The middle of August

I can't believe it's the middle of August already!!! 

The dimple on his left cheek is still there - I hope it never goes away.

Fun times with dad - being pushed and pulled around the room in a laundry basket.

Wanting his head in the corner when he sleeps but not minding be crammed into the short side.

Concentrating on the egg shaker, shaking it to make sound.

He hasn't shown much interest in coloring but he will play a little with the etch-a-sketch

Finding other toys to play with (aka pull out of the basket and leave on the floor)

We had our house walk through with the builder on the 15th.  Our realtor, John, came as well.  I appreciated having his help because it was nice to have another set of detailed eyes.  We marked the house up with blue tape.  I was worried the builder might get annoyed but he was pleasant and encouraging, exactly how I would hope he would be.  It made the long process not so tedious.  He always walked us through a lot of things about the house...the sprinklers (which are hooked to a satellite, per the city code, which controls the watering...pretty cool system!), the appliances, the furnace and a/c units, etc.

Blue tape everywhere!

Here is the fortune cookie that I opened (for Max) the next day...Sounds like a good sign!

Here's some things about Max lately:

• He screams!
• He stands really well but he's not interested in walking (not including walking along furniture) unless he is in the pool.  We have a ledge in the pool that he stands on and wants to walk without holding onto us (which is REALLY not okay in the pool.  He screams about that).
• He doesn't blow any more raspberries on us in the morning and has started to not bite as much as well.
• He gives kisses to his Momma and Dada in the morning before we all leave the house for work.
• He likes to shut drawers and doors and is really careful with his fingers and keeps them out of the way.  He quickly learned that without ever having shut his hands in anything.
• If we are eating he will come over and beg and whine, like a little puppy, to get us to give him food off our plates.
• He is ticklish on his sides, thighs, knees, and chest.
• He won't clap.  He won't even try.  We do pat-a-cake and clap for him and also clap for people at Kindermusik but he hasn't caught on at all.  I don't know what the hold up is....

Video catch up and house update

I found some videos from the first week of August that I missed when I was writing the blogs for those days.  So you will get to enjoy them with this blog!

Video - Max loves pushing things around.  I think it's fun to watch how he navigates and understands how to keep going when he's hit an obstacle.

Video - I have mentioned how Max has started growling a lot.  This video captures that.

Video - Here is a clip from the day I let him feed himself.  Click here to read about it.

Max's first birthday is fast approaching so I got out the invitations to his party.

Front of the invitation

Inside (with some certain details hidden)

I love his big open-mouthed smile

Video - Max is a now skilled with the big boy sippy cup (the ones with the hard tops).  Silly boy is just getting so old!

Here's Max and his Kindermusik teacher, Kristen on the last day of summer classes.  We love her!

After Kindermusik we went over to check on the house (like we do every weekend and sometimes during the week).  It will be weird when our weekends are freed up again!  This place is ALMOST DONE! Which is a good thing because our walk through with the builder is in 3 days.

Mirror is up in the half bath.

Oven and Microwave are installed

Range and hood are complete

Dishwasher is installed

Max was checking out the carpet in the master bedroom.

Just like at home, when he's on carpet he crawls with fists.

The closet in the garage is all done

Media Room snack bar is all complete with the corian counter top.

Video - Max wants some privacy and doesn't want to be disturbed when he's in the bathroom.

Max is struggling sometimes to take naps on the weekend.  He needed one so bad that Peter rocked him until he fell asleep and then Peter held him for an hour or so until he woke up.  Sometimes you just do whatever it takes because you know he really needs some sleep.

When we were out for our usual Sunday visit to Costco, we stopped and got lunch.  Max had a good time playing with a straw.  We also let him have some french fries (Gasp - I KNOW!).

Blowin' Bubbles

After Max's exciting dinner where he got to feed himself yogurt, we took him to the park next door and introduced him to blowing bubbles.   Warning:  there are a lot of cute pictures that I can't leave out of this post.  (I took 70 total so I promise to narrow it down from that.)

I'm not so sure about this

Maybe it isn't too bad.  I guess I can check it out more.

What is that?

Okay, this is pretty cool.

Max closing his eyes when the bubbles come at him.

Max trying to blow.

Dad, let me hold it!

My boys.

Aw!

You can see in this picture just how much Peter loves Max.  I never imagined he would be as amazing a dad as he is.  I am excited to see these two buds' relationship as Max grows.

Reaching up HIGH trying to grab those leaves.

And still....drool drool drool drool. 

Time to walk back home.  What a fun evening it's been!

Mom, give me that spoon!

Here's some pics from the first week of August.

Hayden is helping Max "walk"

Max is cautiously checking things out

Coming to get his Momma - notice the fists he's still crawling with.

One of the benefits of being around older cousins is that Max sees what the older boys do, including drinking out of other "sippy" cups.  Max likes to pick up whatever they set down and drink out of it.  He's hoping to find something other than water since that and formula/breast milk is all we let him drink.  :)  Sneaky but smart boy.

Woo hoo - hair!  We had some fun with the hair gel today.

Happily playing with the remote.

I love this boy! 

He has a sweet temperament and my heart lights up being around him.  I count my blessings that I'm able to see him during the work day at lunch.  There are many nights where we put Max to bed and after an hour or so passes, I start to miss him and want to wake him up and play (of course I don't do it!).  I am not to the point yet where I would even think about leaving taking a vacation without him - it would be torture!  And a year ago I wouldn't have thought I'd feel that way.

Max kept reaching for the spoon when I was feeding him some plain yogurt (he likes it!) so I put a little yogurt on the spoon and handed it to him.  He did a great job of getting the spoon in his mouth and the yogurt was perfect because it was so thick it just stuck to the spoon if he turned it upside down. 

Maxwell had so much fun with it and was so proud of himself.  I was really impressed with what a good job he did of holding the spoon and getting it to his mouth.  I let him go and make whatever mess he made.

When it came time to clean up though, Max was NOT happy.  He didn't want to be done and he didn't want to be cleaned off.  I don't usually let him get so messy and so there usually isn't as much clean up to do.

All done!  Back to a happy camper.