Max is 18 Months!

Our little boy is now 18 months old (August 9th)! He is getting SO big (not literally), but age wise! He went to the doctor yesterday so I can update his stats. Poor little buddy got more shots, you can see him showing his bandaids off below.

 

 Weight: 21 lbs 12.5 oz (4%)

Height: 31 1/2" (22%) 

Head Circumference: 18 1/2" (25%)

 So he is still small in the weight department, but he eats so I'm not going to dwell on it.

 

New Developments: Well, I already told you about all his swinging and climbing.  He loves playing on Gigi's ipad. He enjoys playing outside with all the neighborhood kids. He loves to watch them play and anytime they are outside he freaks out until we go out.

 

He also loves to kick his ball around. We have a neighborhood full of soccer players and Max has taken quite the interest and will successfully kick the ball and make good contact with it all around the house. I'm impressed.  Here he is trying to do tricks like Michael does with his soccer ball.

 

Here he is playing with Noah and Pilar. Max can say Noah pretty well now. These two are going to be trouble! 

He went to Pilars birthday party this weekend and got himself a balloon. He carried and played with it 24/7 until it popped.  Such a cutie pie.

Here he is dancing with all the big kids at the party. He was shy until the balloons came out.

Max loves to crayon in the bathtub. He also likes to stick things on his fingers; olives, crayons, cheerios, you name it.

He also does this new Ooo face (it's more dramatic than this picture) when he does an oppsy. He doesn't say a ton of words, but is a great communicator.  He knows maybe 20-30 ish words? I'm guessing on that, but some of his favorites are still car, ball, dog, straw, cracker, shoes, plug, Gigi, bird, balloon, book, &  noodle.  I'd like to see him start putting together 2 words.

He understands everything we say and is definitely in the monkey see, monkey do imitation phase.  He tries to say most the words when I ask him "can you say __?" He still points out all his body parts when asked.

He signs water and more a lot.  We're trying to introduce please and thank you.

He has 12 teeth with 4 more that you can see coming up! We had to get him a little electric tooth brush and he's doing much better with letting us brush them.

Eating: He still loves his raisin toast in the morning followed by his smoothie, fruit and cereal for breakfast.

 

For lunch he likes sandwiches or leftovers.  He then eats constantly from the time his afternoon nap is over until dinner since most times we are preparing dinner and he just wants to "help".  Dinner he eats most things but his favorites are meat, most veggies except he starting not liking his greens with the exception of peas, tomatoes, avoacados, noodles (no sauce) and any fruit. He loves peas.  He drinks coconut milk with lunch and dinner and almond milk in smoothies. Other than that he is a water boy.

He's just so cute.

Sleeping: A little after his 15/16 month update we went down to 1 nap a day around 1pm. If he is in the car at any point in the morning he will fall asleep though. He can do a little cat nap and still go for his nap later. He averages 2 hours for his nap and on some glorious days it's 3. Since summer has been here he's been going to bed a little later. We try to start bath at 7:30/7:45pm and then he has cereal before bed and books at 8:15pm followed by bed at 8:30pm. He sleeps usually until 6:30am-7:15am. We only give him his pacci in his crib now and he throws it in the crib before we head downstairs.  If we play upstairs during the day though, he thinks it's a challenge to go in his room and get his pacci out. I don't know how he does it most times, he's sneaky.

He is OBSESSED with cords still and plugs. If he is using the ipad, he wants it plugged in.  He also loves tools. He found David's screw drivers and I was getting ready one day and he swings open my linen closet door and finds the bracket with the screws and is trying to unscrew them.

Max also loves anything his daddy is doing. He has to go downstairs with him, outside, anywhere.

Personality: He is just a happy little guy all day long. He gets a little grumpy after naps, but he just needs a little food to pick him back up.  Molly is still his BFF.

He is wearing 18 month clothes still with some shorts/pants at 12 months.  We are going to need to get drawstring pants here coming up for the fall.

 

Size 3 pampers cruiser diapers. 

He loves his mama and I don't care if he is a mama's boy. We love him so. I'll leave you with an adorable video of him laughing.  It's not focused on his face that much because I was making him laugh and videoing at the same time.

Burlap Wreath with Chevron Ribbon

My mom is super crafty as we all know and she decided to make us a burlap wreath for the front door. She used a few tutorials, but this one was the foundation for the burlap. As always she did a fantastic job! Thanks Mom!

We just have to get a fancy W for the middle.

Peekaboo!

It really adds a nice touch of character to the entry way. Don't mind our red flower basket, it's on it's last leg.

North Georgia Winery Trip

For my birthday/anniversary present David planned a night away to Dahlonega. I am always mentioning checking out the vineyards up there so I was excited. After David told me that he had a hard time even finding someplace to stay I set off into research mode to figure out why. We were just planning on visiting one of the wineries and maybe eating dinner there, but why not add in 4 more wineries? Thanks to my mom for watching Max for us!! FYI- Lots of photos with this post, I am too lazy to make collages. 

This particular weekend was the Wine Trail Weekend. For $25 you can visit 5 of the local vineyards for a tasting. This seemed a bit high to me, but after looking at each individual place and the cost of $10-15 per tasting, I was sold. Plus, you also received a free wine glass.

Our first stop was the visitors center in downtown Dahlonega for our passport book (with our tickets) and our wine glasses. We then stopped at Wolf Mountain. This winery is by far the most elaborate and upscale.

The beautiful vineyard as we drove in.

This is a view from the parking area looking up.  This is the tasting area, restaurant and decks.  They are only open for lunches and special wine dinners (occasionally).

This is the view looking out towards the mountains. The area to the right is the outdoor covered wedding ceremony location.

This is a type of lodge/house that you can stay at if you are a member of their wine club. You have to pay for this also, but you can only get access if you are wine club members I think.

Such luscious plants and grounds.

We set up the camera for a quick photo at Wolf Mountain wedding spot.

Next stop was Cavender Creek Vineyards.  This one reminded me of the casual atmosphere of the upstate NY vineyards. Let me remind you of how many we have on the fingerlakes. It really is nuts how many there are up there.

  Anyways, Cavender creek is known for their donkeys they have on premises.

 They have a cute little cottage/cabin where the tastings happen. I really liked some of the wines they had there, but at $19 a bottle, I wasn't about to be bringing a bunch home (that's pretty much the going rate for a good tasting bottle).

 

Next stop was Frogtown Cellars. 

 

The view from the road. They also have a restaurant/lunch panini cafe. Their deck wraps around and has a lot of seating.

As you can see by the cars, it started to get crowded now. The first two places really wasn't bad at all.  I was afraid it would take forever, but we made such good time that's why we kept going. Luckily David isn't a huge wine drinker so that made for a good driver.

 

 We were staying at the Dahlonega spa and resort, which was only 1 mile from Frogtown so we decided to check-in since it was around 3ish after we finished at Frogtown. This was our view driving up.

The bed and breakfast is known for their yoga retreats and serene atmosphere. They have no TV's. They do have wifi in the main house.

You can also stay at cottages.

This is the main house where you can stay in one of their farmhouse rooms and they also serve breakfast, lunch and dinner (breakfast included in our rate).

We opted to pay a little extra to get one of their 8 cabins.

No wonder David wanted to make sure we got there at 3 like we said we would! He surprised me with some champagne and chocolate covered strawberries!

Our cabin came with a kitchen area and a mini fridge.

It was really nice and I would highly recommend the place.  They also had a big hot tub for everyone to use. It was raining so we were the only ones that were in it, but still a nice feature. If we're friends on instagram (Jens871) you saw it.

We headed back out after checking-in to see if we had time to check off the other 2 vineyards. Montaluce was the farthest away, and one I was going to skip because I had been there before for my bachelorette party outing.

They have gorgeous views and a nice LONG bar inside.

Our last stop was back close to our cabin, 3 Sisters. We literally had 15 minutes before 5pm when they were to close so we hustled inside and I didn't take many pictures. This was our least favorite, but maybe it's because it was closing time. But we made it so that's all that mattered! Here is our ratings from most favorite to least on this visit: Wolf Mountain, Frogtown, Cavender Creek, Montaluce and 3 Sisters.