Sunday, June 28, 2009

Father's Day/Pool/Hershey Park

A week late, but Happy Father's Day!!!


Look at my cute matching boys:)

Porch pool is finally warm enough for Max to swim in. What a water baby we have!



Saturday was Comcast Day at Hershey Park so we get in for free (the only way we'd go!). Max took a train ride with daddy (which he was completely indifferent to) and we walked around the zoo. Max only took a liking to the animals that moved which were the prairie dogs and bobcat. We were only there a short while but in the coming years I think we'll really appreciate that free day there!

Our MN countdown is 4 days!!! We got out the suitcases.... my biggest challenge ever is to fit all of our stuff into two of them. Max needs one of his own!!! Of course Max also learned how to do some serious babble in the last 2 days. I'm pleased to announce he rambles "mama" constantly....I'm not too proud to admit I don't think it has anything to do with me. He has also learned how to sit himself up which is kind of nice actually because we had to keep doing it. He's not quite crawling yet but will be soon. Friday when he was supposed to be napping I went in to check on him and he was squatting down in the corner of his crib trying to pull himself up. Needless to say dad had to lower the mattress again. Keeping our fingers crossed for a 3 hour plane ride!!!!!

Saturday, June 20, 2009

VA/DC Trip

I had a Thursday evening off for the first time in a while and Aunt Ellie has been wanting us to come down to visit so Max and I decided to take a trip down to see his cousins! He had a great time, they're pretty good entertainers! And that is a good thing cause the poor child was deliriously tired because I drug him all over DC on Friday and he was missing about 3 hours of sleep but he made it. He was a trooper but it does make a mom sad to see just how tired they can get! He was asleep Friday evening when we drove back before we even got out of their development:) He had a great time though, we went to the pool Thursday evening and went into the city and visited my old office Friday morning (I forgot to take pictures with my old boss Barbara but they seemed to get along well). The kids had a pool party since it was their last day so we didn't spend much time at the pool Friday evening but he had fun playing with them after dinner!

Max in mommy's favorite place! He'll learn to love it... (in front of Washington Monument and then WWII Memorial)




Pool time!







Play time... (I can't get over his face in this shot!!!)










Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Fun times & 8 months!

We had a nice little weekend visiting last weekend. Max first got to hook up with his bud Noah. Max gets to be around quite a few other babies but I have to say, he took quite a liking to Mr. Noah.



On Sunday he then got to spend the day with Grandpa and Grandma Diana. Grandpa took him on his first tractor ride and boy did he think he was special. I actually had to go to a bridal shower for my dear Laura and while I missed my boys it was nice to get a few "free" hours with the ladies! (Waiting on tractor pictures from Grandpa, camera was with mom at the shower.)


(Side note- we will probably be back "east" 2 or 3 more weekends this summer and while we would love to see ALL of our friends and family back home its just really hard to schedule visits around 8 feedings/meals & 3 naps since everyone is very spread out. It makes for a lot of driving around, which I don't feel the need to subject my spoiled boy to toooo much of; so we're trying to make our rounds but never wait for an invite to come see us, you're is always welcome!)


Since porch pool isn't warming up terribly quickly (hopefully this nice warm weather is here to stay now, my baby was in fleece feety sleepers all day Friday, the 5th of JUNE!) Nate got him a little splash pool which he seems to enjoy. The boy loves water. Even pouring down over his face in the tub and stuff, he never seems to mind! A water baby like mom & dad.



And of course we're at 8 months today....my how it goes quickly.


We decided it would be ok to try our first "real" food and gave him some strawberry/apple puffs. He liked them. He had some trouble getting them to his mouth, they kinda stick to your hand. But he did even gum them up before swallowing. He "gagged" a few times but that's nothing new with eating anyway. It was a good start. And of course he LOVES his watermelon in the mesh bag.



And, because he's so heavy and has been hurting my arm (especially since we have mom and Max nursery rhyme dance time every night, compliments of Comcast On Demand Baby Boost) I learned a new way to use the good old Peanut Shell!

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Max these days

(Our awesome ball play center Aunt Julie got us for Christmas.... he just loves that thing, and honestly, it really is cool!)




We had so much going on that I haven't had any just regular old posts and updates. He's turning into such a little boy these days! I would love to know what he weighs but we don't have another Dr's visit for a while yet (till July). He's SO hard to carry around, I actually am having some pretty bad pains in my right hand and arm but I assume its just from carrying him and unfortunately there just isn't much I can do. I never thought I'd be anxious for a walker but I'm starting to re-think that!

He's doing great though, he sleeps from about 8:30pm till 6:30am (and has actually just been getting up at 6:30am to nurse, then he goes back to his crib and plays for a little till he falls back to sleep till around 8:15am). We've FINALLY gotten him on somewhat of a nap schedule (mid morning, early afternoon and early evening). He's generally not awake for more than 3 hours, sometimes barely 2 hours but we're not complaining. Some days the naps total 1 1/2 hours, some days they total 4 hours. You just never know! He also is taking his naps in his crib (mostly, sometimes for the morning nap we still cuddle together) which actually gives me free time!!!! And even though my 'free time' is usually spent doing dishes, laundry and cleaning... every once in a while I have managed to even sit down and read a magazine! Its a nice breath of fresh air! (He used to only take naps on someones lap, then we worked him into swing naps but now he does crib naps just fine). He is just like his dad and if I leave a blanket in (which I only do for naps, we use the sleep sacs for nighttime) he'll have the blanket over his face. And I find even while rocking him to sleep sometimes if he's having trouble, I'll pull the blanket up over his face and he'll conk right out.

We had to move him from this table top seat for eating into his high chair because I couldn't keep the tall toys out of reach of his mouth, and he started pushing the seat around with his legs. That seat was REALLY cool though to use for the first few months of eating, with all the play stuff on it and the high chair just seeming way too big for him yet. But he's in it fine and is learning to sit up to the table and wait for mom and dad to finish eating before he gets out. (Of course we enjoy eating dinner to the sound of toys clanking together.) He's also eating so well, he must be on a growth spurt because he's been chugging his 6 oz bottles (he still nurses 2x a day and takes 3 bottles of breast milk a day) and eating up all his food. Today we started increasing his food because I think its more important for him to eat, especially since he's still getting 30ish oz of milk a day. He likes to eat apples out of his mesh bags and we may start on some puffs or Cheerios soon. Our Dr wants us to wait till 9 months but he gums his normal food now so I think it would be safe. We still struggle with his water in the sippy cup. I don't want him to have a lot (I get conflicting reports) but, especially with warm weather coming, we'd like him to get used to drinking some, and get used to the sippy cup. But he seems more interested in chewing on it than sucking....

He has recently really learned to squeal (before he would randomly do it but not know how). He also makes a clicking noise with his tongue that he's quite fond of. He LOVES to see himself in mirrors (or doors and windows) and loves watching other kids play. He can sit on his own now but rarely has the patience to just sit when he can be moving around to reach for things. He can't quite crawl forward yet but he moves backwards and scoots around when he wants something. We practice every day playing in the pac-n-play and he can be content in there for a little while.... we'll be using that a lot, as he becomes more mobile especially. Of course if you stand him up in it (which he still can't do on his own yet) its just the right height for chewing! He still LOVES his jumper. He's also a big fan of his stacking rings and anything else that he can bang together to make noise.






He will sometimes sort of mimic noises and he often mimics motions now, we can even get him to wave bye bye sometimes!
On Saturday we also had our first hair cut. Poor kid.... all I can say is its good he's way too young to remember. He really just needed the hair hanging down over his ears trimmed but he got a little more. It will grow out....

Of course all his new tricks impress him just as much, if not more, than they do us but its just amazing to watch him learn. Every day there seem to be new revelations and its just going by so quickly. We were talking the other night how exciting every day is, like he's still so new to us (because really, every day he's like a new person, doing new things) that each moment with him is just so precious and never boring or mundane.

We are truly blessed to have such a precious and humorous little boy and we just look forward to each new day with him.