Thanksgiving!

Max is dishing out the smiles all the time now.  It is so much fun!

The poor boy had some eczema develop on his cheeks and chin.  It was so sad (and also interferred with his 3 month pictures).  He has had such beautiful skin since he was born with hardly any baby acne and only marred by scratches he gave himself.  I was glad when, with some lotion, we were able to help it dramatically go down and after a few weeks there was barely any left.

We celebrated Thanksgiving at Brittany's house.  I made the rolls,a creamy corn w/ jalapenos dish, an apple pie and Peter made Pumpkin pies.

Our little turkey:

 The dinner BEFORE:

My yummy rolls

This is not my corn dish - this is just regular canned corn.  Peter is a "corn purist".  I told him I was making a fancy corn dish and he said that I better have regular corn because he wasn't going to eat any kind of corn but that.

The dinner AFTER (I still think it's crazy how much time goes into this one meal and how quickly that meal disappears.)

 
Then, of course, after the meal came the required lay-around-and-be-full...

Landen and Joe

 Here are the pies we made.  Pretty, right?  Yes.  Definitely pretty.  However, the pumpkin was not good.  In fact, Brittany was the first one to take a bite and she didn't say anything, just moved onto eating her slice of apple.  Then, Peter takes a bite and he goes "this taste like crap!"  Brittany agreed but said she didn't want to say anything in case that's how we like our pies. 

 So we did a little investigating to figure out why the pumpkin pies didn't turn out (my apple was awesome by the way).  Well, my Grandma Nelson's Pumpkin pies are the best!  Last year we asked her what her secret was.  She said #1 - use Marie Calendar's frozen pie shells #2 - Buy a can of Libby's pumpkin and follow the recipe on the back #3 - substitute the evaporated milk called for in the recipe with 1/2 heavy whipping cream and 1/2 milk.  That was all she changed.  Well, we kinda followed her directions.  Peter made his own pie crusts but that wasn't the problem.  We used a different kind of canned pumpkin, not Libby's.  So we followed the recipe as stated on the back but swapped the canned milk out for the cream and milk.  No problem, right?  WRONG.  Here's the issue...  the recipe on the can we used called for sweetened condensed milk and that's where the recipe got its sweetness from.  The recipe on the Libby's can, we learned later, called for evaporated milk and then you add in sugar.  So by not following the recipe Grandma told us to but still making the substitution, we made a pie with zero sugar or sweetness.  SUGAR FREE Pumpkin Pie = disgusting.   I called Grandma to tell her how her pies didn't turn out and she let us know how silly we were for not following her exact directions.  Lesson learned -sorry Grandma!

Later that night we had veggies/dip/snacks and played some Uno.  Peter creamed us all.  (This was our first big holiday meal since having Max.  Boy does that complicate eating!  If he isn't at that perfect moment in time where he is either sleeping or happy to be playing alone on the floor, it can seriously cramp your meal.  Not to mention the difficulties in playing games.  There were concessions made for the person holding the baby.)

A Dancing Date

On Max's 3 month birthday we gave him what every little boy wants - more time to play with his friends.  :)

We had tickets to a dance concert so we left him with Brittany and he got to "play" with Hayden and Landen.  It is so awesome to have Brittany so close.  It brings me such comfort to know that when Max is being watched by someone who loves him and will take great care of him.  She is such a great sister and help to me.  She is willing to help out whenever I need it.  She is the best!

We had "won" tickets (at this year's silent auction at CROSSMARK's Casino Night for Children's Miracle Network) to a Dance Troupe called "Pilobolus" performing at the Winspear Opera House in downtown Dallas.  The tickets came along with gift cards to a really nice restaurant but I didn't want to be away from Max for that long so we will go to dinner another night.  The Opera House is a beautiful building.  We had great seats and these dancers were amazing.  Some of the dance was pretty high level conceptually, which I can appreciate but can get tiring to watch.  The dancers were all certainly athletes.  I've included some pics so you see the type of things they do.  It's nice to spend time alone with Peter, but we both end up missing Max if we are gone too long.  :)

Max is 3 months old!

Max turned 3 months old on November 19th.  I can't believe Max is 3 months old already!

Here are some of Maxwell's likes and dislikes.

Likes:

• Eating
• "Running and Jumping" - a great thing Michelle Kenyon taught us that helps when Max is gassy.  Imagine pumping Max's legs like he is running and then when he "jumps", you put his feet together and push them up towards his belly button
• Smiling at faces
• Looking at ceiling fans
• Resting  his head on your face - he really likes going cheek to cheek
• Getting his diaper changed on his changing table and getting his diaper changed in general 
• Stretching after he wakes up, as soon as we let him loose from being swaddled
• His vitamin D drops
• First half of his baths
• Sleeping with mom in the morning
• Having something touching his face when he goes to sleep - your face, your arm, your hand, a pillow (only when supervised by mom and dad and then immediately removed after he goes to sleep)

• Dad putting him to sleep
• Holding onto a blanket
• White noise while sleeping
• Classical music
• Eating his hands



Here's Max chewing on his hands.  Notice he is wearing what we call his "naughty" pajamas.  He gets to wear these if he has had a tough day and been "naughty".

• Hanging with dad (he smiles and talks like crazy with dad)
• Standing up
• Looking at the TV, Computer, or Cell phone screen

Max checkin' out Dad's computer (sorry Peter, Max is too cute not to include this picture)

Things he doesn't like:

• Hats covering his eyes
• Clothes coming off over his head
• Tummy time
• Being cradled in your arms when he goes to sleep
• The car
• The process of being swaddled
• The end of baths (hair washing and getting out) 

Some of the things he does

• Rolls over every once in a while from front to back when he is on tummy time
• Grabs onto your clothes
• Sometimes he will actually sit calmly on your lap
• He sounds like he is talking when he cries, I call it his conversational cry
• Drools a lot!
• He still has a great pouty lip that he will bring out when he is really sad.  The boy knows how to work it!
• He is fantastic at holding his head and pushing up on tummy time.  This boy is strong!
• He is moving his arms and legs on purpose now

Second week of November

Here is some of the cuteness I got to enjoy the last week before I went back to work.  After this, the amount of pictures drops off because my amount of time with Max obviously drops off.  This makes me sad.  :(

I surprised Peter at his office the week before I went back to work.  Max and I took Peter to In-N-Out for lunch and then let Peter's co-workers coooo all over Max for awhile.



At In-n-Out.  Max is sleeping like a pro!



Enjoying some naked time - I think that little bottom is so cute!

See Mom?  I can stand up all by myself (kinda)

Oops - lost my balance

I took Peter out to dinner for and introduced him to Korean food one night.  Max unfortunately spends most of his time in his car seat when we go out to eat.  I am looking forward to when he is big enough to sit in a high chair.

I met some friends that I used to work with for dinner one night.  As usual I was running late so they had eaten before I got there (I still haven't figured how to get out of the door on time, even when I swear I start getting ready with plenty of time).  I really wanted them to see how cute Max was but he was tired at that point and the restaurant was really loud so he just fussed and cried the whole time.  I felt so bad.  I clearly understand that he is his own person because if I could control him, I would make sure that anytime we are around people who are excited to see him and want to hold him that he would be smiley and happy.  But no, that rarely works out.  I am sure as he gets older it will get better.

As soon as I got Max outside where it was more calm and quiet, his mood completely shifter and the little stinker dropped smiles like this on me when we got to the car.  WHY oh WHY couldn't he have done that in the restaurant so my friends could have seen this side to him?  :)

Max still won't take a binkie and we have tried.  If you ever get him to keep it in his mouth he does this (shown below) where he's shoves it to one side and basically plays with it.

Another trip to the Arboretum

Since my first visit to the Arboretum didn't turn out as planned (to read about it, click here),  I wanted to go back and get some pictures.  Peter was kind enough to watch Hayden so that Brittany and I could just take the babies.

Hayden had a great time with his Uncle Peter.  So much fun that he was tuckered out - Peter snapped this shot of Hayden falling asleep while they were playing the Wii.

I don't love this picture but I love the expression on Max's face.  I wish I knew what he was looking at!

Landen

Landen, Brittany, Me, and Maxwell

Here's a short video that shows what a beautiful day it was and little snippet of how much fun we had.