Max, Max, Max

Well, life is great, and we are loving Denver! I really do plan on posting some stuff about our new place and our fun new area, but so far I've been having a hard time collecting the footage. It's not easy stepping outside and taking a picture of the front of your house, you know?? But hey, there's always the Max Attack to talk about. After all ... he is 8 months old now!

So, onto bragging about my adorable, crazy little man. He is so so SO much fun. I seriously want to freeze him right now and not let him get any bigger. Ever. We are such pals now! He loves crawling towards me and then climbing all over me, and he looks for me to comfort him when he bonks his head about 15 times a day. He is so good when we are on our errands and I have him in the baby bjorn or just on my hip (he gets sick of the cart after a few minutes). When we're at home, he is into everything. Just as a curious baby should be! He is obsessed with cabinets and drawers, and I let him destroy the tupperware/dishcloth cabinet several times a day. One of my favorite things (besides playing with him, of course) is just watching him explore on his own. He never ceases to crack me up! Such a little character. He still loves jumping in his jumperoo which is great if I need to get a quick shower in. (And boy does he jump! I need to post a video ....)

So let me show you what I mean by adorable:
And what I mean by crazy:
He is really loving his bink these days. He is always finding one and sticking it in his mouth.
Using his walker like a big boy:

Yeah, stairs are completely second nature to him now. He will be up a flight and back in a bedroom before I even realize he's left the kitchen.
The only picture I have of him sleeping (except for when he was a newborn of course). He's still in his pack n play but his crib is arriving SOON!
Unfortunately he rarely wakes up happy ... but he usually cheers right up once I rescue him from his cage.
Knocked over his activity table. What is that look, anyway?
Joe and Max watching football before we bought our new couch and tv (our landlords left us this one). Max is looking at his favorite book: Things that Go. He will actually sit quietly and calmly on your lap for a few minutes if you read this to him, which is a small miracle. I love it so much :)
Carries his weight just like a little man - right in the gut.
He has this cute little side pose he is always doing:

Clearly busy doing baby work.
Max loves his finger food! I stopped trying to feed him with a spoon since he didn't seem to like that very much. But he seems to like all the finger food I've given him. Here's his routine:

First - stare at mom.
Second - stare at food.
Third - reach for and grab food. (Sometimes I'll have two different things on there but he's sick of both of them so I add a couple of pieces of a third kind of food. He knows just what to go for and keeps grabbing until he gets the new stuff.)
Fourth - shove in mouth. Even though he doesn't have the pincer grasp down yet, he is still pretty successful.
Fifth - take a drink. Max loves water!
I love when he looks at me and his face lights up. Is there anything better??
My favorite pal:
Seriously, I would freeze him if I could. No doubt. Here's a few other facts about 8 month old Max:

* Sleeps through the night!!! (10-12 hours) We had to sleep train him once we got into our house, but it really wasn't that bad. He was ready. (And I was VERY ready.)
* Has a lot to say. He doesn't say dadada all day long like he used to, but just makes a variety of sounds. A few ba's and ma's, and a lot of 'rar rar rar' (it's not a perfect r sound, but that's the best way to describe it).
* Does really well in the car on all our errands. I think he secretly likes having some downtime to crank up the tunes, take a ride, and just chill, since the rest of the time he is go, go, go.
* Still isn't a great napper (60 mins. or less). But I'll take the night sleep!
* Has started standing and today he TOOK HIS FIRST STEP. Seriously. He stood for a while, took a step, balanced for a few seconds, and then was down. If he's not walking by 9 1/2 months I'll be shocked.
* Loves playing with cords and door jams.
* Primary foods are small, soft pieces of apple, sweet potato, grapes, and carrot, bread balls, and puffs.
* Is always getting hurt (but nothing too terrible yet). He cries but always stops after just a few seconds.
* Is a frickin stud. (This is Joe's contribution to the list.)

And that's our kid. In case you can't tell, we're still crazy about him.

UPDATE + 7 MONTHS OLD

Well, here we are in Denver! Max and I enjoyed chilling with my family in Utah for about a month. Joe was with us a lot of the time but was back and forth between Denver and Orem a bit as well. It felt like a good amount of time to be there. I loved enjoying some good downtime together instead of always trying to rush everywhere and do everything. Max got spoiled by having so many awesome playmates! And I got spoiled by having my Dad hang out with Max every morning before work so I could sleep just a little longer. :)

Joe started his new job with Pacific Dental Services about two weeks ago and Max and I arrived less than a week later. We've been rental house hunting like crazy and a few days ago we finally found the perfect place! It is a little 3 bedroom home in Highlands Ranch and although the kitchen and bedrooms are pretty small, it is cute and in a lovely little neighborhood. We are excited about it! Right now we are staying in the basement of my wonderful friend Rachel's Dad, who has been so generous to let us stay here as long as we need to. We are really loving Colorado so far and hopefully things will just get better!

So it's been a little over seven weeks since we left MD and Max has changed so, SO much. He is now 7 months old! He is crawling, climbing stairs, and pulling himself up to a stand with no problem at all. He is also starting to be a little more balanced and can shuffle along while holding onto something. He is as fast as can be and I am just glad there haven't been any serious injuries yet! He is crazy!

Max's two biggest problems are that he is not sleeping well and won't eat anything besides breastmilk. Both of which are super fun for me! I am hoping the sleep thing improves once we get into our house. At least then I can close his door and mine and turn on lots of fans so I don't have to listen to all the screaming. He seems to scream most of the times he gets put down ... whether it is for a nap, going to bed, or after eating in the middle of the night. During the night it usually doesn't last too long, but at naps it can go on and on and on. It is quite sad. It certainly doesn't help that he now stands up in his pack n play while he screams. Oh well.

As for the eating part, he just isn't all that interested (unless it happens to be grass, rocks, or woodchips). Apples are one of the few things he will swallow if I can manage to get it into his mouth (must be all those apples I ate while I was prego, eh?). Other things he just leaves on his tongue, makes a gagging sound, and spits out. Hahaha. As he gets older I will probably get more adventurous about the types of things I give him and I'm sure we'll stumble upon one that he likes. Right??

Anyway, we have quite the boy on our hands. We still love him more and more every day! But, I am now realizing what a BIG boy he is. I pick him up and he just feels huge!! It makes me sad that my little baby Max is gone forever. He was precious. But this new Max is a riot!

Since I haven't posted much lately I thought I'd throw some random pictures up here, ranging from right after we left MD to a couple of days ago. I know it's quite a few but hey, gotta do it for Aunt Lori. ;)Playing in the nice Marriott sheets on our cross country drive.
First major stop: MEMPHIS!! We had a blast hanging out with Ryan, Jerianne, Avary, and Jackson. Since Max is just six days older than Jackson they are pretty much destined to be best friends for life.
Max had just started army crawling at this point but wasn't quite an expert at sitting up yet, as you can see.
Ready to play rough!
After stopping in Denver for a while, we made another stop in GRAND JUNCTION on our way to Utah to spend some time with Chad, Emily, Parker, and Blake. Also a blast!! Those are some seriously cute boys if you ask me. We are so excited to have the Burnhams less than 4 hours away!
While in Utah we got to take a couple of trips to the lake for some wakeboarding and tubing. Water is part of Max's destiny.
Yeah ... I was kind of nervous about this. But all was well.
Before long Max was learning to climb stairs. Check it out!



And eating everything in sight (other than food).
Notice the grass in the corner of his mouth.
Then he learned to pull himself up to stand! Way to go bud.


And finally ... here is our seven month old little bug. He's getting chunky from all that rich milk. :)




A few other notes on my seven month old:
* Babbling a lot more ... mostly dadada (his first real consonant)
* Two bottom teeth have erupted and are halfway in
* Shakes his head back and forth all the time ... not quite sure why though (but it's pretty funny)
We'll be getting moved in at the end of the week and our stuff arrives a few days later. I'm sure I'll have my hands full for quite a while, but life is good!

He's 6 months!

Can you believe Max is 6 months old??? Yeah. Me neither. I mean DANG, that is OLD!! We are so in love with and proud of the little bugger it's ridiculous. But that's just the life of a parent I guess. Especially when your kid is as cool as Max ... it's a little hard not to get caught up in it all. ;)

So I took Max to the doctor out in Utah yesterday, just a couple of days after his 6 month birthday, and the doctor said he is one of the busiest, most active 6 month olds she's ever seen. Yeah ... no kidding. I can't believe I am already chasing after him at this age! He is into everything, and if he wants it he will get it. He's just that determined, and he's also that strong. He's been "crawling" for a while now ... started with the army crawl and now he's got his feet into it. He gets up on his hands and knees and rocks back and forth but doesn't yet take off from that position. Probably just a matter of days.

And with mobility comes injuries. Booo! Max has already had his share of head bumps, but luckily no black eyes yet. My parents have two steps that go up from the family room to the kitchen and this morning he had crawled halfway up the second step before we grabbed him to keep him from crashing down on the tile ... and then he did it several more times with supervision. Starting to climb stairs already? Are you kidding me??

(Update: about an hour after I posted this Max successfully climbed both stairs and started off across the kitchen. Oh DEAR.)

So here's where he's at:

17 lbs 2 oz (50th)
26 1/2 inches (50th)
44 cm head (50th)

People always think he seems big, but obviously he can't be that big! He's just SOLID. Here are just a couple of recent pictures ... I'll hopefully post some better 6 month shots later on.

Here's a little more about what Max has been up to:

* Started solids - oatmeal, butternut squah, sweet potato, and a little rice cereal. He did ok a first but the past few days he's been less and less interested - just leaving it on his tongue and starting to gag. Maybe we'll wait a few days and try again.

* Sitting much better - though he can still take a hard topple if he looks over his shoulder.

* Sleeping a little worse than when we left Maryland. For while he was up more than twice a night to eat, now it's back to two times. (A lot of times he does another wake up before 11 but we just let him cry for that one.) Naps are 3 times a day, but usually are just 30-60 mins.

* Still LOVES to be outside. He tries to eat the grass, leaves, and woodchips (well, anything, really).
* Loves to squawk at us and shower everything around him in spit.

* His hair is starting to really grow in ... turning him into Mohawk Max (Joe says it's almost time to start styling it).

Six month Max is just a riot and a handful. I never thought I could love him as much as I do. It's insane!!! And kind of funny to know that Joe and I are the only ones who feel quite this strongly about Max, but that other parents feel the same way about their own kids. What JOY.

Here are a couple of videos for your viewing pleasure!!

This one is funnyyyy.

Max shows off his crawling!

Goodbye

What a month! I don't even know where to start. Let's see .... Joe finished his residency at the end of June, and 1 week later we left our beautiful home behind and made the cross-country drive to Salt Lake City, with extended stops in Memphis, Denver, and Grand Junction to visit friends and do some interviewing (in Denver). More on that later!! Since trying to catch up on everything seems a little daunting at this point, here are a few very sad pictures to get me started: Max and Reese on the day before D-day.

(Sorry I didn't get out all the red eye ... I hadn't planned on posting so many but then at the last minute decided Lori would want them.)

Gotta love the bug eyes.

Needless to say, these kids are as cute as they come. I am so sad that we had to move just as Max was starting to get more mobile and interactive ... he and Reese could have had some really good times. But, I am VERY glad that we got to live by each other for the past 3 years! After a couple of years on our own it was fun to have family around. First we got to bond as two of the very few couples we knew without kids, free as a bird to come and go as we pleased. ;) And then we got to go through the crazy/awesome experience of being pregnant and having babies! (Luckily I went second so Lori could empathize every step of the way.) Now we have these two little bugs in our lives and it's all about them now (in a good way!!!!!).

I'm so glad we got a few downtown B'more pictures before we took off. Thanks Lori.

Great picture, huh??

Oh, and it never hurts to have family around when you're moving so that there's someone to start throwing the remaining odds and ends into boxes (Joe and I are way too OCD to pack like that, which is why packing took us FOREVER) as well as someone willing to scrub your toilets and finish up the cleaning you just couldn't get to. Thank you again!!!! Can't wait to see you guys out West in a few weeks :)