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.