2011, you have been berry, berry good to me.

It's that time of year again....the end of it. Time for all of us to enjoy that second (cough-third) brownie, guilt- free as we make the excuse and mental promise of a vegan new year and vow to finally unwrap the food scale. The time to reflect on all the previous year has brought with it, the good, the bad, the sweet, the bitter. For the Kaplan Journey, 2011 has proven to be a year full of abundance: an abundance of support and laughter with family and friends, an abundance of sleepless nights and trying to conclude which way is up most days, and most importantly, an abundance of love for our darling son Max - our every heartbeat, our every breath, our everything. 2011 will forever mark the year Josh and I first became parents; the year I discovered more about myself - my abilities, my strength, my dragons - than ever before; the year I had a true awakening.

As I think ahead to the upcoming year, I almost can't believe that in the space of the next 12 months, Max will be crawling, walking, TALKING, having his first birthday, eating his first sweet. He's already changed and grown so drastically over the past 5 months, each day practically feeling like Christmas morning again and again as Josh and I get to discover his latest ability, milestone, quirk, characteristic. Life's most precious stocking stuffers :) To think that we get to enjoy this even more in 2012 and beyond, well.... I just thank God for blessing us with such a treasure.

To the readers of this blog, I wish each of you a heartfelt Happy New Year. May you take it into your own hands and create for yourself a year you are proud of. May you use your talents, impact the world for the better on whatever scale you can, and wave to your neighbors. May you enjoy good health and appreciate the good health of your loved ones. May you experience moments of real belly laughter, the kind of moments where the humor sticks with you years later, to be enjoyed all over again.

May YOUR Journey be a wonderful one, in the upcoming year and all the years thereafter!

Happy New Year!

Love,

The Kaplans

Muckmucks Nummybubs

Life in the Kaplan household has been full steam ahead (or is it "full SPEED ahead"? I don't know. I'm too tired to Google it. Just know it's bonkers around this joint). Max is growing up incredibly fast - he was 16.6 lbs at his four month well check. Any mom will tell you that we now operate by the language of percentiles (Johnny drooled at 13 weeks? What percentile is that? Betty took her fourth poopie today? WHAT PERCENTILE IS THAT?). So I will tell you that Max's weight puts him in the 75th percentile, and he is in the 83rd percentile for height. While this last stastistic is not overwhelming in its significance at this point of life, Daddy and I did a Happy Dance over it at the pediatrician's office. Max's genetics came to a fork in the road somewhere over the course of 9 gestational months: "Vertically Challenged - THIS way", "Average to Tall Stature - THIS way". Time will only tell how his DNA forged ahead. But to just paint of picture for ya - my great grandfather was a horse jockey. True story.

Besides teething, rolling to his side, and sleeping 12 hours a night (doin' the Dougie), Max has recently started to eat solids! So far, we have fed him rice cereal, applesauce, squash, and now peas, which are his favorite evidenced by numerous smiles and tracking the full spoon like a Russian spy on uppers. We don't feed him solids exclusively yet and he still takes his formula. Recently, we have had quite the time trying to get him to engage in eating from his bottle, as he now seems to enjoy punching it with a legitimate "left hook", over and over and over again. If our neighbors should overhear the conversation in our household, they may be alarmed: "Ugh! Honey, the baby's hittin' the bottle again!"

You may have wondered since my earliest posts what ever transpired with the whole "baby talk" issue. We're going to pretend that you did, anyway. Well, it's with confidence and satisfaction - and with Josh's disdain- that I can report that I engage in baby talk with Max all the time. High pitched voice warmed up, I talk to him about everything from his toesie-woesies to how nasty-wasty those Kardashians behave. I am the first one, however, to admit when I may have taken the baby jargon a little too far. Case in point: over the course of the past 5 months, my term for Max's formula has somehow landed on calling it "milk milk". Right. Not just "milk", but a double "milk MILK". And I say it fast, like all one word. After awhile, the phonics of "milk milk" ended up blending itself into the ever-popular NON-word of "Muckmuck" (can you picture Josh's face at this point?). So I'm feeding Max his muckmuck and trying to have some sort of dialog with him. What better topic than to discuss how yummy - or, in my case - NUMMY! - his muckmuck is. Tack on his nickname - Bubs - at the end, and you pretty much have a case of high pitched babytalk sugar diarrhea.

"Muck muck's Nummy, Bubs!"

Whoa.

Even I threw up a little.

 

Bubba's growing up. . . . I guess they do that. . . .

So I realize that I have dropped the proverbial ball on my blog entries over the last month. But in my defense, how much developement does an infant actually DO within a span of 5 weeks?

Oh, right.

I may as well just dive right into updates and happenings. Without referring to my last entry (I'm like an uppity actress - I never look at my previous work), I believe I left off right before Thanksgiving. It was delicious all around and we had a wonderful time with our families! I noticed during dinner, however, that Max was acting fussy and just plain "off". He had a case of the crankies, wasn't sleeping well, and was knawing on his hands like the last supper. My first thought: my God, the kid's teething! A few days later, when his symptoms had not yet subsided, I took him to the pediatrician to get the once and for all that Max was working on his very first chomper, but alas, she told me he was probably just battling a bug because she didn't feel any imminent teeth.

But lo and behold, a week later.....

Not actual tooth

His front bottom tooth popped through! If I wasn't dizzy over this kid's cuteness before, I'm pretty much passed out on the floorboards by this point.


Anywhoo, since Thanksgiving, Max has had all sorts of fun little outings. Recently, Max's grandparents took he and I, along with Uncle Andy, to see Winnie The Pooh at the Valley Youth Theatre in Phoenix.  We sat in the front row so Max could take in all the Poohy goodness. I was curious to observe if Max would be engaged during the play, seeing as though he was less than 4.5 months old at the time. But within 3 minutes of it starting, he was transfixed, his eyes like saucers, mouth agape as though he had never seen anything like it his entire life.Wait a minute...

As if all this weren't exciting enough, Max celebrates his very first Hanukkah and Christmas this year! As is tradition, Josh and I will be hosting Christmas Eve dinner/games/gifts/drinks this year, although it won't be quite the same, as my brother is not able to make it due to a professional obligation. We'll miss you bro-ski. Max has already gotten his first Hanukkah goodies from family (Thanks Grandpa Keith, Grandma Janet, Aunt Susie and Uncle Mike!), and will have his first Christmas morning stocking experience on Sunday. Prediction: ignores toy, attempts to eat stocking.