was hard when he left but max had his first day with his babysitter gwen yesterday. we are sharing a babysitter with a friend who's son is 3 months older than max. i cried when ryan took him yesterday but i know he is in good hands. one advantage of having a babysitter vs daycare is i can call anytime to check in... and i have.

Let it Snow

it was so beautiful in birmingham today. we had 2 inches of snow. max is too small to appreciate this but his dad was very excited about "max's first snow". there have been many conversations about how age 2 is the perfect age to start skiing. ryan insisted that we take a "family picture". i had just gotten home from work and smelled like green beans - but he was so excited I couldn't disappoint. happy snow day everyone.

there has been much debate regarding who max favors... here are a few of ryan's baby pics. i see some O-pa and some ryan in max. he has already changed so much in 9 weeks.

9 weeks old today and loving every minute...

well maybe not every minute... max had his first round of vaccines last week which was not fun. he is now 10lbs 7oz, 22 in, and healthy as a tick. 7 hour stretches of sleep are more frequent which has been great. ryan's dad "grandpa joe" has been staying with us and taking care of max while i work. we are so lucky to have him. max is passed from one set of warm arms to another... i hope we aren't creating a monster. :)

love our little monster...

6 weeks... hard to believe.

max started smiling last week. not just the "i have gas smile"... but more of the "i see you smile". he smiles when we talk to him and sometimes just smiles at the ceiling fan. it never gets old seeing that precious smile. we are out of newborn clothes and into 3 month clothes which made me a little sad. that didn't take long. he has 4 hour stretches of sleep at night which feels like an eternity. love him... love him... love him...