Our Last First Birthday

On June 28, 2012, we welcomed the third and final baby boy into our family. He was cute, pink, and healthy, and we loved him immediately. We named him Malcolm and brought him home to his loving big brothers who have taught him much about mortality as the youngest of three.

Now, a year later, he is walking (tenuously but hands-free), babbling and working on "Momma" and "Dadda," and is just a pleasure to watch and play with.

On his arrival day


A year later


Even with how much he is loved at home, I whisked him away from his home the day before his birthday and dragged him to Houston to visit his Aunt Nae and a plethora of cousins (well, seven). But being in a household with seven kids has its perks. One of those is that they really know how to celebrate a First Birthday! They broke out the chocolate cake, and Mr. Malcolm went to town!











A look I'm sure to see for years to come...


Happy Birthday Baby Boy!

The world of food...

We growth and development comes the addition of real food. Malcolm has become a huge fan of yogurt, and you can really tell from these shots below. It's hard to believe he's already 8-months-old!

 

On the move...

Malcolm has been rolling all over the place for a few weeks. Now, he has added a new form of mobility to his skill-set. We are in the pre-crawling stages of moving, and he's getting pretty good at getting what he wants while he's roaming around on the floor.

Building up the neck muscles


Working on the plank position


Up on the hands and knees


And back to the plank


And, here's the whole thing in motion!


So cute!

Blizzard 2013

"Nemo" was forecast for several days in advance, so we had plenty of time to prepare for the "Blizzard of 2013." We always store water, extra food, batteries, flashlights, and a little extra gasoline for the snow blower and lawn mower. But I did add a back-up power pack for my phone (or anything with a mini-USB or regular USB charger) and got an extra gallon of milk on Thursday.

Nemo moved in on Friday afternoon as predicted and started to grace us with big, fluffy flakes. Every school in the state closed in anticipation of the event. So the kids and I were home to enjoy the lack of snow and watch endless weather reports. Ian went into work early and came home on the 2:10 train (the MBTA closed down at 3:30 to prepare for the weather).

By 4:30 we had a few inches of snow, so Ian and the kids headed out even though it was starting to get a little dark.





Snow baseball. If you look closely, you can see that Aiden has gotten a piece of this one!








Malcolm and I mostly stayed inside, but, in an effort to be "in the picture" and to bend to the demands of peeps on Facebook, I took Mr. M outside for just a few minutes. I don't think he was impressed.


On Saturday morning, we woke up to the power on (YAY!) and a just a little more snow.






Everyone was fascinated by the continuous weather updates!


Ian took the kids outside, but Devin was overwhelmed by the snow (of course, if you were shorter than the average snowdrift, you'd probably be a bit nervous, too). So he came inside to enjoy some fun in his "fort."






Ian and Aiden lived it up outside for close to TWO hours!




Love this picture! I might have to have it framed.


And, who needs a hill when you have stairs?


The following day, Ian got down to the business of clearing the driveway. Thank goodness we bought a snow blower when we moved in to this house!




You can see all the pictures of our fun here:
 

Spelunking

Malcolm is now 7-months-old and has developed these sharp, white growths inside his mouth. So I went adventuring to see if I could capture proof of their existence.

My efforts were routinely rebuffed.


Here I almost got a glimpse of my prize... but, it's only gum.


After ages of having the camera in hand while trying to get Malcolm to smile, I was treated to this expression. "Seriously, lady? What is your damage?"


Then, finally, I got lucky!


TEETH!

Wild Times

With a gaggle of little boys running around, you're bound to open the door and find all kinds of wild behaviors being displayed inside our walls. But the favorite state of wildness is definitely the state of undress! Everything seems to be more fun when unconstrained by clothing. It makes taking pictures challenging, but, every once in a while, we seem to catch a few smiles while keeping our dignity in tact.

Rolly Polly Baby Boy

Malcolm is 7-months-old next Monday, and he's been rolling everywhere! I can't leave him on the floor unattended because he tends to roll himself over to the nearest piece of furniture and wedge his legs underneath. But, it's a darn cute thing to watch!