Busy Boy

I have been awful about blogging lately. Being a working mom is no easy feat! I have a new grade level at school this year. If I get a moment free from taking care of Max I spend it working on lesson plans. I taught second grade my first year, but I forgot how small they are! I do have a really great class and I know that I will get into the swing of things soon. It is just taking more time to get a routine down this year. We will get there!



Max has had a very busy few weeks. First of all he is proud to be riding around in style now that Mom and Dad bought a new mini van. It is wonderful! We bought our '08 Honda Oddyssey almost two weeks ago. Gotta love those model year close out sales. I love how easy it is to get Max in and out, and whoever invented power sliding doors was a genius!



We put our van to the test the first weekend we had it, by making a trek out to Kansas City to visit some friends. Brian, Max, and I stayed with a friend from college and his wife and little boy. Graham is just over a year and he was walking all over the place! It was fun to see what we have in store for us down the line. Max was a trooper in the car. He didn't cry much and we only had to stop once to feed him. While we were visiting Max had a fun first, he got to go swimming in Grahams little pool. It was so cute! Graham showed Max how it was done and the two of them seemed to have fun playing in the water together. Graham was even kind enough to let Max share his pool gear - I loved the hat!



Max has also been busy on the development front. He rolls over like crazy, at least from back to front. He is also doing much better at sleeping through the night. Last night he made it from bedtime until morning five days in a row! I am in heaven! I forgot what it was like to sleep for a solid 8 hours. We are also very excited about his two new teeth. His front two bottom teeth have broken through the gum over the last week. They are sharp little suckers! I think that will be on teeth for a little while at least. Our next big adventure will be introducing solids, which will happen in just a couple weeks.

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5 Months Old

I know I say this every month, but it is so hard to believe that my little boy is growing up so fast! He is doing very well and has learned a few new tricks. He has been in day care almost two weeks now. We have done quite a few half days to try to acclimate him to his new surroundings. Little by little he is adjusting. He is getting a bit better about taking bottles, he got down about 8oz today, which is great news. He is also beginning to nap a bit better, in fact he took a two and a half hour nap there this afternoon!

As for Max's new tricks . . . He has been rolling quite a bit now. He doesn't do it all the time, but he does roll both front to back and back to front. He tends to roll back to front more often. In fact, when I went in to wake him up this morning he was sleeping on his tummy. Once I got over the shock - and made sure he was still breathing - I ran to get the camera. He just looked so cute! Too bad he had woken up and rolled back to his back by the time I returned. He is also getting pretty good at sitting up. He can sit for a long time with just a bit of support. I tried taking some five month pictures of him sitting up on the couch and he loved it. Here are a couple of the pictures. First he is so excited to be sitting up, next he is beginning to fall over but it doesn't seem to phase him, lastly he is down for the count. He was ready to do it all over again just a second later!

Back to School

Well summer is officially over, at least for me! I have my first real day of meetings for school tomorrow. I do have a couple days off between now and the first day of school which is next Thursday the 21st. Max has spent a couple days at daycare, while I work in my rooms and attend a few meetings. He seems to be pretty happy at daycare. He has been all smiles every day when I pick him up, so I'm taking that as a good sign.

We have had one major problem - Max doesn't want to take a bottle. I guess he likes his milk direct from the source :) He has taken bottles in the past, but has suddenly gone on strike. We have tried a bunch of different bottles, but I don't think that is the issue. He just needs to get over the fact that he isn't going to get his milk directly from mom during the day. I think he will adjust. Our sitter is very sweet and paient, so I know everything will work out just fine.

Toes . . . Yum!

I knew it was just a matter of time! As I mentioned before Max discovered his toes a week or so ago. Like everything else he plays with he has been trying to get them in his mouth ever since. Yesterday he was sucessful. He was so pleased with himself and he seemed to think that his toes tasted great!

I hope that my next post is that he is rolling over. He has done it a couple times and he gets so close! He ends up on his side all the time, but he just doesn't quite make it all the way over. I would think that his big ole baby belly would help in getting him all the way over, but maybe it is getting in the way!

Exersaucer Fun!

Max had his first real experience in his exersaucer today. We tried it a week or so ago and he just didn't seem ready. He just flailed his arms and seemed to be very confused. He also had a hard time sitting up in it.

I gave it another try today and he loved it! He couldn't decide what he wanted to look at first, there were just too many fun things. He has been getting so much better at controling his hands. He is now able to grab on to things fairly easily, which made the exersaucer all the more fun. I love the little spit bubbles in the second picture - he was trying really hard to

make the animals talk to him!

What a week!

Max has had a very eventful week! He is no longer being swaddled at night when he goes to sleep. He has officialy graduated to the sleep sack. It is basically a wearable blanket that keeps him all cozy at night. He has been in the sleep sack all week, and so far things are going pretty well. He only wakes up once a night, usually between 3am and 5am, then he goes back down until about 7:30ish. All in all, he is not doing too badly. I feel like I am getting enough sleep and so is he. We will need to begin putting him to sleep earlier soon so that he is up when we need to go to daycare in the morning. My first day back is August 11th, which is right around the corner!

Max has also discovered that there are neat little things attached to the end of his legs that he can control, well sort of. . . I keep telling him that they are his feet, but I don't think he is too interested in what they are called. No matte what you call them, they are his new favorite play thing. He grabs them all the time, especailly during diaper changing time. He seems to like his feet more than any of his toys right now. He hasn't quite gotten them into his mouth, but I am sure this milestone is just around the corner!

Last but not least Max and I had lunch with two of my mom's co-workers this Tuesday. Angela even had a gift for Max, an adorable little quilt that she made. It is so cute! It is covered with frogs, tutles, and all kinds of cute little things. I layed Max on it for the first time yesterday and he seemed to think it was pretty cool, but I did have to make him promise not to spit up on it. He even posed for a few pictures! Thank you so much Angela!

He Grew How Much?!

Max was such a big boy yesterday! He had quite the day. Not only did he turn four months old, but he also got to see Dr. Spewak for his four month appointment. I was relieved to see that there were no sick kids in the waiting room. I have had mixed emotions about going to this appointment - I have been dying to know what my little boys weighs but the thought of him getting more shots breaks my heart. We did the fun stuff first. Max weighed in at 17lb 3oz, which puts him at about the 75th percentile. More shocking than his weight was his height - he is 27 1/4 inches tall, or I guess maybe long since he doesn't really stand up yet. His height is in the 95th percentile. He has grown so much in the last two months! He put on over 5 pounds and grew almost 5 inches! The doctor actually said that Max is the perfect size . . . for a six month old. I now understand why I had to buy him a whole new summer wardrobe in 9 month size! It is hard to believe now that I was worried he wasn't gaining weight initially.

Dr. Spewak said that Max looks great. He is hitting all of his milestones just like he should. We think he has started teething. His hands are always in his mouth and he is drooling like crazy. He has also been a bit fussier than usual and I actually had to break out the baby Tylenol last evening. Dr. Spewak also gave us the green light to start solid foods, although I think we will wait until closer to six months to embark on that journey. Max just doesn't seem ready at all right now.

I am very proud to say that I have been doing much better about giving Max his tummy time. In fact, he doesn't really seem to mind it so much anymore. We are able to get him to do over 10 minutes before he starts to fuss and then I can usually get a few more minutes in before he really starts to melt down. I can see a huge difference in how strong he is and how long he is able to hold his head up on his tummy. I guess it really does build strength. To celebrate is four month birthday Max rolled over twice last night when he was on his tummy. He hasn't done that since he was about a month old - which was a complete accident at the time I am sure. I will have to see if he continues to roll in the next few days.

Since Max is getting so big it has been getting more and more difficult to swaddle him when he sleeps. Only one problem, when he isn't swaddled he doesn't sleep. Last week I started swaddling him with one arm out and last night I left both arms out and he actually slept from bedtime until 6am! Shocking. I guess he is just about ready to move on to the sleep sacks at night. My little boy is just growing up so fast!