A Kaplan Journey..............: Taking a Stand

Greetings, friends! I am back after an admittedly lengthy hiatus to share with you all the latest goings on in the Kaplan family. For starters, Max is 10. Months. Old. Holy ass crackers. We have just recieved his 1 year birthday invitations that I ordered in the mail and I swear, if I hadn't placed the order myself and was not anticipating their arrival to my doorstep, reading the invitation in print may have caused me to seize. One year old. It's coming, and FAST (sniff sniff).

Things that have occurred over the course of my blogging hiatus: Max has been sick once, pseudo sick once (teething- hello, molars, you are about a million months early), noticed his shadow for the first time, cruising and standing on his own, mastered the sippy cup, first road trip and overnight at a hotel, our first Mother's Day, and white cheddar cheese doodles. Ok that last one hasn't necessarily 'occurred' so much as been a constant in our pantry, but they're worth noting 'cause they're soooo good and are always there for mommy.

Extracting at random one of the momentous events in our life mentioned above: Taking our "Kaplan Journey" to the most literal of interpretations, Max, Daddy and I ventured out onto the open road last month for a family reunion. Ever the expeditioners, the family decided to commence from all across the country in the most primal of locations: Vegas. While I had some anticipatory reservations (read: bit my nails to the knuckle) about Max in a car for 5 hours, I cannot tell you how PROUD I am to report that he was absolutely incredible on our trip. Slept 12 hours straight through his very first night in a hotel. Mind you, we got a suite with an extra enclosed "wing" for him and re-created his nursery down to the nightlight, but let's give credit where it's due, shall we?
Our time with Josh's dad's side of the family was wonderful...it was so great spending time with them all and we are already looking forward to the next reunion!

Max has a ton of hair. I really can't make a seemless segue into this one. It's getting blonder, if you can believe it, and it has started to curl at the ends. Very beachy, which is a real hoot as his mom's a natural brunette from Chicago. He continues to snap, loves being "surprised", and kicks with joy on the changing table. I'm not dramatic or anything, but I will die a thousand deaths when that stops happening. Hell I practically fell to the floor the day his original bottle of baby lotion ran out. At least his thighs are still chubby sacks of whale blubber.

Big Announcement: Max is finished with physical therapy! He has made so much progress over the past 8 months: he weight-shifts to both sides, crawls normally, and the greatest achievement of all-No More Tilt! Yes, the Tilt (head tilt to one side due to weak left neck muscles) is now a thing of blog archives. His head is totally level, so when he's whining at you because you're sitting on the COUCH in the playroom instead of on the FLOOR with HIM, he can look you straight in the eye.

Speaking of things being over, Max has also completed his first round of swimming lessons. I am so proud of the little guy; he loves the pool and splashing around and is a happy fishy going under water. He could use a little more practice in keeping his mouth shut when going under to avoid swallowing half the pool, however. As soon as we give him the generous cue of "One, Two, Three, Under!", the kid opens his mouth like Pavarotti in the first act of Turandot.

But a perfect child would make for a pretty boring blog, don't ya think?

-hk-