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!

Max Bleeds Blue

Meet the cutest little cougar you've ever seen! Max got to go to his first BYU football game on October 9. It was homecoming vs. San Diego State. Max and I were in Utah spending time with other family members who were also visiting, and Joe flew in for the weekend so he could be the one to take Max to his first game. Anything else just wouldn't have been right. Look at that excitement!


Ummm .... he just might be the cutest kid EVER.
Once the game started Joe and I were surprised to have a very, very sad little Max on our hands. It was a loud crowd and it was a lot for such a little guy to handle. Max loves being outside and seeing new things, so we hadn't even thought about this being an issue. We figured he'd either get used to it, or I'd have to leave with him.
The poor kid burrowed his head into our shoulders while we tried to comfort him. It was so sad!
But, after about 10 minutes of that, Max got used to it! He was totally fine and he really got into the game, crowing along with everyone else.

And it turns out Max was the cougar's good luck charm! It was fun to be there for one of the few wins we've had this season. My dad joked about having to fly Max in for all the home games.
We made it almost through the whole game before I took Max home (it was past his bedtime). We are so proud of our little football fan!

Halloween

I am just a lazy blogger, ok? But I thought I'd throw up some pictures of Max's first Halloween. Not as exciting as his first Christmas or anything, but with Max everything is exciting! We had our ward party on Friday night and we brought our baby dragon. Here we are with a couple of good friends we've made. :) We put Max back in his costume on the 31st so we could get some pictures. He was cranky because as every parent knows church wreaks havoc on the poor kids. So Joe had to pin him down and start munching on his tummy to try to cheer him up.
This baby dragon loves his mama. ;)

Then our baby dragon got into the candy. We kept yelling at him to look up but for some reason we couldn't call him Max, it was just "Baby Dragon! Over here, Dragon!" He finally figured out we were talking to him.



I wanted a picture of the three of us to document Max's first Halloween even though we didn't dress up. Next year, I PROMISE!
And then ... bedtime. Max always gets a bottle before nursing so I know his tummy is nice and full, and if Joe is home he gives it to him.


Happy Halloween baby dragon. You are my favorite. :)