One Year Old

Maverick one year old this month!  He's a big boy, weighing in at about 26 pounds.  On the 26th, he got his first hair cut.  Gloria, a long time friend of ours, did the honors.  She also gave Rocco his first hair cut years ago.  Little man fussed at first, and then he let her do the task.  I guess it helped that he was sitting in his daddy's lap.  I took pictures while Carolyn and Rocco watched from the side.

Maverick really took off walking within the last month.  He went from using a cane, to an upside down mini golf club, to no assistance at all.  Within two weeks, he was walking!  By his first birthday he was a little pro at walking!

We celebrated his first birthday Sesame Street style!  The party was for family and held at our house on Saturday, March 23rd.  I decorated the garage and kitchen/living room. Angela, the nursery worker at our church, made the 3 hanging tissue characters.   Jennifer Taylor's mother-in-law did the cake.

 His present from us was a red Polaris Ranger that plays music and makes noise.  It's just the right size for him to push and ride on.

And here's our family at the party right before we sang Happy Birthday and Rocco blew out the candle for his brother.

 Little man dug into the cake just a little.  Then, he got upset that he was dirty.

Six Years Eleven Months

Rocco is almost seven years old. He weighs about 36 pounds and is 3 ft. 7 1/2 inches tall.  He's one tough dude.  Just look at him dressed up like a sheriff.  He loves to pretend, especially with his toy guns. 

He has a gun holster that he likes to carry around his waist.  Don't mess with this cowboy!

One of his best friends from school, Hunter, had a birthday party this month.  They enjoyed playing cowboys, even though it was supposed to be a baseball themed party.  They get together so well because they are both Georgia Dawg fans.  They've also been on the same tee ball team for the last couple of years.  

Rocco began writing about wild cats in January.  It took him about two months to complete his book.  I helped him illustrate it by copying pictures from the internet and gluing them into his pages.  I also bound it at school, so it could be published (just for our enjoyment).  He wrote the book with very little help from me.  I let him sound out many of the words that he didn't know how to spell.  I would pull up videos on National Geographic and read books to him about pumas, cougars, lions, cheetahs, jaguars, and any other wildcat you can think of.  The ending result was a well published book by my favorite six year old.  Below is a sample page.

Rocco is so into wildcats that when he comes to my room after school, he takes out my staple removers and pretends they are cheetahs with sharp teeth.

Rocco continues to love football.  If a game is ever on TV, he's either watching it or running through the house with his helmet on and pretending he's actually playing.  He jumps over Maverick's toys and runs into the couch pretending like the obstacles are other players.  Sometimes he'll ask me to announce the Bulldogs so that he can run down the hall and make his grand appearance.  He's convinced that when he grows up he is going to be a receiver for the team.

Jason is such a good dad - in the morning when he fixes Rocco's toaster streudel he will put the icing on the pastry to look like a football field.  One morning I just glumped it in one big pile.  With disgust, Rocco asked me, "What's that supposed to be, mom?"  Guess I don't do breakfast as well as daddy does.

Rocco had his first experience at the orthodontist this month.  Although he will probably need braces later, it was determined that for now he will just have some "blue glue" on his teeth.  This will keep his adult teeth from grinding and wearing down since his bite isn't just right yet.  Maybe in the summer he will get a few brackets on.  He needs to quit grinding, though, because I've already taken him three times to get glue. He keeps wearing it down.

And as always Rocco continues to be an excellent big brother.  He's actually come to Maverick's rescue several times.  Like the other day when I saw the baby put something into his mouth.  "Rocco, check his mouth. Quick!" I told him.  Sure enough, Rocco pulled out a quarter out of Maverick's mouth.  He didn't waste any time. Praise the Lord he didn't choke!  Another time he also pulled a tiny football out of Maverick's mouth.  One time the door was open going down to the basement, and Rocco closed it so that the baby wouldn't fall down the long staircase into the basement.  I now know why I had Rocco first.  What would I do without his help in watching Maverick?