Look What I Can Do!

Max has learned more new tricks in the last three weeks than I thought possible! We were with some family freinds on Saturday evening and Max pulled himself all the way up to standing a few times.

On Sunday we decided to get video proof of his new skill. He gets so excited! It is funny to watch. He crawls up the ottoman, pulls himself up and then just laughs and laughs. He is so easily entertained. A couple times he even clapped for himself while standing. I hope you all enjoy the video!

Merry Christmas

What a wonderful Christmas it has been! It is always fun to spend time with our friends and famiy and Max was a perfect addition to the festivities. His first Christmas was a busy one! Every Christmas Eve my family gets together. It is a rather large gathering, including lots of Max's Great-Great relatives. We used the opportunity to take lots and lots of pictures!

I love this picture of Max with his Great, Great Uncles - Joe, Sam, and Mel. These three amazing men are my grandmothers brothers and Christmas wouldn't be compete without them. It is fun to think that this picture represents the youngest and the oldest of my family.

Here is Max with his Great Aunt Carmelina and his

cousin Aurelio. We were all so glad that he came in from San Fransico for the holiday!

Here is Max with Nonna Carlotta and cousins Nia and Carissa. Nis is a sophmore at Missouri State and Carissia is just starting chiropractic school here in town. We are so glad to have her closer to us. Note that he is now missing his sweater vest. . .

I think this was my favorite picture of the evening. Max just loves his Nonna.

Here we are opening gifts with Max. Not only his he missing his vest, where did those socks go??

Can you tell we were enjoying the evening? Max has a couple very crazy Uncles! You can also see that at this point in the evening he was a bare diaper baby. He has no shame. . .

We hope that everyone had as wonderful a holiday was we did. Every day truly is a blessing! Merry Christmas!

9 Months Old

It is the time again, monthly update time for our little Max Man. We had his 9 month check up with Dr. Spewak last Thursday. Our little man now weighs in at 21 lb 15 oz and measures 29 3/4 inches long. He is still in the 95th percentile for height, but he has dropped down to the 50th for weight. He is becoming a long and lean little boy. I was a bit concerned about the drop in percentile on his weight. Dr. Spewak doesn't think it is really anything to worry about at this point. I think part of it is due to the fact that Momma's wells are going dry. We are now having to supplement with quite a bit of formula, not only at day care, but when I am at home with him too. I feel really sad about this. I was really hoping to make it to the year mark, but I don't think that is going to happen.

Max looked like the picture of health at his check up, that is until they checked his ears. . .They are both infected! He had an infection in one a couple weeks ago and was put antibiotics. It doesn't' seem to have cleared up like we would hope so he is now on a different medicine, so hopefully that will take care of the problem. He doesn't seem too fazed by the whole thing.

He has been a very busy boy too! Nonna Carlotta and Nonno Mason came over to visit with Max this past Sunday evening. They missed him! He was very excited to show off all of his new tricks for them. The most exciting is that he is officially crawling! No more GI Joe here! He has finally figured out how to work is arms and legs together without dragging his body behind him. He thinks his new trick is pretty fun and I am worried that he is going to start building up speed here shortly.

I am so excited to spend our first Christmas with Max. I know that it will be lots of fun and I can't wait to see all of our family over the next two days. However you celebrate I wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

Christmas with the Dull's

Santa came to visit a little early this year. Since Max's Grandpa Jack, Grandma Mindy, and Uncle Tim will all be out of town for Christmas we celebrated tonight. They came over for dinner and some fun around the tree, which sure seems to be losing needles at an alarming rate. We even got all of the Dull men to pose for a picture. It was fun to slow down and enjoy a nice evening together. Things are just so crazy this time of year.

Max had fun opening his presents, or at least we had fun watching them. He really seemed to like the bows and the box. I guess that is to be expected of a little one that isn't even quite nine months old yet. Even though Max hasn't perfected opening presents he does have a few new tricks. He is now a master army crawler - he can get where ever he wants. He seems to be able to find the remote control even when we can't. He spends quite a bit of time going from sitting to his tummy and back again. He thinks it is fun that he can do this himself. He also has discoverd that he can make noise by clapping. He doesn't do it on demand, but I do see him clap a bit every day.

Oh Christmas Tree...Oh Christmas Tree

What a busy weekend we have had! On Friday night, Mom and Dad took me to see Santa. I wasn't that impressed with the old man. His beard was pretty yellow and he smelled like smoke. Yuck! To top it all off he didn't even smile. Check it out for yourself. Not what I was expecting from my first visit with Santa. I think Santa is depressed about his losses in the market. Maybe he will be in a better mood next year.

On Saturday, we had more fun preparing for the big day. We went to go get out Christmas tree. Mom likes the skinny trees and Dad likes the bargain trees so they decided on a Balsam. Here is a picture us in front of the tree they decided to purchase.

After my afternoon nap, we decorated the tree. Oh what fun that was for a youngster like me. I tried to taste the bright colored lights, but then Mommy got upset and yelled at me. I guess they aren't suppose to be chewed on!

Once they were all done decorating, Mom insisted on a photo of the two of us. Doesn't it look pretty good? I can't wait for Christmas to finally come...I think some of those presents under the tree are for me!