Super Bowl Birthday Bash

Super Bowl Sunday was a fun day!  Not only did we get to hang out, eat good food, and watch the game with the Mejia's but we also celebrated Landen's first birthday.

 Max got all dressed up for the big game.

We used the game to break in our new Vitamix blender.  We started out making an Asian Buffalo dipping sauce for pot stickers.  Then we made salsa and guacamole.  Last, we made an Alfredo tomato sauce in which to dip garlic bread.  The salsa and the guac were good, the other two were just edible.  I blame that on the recipes.  The actual blender was amazing!  It was super expensive but I'm excited about using it and plan on using it enough to make the cost worth it.  My first purpose in buying it is to make baby food for Max so I'm looking forward to trying it out for that!

Brittany did an awesome job on the garlic bread.  She was such a trooper.  I wasn't able to stand forever due to my foot so she helped out a lot.

Peter also made yummy hamburger queso.  Our chips were well dressed with all the good stuff we made to cover them.  :)

The birthday boy played so hard he had to take a break in the middle of all the fun.

Max watched a little of the game. 

Peter and Joe playing games on their iphones.  Thank goodness for technology or we might have to talk to each other.  :) (Just kidding of course)

At halftime we sang to Landen.

He didn't want to wear the hat.

Brothers - Landen and Hayden

Finally digging into the cake.

My son - never misses an opportunity to look at a cell phone.

So, had you met my reserved, sort of aloof, non-emotional husband?  Yeah...he has been replaced by this crazy guy who breaks out all sorts of tricks to get his son to smile and laugh. :)

Max all ready for bed but getting some final playtime in.

Happy Birthday Landen!  It was fun to be apart of your first birthday party.  I am so glad that we get to live close to you and see you grow up!

He's growing up, with or without me

He's getting so big (and I'm not just talking about his cheeks!).  :)

Max watching Baby Bach.  We let him watch it about once every few weeks or so.  It's ridiculous how it holds his attention.

Show me your teeth!

Yup, that's 2 little teeth!

 I have lots of pictures of Max smiling.  But his sad face is just as cute (most of the time).  He's so sweet and cute that I don't let him stay sad for long before I'm rushing to his side trying to make him happy again. 

One of the times I was at Brittany's house she mentioned something about Max holding his own bottle.  I was like "WHAT?!"  I had NO idea that he could hold his own bottle!  Of course Max never takes a bottle when I'm around, because if I'm there he's nursing.  The bottle is only used when I'm NOT there.  And it's been awhile since Peter's been alone with Max and needed to give him a bottle so he didn't know about it either.  I have to admit that when Brittany let me know this, that I was a little sad.  I didn't get to see the process as he tried to hold it but couldn't do it alone.  And I didn't see the first time that he held it by himself and I wasn't there to cheer him on.  I was sad that there was this skill he learned and I had absolutely no part in it and didn't even know he could do it.  I don't look forward to the time when this becomes the norm.

Brittany kindly sent me a picture the next time she watched Max so that I could see his skills in action.

Here's some of the things Max does now that he is 5 1/2 months old.

• He reaches down and holds his toes when he's sitting up
• When he wants to show you love (or get kisses) he will pull you into his face
• He has started laying his head on my shoulder when he's tired (but of course would NEVER fall asleep that way)
• He throws serious fits about going to bed in the evening
• He can now roll from both his back to his tummy and his tummy to his back

Two big things happened on February 6th - 

1. Max reached out to me for the first time.  MELTED MY HEART
2. He rolled over in his sleep to his stomach.  I was like, "Should we roll him back over?  Babies are supposed to sleep on their backs!"  So we rolled him over and he ended up rolling himself back over to his belly.  He must be like his momma and likes to sleep on belly.  (We did talk to his pediatrician about it a few weeks later at his 6 months appt and she said as long as we put him to bed on his back, if he rolls over by himself that's okay.)

How a baby falls asleep...

It's not usually this easy except in the middle of the night when I am putting Max back to bed after he has eaten.  (The movie was taken at 5:30 am.)  However, I'd rather it was easy in the middle of the night and harder in the early evening rather than the situations be switched.  So I'm not complaining.

February Arrives

February is a great month because it means Spring is almost here in Texas.  The weather has been so mild this winter that very rarely has Max had to be completely bundled up against the cold.  It is still too cold to play outside so there is lots of playing going on inside.

He loves sucking on his fingers

 Max has been so interested in watching me eat.  I really want to wait until he hits 6 months old to feed him solids however the poor boy looks so longingly at the food I eat, it's very tempting to give in early.  So, one day I caved in a little and let him suck on a bell pepper stick for about 10 seconds.  He was so cute. 

 Now that Max can sit up, he is playing with his toys in a whole new way.  I absolutely love watching him grow.  It is so very special and awesome to me that I get to watch him learn new things every day.  It is so great how on some things one day he doesn't do it and then the very next day, he does!  The time is just flying by and he is growing up so fast.

This elephant is one of his favorite toys.

One adorable face - "what are you doing?"

Another adorable face - All smiles

Max is so much fun to play with.  He responds, interacts, and just melts my heart (and Peter's too).

Video- He loves playing pat-a-cake. 



Max happily playing with Peter

I can't deny this face a thing! I'm so in love with this little guy.



Sweet chubby baby toes

Have I mentioned how happy Max is?  He is rarely unhappy.  (Except the usual grumpiness when he's tired, hungry, or bored.)  He has come so far from that fussy infant.  Here are some of my favorite smiles.

Bringing out the dimple

Video - Max has started rolling over some times but not consistently.  I've been trying to capture it on video.  What you can count on though is if I get out my camera to take a video, it won't happen.  So watch Max deny me and decide to talk to me instead.

More Pics from the end of January Part II

New thing - gripping onto the car seat as if for dear life

Movie - watch Max sit all by himself!!!  What a big boy!  This was less than a week after he turned 5 months old.  He probably could have done it earlier but I didn't try it with him, I always had the Boppy pillow around him to support him.

My shopping helper - he held on to my purse

He loves playing with his daddy.

Movie - A little clip of Peter and Max playing.  Max has always been very good at being stiff. 

Max is finally big enough to play in his activity jumper.  His toes barely touch but he's starting to play with some of the toys.

This is a picture of Max's belly button.  It doesn't poke out anymore but hasn't completely gone back in yet - I wanted a picture so I'd remember it.

Movie - Max using his binkie not to suck on but as a chew toy.

Movie - This boy is so good at sitting up!  I'm shocked by how once we realized he could do it, he quickly became a pro.  Watch how good he is at keeping his balance. 

Movie - He sure likes playing with his toys.  He can get so focused.

A couple things about Max lately:

• He has noticed he has ears and has started to hold his ear when nursing.
• He has also noticed he has hands and will look at them with fascination
• He has learned that if he arches his back enough, it helps him roll to his side
• He likes time in his activity jumper and will play by himself for awhile (probably only 10-15 minutes but in his world, that's a long time!)
• He no longer likes to sit still on your lap
• For some reason he has stopped waking up happy in the morning and instead wakes up grumpy

My doctor has let me stop using crutches and walk around in the aircast (boot).  So this week was the first time since I broke my leg that I put Max to sleep by standing up and holding him.  It was so nice to be able to hold him like that again.  It was a very sweet moment for me.

Our favorite place to hang - Brittany's House

I know...I'm super far behind.  I have been with busy at work and at home and haven't had any time to really blog.  I'm sorry.  I am going to work hard to at least get caught up to only 1 month behind.  :)

Here's a post that should have happened at the end of January...

We have a good time hanging at Brittany's house - both during the day when I go visit and nurse Max at lunchtime and also on the weekends.

The adults like playing games and the kids play with each other.  Most of the time Max will let us play games for a bit before he gets tired/grumpy/hungry and needs some attention.

Peter and I taught Brittany how to play Settler of Cataan.  Fun times!

Here's some pictures from lunch time.   Since Peter likes it when he gets a picture of Max texted to his cell phone each day, most of my pictures lately happen at Brittany's house.

Serious face

Working on the cool hand signs

Playing with toys

"driving"

Smiles under the blanket

Max still won't take the binkie.  Now it's basically turned into a game where every once in a while we give it to him to see what he'll do with it.  He was so funny this time because he grunted when it was in his mouth like "see mom, I can keep it in my mouth - aren't you proud of me?"

Those cute lips just scream out for sweet kisses from Momma - - I love that Max is my baby and I can kiss him on the lips.  I never felt like it was appropriate to do that with other people's babies.  However, with my own?  PERFECTLY OKAY!

Side view of those cheeks!

Me and my Maxwell

Kisses from Momma

He's got too many cute faces for me to pick just one picture

One day, this was all Max did when I was there during lunch.  It was a very sad day for me because I didn't get to play with him.  I was in a hurry that day and so I chose not to wake him up and feed him.