A Korean coworker of Jay's kindly bought Max this traditional 1st birthday costume. The 1st birthday in Korean culture is a very big deal. The parents are supposed to throw a big party and invite all of their friends, family and coworkers to a party and ceremony in honor of the 1 year old. Instead we are leaving on a vacation to Vietnam on Saturday and will have a birthday BBQ for Max when we return. But we couldn't let his birthday go by without a celebration and since we had such a fabulous costume....

with a matching tote!

Max was a pretty good sport about all of it, although as you can see he was not really convinced that there was much fun to be had in his costume.

Like the good Koreans we are we decided that Max should follow Korean tradition and choose his profession on his first birthday. We are not sure exactly what is supposed to be represented on the tray so we came up with our own ideas with the things we had lying around the house. And what did Max choose???

The video camera!!! He will take after his Granby and be a film maker;-) (I know it looks like we blindfolded him with his hat but he could actually see for this activity.)

Then he wanted to use it....

And then a Zen birthday moment.

One of Max's b-day presents from Jay was this blue dog. I explain to Max that his new dog is the character from the Boowa and Kuala website that he loves....Doesn't it look like we are having a really serious conversation?

Max and Boowa!

The Cake! Max was pretty tentative about digging into his birthday cake....

And like most things these days he wanted Mom to taste it first

and then Dad...

and then with a fork!

He did manage to get a little messy....most of the frosting and cake ended up on the floor and not in his mouth. That chunk out of the side was eaten by me in between photographs;-)

The aftermath.

Now that Max and his friend Shoma are both walking they can finally really play together.

It was so fun to watch the two of them walk in and out of our porch and peeking at each other through the glass.

As you can see Max is working on his speed. Luckily I ran track in high school so I will be faster than him for some years to come...but I may have to start practicing my sprints again....

"Um you goin in or out?"

Max even shared his new ride with Shoma! The car was an early birthday present.

And as you can see Max takes his pushing very seriously.

One of his favorite features is the radio button that plays three different 10 second songs, country, oldies, and rap....Max dances to all three whenever he pushes the button.

Shoma....just chillin.

We went to the Children's Museum at the Korean National Museum across the street from our neighborhood.

Max thinks it would be cool to be a Korean cavalry archer when he grows up.

Then he had fun banging the fish and yelling "time for dinner". It's all fun and games until...

...Dad gets bonked on the watermelon. Ouch!

Max discovers he has pockets.

So I put a rattle in one for him to find.

"Yum Yum."

Korean Pizza....Again! We really want to like Korean Pizza so we keep trying it. Unfortunately our favorite part of this pizza was the box. Apparently these guys are competing with each other over who's pizza is best. Yes those are pickles on the side of the pizza. All pizzas in Korea come with pickles, sweet pickles to be exact for you to eat with your pizza....there is not much more I can say about that.

We ordered the squid octopus pizza. The seafood was fine, but the sauce was Not pizza sauce, it was more of a sweet and sour sauce...without even the suggestion of tomato.

Max shows off his red curls.

And his new trick of carrying two things in one hand around the house as quickly as possible....could be a block and a sock, a whistle and plastic flower, or the steel cut oats can with an instant oatmeal on top (this is a favorite of his;-)

"Ok mom enough with the flash already!"