Week of May 18th, 2014

Picnic in the car with yummy BBQ from the guy outside Home Depot.

Peter delivered on his Anniversary present - - installing drip lines into our sprinkler system.

Can you see the drip line?  He did a nice job of making it inconspicuous.

I am so happy to not have to worry about hand watering anymore!  Thanks Peter for doing such a nice job on this!

Hanging out on the patio

This girl loves her baths.  She'd hang out happily like this for a long time, as long as she just ate.  :)

Took Emmalyn in for her one month doctor's appt.

Her pediatrician would have liked to have seen her gain more weight than she did.  He wants me to pop in just for a weight check in two weeks.  He also wants me to start "topping her off" on the other side when I'm nursing.  I'm not so sure about that because she's already spitting up a ton and doesn't act hungry when she's done eating.

He also suggested using Cetaphil as a face wash again to help with her acne.  Since it's gotten so bad, I decided to take his suggestion and went after the appointment to get the wash and the moisturizer.  I am supposed to wash her face once a day and moisturize it twice.  The nice thing about Cetaphil is you doing have to use water with it so I can just put the wash on her face and then wash off the excess, I don't have to go through the hassle of rinsing off the wash.

She got a shot at this appointment.  It's so awful watching your baby scream after getting poked.  :(  The nurse suggested that I could stay as long as I needed in the room and I could nurse if I want to help soothe her.  I have never thought of nursing before to help soothe them...I thought it was a great idea.  I think it helped!  Or...at least it made me feel like I was helping her.

Here's her stats from her 4 week visit (which happened closer to 5 weeks):

Weight: 8 lbs 3 oz, 13th Percentile

Height: 20 1/2 in, 9th Percentile

Head: 14.3, 31st Percentile

We tried out the play mat

Video - I think we have the beginning of "coos" here...

It was a windy day so I got out the (cheap) kites and we tried to get them up.

It didn't work.  The wind was gusty but not consistent enough to keep a kite up.

Evidence of the shot

Pretty girl in her pretty flowery dress

She likes being outside and so does Max. But she eats, quite frequently...and Max doesn't like to play outside by himself.  So today, she dined outside.

Ahh...the silly face game.  

This one went to Daddy...

...And this one came back from Daddy.

Video - Maxwell and Daddy playing tag.  Sorry for the crazy camera work!

We went out to dinner.  We are eating out more frequently because I'm wiped out and so if Brittany doesn't cook, then eating out is our option.  

(Emmalyn ate here too.  Someone asked me what the strangest place I've ever nursed was and that was hard to answer because I've nursed pretty much everywhere...restaurants, sporting events, parks, airports, airplanes, outside, inside, my car, a bathroom, swimming pool.  If I didn't nurse when we were out, I'd never get to go out!)

Max got this book out and was reading by himself, first time he's done that without one of us reading with him.  I'd love for him to be a lover of books!

He's got his tool set with him so he can go to work.

Emmalyn's first walk in the neighborhood (with Britt and the boys)

He's not tall enough to pedal so he just pushes this bike along and his poor ankles get beat up by the training wheels.  We are just going to take the wheels off and it can be a balance bike.

Yummy popsicles outside.  For once, Max has a dirty face like Landen!  (Landen is usually a mess and Max is pretty clean.)

Is she sucking her thumb?

Max hasn't been napping as well lately.  He will go down like usual but then I hear him in there singing or talking or just moving around.  He doesn't get out of bed but he doesn't go to sleep.  Usually if I go in there after awhile and tell him to go to sleep he will finally go to sleep.  I REALLY hope he isn't starting to be done taking naps.  Also, he covered HIMSELF up with a blanket after I left the room one day, he's never covered himself up before.  I'm so proud of him when he does new things for the first time but then a part of me is also sad because it's something else he can do without my help.
I get emails that say what Max should be doing developmentally at each age... "Here's what your child should be doing at 21 months..." etc.  I got one recently that said children his age should be saying 4-6 word sentences.  I thought that was interesting so I started paying attention to how many words Max uses in his sentences.  I regularly counted 8-10!  Way to go, buddy.
Recently he has started using the words "delicious" and "interesting".  He'll say "mmm...that's delicious (de-Wicious)" or "that's interesting".
He certainly wants to do things on his own!  He laid down next to Landen today to read a book to him and started with "once upon a time..."   I don't know where this kid picks up things like that, it's not like the books we read to him start that way...  Maybe the show "SUPER WHY" ?

Handsome...Cute...Adorable...

From the end of February and the beginning of March, here's a hodge podge of pics of Max and other going ons.  I thought there were some pretty cute pics of Max in the mix that deserve to be highlighted in the title of this post.

Don't you love his style? 

(I love that I got this sweater at a consignment sale for a great price!)

Playing with Britt and her boys on the playground at the mall.  I am happy he is having fun but as a mom, I struggle when he does things with someone else that I haven't done with him yet.  *I* want to be there.  It's hard to give that notion up even though I know it's a sacrifice of being working mom.   I have yet to take him to the mall. 

I had my team in from Canada and US so it meant that for 3 nights and 3 mornings, I got home after Max went to bed and left before he was up (and no lunch visits).  It was not fun!  I missed him so much.  One night I woke him up just so I could hold him. 

Thanks Aunt Brenda for this blanket!  It's his blanket when he's at Britt's.

He enjoys climbing into the swing and hanging out there.

Dare devil!

Max was not happy about being at the pediatrician's for his 18 month old check up.

Look at how long he is now!

:( shots

Not only did he have to get shots but I found out he had a double ear infection.  This was his first ear infection ever.  I hate that he had possibly been in pain and I had no idea!  So we got his first prescription for antibiotics.  I am not a fan of medication and want to heal through natural remedies but I followed the Dr's advice and gave him the medicine. 

Woo hoo!!!  Visitors from Vegas!  We had a lot of fun playing games one night when Tida and Jason were in town.  We love spending time with them and Jess and John.

Playing at the park.  Notice the new haircut?  We buzzed his head.  It's easier to do it that way but I don't like how it looks!

He was upset that he was such a mess.

Getting better as using the fork.

I love that we live somewhere you can wear shorts at the beginning of March!

He yelled down at me from the balcony.

He came right up and sat down next to Daddy because he loves being close.

I flew Spirit Airlines for the first time for work.  It was an experience (would be my last choice to fly again).  Felt like a very economy level way to travel.  Super uncomfortable and felt tightly packed in.  The landing was so rough that the overhead compartment behind me popped open and the oxygen masks fell out.  The funniest thing was that it didn't surprise me at all and just seemed par for the course.

I believe this pic was from when Britt took the boys to the library.  (Another thing I haven't done with Max yet. - - I know, I need to do more with him on the weekends but I want to just be at home not running around.)

I bought this shirt not long after we found out we were having a boy.  Love the personality in this picture!

Video - Peter taught Max a new trick while I was in meetings.

Max's bottom right canine tooth popped through on the 3rd of Feb. 

He says "come here" but it sounds more like "hum eer"

Here's the stats from the doctor's visit...

Weight - 24 lbs 9.5 oz - 30th Percentile

Height - 30 1/2 inches - 6th Percentile (woo hoo!!  That's a big jump from last time)

Head - 49 cm - 80th Percentile

Poor kid is all over the board.

Grandpa and Nana Come to Visit Part II

The fun with Grandpa and Nana continues!!

Grandpa volunteered to feed Max his breakfast.  What a great Grandpa!

We decided to go to a children's science museum - Frisco Sci-Tech Discovery Museum for fun.  None of us had been there before but I had been in the same building once and it seemed like a good place to visit.  When we got there, we got to share the space with a huge group of LOUD kids on a field trip.  Once they left though, we had the place basically to ourselves.  Everything was geared to kids older than Max but he still had some fun.  Their current theme was "grossology" so we learned lots about gross things like insects, blood, and poop.

Making some BIG bubbles

We all tried the hurricane simulator where you get to experience hurricane force winds.

HA!!  Joe, Marriann, and Dad tried it first.

Britt, her boys, and I tried it next (you can see that the winds were up to 74.0 mph at this point)

Everyone had fun with the bubbles

Hayden coming down the slide

Nana coming down the slide

Max investigated everything that he could reach.  :)

Peter really had fun with the bubbles.

Max wanted to stand in the hurricane simulator too (without it going)

Peter broke the rules. 

Max was scared.

Max checking out the slide from the top.

Whew - everyone made it down safe and sound!

Max really liked listening to this. Every time the video made a boom-boom-boom sound he started stomping his feet.  I thought it was cute (and the first time he's really stomped).

Taking off towards something else that interested him.

It was a lot of fun for everyone!  Once Max gets a little bigger I think we will go often.  It's not as far as the other museums and I like that they change their themes multiple times a year.

After the museum we headed to the pediatrician's for Max's 15 month check up.

Video - Max thought walking on the table was pretty cool with the sound the paper made.  He kept going back and forth.

Yup, another shot.  He did great and quickly calmed down after the shot this time. 

Max's stats:

Head: 47 1/2 - 57th Percentile

Weight: 21.7 lbs - 9th Percentile

Height: 29 inches - 2nd Percentile

A few things about Max recently -

1. He is great about letting me brush his teeth with the finger toothbrush and keeps his mouth open so I can do it.
2. He LOVES turning the bathtub in the master bathroom on and off (thank goodness he can only reach the handle for the cold water so I don't have to worry about him burning himself).
3. He finally enjoys taking showers and will let me rinse shampoo off his head without freaking out!  This is a huge win!
4. He loves wearing shoes and socks.
5. He has stopped calling Peter "Daddy", instead he calls him Peter ("Peetuh").  It's super cute.

One of the perks of having Dad come to visit - I could utilize all of his handy skills.  He's able to fix and do nearly everything.  My dad is seriously talented.  So I got his help to fix my armoire that's been broken for over a year (of course he fixed it quickly and easily).  I would love to have him around for a few weeks at a time so I could get his help doing more landscaping in the yard, adding some touches in the house, and anything else I could think of.