Thursday, August 28, 2008

Happy 5 Month Birthday Max!!

So today Max is 5 months old. And tomorrow we will give him rice cereal for the first time... Hopefully we can get some photos of that. And I'm still hoping for that photo of Max with his feet in his mouth.

There are many reasons I love my husband, but primary in my mind at the moment is the 6 + 2 hours of sleep I got last night. I was exhausted. So Mark kept Max downstairs when I went up to bed at 9pm. I was asleep by 9.15. And at 3.15am Mark woke me up when he brought Max up to bed. 6 hours of sleep in a row. That is the most sleep I have had in the last 5 months, and for several months before that as well. No interruptions. Just sleep. I even had dreams. Today I feel tired, but just tired. Not exhausted like I was yesterday. I feel much more functional. And I'm very happy that I get to sleep in for the next 4 mornings in a row!!

As for other Max updates... He's still working on rolling over on a hard surface. He's pretty good with rolling over on the bed or the couch, and he's doing better at rolling over when he is down on the floor. He still loves to stand, but his new favorite activity is smiling at his brothers. And he loves to play peekaboo with Julian. He likes to watch Nik dancing and seems to be bopping along with him. He is really into his toys, especially his super soft bunny from Finland, his inchworm from the Krauses, and his giggle bug from Auntie in England. He also likes his plastic links and is getting quite good at moving them from hand to hand. He's also quite good at throwing them. He is also mastering taking his pacifier out of his mouth, waving it around, and then getting it back into his mouth. Sometimes he puts it in crooked but that seems to be somewhat intentional. When he wants to suck on it he seems to be able to get it put back in properly.

He's got a weird habit of crying right before he falls asleep for the first time at night. The best ways for me to get him to fall asleep are for me to hold him in my arms and rock him a little while patting his back, or to cuddle up next to him on the couch and pat his back. At NannyJo's house he seems to fall asleep in the swing, but he won't fall asleep in our swing. I think the difference may be that ours is a front to back swing and NannyJo can make hers go side to side.

He's a fantastic baby and I am happy that I get to spend the next 4 days with him instead of being at work!

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

I was chastized today...

Sitting in the booth at Spartans with Daddy and Mommy


Color coordinated with Angie


Shades and feet. What more could any baby want?



If he doesn't look like an English baby ready to go to the seaside in this picture, he never will...



Trying out the bumpo chair.


And then playing with Nik's Word Whammer



Thanks Hopie! For the great blankie and the hedgehog toy!


Happy baby in Nemo outfit from Bethany...



Great shoes from Bethany too!

... for not posting more regularly... Apparently the return of the step-kids is not a valid reason for not doing an update. Also having too many photos to choose from is unacceptable. I will vow, once again, to do better.







In exciting but un-photo-documented news, Max put his feet in his mouth. I will be standing by with the camera to catch this on film. Also, yesterday Nik read a book to Max. It was very sweet (Goodnight Moon) and I will try to set it up for a photo in the near future. Nik did a really great job of reading the book and Max enjoyed smiling at Nik. Julian was playing peekaboo with Max last night and Max was going wild! If Mark does it or I do it then it is boring. But if it is Julian, then there is no stopping the giggles.







Max also now seems to have ticklish feet. One more thing to have in common with his mommy. :)







This weekend is haircut #2 for Max. His hair is getting in his eyes again and I have a haircut scheduled, so Mark will show up at the end of my haircut with Max and he will get to have his hair cut too.







Back to school for Nik and Julian on Tuesday so we are finishing our preparations and, more importantly, looking forward to a long weekend at home together.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Let's Go Hokies!!!

Max and Mommy, both in brown shirts. How coordinated. :)


Max visits Mommy's office twice in one week and spends some quality time with his WorkDaddy, MitreBob.



And now some photos..





Here are some new photos of Max, giving himself a bath, to tide you over until I can get the rest of them sorted... :)

Sorry for the delay...

I am doing my first post from my new computer. While Mark was away on his business trip I had a little computer trouble, but now the new computer is working just fine and I am downloading the hundreds of photos I have taken over the last 2 weeks. My old camera's memory card actually was full and I was not able to take pictures with that camera. That's 300 photos. The new camera has another 245 photos on it. So I have a lot of photo-sorting to do!

Max is getting to be a better sleeper. His best sleep is still from the night the devil dogs were here. He slept 10pm-7am and woke up just one time. Since then it hasn't been quite so nice. The night before last he woke up just once, at 2.45. But last night he was back to waking up twice (12.45 and 3.45). He didn't nap much for me this afternoon, although he took a very long nap for NannyJo, so we will see how he does. He went to sleep around 7.30.

Before bed tonight he had a bath. And he was so cute! He really had more of a shower. We are still using the whale sponge in the kitchen sink. Tonight he was having so much fun with the water that I let him sit up the whole time. He was pretty much sitting up with good control and putting his face under the water. He is definitely a water baby! When he was younger he would get upset about water spraying his face, but tonight he kept putting his face right in the water. It is great to see him having such a fun time. :) I'll post some photos once I get them all off the cameras and onto the computer. :)

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

A new noise

I'm not sure if I should call it a static noise or a cheering noise. The sound Max is now making is a lot like the fake static noise you make when pretending you can't hear someone on the phone because of static. Or like the sound or a roaring crowd. We've been watching the Olympics, and I think Max is thinking he's going for the Gold Medal of Baby Cuteness or for the Gold Medal for Standing Babies. Either way he is so proud of himself for going from sitting to standing that he is happy to put his hands up in the air and make his new noise. He's just too cute. :)

Photos to follow as soon as I can get them off the camera and onto the new computer.

Monday, August 11, 2008

April 08 Max


April 08 -- Max 5 new camera 167, originally uploaded by Manch.

I was updating my ravelry account and that meant loading photos to flickr of Max wearing the things I made for him. I came across this photo from a very long time ago, in Max time. I'm just astonished at how tiny his arms were! He is so fragile looking in this photo. And now he's a chunk! In this photo he is wearing the hat inspired by Miriam and sitting in ZZ's lap. I'll have to take a photo of Max in the hat now for comparison.

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Yay for the weekend



It is definitely nice to have lots of time to hang out with Max and Mark. Max's big new skill so far this weekend is blowing raspberries. He hasn't totally mastered it, but sometimes he surprises himself and gets it right. And he is enjoying practicing.

He's also enjoying the DJ aspects of his Intellitainer. :)

And wearing a new favorite onesie...