Building Castles - First week of October 2013

October is going to be a fun month!

Video - Max counting to ten in Spanish

Thank goodness this kid is cuter than me!

I love it when he wears vests

I tried to build Max a fort with the alphabet squares.  He called it a castle.

Peter showed me up by building a MUCH BETTER castle.

Hey there, slick! (I seriously love that creamy skin tone with just a little bit of rosy cheeks!)

Another castle built by dad.  Max loves playing in them.

It was my favorite work activity of the year - Casino Night!  I look forward to this night every year.  This year I only got a few things in the silent auction (I realized that we probably wouldn't be doing very many "activities" in the coming future...baby coming and all...so I didn't go after many of the things I would have normally).  As usual, I played pretty conservatively and didn't make much "money".  Peter learned how to play craps while I stayed at the blackjack tables and did pretty well.

At the end of the night we put our few raffle tickets in the bags.  I tried to be strategic and go for the less popular items.  Then they did the drawing...and I WON SOMETHING!!!!!!!!!  Not only did I win something but I won the biggest prize (biggest = worth the most money).  I won a night in the CROSSMARK Suite at the American Airlines Center during a Stars Hockey Game (NHL).  I get the suite all to myself and my closest 11 friends.  It's a pretty sweet prize!  (It's ironic that we put most of our tickets in for other prizes and only put in *1* ticket for the suite!) It's fun to be a winner!

Max looking pretty tired in his car seat.

All of a sudden he put on this huge smile.

Less then 2 minutes later - this is what we had...

Max working on building his own castle all by himself.

He did a great job of stacking and understand what would and wouldn't be stable.

Pretty proud!

Video - I love his reaction when the blocks fall, just a little bit of frustration and a "hey, what you doing" and then he just starts over.

...still going

I was impressed with how many towers he got to a good height plus how many different types of blocks he used.

Still crossing his feet all the time

Eating out as a family

Starting to walk and Rainbows at Sunset

Here's some pics and videos from Sept 10 - 16, 2013.

Some things about Maxwell on Sept 10 (Happy birthday BRITTANY!)

1. He nearly always crosses his feet - when he sitting on the floor, sitting on my lap, in his carseat or highchair, etc.
2. He will now point at what he wants
3. He is starting to climb over things
4. He can follow some directions like "sit on your bottom" when he's getting a bath
5. He is showing that he understands more of what we say like if I ask him, "do you want some water?"
6. He says "yes", "done", and "hi"

Mouth full of teeth - and happy because he's got Landen's cup (Max is always hoping he'll pick up Landen's cup and it will have something other than water in it since he only gets water in his own sippy cup).

Showing me Landen's cup

Video - Max has a new game, he likes to balance things on his head like dryer sheets, tissues, clothes, etc. 

Hayden loves Max so much and is great at making him smile and laugh.

Video - We have been trying to get Max to take more than 1 step.  One the 12th he took 4!!!  Here's a video from the 13th.  Brittany and I were practicing taking steps with Max.  Good job Maxwell!!!!

Video - Max has just barely started "dancing"

He's figured out how to pffft

Unhappy face

I found Max in the pantry, he'd grabbed his box of Fiddlesticks off the shelf, opened it up, and helped himself up to one.  !!!  Uh-oh.  I think things are about to get more complicated.  This babe is smart.

"quick" trip to Costco

Being silly

We went on a walk with Brittany and her family around the neighborhood, we had cooler day and it was a nice little break from the heat.  Britt and Joe are showing off their P90x goofiness.

It turned into a beautiful walk!

We could see both ends of the rainbow.

One end was almost over our house.  Our house is just to the left of the tallest roof that you see just to the left of the rainbow.

Gorgeous sunset.

video - standing up and balancing

Wish every morning could be a Sunday morning

Sunday mornings are the best best best best time ever.  We don't have to get up and go to work or go to Kindermusik class.  Instead we can just wake up whenever Max won't sleep anymore and wakes us up.  :)  He is so sweet and cute in the mornings.  He is still a morning person.  Which I love watching through my half closed eyes.  HA!

Video - Max talking in the morning

I wanted to capture how beautiful his eyes are.  They are brown in the center surrounded by green with dark blue around the edge.

Another picture of Max's eyes. 

Someday, the girls are going to chase after him for his gorgeous eyes and his dimple.

He's hanging out like this more often - on one knee

...always crossing his feet in the car seat or in the high chair

Uh oh...Max discovered the fun of the toilet paper roll.  Now I am in for it!

Hanging out with dada

Since he likes his arms to escape the swaddle I did a test one night and put him in the swaddle blanket with his arms already out.  He did fine with it (even though he looks silly).

In a trance thanks to Baby Einstein

Caught him in the act of coughing

Sweet boy sitting so sweetly

mmmmmmm

He's my son - happy because he's eating spaghetti

Video - Max practicing standing on his own for the first time.  It was so awesome to see him trying this.  I love how excited he gets about it.

Video - Max laughing which causes the hiccups.

A couple things about Max lately:

• Usually in the mornings, I bring him into the bathroom while I shower and he plays with toys on the ground.  However, recently he DOES NOT like it when I am in the shower and he stands there crying.  Goodbye short moments of relaxation.
• At our apartment building, he often talks or screams when we are going down the hallway in order to hear his own echo.  He does the same thing when we go visit the house - there's lot of echoes there since it's so open and empty.
• He is starting to stand up a little his own.
• He still gets the hiccups most of the time when he laughs.