Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

This Christmas was filled with many new firsts for Baby Maxwell. It was the first time he was able to sit up. And thus it was also the first time he fell over and hit his head, as almost happened in this picture.

It was the first time he got to participate in the Christmas pageant. When was the last time you saw Baby Jesus sitting up in the manger looking out at the rest of the stable?

This Christmas was also the first encounter with Santa. Before deteriorating to tears, Max's initial reaction was to stuff Santa's white beard into his mouth.

This holiday was also the first time Max got to try solid foods. He has so far tested and digested well his bananas, rice cereal, and green peas. His parents have noticed a dramatic deterioration in the smell of the biproducts of his digestive system.

Overall, the holiday was swell. Max got to open lots of presents. Of course, he had more fun with the ribbons and wrapping paper than the actual contents of the packages. The best part of being home was, well, being home. It was so nice to be together as a family. It's too bad we can't have Christmas time all year long.

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was a real good time. My parents decided about 30 mintes before the big dinner that I should dress up. It's a good thing that Dad picked up a paper bag from Kroger that morning. Although it was kind of scratchy fitting it over my head, once it was on it was delightfully tasty to munch on. It's hard to appreciate in this picture how slobbery my paper bag is. Pictured next to me is my pilgrim playmate, Charlotte.


I have been practicing lifting my head. Most baby books say that a baby should lift his head off the ground while laying on his belly by about 3-4 months. My parents are starting to worry about me because I'm almost 4 months old and have showed no interest in lifting my head. They've decided that they need to give me "tummy time" every day to strengthen my neck muscles. But I just squirm and fuss (as you can see in the video) until the parents give up and turn me over to my back.

Perhaps part of the problem of not being able to turn over is that my body is just too heavy. I love to eat. And it shows. I think this picture of me with my friend Jeffrey shows how mammoth I've become. Granted, he is a few months younger than I am, but I think you can appreciate my ginormousness.

Happy Halloween

I was almost as excited as my mom to get dressed up for Halloween. We had a good time dressing up. My dad wasn't satisfied with the costume alone, so he put on the finishing touches. Don't I look spooky?

I cried the whole time that Dad put on the face paint, but I was real good and didn't scratch any of it off. And that's saying something because now I have a lot more control of my hands. I like to alternate fingers that I suck on.

Baby Blessing

On Sunday, Oct 19 we blessed Max in church out in Utah. I was trying to see if I could get any last-minute revelation and name him something different than what we had been calling him for the last few months. Sarah was glad I didn't get "inspired."

We chose to bless him then because it was Kevin's non-"farewell" missionary talk as he gets ready to go to the Edmonton Alberta mission next week. For those who would like a little cultural education, here are a few facts: Edmonton is Canada's second most populous provincial capital (after Toronto), has one of North America's lowest population densities (9.4% that of New York), and is home to North America's largest mall.

Max is definitely getting spoiled by his grandparents. I mean, how many babies do you know that get M&M's customly printed for them? I even heard that his Jeffery grandparents want to get him a Wii for Christmas. Max's father supports this decision.

Maxwell Photos

Tractor Pull

Sarah and I decided that we had one more activity to do before completing the middle America trifecta of hick motor sports. We had already been to the demolition derby and the monster truck rally, so all that was left was the tractor pull.

It was actually a bit louder than we anticipated. Max cried with the very first race. Max's parents were even plugging their ears because it hurt so bad. Sarah took the baby to the back of the bleachers, but the sound was still too loud, so she walked outside the venue for most of the runs.

I didn't know what to expect before coming. When I thought of a tractor pull, I envisioned a competition of local boys pulling a rope tied onto a tractor and seeing which group could pull it the farthest. Boy, was I wrong. The tractor isn't even pulled, but is the pullER. I guess it shows we're city folk.

A Yankees Rip-off

We spent the weekend in New York with Mom, Dad, and Kevin for his high school graduation trip to see the Yankees. All the tickets to the game for purchase on the internet were more than $100. My Dad, being the true Meacham that he is, refused to pay such a price for tickets, and decided that we should risk flying to New York without tickets and try to get them from scalpers before gametime for a cheaper price.

We knew that there were criminals scalping fake tickets. In fact, posted all around the stadium were signs that say: "Beware scalpers selling counterfeit tickets." We met a guy outside the stadium that was selling tickets. We asked him if he had 5 tickets for the next day's game and he pulled out some tickets from his coat pocket to show us. We were kind of skeptical that he was legit, but he told us he had been doing this business for 13 years. He pulled out a wad of cash that must have included 50 twenty dollar bills to prove to us that he had been doing business with many others.

My thought was that either he was for real or else he was ripping a lot of people off. We asked him if he would go up to the ticket office with us so that we could verify the tickets' legitimacy, but he declined by saying that even legit scalpers get hammered with a $200 fine for selling tickets within 1500 feet of the stadium, so he didn't want to be discovered. He was selling them for $50 instead of the face value of $65. My Dad and I deliberated a little more, but when he showed us that the seats were between home plate and the Yankees dugout just a few rows up, we decided that these tickets were too good to pass up. We bought 5 tickets for $250.

After buying the tickets, my dad marched right on over to the ticket office to ask for their verification. The man behind the counter looked at the tickets and said, "I'm sorry, these are fake." We were shocked, angered, betrayed, saddened, and a bit embarrassed for falling for a scam artist. We tried finding that guy, but of course he had walked away right after our transaction. My Dad called the scammer's cell phone number (which he had given us as "proof" that he was legit) and left a message on the voice mail that unless this guy called us back in one hour, we would call the police (which we never did).

Looking back, there were signs that should have tipped us off that this guy was bogus. The posted signs, the fact that he was selling them before gameday, that he wouldn't verify with us at the ticket office, that his ticket price was too good to be true--all these things pointed toward the conclusion that we were too obstinate to see. Afterwards it made me reflect on the signs of the Second Coming; I hope I'm not equally obstinate with those signs. And just like we were rejected at the gate to enter Yankee Stadium with our fake tickets, we will likewise not gain passage through the heavenly gates if we are not prepared and haven't given heed to the signs of the times.

ps--we had to buy another five tickets to finally get into the game.