We're off to a good start this Spring, with a couple of Easter celebrations and Max's first Cincinnati Reds Opening Day. And, the month got even better when Ryan, Max's brother-in-law (Jessica's husband) returned safely with his unit from Iraq.
For our first Easter celebration, Kathleen and I bundled up Max and BFF Ellie and headed to the Easter Egg Hunt at The Beach Water Park the weekend before Easter. This was one of my first "big" kid-oriented events, and I had claustrophobia and an "oh-my-gosh-I-could-have-organized-this-so-much-better" 'tude from the start. :-) But, despite there being a wacky ratio of kids to staff members (as in VERY FEW staff members and a clearly underestimated account of potential attendance), we managed through the confusion and the kids had a great time. We were surrounded by empty pools, and Max spent alot of time pushing Ellie around in the stroller inside of the giant empty wave pool. At least he had alot of open space to cover!
This is Max's first experience up close and personal with a person dressed as something. You'll remember that he was really scared of the Elmo Live doll, and a couple of people asked me if he was scared of "characters" like this. I wasn't sure, as he'd never really been around any! But, as you can see, he was willing to sit on the Easter Bunny's lap, although he had that "I'm not so sure about this" look on his face the entire time. BTW, I had up to this point never uttered the words "Easter Bunny" to him -- never ever. No books about Easter Bunnies, no talk about Easter Baskets, nada. He saw this white blob of fur and yelled, "Easter Bunny!" I can only assume he learned this from school! Ugh, my loss of control has started already.
This is Max's first experience up close and personal with a person dressed as something. You'll remember that he was really scared of the Elmo Live doll, and a couple of people asked me if he was scared of "characters" like this. I wasn't sure, as he'd never really been around any! But, as you can see, he was willing to sit on the Easter Bunny's lap, although he had that "I'm not so sure about this" look on his face the entire time. BTW, I had up to this point never uttered the words "Easter Bunny" to him -- never ever. No books about Easter Bunnies, no talk about Easter Baskets, nada. He saw this white blob of fur and yelled, "Easter Bunny!" I can only assume he learned this from school! Ugh, my loss of control has started already.
Max was willing to join the throngs of little kids during the actual hunt (with Kathleen at his side), but Ellie was content to sit in one place and take in the scenery. I love this picture, because Max saw that Ellie didn't have any eggs so he took one from his basket and gave it to her. Please, Lord, give me the ability to raise a boy that is this kindhearted for the rest of his life.
After the big hunt, we stood in line and rode the ponies. This is Max's second time on a pony -- his first was last fall with Kaz cousins Sophie and Nick. He was much more brave this time and I didn't have to walk with him or anything. He waited patiently in line (sort of) while shouting "My Ponies!" over and over again.
Then it was off to a park to enjoy the rest of the beautiful sunny Spring day, where Ellie used a bit of static electricity from the slide to impersonate Billy Idol.
A few days later, the snow and sleet and rain moved back in just in time for the Reds Opening Day baseball game. Not to be discouraged, we packed up our football-weather gear and headed to the game. Our seats were up VERY high in the stands -- so high that we had a nice view of the Ohio River. Max spent the entire time (well, the 6 innings that we hung in there) watching boats come and go. Every time the stands erupted in cheers, he jumped up and down, clapping and yelling, "Yay boats, yay boats." I'm relatively certain he had no idea that a baseball game was being played multiple stories below us, and instead assumed that 45,000 people has assembled to watch the boats.
As we were leaving the stadium, we literally bumped into all of the Reds mascots who were being shuttled from one part of the stadium to another by the PR staff. So, Max had another encounter with big blobs of fur and big heads. I've been to a gazillion Reds and Bengals games and have never just bumped into these mascots. How cool is it that our son got to be up close and personal at his very first Opening Day?!
Feeling like the perennial Reds fan, Max then pretended to be a Cincinnati Red.
That afternoon, we piled in the car and drove up I-75, meeting my mom and brother halfway between our three homes in the small town of Sydney, Ohio. (GREAT IDEA, Mom!!) My mom found a nice little restaurant for lunch, and then she had scoped out what turned out to be a great park in which to spend the rest of the day and early evening. It was a bit chilly, but the bright sun made it easier to overlook the brisk weather. I dressed Max in his cute Easter duds, and I wish I had taken more pictures of him that day (without his jacket, although I love this jacket from Jen and Jack) -- he looked so handsome! The first picture is as we were leaving the house. He adores Dora and he likes to wear his backpack at every chance.
And, the best Easter gift of all ... Ryan has returned safely from Iraq. Max is so happy to have his brother-in-law home (as is the entire family).
I have received some GREAT advice and emails regarding Max's speech and iron deficiency, so thank you to everyone for that assistance. His speech/eating test is next week, so I'll post more about that soon. I just can't express how fortunate we feel to be connected to so many other parents, especially those who have adopted from Kaz! Such an amazing community! 
