Easter is over. But candy is here to stay.

We had a great Easter. But I'm not really in the mood to type about it, so let's just rely on pictures, shall we? For church, I broke out this dress that I last wore in 2009, to Paul and Olympia's wedding. I'm feeling pretty good about the fact that it fits again...with more room to spare than it had back then, even. And to celebrate that fact, I ate a lot of candy. Appropriate, right?

Before Easter, the Ludwigs acquired the greatest wagon ever. Sorry Mimi - we didn't realize it was your gardening wagon. But we will take good care of the Berlin Express.





Was there EVER a cuter bunny?? (Bailey thinks not)



I seriously can't get enough of these cheeks:


I also can't get enough of these "reverse Easter bunny" teeth. (as long as they're not biting me, that is)...


And because one photo session with the $1 bunny ears was NOT enough (my opinion, NOT Max's)...we spent some time outside while Chris built his herb garden.



The herb garden is awesome. Maybe one day he'll buy some dirt and plant his herbs in there...


Anyway, back to Easter. Chris made Max this cute bunny cake. Max wasn't sure what he was supposed to do with it, however. "Can I eat it? No? Can I play with it? NO?? I'm confused...oh, you just made this cake for ME so you guys could eat it? Got it. I need to grow some more teeth."


And then Max got to look in his (empty) Easter basket. Better luck next year, kid. But don't worry, this year Mom and Dad will eat candy in your honor!


Easter Day was beautiful. The perfect day for an egg hunt. But Max isn't quite ready for that...so, we made it easy for him. Here kid, have a bunch of eggs.






We concluded the day at Mimi and Pop Pop's with a traditional Easter dinner. Fajitas. What? That is a traditional Easter dinner...in Mexico probably. Regardless, they were good. And this little Easter bunny was pooped after his first Easter. And he didn't even have to hunt his own eggs! Next year ought to really wipe him out!

8 Months Old.

Max was 8 months old this week. I can't believe it. Here's what he's been up to:


He's got his second cold ever.Really he's over it, but he has this lingering runny nose (note picture above). Thankfully, it hasn't really messed up his night-time sleeping. He sleeps from about 6:30-7:00 pm until 6:30 AM. Not bad...if I could just convince him to sleep in until 7:00 AM we'd be golden...but I better not get too greedy.

He's still not taking naps like I'd like him to. Although we have transitioned to crib napping (at least in the afternoons), it's done nothing to help lengthen his naps. I'm lucky to get a 40 minute nap out of him (that's a long one)...unless of course I'm feeding him, in which case he can fall asleep for over an hour on my lap. Which is REALLY boring and unproductive for me, considering if I move him he wakes up and is infuriated. So, I spend lots of time watching him do this (and hopefully I've at least remembered to put a book to read nearby):

Max is fascinated with his tongue and what it can do. He spends a lot of time sticking it out and trying to do tricks with it. I wonder if he'll be able to touch his nose with his tongue like me? (He MAY have just been licking the snot from his nose in the picture below...)

He's trying his darndest to crawl, but he mostly just scoots backward and gets stuck on or under things.


He's still only got 2 teeth, but who needs teeth when all your food is pureed by your Mom anyway? (Come to think of it, PopPop could have saved a lot of money if he had just had Mimi prepare all his meals in the VitaMix)

Some things Max loves:

His best buddy Bailey.


Watching his Baby Einstein videos (while twiddling his feet, which he does ALL the time and is just about the cutest darn thing ever).


Playing outside on pretty days - so much to see! - under Bailey's watchful eye.

BATHTIME - he loves everything about it: splashing in the water, getting scrubbed with the washcloth, the modesty monkey. I hope he loves swimming just as much!

Roughhousing of any sort. Max LOVES to be thrown in the air - the higher the better. He also loves when Daddy does the "free fall" with him. He loves to bounce, jiggle, or any other sort of exaggerated movement. I'm predicting he's going to LOVE Six Flags and be an adrenaline junkie (uh oh). He even loves to be dangled over dangerous creatures:


Some things he dislikes:

Mom's endless photo sessions.


Getting dressed. Boy does he put up a fight!

Trying new foods. This was his first taste of green beans.
(Come ON, Mr. Overly Dramatic. 5 minutes later he was happily gobbling them up.)

Loud noises. I think this has been discussed before. I really can't understand how this is a problem for him living in our house. He did MUCH better at Mother Goose on the Loose today...but he did have a semi break down when she did "Two Little Dickie Birds" again today. As Julie said, though "He pulled it together nicely, though." That's my boy!

Napping. Have I mentioned that the boy hates napping?

I really can't think of anything else he dislikes. He's a pretty darn happy kid. I can't wait to see what his newest favorites are! Until then, we'll spend our time trying to figure out what color his eyes are. (??)

At least my fingers don't hurt.

What does it mean when Sunday night finds you curled up on the couch underneath a blanket, suntanned, sore, and exhausted? It means that it was a good weekend! And since all of the above apply to me right now, I'd say the Ludwigs' weekend was a winner.

Saturday started off with a bang - literally. Thunderstorms and tornado warnings put a damper on our exciting plans of raking up sweetgum balls at Mema's house. So, we went to Mom and Dad's and hung out there for a bit with Dad, Paul, and Lympi...who are still working on moving out 4 months later. From there we (minus Dad, who insisted on waiting around in hopes that Mom would bring him some lunch at some point in the day) went to Milano for lunch. (Where Chris has an issue 100% of the time in trying to substitute a salad for fries. 100% of the time.) While at lunch, the observation was made that the sun was now out...and that regardless of the fact that the wind was blowing at 900 knots (is that possible?), we probably needed to head to Mema's and take care of those balls. (insert joke here. trust me, many sophisticated jokes were made during this chore). So, off to Greenville we go. And we raked up balls. It was supposed to take us hours upon hours, but I think it took one hour. And then we ate brownies. Not bad. At least Max made the smart choice, diet-wise.


(It's Diet Coke. We start the addiction early around here. Actually, his addiction was most likely started in utero.)

We wrapped up Saturday night with pizza (healthy and made at home - yay us!) and a movie. Oh, and a very valuable fashion lesson was learned on Saturday. If you wear galoshes because it's raining at the beginning of the day, be sure that you carry a change of shoes just in case. Because if you're wearing galoshes when the day becomes sunny and beautiful, no matter how cute you looked earlier, you really just look stupid. (Take THAT fashion bloggers!)

This morning when I got up, guess who was loitering by the front door again???

The Easter Bunny sure has been enjoying our little patch of weeds in the front yard. Environmentalists that we are, I think we'll just continue to NOT cut our grass so that the Easter Bunny has something to eat. Hopefully the neighbors are ok with that.

Today was Palm Sunday. I have memories of Palm Sundays when I was younger, and I remember always being excited to get my own palm leaf to wave on that day. Max got his first palm leaf today and he thoroughly enjoyed it (literally. at one point, we discovered him eating one of the palm fronds. Hello, attentive parents.)

(Doesn't he look like a little monkey? Well, do monkeys climb palm trees? Not sure. Ok, doesn't he look like a little koala bear? No, they don't climb palm trees either. He looks like a little raccoon. I KNOW they climb palm trees...exhibit A below)



I think it's understandable that we didn't notice Max eating the palm frond, though. We were distracted. See, today was the annual Easter Cantata at church. I have been looking forward to it for weeks because I know the Simpsonville United Methodist Church choir always does a great Cantata. And it was awesome - especially the little girl choir. So cute! But what probably distracted us most was the liturgical dancer. She was obviously a talented ballerina, but Chris and I both couldn't stop thinking about Napolean Dynamite and the Happy Hands Club during her performance.


After church, it was time to hit the trail! We met up with Mimi and PopPop as they embarked on one of their last ditch attempts at getting "conditioned" for their biking tour next month in the Netherlands (or as I like to call it, DeathBike 2011). Just kidding! :)

The Swamp Rabbit Trail was rather harrowing today, though. We witnessed several wrecks and we had two could-have-been-altercations with oblivious bikers. I hereby decree that anyone choosing to bike the trail should be forced to take a course in "Bike Trail Etiquette"...based on today's experience, most people would flunk this course. And on second thought, Mimi and PopPop should be able to survive DeathBike 2011 after today's ride.

To reward ourselves for surviving, the Ludwigs stopped by The Blueberry Frog on the way home. Even more rewarding, we had half-price certificates. Yay! Look at this deliciousness.

(Key Lime yogurt with white chocolate chips, nilla wafers, and pecans...YUMMMMMMMM) We were not disappointed. That goes for all of us.

(And Max would like to go ahead and take this opportunity to thank Nana for testing the waters as far as his dairy tolerance so that we felt somewhat ok with letting him have a taste of our yogurt.)



And now, with the baby bathed and in bed, the dinner eaten and cleaned up, and the dog walked (by Chris - I couldn't take a walk if my life depended on it right now), we're ending our fun weekend on a great note...watching spiders rip other insects' heads off compliments of some creepy show Chris taped on DVR. Ahhh, weekends.

Hey there, Easter Bunny!

The Easter bunny has been scoping out our house. I think he heard that this is Max's first Easter. He also clearly heard that Bailey is a 100% ineffective guard dog...brazen little sucker practically hopped up and rang the doorbell!





Max and I went to an Easter party at Julie's house today. I thought it might be a good idea for Max to watch an Easter egg hunt so that when he's big enough to take part in one, he'll know what to do. Maybe it will give him an edge. Those things can get pretty competitive. Next year he'll be ready!



But this year, Mr. Easter Bunny, just ring the doorbell and leave Max's treats on the front mat. Thanks!

Don't burst my bubble!

Little sicky seemed to be a little bit better this morning, so I decided we should make today Max's first time to the "Mother Goose on the Loose" program at the Simpsonville library. I had planned to take him to the 11:00 program, because the 10:00 program would have been directly during his mid-morning mealtime. Unfortunately, he opted to only take a 30 minute nap this morning, which really just sets us all up for a rocky afternoon. But, off we went anyway...kleenex and Sophie at the ready.

We got there and the program started and so far so good. He enjoyed the poetry reading and the first few songs. But then, Miss Donna got out the drum. She took the drum around the room and each kid got to beat out the syllables of his or her name on the drum (poor Max, only one drum beat for him!)...but he would have been happy with zero! The minute Miss Donna slapped that drum, Max's face contorted into a look of abject terror. The look that indicates he is about to let out an ear-piercing wail. I think it was a combination of not feeling well and being tired...but he wasn't having it. He calmed down enough for me to tap his little hand on the drum and he even cheered up for a couple more songs. But next thing you know Miss Donna brought out two little birdie puppets and starting screaming at the top of her lungs. It went something like this:

Two little blackbirds
Sitting on a cloud.
One named soft.
One named LOUD.
Fly away soft.
Fly away LOUD.
Come back soft.
Come back LOUD.

I'm sure you can imagine when she was screaming...and when she was whispering. Let's just say that Max prefers whispers. (Odd, considering that in the Ludwig house, our "indoor voices" are what most people would probably consider yelling).

Anyway, I think it's worth another try and we'll be back next week. Plus, you know what makes everything better? That's right...bubbles!!!!!!! (and naps, but Max doesn't believe in those.)

Poor Little Sicky.

Poor little guy has his second ever cold. He's pitiful. Look at those sad eyes. The only time he didn't whine today was when I let him watch Baby Einstein. He's miserable. I'm listening to him wheeze over the baby monitor right now, as he sleeps in his room with the humidifier on full blast and a bowl of Vapo-Rub/hot water right beside his bed. I hope he gets over it quickly and back to his usual happy self! At least we were able to enjoy a fun family day yesterday before Max got too sick. We were so happy that Chris was able to stay home on a Monday with us. He finally got to go to the Greenville Zoo with us! It's so much more fun when there's someone to hold the baby AND someone to push the stroller! Time for today's quiz: What is this?




A) A Translucent Fetus
B) An Axolotl
C) A White German Sausage
D) One of Bailey's Squeaky Toys

Answer: B
Don't say you never learned anything reading this blog. That guy is an Axolotl, "a neotenic mole salamander belonging to the Tiger Salamander complex. Larvae of this species fail to undergo metamorphosis, so the adults remain aquatic and gilled." Creepy, huh? Go here if you just have to learn more. Moving on. This was Max's first time sitting on this lion, but I have a feeling it will not be his last. I'm just glad he didn't react the way Sam always did to the similar bear. (If you're wondering, that's pollen in my hair - it was a polleny day). Next we had to stop and examine the giraffes. You know Max has a thing for giraffes...and frankly, so do I. Now, I have always claimed to have a connection to animals, but nobody really takes me seriously. I think this picture demonstrates my skill. I told the giraffe (I believe that was Walter) to stand in the pose shown on the informational sign...I think the results speak for themselves. (Max was clearly impressed with my prowess) Next up: snacktime. When Max gets a little bigger, we'll use this guy as a way to learn his colors, but for now he's just really pretty to look at (I just wish I knew why he was digging around in the bark and putting huge piles of it in his beak...): So after the Zoo, and a quick(ish) trip to Costco, it was time to go home. We tried to have a little bit of fun with the super-cute bubble blower that Mimi gave Max for Easter...but looking back at these pictures, I think he might have been starting to feel bad at this point already. His heart just wasn't in it. Poor guy.