Max: 9 months old

Oh my. I look at this first photo and instantly smile. Max is such a little cheese ball. All he wants to do is roll and CRAWL! around to see what his brother is doing. He is touching and grabbing and headbanging. Yeah, like he always purposefully bangs his head on the walls. My mom says Carson did it too, but I don't remember that. He does the funniest little sideways half-army crawl, but definitely gets where he needs to go without a problem. He sits up if you put him up, but doesn't show any signs of wanting to pull himself up yet. At this point with Carson he was full on walking and into EVERYthing. I'm seriously not complaining though!

We switched him into a big car seat last month because he exceeded the 22 pound limit on the infant carrier. I'm sure he's up another pound or two by now. :)  Don't you love his little comb over too? If I put it straight down it comes to a point between his eyes and it doesn't stay standing up. Carl says he's a dork like that, but we had the exact same conversations when Carson was a baby.

All the faces and sideways stares kill me. The bottom right one is his blowing bubbles face. And his feet seem so big to me!

After lunch, before clean-up and pics.

 He has both of his bottom front teeth and two of his top ones broke through a couple days ago. The second one in the front is about to come through too. I don't know how I got this, but you can see the flailing feet going in front as I dodged them for the shot.

We call this the "George Castanza". He half-poses and half-break dances all over the house. You set him down and he can't sit up by himself so instead he pulls some variation of this pose.

 

 I dare you to resist those thigh rolls......

 

Carmel Vacation, 2012

Carl, Max and I went on our annual trip to Carmel-by-the-Sea, California last week. The weekend that happened to work for everyone fell on us leaving on Carl's birthday. It was fun to get to celebrate while in paradise. We were planning on taking Carson until the travel planning got a little more real. We can't wait to go on a family vacation with just us, but wrangling him around my boss in a rented gorgeous beach house didn't sound very relaxing. Max was plenty of work! The house we got this year was absolutely stunning. We usually stay closer to town, but this year we booked an ocean-front view. There were patios and amazing landscaping around the entire home. Carl's favorite was the hot tub out back. And all things considered, it was only the equivalent of booking two $250 per night hotel rooms which is so much less than we ever expected!

This was our view at sunrise from each side of the kitchen/front balcony:



The year we took Carson he was one month older than what Max is now, Carson at 9 months and Max at 8 months. You can see Carson's trip with us here. We knew Carson absolutely hated the water when we put his feet in, but still had to do it with Max. The weather was really warm, but the water is still really cold. Max hated it probably even more than Carson did and was so mad the rest of that beach visit. He kept crying and fussing and wanted to get out of there.
Ugh, he is so dang cute.


Hopefully this isn't abuse....

"Pick me back up!"


Look at that pouty face.

It's hard to see, but he has tears sitting on his chubby cheeks here:

Getting warm with Daddy.


We spend a lot of time walking around in the little town of Carmel-by-the-Sea too. It is such a unique town that looks nothing like anything I've ever seen before. It's technically only 1.1 square miles and everything else is just Carmel. My favorite discovery this year was that the city laws say that you can't wear high heels without going down to city hall and getting a permit. Apparently it's free and quick and I'm so bummed we didn't do it for a souvenir! Everywhere you look it is like you are in the middle of a fairy tale set.

These plants outside of some shops are my favorite.


The other place we spend a lot of time at is Point Lobos State Reserve. We saw at least 100 dolphins last year and some whales, none of those this year. But you always see otters, seals and/or sea lions. It's one of the most gorgeous places to visit. I loved the challenge of shooting at mid-day, obviously with nothing to give the scenery any shade. I think the sunny haze over the water is so beautiful.



On Saturday we walked/hiked around there for at least 3-4 hours straight and Max slept through almost the entire thing! His sleep got pretty messed up during the days there.

Once he woke up we stopped for a picnic of ridiculously good cheeses, salami, local strawberries and beer. We eat so good when we are there! My boss always spoils us and gets us to try stuff we don't ever eat at home.


We got a family shot on the way out since Max wasn't asleep anymore. You know you want to pinch those cheeks. :)

And since I don't get many with my boys, here is one on our last morning before we hit the road. I just love this little chunk!


Here are some of the iPhone pics from the trip!
Getting on the plane for his first plane ride!

Carmel-by-the-Sea

Tiles in the sidewalk.

He was obsessed with the magazine/media shelf in the living room.

Nap time on the couch.


Oh, and you'd better believe we haven't missed this cake, even for one trip! I have only ever gotten the banana cream, but these were the best ones to get a quick pic of. To. Die. For.

$4.29 was the cheapest gas we could find. Ouch.

I always have to take a pic of my toes for some reason. This was heavenly.


If you get a chance to ever go to Carmel/Monterey........DO IT!