Video Catch up

I missed a couple cute videos due to a change in the way I download pics/videos from my cell phone.  So here are a couple from the end of September.

Video - this is what we are going through right now with getting max to eat.  He just throws a fit.

Video - Hayden and Max playing in the car

New things in the house

We are experiencing new things in our new house...

#1 - We have had a few late night visits from an owl.  The first time we heard it we were watching TV in the family room and I heard the hooting but thought it was Peter's laptop.  He showed me that couldn't be because his laptop was on mute but the sound continued.  It sounded like the owl was perched on the top of the chimney.  He's been back to visit us a few nights, kind of a fun thing!

#2 - We got a new bed (a king size which means it feels like Peter and I don't even sleep in the same bed anymore).

Old Queen Size - now lives in the guest bedroom

New King size bed

#3 - Max actually slept in his crib!  It was just a one-time thing (I am not yet ready to have him not sleep in our room).

#4 - Peter used a drywall saw.  He's turning into a contractor and is doing a great job in the media room installing the speakers.

Max misses his cousins during the weekends and loves when they come over to visit.

Hanging with dad, enjoying some bread and water.  Good times.

I took a few pictures from the front yard so that I could track the progress in the neighborhood.  The pictures are in order as if you were turning from the left to the right.  You can see that there is still quite a lot of empty land.  It's not going to be like that for long.  They are building like crazy!

Hello October!

Wahoo!  It's October!  Holiday season starts up this month.  Should be a fun month!  Here's how October's first few days went...

Max was on our bed and reached for Peter's iPhone which was on the nightstand.  When he reached, his hand slipped off the nightstand and he fell off the bed.  I lunged for him and caught him before he fell to the ground however his cheek hit the edge of the nightstand when his hand slipped.  He gave himself this nice purple bruise on his cheek.  I felt awful.  I know he's a BOY and he's going to get banged up but I'll be honest, knowing this doesn't make it any easier.  I am in for a rough ride when he truly gets hurt (like stitches/casts/emergency room visits, etc.)!

Still working on getting things to balance on his head.  This time it was a diaper wipe.  I could post another video but since I already posted one like this, I'll spare you. :)

Things about Max on October 1-

• He's really a chatterbox lately
• He is walking lots and getting faster at it and if he falls/sits down he will now work to get back up
• He likes when I sing "If you are happy and you know it clap your hands" and will sometimes clap his hands.  His favorite verse if "If you are happy and you know it, stick out your tongue" and he points to his tongue while sticking it out
• He gives kisses (most of them are big, wide, open mouth kisses)
• He says "pleases (peez)", "yes" (ehs) and "more" (moh)
• He will wrestle with you
• If you hand him a washcloth or wipe, he will wipe his face and nose when you ask him to
• He knows where his tongue is and will point to it.  He likes to stick out his tongue.
• He can make the "th" sound
• He's sneaky and will go into the pantry or diaper bag for a snack when he wants it
• His favorite animal sound right now is the sound a bee makes (bzzzz) but his version is more just the zzzz
• His drool continues to flow freely.  :)

Sleeping pic:  He fell asleep with his hand on the side of the pack-n-play.  It's almost like he saying, please let me out of this cage.

Sleeping pic:  In the swing at Brittany's during my lunch visit.  He's getting so big!  She doesn't have it swing anymore.  He falls asleep with it just like this and he still wants to be swaddled when he's in it.

Landen and Max are friends but friends also fight sometimes.  And these two boys are starting to do that as well.  They are becoming boys not babies.  In this pic, Landen doesn't want Max to play with the scooter.

The fights don't last long.  Later, they were sharing a snack.

Video - An update on how Max's improvement in walking.

Max has finally noticed the stairs.  He just didn't care much to this point, I am grateful that it lasted as long as it did (we've been in the house about 5 weeks).

Video - Not only did Max figure out how to go up the stairs but also how to come down (Peter told me later that he had showed him once when I wasn't around).  Good job listening to your Momma, Max!

Max is coming to get you - Rawr!

Sad face.

Video - This video shows so many fun things about Max.  His cute little walk, his funny crawl, his personality even his frustration/anger when he can't close the doors like he wants to. 

This is his, "I'm watching to see what is going to happen" face.

Some things about Max on October 4-

• He hates being put in the car seat lately and FIGHTS it by arching his back and squirming.  So frustrating.  I know I could probably move to the next level of car seat versus the infant carrier in the base but since he's still so little I am sticking with it.  Although when he's throwing his fit I wonder to myself if it would be less hassle to get him in the bigger car seat.
• He has the "high five" slap down!
• He sort of gives hugs/loves
• Does not want to share toys with Landen recently.
• Since Max was born, each night before bed (and other times during the day) I have a specific way that I give him kisses that is special to just us.  I go "momma loves you here" and kiss his right cheek, "momma loves you here" and kiss his left cheek, "momma loves you here" and kiss his nose, "and momma loves you here" and kiss his lips.  I do it every day with him.  There was a period of time when he didn't like it and squirmed but I still did it.  Well, tonight he gave me one of those moments when your child does something that causes your heart to be touched in such a sweet way that you want to hold onto that moment forever.  When I was giving him his kisses and got to his nose, he tilted his head up so I could kiss his nose and then moved it back down so I could kiss his lips.  It was the sweetest thing to me because it showed that he knew the routine and WANTED the kisses from his momma.         Love this boy.  Love this boy.  Love this boy.   That little action from him took this routine from being something I do to show him love every night to a sweet tender moment that we now SHARE each night.

I still don't completely feel like a mom or always believe that I actually have a child.  It's surreal partly because for so long we questioned whether it would ever happen.  Regardless, I count my blessings that this little spirit gets to be in my life.  And not only is he in my life but he is mine.  I get to be with him every day.  I get to have that special relationship of mother/child with him.  Now that my mom is gone I have a greater appreciation for how special and meaningful that relationship is.  He only has one mom.  That's me and no one else will ever take that spot.  Friends/girlfriends/etc will come and go.  He may (Hopefully someday) have multiple siblings.  He has lots of aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, etc.  He may have other mother figures like a mother-in-law.  But still will only have one mom. 

I want to live my life so that he treasures that relationship as much as I do.  I don't want to ever fail him.  I want to be his safe place.  The "bigness" of this scares me because I KNOW I am not perfect.  I have seen the harm and hurt and hole that exists when the relationship with one's mother becomes estranged.  I am aware that I can't control the future, I can only control today.  So I work to not sweat the small stuff, to keep this goal top of mind in my actions, to remember moments like this sweet experience when I get frustrated, overwhelmed, or grumpy.  Being a mom Being a good mom is going to require more than my "A" game.  Maxwell deserves it.

Peter is itching to get started on his media room.  The first step was to figure out how big he wanted the screen.

Another sleeping pic

Looking at himself in my cell phone is always entertaining.

Hello dimple!

Maxwell's hair was getting long and needed to be cut as you can see.  We were playing outside on a windy day.

Playing on dad's guitar

Video - Max jabbering and playing with the keyboard - lots of buttons!

Max's first trip to a museum

On Sept 30, we took Max to the Fort Worth Museum.  It was his first time to a Museum.  It isn't specifically a children's museum, but we were able to find a couple things that interest Max.  I thought it was a lot of fun and it made me excited for the future when he's older and will enjoy more things.

We started by watching an IMAX movie on Volcanoes on this huge rounded screen.  The screen was really cool.  I didn't know how Max would do since this was his first time at the movies.  Nearly immediately he started crying.  He just doesn't like loud sounds.  He was really frightened (just like when we watched fireworks) and was trying to climb up me to get away.  Once again, I resorted to nursing to get him to calm down.  Due to the rounded screen, he could see part of the screen out the side of the nursing cover.  He was fine watching as long as he was also nursing.  Guess no movies in Max's future for awhile.

Looking at the screen before the movie started - you can tell he's already hesitant about what is going on.

After the movie: Smiling at his dad

Whew!  It's over!

We checked out the other sections of the museum.  Max liked watching the balls on the spinning disk.

In the children's section, there was also a toddler section.  Max learned how to put his hand on the hand prints to have the foam peanuts blow up in the air.

Video - Max's favorite part of the entire museum was this section with tubes of water/buttons that made sound.  He played forever here.  It was so cute to watch his excitement once he had it figured out.

It was a little cold outside so that water features weren't very popular.  I put Max in a seat at the splash table and he had fun watching the water drip down and splashing in the water in front of him.

Video - Max at the splash table.  He also really enjoyed watching other kids play.

Little Max, BIG truck!

We ended our afternoon by watching a laser show in the planetarium.  After the IMAX drama, we were hesitant about how he'd do and verified with the staff that we could slip out if he started freaking out.  But, we didn't need to!  He absolutely LOVED it. 

Max and Momma before the show

This is how Max stayed the entire time.  He laid back into me so he could watch the lasers on the ceiling (which were choreographed to a variety of music).  He was seriously enthralled with them and barely moved the entire time.  If we had wagered on how he'd react, I would have lost that bet because I thought there was slim chance that we would be able to stay and enjoy the show.

Fun afternoon at the museum!

Walking more and more

Another normal week...September was a pretty boring month!  However, it was a great month because Max was doing all kinds of new things like walking.  So here are the pics from Sept 24 - 29.  There are quite a few videos because like I said, he's doing new things and I want to capture that.  He is such a fun little boy with a great temperament.  He is still super shy and won't let "strangers" hold him.  If they talk to him he usually buries his head into Peter and I.  He will usually wave or say "hi" but not until after they give up and walk away.

Still king of the drool.  It's gotten a little better but not to the point that I would say he isn't drooling anymore. 

Video - Max saying Mom.  We do this often, he says "Mom" and I say "Max" back and forth and back and forth.

Video - While he's started walking, he still resorts to crawling when he wants to get somewhere fast and of course, still crawls with his fists.

Video - Max has NOT been liking veggies lately.  He only wants to eat bread and fruit.  So I have been getting creative to try and find any veggies in any form that he would eat.  I gave him these mini peppers and he actually liked eating them.  Go for it, boy!  As a bonus, you get to see his cute wave at the end of the video.

Max has learned the art of taking bites rather than shoving it all in.  He will take bites of his mini bell peppers, bread, bananas, and apples.

Video - Max doing a good job walking outside (and being distracted by dead bugs on the patio)

Smiling at himself in the screen on my phone

Two buddies enjoying their bananas

Maxwell and Landen

Video - Max is fun to play with.  He was cracking up playing with his silly dad

In the morning, sometimes Peter will put on Baby Einstein videos to entertain Max so we can get ready.  This is how I found him sitting one morning.  Now that we are in the big house and there's more places for him to wander and play, he doesn't watch as long.

Enthralled

Now that he's walking a little better, Max likes pushing around the toy vacuum at Brittany's.

Kisses for the handsome boy in the mirror.

We've been going running in the evenings a few times a week.  It was a little chilly this night so we bundled Max up.  He enjoyed playing with my ipod after the run.

Video - Max loves to read and be read to.  This makes me really happy.  The peek-a-boo book that he is reading first is his favorite.