Max is 3 months!

I can't believe this crazy kid is 3 months old. Isn't he supposed to have life just a little bit figured out by now??? Ohhhh, Max my love, I'm just kidding. You'll figure it out soon, won't you buddy? And until then, you just keep spitting up all over mom, refusing to take good naps, and waking up way too much at night. I'll just keep hanging in there!

Despite the fact that things don't seemed to have calmed down much, life is fantastic. Max is so much fun most of the time. He really seems to know us now and gives us the most amazing smiles. Max's smiles are pretty much the greatest thing ever.

Mr. Max doesn't want to miss out on anything, and so he fights hard to keep those eyes open and to keep the party going. I think he knows that if he is smiling and talking to me there is no way I will put him to bed (it is much easier to swaddle the heck out of him when he's cranky). He doesn't know how to fall asleep on his own, and since he's not ready for cry-it-out I just nurse or rock him to sleep every time (and given how short his sleep intervals can be and how many times he wakes up 5 minutes after going down .... that is a LOT of times). Ahhhhh.

Max and I have so much fun together. I love our deep conversations in baby talk and our bubble blowing contests. Max's bubble blowing has now evolved more into just spitting really loudly, so I usually end up with a face full of saliva. It's still cute though. He does it ALL the time. I also love taking walks together. It is the perfect way to get out of the house without the stress of actually going somewhere and to get a little exercise as well (since I'm too tired to do anything else). Just put Max facing forward in the baby bjorn and the kid is in heaven! Bathtime is another favorite. I don't think Max has ever been fussy during a walk or a bath.

As for new skills .... Max has gotten a lot better at grasping objects. He can even pass things from hand to hand, although he has room for improvement. He is still rolling from front to back. And he basically is just getting bigger and stronger all the time!

Enough talk, on to some pictures of the (big) little guy.

About to roll ....

And he did it!

Thanks for checking out our cute kid. If I had anything else to blog about I would ... but I definitely do not!

Our little parcel

So Max has been breaking out of his swaddle like crazy as of late. No matter how tight we get it, he always has both arms out and up next to his head when we go get him in the middle of the night, and sometimes we have to re-swaddle him multiple times just while getting him to sleep. More than a little frustrated, the other night Joe decided we needed to tie his arms down, and this arrangement was born: Isn't he just the cutest little parcel ... too bad he still gets his arms out though! But, I am still convinced it is a good idea because it at least helps keep the swaddle together while I am rocking, nursing, and ssshhhing him to sleep (yes, yes, I am still doing that .... it is less than ideal but Mr. Max fights sleep like crazy and I am not ready to deal with hours of crying just yet .... sigh).

On an unrelated note, spring has definitely hit Maryland! This is the tree in front of our house in all of its glory:

And a little Max-sized tree down the block!

Two months and counting

Yes, we have ourselves a little two-month-old. In fact, he turned 10 weeks today! But, his 2 month Dr's appt was last week and here were his stats:

12 lbs 3 oz (50-75%) (Internet: 43%)
22 1/2 inches (50%) (Internet: 15%)
41 cm head circum. (50-75%) (Internet: 59%)

As you can see, my Dr. doesn't give much info with the percentiles, so I do my own research. :) I guess Max might be a little on the short side, which makes sense since his clothes fit everywhere except in the legs, which are a little long. But we think he's perfect! Here are a few cute photos that Lori took to document the two-month mark.

With cousin Reese ... they are totally staring each other down.

Little half-smile from Max. Or maybe a grimace?

Love these looks ... to me it looks like they're saying "Come on, you can't seriously think I'm going to be friends with her [him]." Well, too bad, kiddos!!

And it always ends like this, doesn't it? Ah, for some reason it makes me smile ...

A little bit about Max's accomplishments at two months:

* Rolling over from tummy to back

* Smiling - first real smile was at 6 weeks but he was pretty stingy with them. Now we are seeing more and more!

* Blowing lots of spit bubbles

* Starting to bat at toys, not grabbing yet

* Making lots of cute sounds

* Still crying a lot ... in fact just as much as he did at 6 weeks

* Sleeping worse than he did at 6 weeks

* "Standing" with someone to hold his hand for balance

* Spitting up like crazy some days

This little guy is a hoot and a hollar. I am still waiting for him to get "easier" ... it is almost as hopeless for me to get anything done besides taking care of him as it was when he was a newborn, although not quite (I have been known to get dinner on the table from time to time). But, playtime just gets more and more fun, which is pretty great. It is so exciting to watch him do things he couldn't do just a few days beforehand. I love it.

I guess I thought I would have this being-a-mom thing all figured out by the time he was 10 weeks, but ... not so much. With the constant changes, though, you never really get it down all the way, right? But at the same time, I think back to 10 weeks ago when we really didn't know what we were doing, and realize how far we've come. Things like diaper changes and baths which were such a big deal the first time are now second-nature. (I would like to add nursing to that list, but it really doesn't belong since he seems to forget how on a daily basis ... one of the problems might be that he thinks that he should be able to move his head all over the place while he looks around and have the milk come with him ... another might be that he is slow to realize you can't eat while you're screaming.) I'm really not trying to give Max a bad rap, though. Although he struggles with naps, when it's time to be awake he is typically so happy and fun. I LOVE his little sounds, and can't get enough of his smiles. Basically, I just love this boy and don't know what I'd do without him.

Baby's First Easter

I was really looking forward to Easter this year ... putting together a basket for Max, decorating eggs with Joe for the first time (I was always studying instead), watching General Conference, and just having a nice relaxing time. While we did indeed have a nice Easter, relaxing probably isn't the word I would use! With Max running the show, you never know quite what you are going to get, and lately we've been getting a lot more crying and less napping than one would hope for. :)

But, that all doesn't seem to matter much when you've got the cutest little bunny to cuddle and play with. This kid is still as adorable as ever. Grosi sent him his cute Easter outfit, and it was perfect for lounging around in Easter morning.

We tried to make the most out of showing Max his basket. I think he liked it.

Love the bunny tail ...

Here's the 6 eggs we decorated. Joe:1, me:5. Oh well. At least we went for it.

Here's a couple views of the egg I made for Max.

We got to enjoy the second Sunday session up at Nate & Lori's, and Lori took some cute pictures of the kiddos, which will be coming up soon!

And that's our baby's first Easter. It's hard to imagine how different next year will be!

Another weekend of MAX

We love weekends. When Max wakes us up in the morning, we all get to cuddle in bed instead of watching Joe rush off to work. When Max won't go to sleep, there is only a 50% chance that I will be the one to try to get him down again. And with a ratio of two adults to one child, we get a little more adventurous and can venture further away from home. We get to spend weekends as a little family of three, and boy is it wonderful!

Although all weekends are great, this past one was especially terrific. My dad decided he'd come visit when we blessed Max so that he could participate, and this was the weekend we decided to do it. My dad arrived Wednesday night and was able to spend a wonderful few days with us and get to know his first grandson!

Max sitting on Grandpa:
It was neat to watch my dad having so much fun with my little boy. He even helped Max rediscover his skill of flipping from front to back, which he hadn't done since he was about 3 weeks old. He did it at least 7 or 8 times for Grandpa!

On Saturday we all went on an outing to have the famous Andy Nelson's ribs. Isn't this picture the greatest?

Something tells me that in another month or so Max is going to be lunging at our food. He seems pretty curious about it already.

I made sure to put Max in some of the cute BYU apparel his grandparents gave him for Christmas. So adorable!

Sunday was the big blessing day, and here is Mr. Max in his little blessing outfit. He didn't make a peep during the blessing, but you could hear him sucking on his pacifier through the microphone. It was cute. It was a wonderful moment and I just felt overwhelmed by how much I love these two boys!

Later on Max got to have a little bit of cousin time. I love it when Reese reaches out her hand to grab his ... so darling.

My dad had to leave on Monday and it was so hard to seem him go! When Max got up from his nap I imagined he was looking all around for his new playmate, wondering where he went. Poor guy.

But Grandpa didn't leave without teaching Max a thing or two about "Gravity Baby" - a game where you put up pillows and see which way the baby will tumble. It's a fun one.

And that was our weekend. It could be a while until we have another one quite so great.

The Announcement

I finished Max's birth announcement a few weeks ago but just didn't get around to sharing it on the blog. I love how it turned out! My mom took the pictures when Max was 5 and 7 days old. It was hard to choose which ones to put on, so I'm sharing some of my other favorites as well.

I thought he was amazingly handsome for being so brand new. In fact, it would be nice to have some of that hair back right now!

So precious!

"I'm going there someday!" :)

Dreaming of .... milk, most likely.

My little 7 week old is now much less little than he was in these pictures! I'm so glad I have them to remember what a sweet, precious newborn he was.