A look back at 2009!

Happy New Year!

I just wanted to share a little piece of what an incredible year 2009 was for the Putonti’s! January 2009 was the end of my
pregnancy and we were all ready for Maxwell to arrive! He arrived on February 5th, 2009 at 3:54 pm weighing in at 8lbs 2oz
and 20 inches long. From that moment on life has never been the same, but its hard to imagine how our lives were without him
in it.

We adjusted to the life of new parents fairly quickly - surviving on much less sleep and having many more responsibilities.
Matt worked really hard at work to provide for us and I have been working pretty hard in dental school trying to make it
through being a momma! It is definitely tough, but worth everything I have put into it.

We decided to buy a house in Crosby (my home town where I want to practice after I graduate!) and we moved from our
apartment in Pearland in June. We have since settled in very nicely in our new home and love having a more permanent space
of our own! Living in a small town has been a nice change from living in Houston for the past three years! We found a day
care that has amazing women taking care of our little Max all day long - they just adore him there. My parents are just about
5 minutes or so down the road, so that has been very nice to have them close when we need a babysitter or just to visit with!
They get to stop in and see Max quite a bit which is nice when Mommy and Daddy need a break! Maddy , our Basset Hound, has
really enjoyed the enormous back yard with so much room to run and play - though Matthew is determined to convince me
that she needs a “friend” - ie another dog! I Matthew has his own area in the “man cave” we created for him in the garage. It
is our home gym and has a big television and a fridge stocked with drinks, a couch, and even an astro turf rug. I let him
decorate, and of course it is decked out with his NY Mets memorabilia!

Max has traveled a little bit this year! I took him to Florida to meet my mom’s family in May (with my mom and Brea) and he
even got to put his feet in the Florida sand at the beach in Fort Walton! (I had to keep his bald head and fair skin out of that
sun though! ) Matt and I took Max to Colorado in August to visit some very good friends Robert and Natalie and their son
Emerson who is about a month younger than Max. We got to stay in the mountains and go shopping and really enjoyed the
weather and visiting with them!

Max went to his first baseball game - and what a match up it was - his first Mets and Astros game! (Daddy had him dressed
in all Mets gear and they looked like two peas in a pod! So cute and Max even got his shirt autographed by a player when his
daddy yelled out “Hey can you sign my baby?!!?”

We had Max baptized in October and Matt’s father Ed had the honor of performing the ceremony, which was very special!
We had a lot of friends and family there to celebrate with us and we asked our very close friends Justin and Britney to be
Maxwell’s God-Parents.

Max has been growing and changing so fast before our eyes - it’s just amazing how fast time has gone. I know everyone says
“your kids grow up so fast!” but it is hard to understand what they really mean until you see it happening before your very eyes.
I remember the first time I heard Max really laugh, and of course it was his goofy dad that’s so good at doing it! Max started
crawling this fall and adapted this sort of army/gimp crawl thing where he crawls with one knee and kind of drags the other
leg behind him. Even when he got better at crawling this never went away and it is always entertaining when people watch
him in action.

Things Max loves: He loves balls of any sort - especially anything that has been in the dog’s mouth, of course. He actually has
quite an arm on him and can thrown pretty hard! He does seem to be left handed in almost everything he does right now, which
Matt is excited about (Max being a left handed pitcher is Matthew’s retirement plan! Ha!) He loves baths, and as soon as he
hears the bath water running he books it into the bathroom so excited! Max loves socks and shoes, sometimes I think he’d
rather play with a pair of shoes than a toy! He likes to close things and does not like to see things open - some examples of this.
After I change his diaper - I sit him up and he insists on shutting the top to the wipes! He has a truck with a seat that opens
and closes - we tease him by opening it and as soon as he sees it open, from across the room he will book it fast to hurry up and
close it! He likes to close his doors, cabinets, and any toys that open and close must stay closed. A little OCD I suppose, but its SO
cute and funny!

He likes to jump on the bed, and loves to play on mommy and daddy’s big bed when we let him. He laughs hysterically and loves
jumping on it! Max loves bananas, pancakes, ravioli, green beans, apples, and carrots! He is drinking out of a sippy cup now and
likes to throw it against the wall. It’s funny watching him at dinner. The dog sits beside his high chair and he peeks his head
over at her, grabs a bite of food, and drops his hand over to give her bites constantly (I think the dog eats more of his food than
he does!)

He likes to pull the DVD’s off the rack and take out as many as he can before mommy stops him! He likes to get into the dogfood
bowl , he likes to pull the towels that hang off the oven door and run off with them while I chase him! He LOVES peekaboo,
especially when we hide on one side of the couch and pop up behind it! He loves books and definitely has a few particular
favorites that he can listen to over and over.

We tried “your baby can read” a while back ago and gave it up for lack of time - but were shocked to see when we were
making fun of the video to some family by mocking the “arms up” that max threw his arms in the air! He can also clap and
wave because of the video - which we had no idea about until months later after not watching it!

Max and his dog Maddy, which he calls “dee” over and over are the best of friends. He loves her and she puts up with him
hitting her in the face, poking her eyes, pulling her tail, stealing her toys (I think she only tolerates it since he feeds her all the
time though!) He chases her all over the house, takes her toys from her and throws them for her. (It is adorable!)

He has eight teeth - and I think more are on the way as we speak! His Grandma (Matt’s mom) always said “he’s too busy
growing teeth to grown any hair! “ - which is true because he still only has a very little bit of it!

He recently started to show an interest in anything with wheels so Santa brought him lots of trucks and he loves to push them
all over the house! The holidays flew by as I was preparing for my board exams in December! Those are done and I should get
my scores any day now! Christmas was so much fun. I never realized how magical Christmas was watching it through your
child’s eyes - and even though he’s still so little it was so much fun! Max got 10 pacifiers, “binky’s “ as we call them, in his
stocking and it was so cute because he didn’t know what to do with them all at once and he kept taking them out and putting
another in! Matt’s parents came down for Christmas at our house this year - it was nice to have so much time with them to
visit and they got all kinds of house projects done and got a lot of “Max time”! They even watched Max so we could celebrate
our 2nd anniversary with a night away (which we desperately needed!)

Max started walking officially on December 30th! He took three steps and Matt and I looked at each other and said “did that
just happen!??!” So exciting - and since then he is walking clear across the room before falling - he is getting more brave and
proud of himself each day! We brought in the New Year at home, Max was asleep in my arms as we watched the countdown!

Wow I guess this little letter turned out to be longer than I meant for it to. I guess when I take a step back and take a good
look at myself I can see that I am now the parent I could never quite understand before… Before I was a mom, I could never
understand why parents thought their kids were so awesome! Now, I know, because Max is pretty awesome to us! Seriously, he
has brought so much joy and laughter into my life. I am so grateful every day for how much we are blessed. He is such a happy,
healthy little boy. He is the light of our lives.

We have so many things going this year of 2010! Max’s 1st birthday is around the corner! I am sure some tears will be shed
(not a surprise, I know!) We will have a small party for him with close friends and family.

I will finally finish up my fourth yearof dental school and will graduate on May 21st! I am so looking forward to hearing them
call me Dr. Margaret Bradley! That will be pretty awesome - and I can’t even wrap my head around the idea of being done with
school! I think I have been in school since I was 5 years old! Trust me there definitely be a party to celebrate that!
Hopefully we will get to go on some sort of vacation after that, and Matt’s parents want us to all go to Alaska on a cruise
which should be really exciting! Matt’s 10 year class reunion is this year also! People have asked if and when we are thinking
about another baby - and the truth is we are not thinking about this just yet! We plan on waiting a while longer so I can just
enjoy my new career and family as it is! I think 2010 will be a very great year for us, and we hope the same things for you
and your family.

(Okay, I have done it - I have officially become that person that sends out “the letter”! Did you really not expect this?! I am a
nerd! )

I am looking forward to making so many more new wonderful memories ! Thank you for being such a special part of our lives.

We love you!

The Putonti Family
Matthew, Megan, Maxwell, and Maddy