Max's opens his first Halloween Card

Max Sits Up!

Max is 24weeks old. 5.5 months.

Can you tell Evie is totally stressing me out while filming this video? Gah! She can squeeze too tight and easily knock one over... I was so worried she'd bounce Max backwards suddenly or hurt him in some way. I should know by now... he not only loves it but generally welcomes it. Such a boy...

Pacifier Milestone

Max is 24 weeks old.

Max has been waking up entirely TOO EARLY in recent weeks. 6:30AM was already much earlier than we have ever been awake in our lives (Evie was a 7PM - 7AM sleeper when she was this age). But, we've all adjusted to the 6:30AM and learned to live with it. However, when the wake-up started creeping back to 6:20, then 6:00 and then 5:30 and finally, 4:40AM (last night!) then new rules had to be enforced. We tried getting up (taking turns getting up, I should say) and walking across the house to give Max his pacifier. By the time we got back to our bed, though... Max would wake-up again. This would continue every 5-10 minutes for up to 45 minutes.... at which time we'd give-up.
Rob and I were, in a word, pissed.
So, recently, I told Rob - forget it. He's going to be up with or without us giving him the pacifier so let's just let him "play" in there till he cries.
Funny thing, he'd never cry. He'd "Oh! Oh! *pause!* Ohhh! Heh heh eh! *pause* Heee!" for 10-15 minutes and then ...silence.
But last night he got up at 4:40AM (I was so not happy)... he eventually fell back to sleep. Then at 6AM he was up again. Rob and I laid there discussing what our method of attack would be. Then, strangely enough... silence again. He feel back to sleep when my alarm went off and proceeded to sleep till 7:10AM!

Rob checked on Max at 7AM and asked me, "Did you give him his pacifier? He's in the there sucking away."
"No."

Ah, YES! The milestone of "finding their own pacifier" has finally been reached. This is a great stage to be in.
Of course, I also see he's been ripping down the bumper in his crib, too... which only means he's going to be in the "standing up in the crib" stage next. BOO.

Autumn Owl Craft

Eat your heart out, Martha.


We went for a lovely walk last weekend at our neighborhood park (Bryan Park). I went with the intention of taking a nice family photo (always an arduous task). I knew Evie needed focus so I brought a big ZipLock** bag and told her to find some cool stuff for us to use in our decorations at home (last year we found big acorns, pine cones, and walnuts to decorate the center of our Thanksgiving Day table).
Somehow her treasures came together in my mind as an owl so we hot glued this little guy this morning.
He's so cute, I think we'll go back today to find even more acorns and fuzzy grasses to make a few more for friends. :-D

**Its a good thing we used a ZipLock bag this year, too, cause here we are making crafts while we watch a grub worm trying to escape - ugh!

Oh yeah, and here's those photos of us:

Max

Evie

Bumps on a log

Max - 5 Months Old

Oh, time flies by... it's getting harder and harder to keep up (and keeping up with monthly posts is already hard! I knew it would be like this when we had more than 1 kid so I intentionally stopped keeping up with Evie in such a detailed manner after 1 year... but 5 months in with Max and it's already proving difficult to remember what's happened month-to-month!).

Well, big boy, you went in for your 4 month check-up on September 21 (so, technically, over 4 months old). You were 18lbs (in the 90th percentile!) and 25" long (in the 50th percentile!) with a head circumference of 17" (in the 75th percentile!). You aren't quite Charlie Brown... but you are a super chunk (and oh so adorable for it, too).

We were actually giving you 6 6oz bottles a day at that 4 mo check-up and the doctor said we could probably stand to drop down to 30oz total in a day. I immediately dropped one of your bottles and you did not seem to notice at all - phew! So, by mid-month, you are waking at 6:30AM (bottle), late morning 9AM cat-nap (bottle), lunchtime (bottle) quickly wrapped up with a 2-3 hour nap (unless dad's taking care of you, but I'll get into that in the next paragraph*), dinner time around 4-5PM (bottle) and, finally, bedtime (bottle) at 7:30PM.
By month's end you started... FOOD! Wee! So, you still have 5 feedings a day but they aren't nearly as organized as they once were.

*I said I'd explain my comment regarding dad and naps. Dad, is totally and completely unsuccessful at getting you to nap during the day. I know he'll read this and be unhappy with me stating that so flatly, but, ...it's true. Dad was really good at either understanding Evie or getting her to follow a schedule. Or, let's be totally frank, maybe it's just that second kids are not at all like first kids. Getting a schedule to work for everybody is a much more difficult challenge than it ever was when there was just the one kid in the household. This is true...
BUT.... then again... I rarely have a problem getting you to nap. And when I put you down... you nap for HOURS. So, I return to my theory that dad is the faulty piece in this puzzle.
When I work from home or am home on the weekends (and I haven't overloaded the family day with way more activities than the average person can handle) I can pull you into your bedroom, let you paw at my face while coo'ing softly, rock you in the glider quietly smiling down on you and before you know it... your coo's become soft sighs and finally... deep breathes. *Squip!* - out slips your pacifier and all is right with the world. I can get you from playful to coma in less then 10 minutes. I am quite proud of this (can you tell)? I never, EVER, was the successful with Evie. I like to think you and I are bonded more closely than Evie and I were when she was an infant. But, as much as I celebrate this ... I'm also fearful we won't be as close when you hit pre-school age. Evie's definitely more close to me than daddy these days... her affection being mostly for "girls" more than "boys." What if you think girls are yucky and I'm not as cool as dad? *sigh*, I hope you still remain snuggly with me even if those moments grow less frequent... I hope you still find comfort with me when you really need me.

Back to a more happy subject - food! Well, even that topic isn't 100% positive. You ate rice cereal, at first. The second time we gave you rice cereal, you blew it back in our faces with puffed out lips like a chimpanzee blowing raspberries. Blowing raspberries till spit rolls down your chin is a favorite of yours.
Dad bought oatmeal (cereal) a few days later and you didn't care for that one either. A day or 2 later I decided to steam apples and make my own baby food puree. You... hated that, too. Exasperated, we open up Evie's snack-size Mott's applesauces and tried that, too.
Hated. It.
We took about 2-3 days off. You were fine and happy with just a bottle (I mean, just look at your weight!), and, so are we (much less to cart around!).
I quickly began to feel like we needed to push you to eat so I bought Gerber's bananas, sweet potatoes and carrots. There's got to be something you'd like. We tried bananas. Tah-dah! We have a winner!


As I was saying about blowing raspberries earlier.... you also like to scream. It's this real happy, shrieking squeal of a scream. Its full of joy (as well as volume). You shriek suddenly and in these wild bursts. Sometimes, I must admit, it gets old and we kinda want you to stop... but I also know it'll fade very soon and I'll someday forget this moment just like all the others you'll outgrow. I try and absorb it for what its worth.
You also are getting more giggly and confident with your giggles. You laugh EVERYTIME I hold your chin back and wipe your stinky spit-neck with a baby wipe. Tonight you were super giggly and I asked daddy to get you going while I captured it for posterity. Baby laughs are seriously an amazing sound:


I can now carry you on my hip. It's not always perfect and sometimes... you fall backward (particularly when I am multi-tasking, example: carrying a flaming hot cup of coffee) but you are getting noticeably stronger. You can push up (fully!) on your hands when placed on your belly. You squirm back and forth on the changing table and are growing more challenging to hold steady. You do sit up in the Bumbo chair without listing to the side (I like to think this is partly due to your hefty size resulting in you getting stuck in the seat. We feed you from this chair perched atop the kitchen table and it works very well).
I've been walking around with you in the Baby Bjorn more recently - also working very well... despite my extremely sore shoulder muscles. You wiggle across the floor now... we can't leave you on the activity mat unattended or you get stuck against the coffee table or, today for instance, you were stuck straddling a pumpkin on the fireplace hearth. :-)
You also, ROLLED at the end of this month - weee!


I'm anxious to enjoy cool autumn days with you this October into November. I hope to capture some beautiful outdoor pictures in the leaves with your sister. I want to take a nice long stroll at the park a few times more before it gets too cold (or is night-time at 5 o'clock). I can hardly wait to go Trick-Or-Treating with you and to begin working you into our family holiday traditions this upcoming season. Each month just keeps getting more interesting and fun!

Bananas

OK, I'll try it... but if it's rice cereal, oatmeal or apples... I won't be happy. Here, lemme help guide your hand.

What was that? What was... THAT? That's... no bad...

Yeah, OK, I'll try it again, sure.

I don't...mmmm...mmm... HATE it..... its smooth and sweet. Yeah, ...mmm...mmm-k....

Yeah, let's try that again, I think I like that one...

Yeah, OK, fine. FINE! You win, OK? I kinda DO like food, alright? Let's just agree on the bananas and stick with that one for awhile, mmm-k?

After Apple Picking [Fails].

Our planned trip to Charlottesville to go apple picking at Carter Mountain went bust today.
The weather was beautiful, the timing - perfect (I have the following Monday off for Columbus Day & Evie has school so I'd have a nice, quiet day after this trip), and the organization to get out-the-door - impeccable.
We were ready-to-go at 9:45AM. Actually, we could have been ready at 9:30AM but we dawdled since Greg & Dany were to meet us at 10AM. Now, what I HEARD was that they were meeting us at our house at 10AM. What Greg heard was that we were leaving at 10AM and would meet at the mountain top.
We waited. At 10:15AM Rob, frustrated at wondering where Greg & Dany was, went to the coffee shop for a coffee. Around 10:30AM we decided to just leave. Little did we know they were already halfway there.
We picked up Subway sandwiches halfway to our destination and packed them in the car to eat at Carter Mountain. Around this time I realized how we had mis-communicated (Greg and I) and Max awoke with the car stopping. Max was also... PISSED. He had a very saturated diaper and was not at all happy with it. I eventually crawled in the backseat (wedging myself between the car seats) to try and comfort Max. His sniffling & fussing grew worse. He howled.
Evie muttered CONTINUOUSLY under her breathe, "I'm hungry... I'm starving... I'm hungry mom... when can we eat yet? I want to eat. I'm starving... I'm hun-"

I took Max out of his car seat. He was slightly comforted by me holding him but I grew anxious knowing this was the most unsafe decision with Rob driving totally frustrated in the building traffic.

We got off our exit. The cars were backed up to the exit ramp. The light up ahead was merging 2 lanes of traffic and EVERY a-hole imaginable was racing to merge as close to the end as possible. And everybody was letting them do it! I grew more and more angry with Max howling, Evie WHINING and our car creeping one whole car length for every cycle of the traffic light.

It was at this point I dropped no fewer then 13 F-Bombs begging, PLEADING, with Rob to pull over. He pounded the steering wheel. Evie, unfazed, "I'm hungry. I'm starving. Mom? I'm hun-"

We got up to the light and saw the bumper-to-bumper non-moving vehicles up to the mountain top.
"We aren't going apple picking," Rob declared as he flipped a U-Turn.
I begged Rob to pull over. He threatened to get back on the highway instead of stopping anywhere around here.

I threatened to "pop Max's head like a grape" if he didn't stop RIGHT. NOW.

We stumbled, quickly, into a neighborhood and I caught the shape of a playground. "Pull over HERE!" I yelled. Rob jerked the wheel and stopped. We all piled out of the car.
Thank. Gawd.
I had the same sensation one has after a horribly turbulent airplane ride... I almost kissed the ground.

I changed Max's near 2lb diaper and we quickly smiled. His crisis was solved.
Evie was running up and down a fake rock wall. Her crisis was solved.
Rob pulled out the blanket I packed and was eating his sandwich picnic-style. His crisis solved.
Phew. All is right with the world.

Max basked on the picnic blanket - relieved to be dry and stretched out.

Rob gives Max his first swing ride.

Silliness.

Evie swinging up a storm.

I try and teach Evie how to use the camera. This is take #5. Takes #1-4 were mostly crotch-shots.

Max rides in style with his anchor-tat and tam-o-shanter.

We decided to stroll the walking mall in Charlottesville before heading back home. We enjoyed ice cream at "Chaps." (I mean, how could I pass up a place called "Chaps"?) Funny enough, we ran into Greg and Dany at the walking mall.... ai-yi-ii.

On the way home, "Mommy? I wanted to go apple-picking..."

The Pumpkin Patch

As part of my insane desire to do EVERYTHING "fall" themed before Halloween strikes (not to be outdone by my craziness at Christmastime), we attended The Pumpkin Patch again this year. We visited with the Landis' this year.
I actually *almost* cancelled and moved this planned outing since we also plan to go pick apples tomorrow at Carter Mountain... but hey, why not completely exhaust ourselves in one weekend I say.

Max's first hayride. Evie's an old pro.


Evie and Charlie on the hay ride.


We put Brian to work with bringing the kids out to the field.


Evie selects a pumpkin (note: her first one had a very drippy hole on the bottom - this one was much nicer. Cheese!)


Rob selects his pumpkins. Brian approves.


Token family portrait in the field.


Ah, nice work everyone.

Apples

In the on-going series of "Max tries new foods".... Max tries apples.
He doesn't like 'em.
Hmmm, feeding this kid is going to be a l-o-n-g process.

Push-Ups and Roll-Overs

Max is 21 weeks old.

OK, not *quite* rolling over yet but we are experiencing extreme side-to-side rolls resulting in contorted backs. If we give him an extra "oomph" he finishes flopping over... but he isn't rolling over entirely on his own yet.

Max at 20 featuring the back-arching and rocking side-to-side. It's cute 'til he pulls this maneuver with an open-faced poopie diaper on his changing table.

What's happening?

Max's First Solids - Rice Cereal.

Max is 20.5 weeks - or - 4.5 months old.

Game Day. Now, if we can get Max to stop eating his new bib we can get a spoon in there...


Max gives me a little assist. He seems to enjoy his new rice cereal.



Max sucks the cereal off his fingers. "Where's this 'burrito' I keep hearing so much about from daddy?"


Last bite!

LightBright

Man, did I ever love LightBright as a kid.