10 months

Time to blog about my 10 month old before the holidays are here and it doesn't get done. I couldn't possibly just skip over a month of Max's life, now could I?! Although I'm not turning this blog directly into a book, I am using it to help me with my photobooking and some of it will be word for word. Unfortunately right now I am on month #2! That first month was quite a doozie ... so so SO many pictures. And I love them all, I just couldn't leave them out! Anyway, back to the task at hand ....

I sometimes don't know quite what to think of our 10 month old. It recently hit me that he is a baby and a toddler at the same time! Weird. Baby, because he is only 10 months old and still my baby boy! Still nursing and getting me up at night and all that fun stuff. And toddler, because he toddles! Everywhere! He is already wandering down the aisle at church, 'running' away from me at the library, and wiggling out of the cart-strap at the grocery store and crying to be put down on the floor so he can explore. I think his toddling is adorable, but it also makes my job a little bit harder, since he is NOT following directions yet! Ahhhhhhhhh.
So, I finally found a way to get some of my cleaning done while Max is awake! I just leave the vacuum out and Max is completely preoccupied with it. He loves it! He loves it when I turn it on, too, but just having it sit there is enough to hold his attention for a while.




I think Max looks so cute in his little Nike hat, don't you? I set Max on the floor of the backseat of the car while I attempted to help Joe tie the Christmas tree to the roof. When I came back Max had climbed up onto the console and was having a grand old time.

Another car related story ... when we have only a block to go in the neighborhood sometimes I will just let Max stand on my lap in the backseat while we drive. He thinks it is the greatest thing ever and grabs on to the headrest of the front seat and looks all over the place. It is probably a bad idea, though, because if I decide to then buckle him in he WILL NOT go for it. It is like trying to strap a crazy piglet into that carseat - I can't do it! He is so strong and feisty I feel like I am wrestling a pig. But the pig looks like Max.
Max & me on my 27th b-day (before ornaments).
I decided to put Max in this cute hat and sweater my mom's cousin in Switzerland knitted for him and take some pictures by the tree. Well, that didn't turn out so great. After a few pictures of him eating the the ornaments I took them away and tried to wipe the glitter off of his face and tongue (now the ornaments are all on the top half!).

Handsome Max and his good-looking Dad. ;)
This almost captures a funny little face Max makes a lot ... but not quite. But you can see he has both his front teeth now!
Trying to get through Dad to the laptop. That's determination for you.
Standing up.
"Hey, Mom, I'm just going through your stuff again. Don't worry about it." (He loves my wallet and credit cards.)
I know there's some cheerios in here somewhere ....
Max and his (& our) new Christmas present!! An awesome bike trailer/ jogger. It was a beautiful December day in Denver so we had to try it out.
Back at home, learning about wheels. It may be a little strange to keep a bike trailer in the front room, but until we make room in the garage it is a great way to distract Max from the Christmas tree.
Okay now for the 10 month round-up:

- Getting up twice a night again (he's had too many health/teeth/diaper rash issues to cry it out again right now)
- Gets SO excited when we're about to read books. But is really picky about which books we read! He is obsessed with The Very Hungry Caterpillar and the 3 'Baby Touch and Feel' books we have, among others.
- Usually takes horrible naps and is starting to drive me crazy with whining
- Mostly walks now and crawls very infrequently
- Starting to play a little more independently
- Likes to feed himself - no spoon feeding, thank you very much
- Loves drinking the bath water, and loves his baths (sometimes gets 2 a day)
- Has the cutest little squeal of delight. Not many new sounds, but lots of noise-making.
- Gets into everything. Is there even a way he could get more into things?? My house looks like a tornado hit it after he's been through.

Um I can't think of anything else right now, except to say that he is of course a lot of fun! This month hasn't been the easiest since he started it out throwing up, and since then has been teething, had diarrhea, the opposite of that, and horrible diaper rash. Poor kiddo. But he is a trooper and we have a lot of fun being pals all day long! I love you Mr. Max!

Thanksgiving

I know, Thanksgiving is soooo over. But I finally decided to download the few pictures I took so here we go!

We made the drive to Utah during what could have been quite a snowstorm, so we were a little nervous. We put new tires on the car and got out of here as fast as we could, and although we did hit some snow, we made good time. We enjoyed a great dinner with a lot of my family. We got lucky and Max took a nap while we ate, and then he woke up right after so we could introduce him to the joys of turkey, mashed potatoes, and stuffing (he already knows all about sweet potatoes and rolls). He quite enjoyed himself.
I am grateful for a lot of things, but Max is my #1. We looooove him!
Snuggling with Max and my sister Kate
The rest of the weekend we spent shopping, watching football, eating (some more), and hanging out with friends. It was great. On Sunday, though, little Max got sick - not so great. For 24 hours he threw up again and again and again. He was starving and always wanted to nurse but every time he did he would just throw it right back up. It was so, so sad to watch my little boy be sick. He just seemed so confused, like "what is happening to me??" He would try to walk and crawl and be his normal self but after a few seconds he would run out of steam and rest his head on the ground. Soooo not like Max.
We did get the benefit of extra cuddling, but Max wanted to do most of his cuddling while being walked around the house. Not so restful for me, but that's ok.
We had to wrap him in towels to be prepared for the next throw up.

On Monday he was still sick but we really had to get back! So we said a prayer, packed up all the towels and containers and pedialite we could, and took off back through the mountains. It wasn't the easiest trip but compared to how it could have gone it was a breeze! Thank goodness.

MAX: 9 months

Max will be 10 months in less than a week, so I'd better hurry and post about his exciting 10th month of life! That would be the one where he learned to walk. Yes, that's right. Max is walking! He took his first steps at a little over 8 months old, and I predicted by 9 1/2 months he'd be walking. At the 9 month mark I he hadn't made much progress so I thought I'd overestimated him. But then at the beginning of November he just started taking off! 5 ... 8 ... 13 ... 15 ... 24 ... we couldn't even keep counting. These past few days he has just exploded and started walking all over the place! He still is a little wobbly on his feet and crawls quite a bit as well, but I would say it's official. We have a little walker. (And oh is he adorable!!)

First, his 9 month stats:

19 1/2 lbs (25th)
28 1/4 inches (45th)
18 inch head circum. (50th)

First of all, I was quite surprised to see his percentile for height is higher than for weight. I guess he is lengthening out and toning up. Who knew?

Second of all, here are the pics:
(FYI, his shirt says "Lock up Your Daughters." Probably good advice.)
But it does look like Max found the key. Hmm.

Max, like every other kid, loves cupboards and drawers. He is already a little climber and loves getting inside. His latest desire is to climb from my bed up onto my nightstand ... he tries every morning and gets mad when I won't let him.

Max also loves books! I was worried for a while that he would be so busy he wouldn't ever let me read to him, but he loves it. We can only do board books because Max likes to turn the pages, and they have to have good, bright pictures or else Max isn't interested. But if he likes the books, he will sit there quietly on your lap while you read the same stack over and over. It is such a fun and relaxing part of my day.
He will also look at books on his own for a while but he hasn't started bringing them to me yet.

It is almost pointless to get out my camera much these days. Max will immediately stop whatever he is doing and start to come towards me and the next couple of pictures will look like this:

But sometimes I'll catch a good one. I love the little belly on this kid.
And of course his cute motorcycle raincoat.
Max and Joe like to "roll" the basketball back and forth. Usually Max's rolls are pretty weak but sometimes he'll do a good one.
And here are a couple of pictures of our little walker and climber.

(and yes we might still have un-unpacked boxes hanging out in the corner ... who says they can't make a fine end table?)
Max doesn't really have any other skills like patty cake, clapping, or waving bye-bye quite yet, but I think he is trying. We spend play time chasing each other around the room, tickling, and giggling. I love how I can never have a bad day with Max around - he makes me much too happy.

So I've pretty much already said everything, but for my own purposes, here is 9 month Max at a glance:

- Is a snaggletooth (in addition to his two bottom teeth he has one on the top that is halfway in, and is working on the other)
- Is sleeping from 6:30 at night until 7:30 in the morning, gets up to eat once around 5 (this is a normal, good night at least)
- Takes 2 naps, about 1 hour each
- Started walking!
- Likes to hide his bink in the corner of his pack n play or throw it on the floor (he's been doing this for a while - and yes he is still in a pack n play since we've had major trouble getting an undamaged crib)
- Isn't shy at all - will crawl or walk up to anyone and try to climb on them
- Likes to yell and is getting rather loud
- Loves to wrestle and headbutt
- Has started getting into food. He frequently has bread, turkey, cheese, sweet potatoes, squash, applesauce, yogurt, and bits of grape (and of course puffs and cheerios). He loves his water and totally gulps it down. Oh, and we tried baby food peas and he cried SO hard. I don't blame him.

Colorado

So we've been in Colorado a little over 2 months now. Although we're not quite as settled in as I'd like (you have to be patient when you decide to bring no furniture whatsoever) it is definitely starting to feel like home. We still miss Maryland though - for sure! And we miss our house. Here is the house we are renting. It is a good fit for us, but I will say I am glad we don't own it!
(And no Lori, that was not our house you saw in the other pic. Sorry.)The weather has been nothing but amazing since we got here. We have had like one rainy day, and this is what we got in return:
This is a view just a short drive from our house. As you can see we aren't right next to the mountains, but we get some pretty great views of them while driving around town.

One of my favorite things about our house is that it such a short walk from a great park with soccer fields, basketball court, playset, and running and biking trails. We have already made a couple of good friends that live close by and we love meeting up at the park. As I write this I realize that after all of this newborn craziness and moving craziness I am finally starting to enjoy the life of a SAHM. Ha!
Max LOVES the swings. Max loves a lot of things though. The kid just loves life. And I love it!



I'll do another post just about 9 month Max soon, but I'll just say that he is the happiest boy and is always smiling and laughing.
Max always gets a grin on his face when he knows the pinchers are coming for him!
We also got to spend a couple days with Joe's mom in early October. She came out for the opening of the dental office Joe works at so she and I could get some dental work done while the other watched Max. Max had such a good time with his Nonna.
Joe had a bit of a stressful day (because the assistant exaggerated her qualifications in her interview). So Joe had to do a cerec crown on his mom and a cerec inlay on me while doing his job, her job, and teaching her her job, but all went well.
Then Max and I headed out to Utah to visit with cousins and other family. Here's my sister Kate with the 5 Lewis grandchildren!
Max also got to meet his Ur-Grosvati (Swiss for Great Grandpa) who just celebrated his 90th birthday!
His cousins Tyler and Kai loved making him forts and corralling him inside.
And Max had fun being his usual little nutty self. More on Max later!