Happy Halloween

I am not going to lie, I think Maxim is the cutest little Halloween baby ever! Yes, I did say that and I fully believe it too. For his first Halloween experience I dressed him up as a black widow spider. I also made the costume myself. I am so proud of myself as I hand sewed it together. Yes, I busted out my home-ec skills that I learned back in seventh grade and I went to town. Andy was very doubtful that I could sew, but he was impressed that I made it happen. Here is the cutest black widow spider.

This costume only cost me $14.96 to make. Here is the breakdown for you accountants out there.

• Black hat - $2.99
• Red material - $.99
• Black onesie - $0 (had it already)
• Black leg warmers - $2.99
• Web - $.99
• Black socks - $5.00
• Stuffing - $2.99

I am pretty proud of myself as a first time mom making my baby's first Halloween costume...and that it turned out so awesome!

We went to lunch and then took the big man to my work for the Halloween festivities and really just paraded him around to show off how cute he is. For lunch Andy dressed him in his Halloween onesie and Halloween socks...I was so proud!

Happy Halloween everybody! I hope you had a fabulous day celebrating.

Halloween Weekend

This past weekend revolved around Halloween, my favorite holiday. It was not a typical Halloween weekend where Andy and I dressed up and went out with friends for a Halloween party, but instead the weekend revolved around Max.

On Saturday we attended the NICU Halloween Reunion party. This is held at the train park in Scottsdale and kids dress up in costumes and they have food and activities for all to enjoy. Ok, not exactly all since Max was too young to enjoy any of the fun. The park area was packed with families who have gone through what we went through with their baby, or babies since there were many with multiples in attendance. By multiples I don't just mean twins. I saw one woman with a set of four...which I guess would mean quadruplets. Wow, to think of having more than one at a time. That's just exhausting thinking about it. Anyway, once we got registered we stood in line for your typical picnic food, did some people watching and talked to one of our favorite nurses. It was then time to leave since it was pretty warm outside in the sun. I did not take any photos since Max slept through the whole event as he is still pretty young for this kind of thing and I really don't need another photo of him sleeping in his car seat. I also did not put him in his costume as I am saving that for Halloween, instead I put him in his Halloween onesie. Three weeks ago this onesie was huge on him and now it fits perfect. It's crazy how much he can grow in three weeks.

On Sunday it was pumpkin carving day. Andy and I (ok, mainly Andy) carved the two pumpkins we purchased earlier in the month at the "pumpkin patch." 

In ten years of us being together this is the first time we carved pumpkins. We did it for the big man even though he had no idea what was going on as this was how he spent pumpkin carving time.

Do you see a theme here? Yes, I do understand that Maxim is still too young to participate in anything,  but I still want to do these things. It's the thought that counts.

Max with his pumpkins. This was the best photo out of about twenty.

I ended the weekend by finishing up his Halloween costume that he will wear to my company Halloween trick or treating event. Of course he is too young to trick or treat, but I just want to get him all dressed up for my favorite holiday and show him off. Andy said he is glad I am dressing Maxim up now for Halloween and not him anymore. I made his Halloween costume and I think it turned out AMAZING and I can't wait to post pictures later this week.

4 Months

Maxim is four months old today (or one month and 25 days developmentally) and he is 12 pounds 9 ounces and growing.

Maxim, we started out this month finishing our vacation in Wisconsin where we all had a great time.  You had your first car ride across country and if mommy gets her way it will be your last.  I some how doubt that though.

You have definitely matured this month as we have been seeing new developmental abilities in you. First, you do not have a melt down during diaper changes anymore. Instead you like to talk to us while we change your diaper. This new change started while we were in Wisconsin and we changed you in your grandma Vicki's doll room. You spent so much time looking around at all of the creepy dolls (that's what daddy calls them anyway) that you barely noticed we were changing you. Once we got back to Arizona you started coo-ing during diaper changes. You just talk and giggle throughout the whole process. This is a nice change from the meltdowns as I now enjoy changing your diaper and take my time as we have our conversation. Nurse Jackie told us that this is a good sign of you maturing so I believe we are out of the diaper change freak out zone...or so I hope so.

Second, you pretty much hold your head up on your own now. You barely need assistance. We have been doing all of the exercises with you to help you improve this and you have been doing great. I think it's a combination of the exercises and the fact that you are SUPER curious that you just have to look around at everything and the only way to do that is by lifting your own head.

Third, as I said earlier you are now coo-ing (talking). This has been amazing and a heart warmer. You talk to us A LOT! I love it. Your daddy thinks this is coming from my side of the family and he's probably right. I could sit for hours just talking jibberish with you. It completely makes me smile and makes my day.

We have done a few outings with you this month. We went to an Arizona pumpkin patch to get you your first pumpkin. We have done many walks and trips to the store and of course the AZ taco festival. You just love getting out of the house. You love to be outside and look at EVERYTHING around.

You are still watching football with daddy and I like to get you dressed for the occasion.

You still LOVE bath time. I find it amazing that you know it's bath time as soon as I get you naked and put you in a swaddle blanket. You immediately get a smile on your face and get excited as if you know it's time for the bath. You just chill in your tub while we wash you. You would probably stay quietly in the tub for a very long time if we let you, but of course we don't. 

You are getting so big and it's so fun to watch you grow and learn new things every day.  You have finally gained enough weight to have a Buddha belly and some baby chunk on your thighs.  It is beyond adorable.

Mommy went back to work this month and now you are at home with daddy for six weeks. It's been nice to get back to work, but also very sad as I miss you tons all day long. Good thing daddy sends me photos of you during the day as it makes it a little better. Daddy tells me all the time how you just talk his ear off during the day and I look forward to getting home to hear you talk my ear off. When I get home you hear my voice, look in my direction and smile. It completely melts my heart when you do this.

Wow, it's been four months since you have been born and time is just flying by. I just want you to know that your mommy and daddy love you tons and look forward to making many memories with you.

Love, your mommy

Developmentally Excellent

Tonight we had a visit with Maxim's developmental nurse to see how he's doing. He weighed in at 12 pounds and 9 ounces. He's getting so BIG! Check out the little chunk on his baby thighs. They are so cute! He has also acquired a cute little Buddha belly.

Nurse Jackie also did some tests to see where he is developmentally. He is four months old tomorrow, but developmentally he should be one month and 24 days old. Nurse Jackie was very impressed with how well the big man is doing. For the tests he was showing up as a 3.5 month old in everything except his hands. For his hands he falls in line with a two month old. This made me so proud of him. For a little guy to be born ten weeks early and come out so well on his first tests just made me so proud of him. Of course I told the nurse that he inherited my intelligence. Nurse Jackie did tell us that we should start to see him use his hands more in this next month. He currently keeps his fists tightly closed and doesn't grip stuff unless you help him with it. That's what put him at a two month old status for hands. 

We have been given homework to work with Maxim on his developmental ability. To help him continue to do well and learn how to use his hands. He did so well today that nurse Jackie won't be back until January. Until then we will work with Maxim and help him continue to grow and learn.

Hanging with daddy during the day while I am at work all day.

Festivals Have Changed

This past weekend we decided to head to the Arizona Taco Festival and of course take Mr. Maxim with us.  Make it a family day.  Now that it is A.M. our festival experiences have changed since B.M.  It's a whole different world attending a festival with a baby.

After some research online we decided it was best to get to the festival at 11am when it started so that way we beat the party crowd and would be gone before the party crowd arrived.  Really, did I just say that?  I once defined the party crowd, and now I am trying to avoid the party crowd...that's what a baby will do to you.

With the big man in tow we left the house for our first real big event.  The diaper bag is stocked and we have the stroller in the back and baby in the car and we are ready to roll.  Shortly after leaving the house the big man starts crying and we believe he is hungry so we had to listen to it the whole way to the festival grounds.  Talk about a mood killer.  Once we got there we sat in the car while I nursed the big man.  Finally, we were able to unpack the car and get this party started as we pushed the packed stroller into the festival grounds.  For the first time ever we were actually at a festival to partake in the festivities and not to party.  There were over 40 taco vendors and it was $2 per taco to taste and it was very good.  We went from tent to tent tasting all the yummy tacos.  I turned the corner and there I saw the tequila tent (don't be confused with the vodka tent that is at the annual culinary festival).  That is where Andy and I would normally be later in the day, but life has changed for us and we kept rounding that corner past the tequila tent until we hit the next taco stand. 

Ten taco tastes later and we were full and according to the crowd that was taking over it looked like it was time to head out for the day.  On our exit we saw the 20 and 30 something's piling into the festival and heading straight to the tequila tent to start their day off with a bang. 

We unpacked the stroller and got the big man into the car and headed on home. He did great at the festival as this is how he was the whole time!  Just chilling taking a nap.

I look forward to next year's taco festival as it was very yummy and we did have fun.

Play Time

Mr. Maxim has been awake more and more lately and wants to be entertained so we had play time yesterday with his "play thingy." Ok, it was play time for Maxim, but photo shoot time for me.

He was really getting into the bright colors and hitting the toys with his hands. 

"Hey mommy, look at me!"

Madison even wanted to participate in the good times.

While we were on the floor Maxim got some tummy time in too.

After all of this stimulation I had one very tired little boy.

Bathing Beauty

Maxim Is Too Cute

Yesterday I took a few adorable pictures of Maxim that I will share. 

It was cool enough yesterday to go for a walk so I got the big man all dressed and in his stroller when I figured that I needed something to help block the son from his eyes since he likes to look around at everything. I started with a pair of his sunglasses.

They did not work because the sunglasses are still too big on him. I then decided a hat will have to do.

The hat worked great and allowed Maxim to be his curious little self as he looked around at everything. I thought he might take a nap on the walk, but there was just too much for him to look at.

Yesterday was also bath day so of course I took a bunch of photos for memories. I don't want to post the full on naked baby in tub photos, but here are cute pictures of after bath time. Which by the way, he still really loves bath time. 

Maxim Is Getting Big

Maxim had his three month doctor appointment yesterday and he's getting so big. I guess they don't usually do three month check ups, but since Maxim is a premie the doctor just wanted to make sure he continues to grow...and grow he did. Maxim weighed in at 10 pounds and 14.5 ounces and is 22 inches long. Wow! To think he started at 3.6 three months ago. They do not put him to the charts just yet, but instead he's measured on a premie chart to compare where he is to other premies. Unfortunately I do not know where he falls since the doctor was unable to pull up the premie chart. Hopefully next time we will know. 

Here is the big man watching the Packer game with daddy outside on Sunday. He's definitely dressed for the occasion. 

Maxim's First Pumpkin

After being in WI for ten days and feeling Fall weather I really wanted to do something "fallish." In WI I would take Max to a pumpkin patch to pick out a pumpkin, have cider and apple crisp, so I figured why not do that here in AZ? Well, after some Google searching I found that if I wanted the Midwest Fall experience we would have to drive 2.5 hours up north and after just sitting in a car forever that really did not sound like a good idea. Instead I found a few local "pumpkin patch" joints that we could go to. I say pumpkin patch very loosely because they really are not pumpkin patches. These places have the pumpkins trucked in from up north and place them in the scorching hot desert for you to choose from. They also provide many activities for children to participate in. The activities wouldn't be so bad if Max was old enough and I wasn't already sweating from having Max strapped to me via the Bjorn. They also do not serve the tasty Fall treats at these joints. Instead it was BBQ and shaved ice. I don't know about you, but that doesn't scream Fall to me.

Anyway, I got Max all dressed for the occasion in his Halloween onesie.

We arrived at the ranch and paid our entrance fee, which I don't recall ever having to do that in WI. We then made our way to the make shift train that was going to take us further out to the desert where the make-shift pumpkin patch was. This was where hay bails were set up with pumpkins displayed for you to choose what you wanted. 

The mountain views were pretty though.

We selected a small pumpkin for Max and also a larger pumpkin. Andy was very thrilled to pose with our pumpkins. Check out the make-shift train behind him.

Max did very well throughout the pumpkin patch experience as he slept the whole time. That's ok because I still got a picture of us, but I had to take him out of the Bjorn for this.

Even though this was not exactly what I wanted for a Fall pumpkin experience I still enjoyed the day with my family. When Max is older I think we will do the drive up north for the real Fall experience.

The Dreaded Drive Home

When we finally scheduled the trip back to WI I compromised with Andy on our travel arrangements. He wanted to drive with the dogs and I was completely against driving across country and back with two big dogs and a barely three month old. After much discussion I agreed to fly out first class with Maxim while Andy drove with the dogs and then I will drive back with them. After my little traveler was awesome on the flight I was soon regretting this deal. I REALLY DID NOT want to drive across country with Maxim as I had no idea how he was going to be. 

On Sunday morning we hit the road after Maxim's early morning feeding. Of course he slept during the first shift and only woke up in four hours when it was time to eat. After I fed him and Andy walked the dogs we hit the road and baby was fast asleep again. I started to think if this is how it's going to be maybe the car ride won't be so bad. Ahhh...thought too soon. Two hours into the second shift Maxm was wailing and I couldn't do much from the front seat. Andy and I figured one of us needs to sit in back with him to help entertain him, so after the next stop and feeding I got my butt in the back seat. He calmed down since he could see me and Hold my hand.

We were like this the rest of the first day. We stopped in Elk City, OK to try and get some sleep. It was planned that since I would be the one to get up and feed him in the middle of the night Andy would do most of the driving. I did not anticipate a "wide awake baby" all night. Since he slept all day he was wide awake when we got to the hotel and did not fall asleep until 3am and then got up at 5:30am to party. This made for one tired mommy the next day in the car. 

Izzy made sure she kept an eye on Maxim in the back and whenever he would make a noise she would check on him. He would just stare at Izzy with big eyes. 

Izzy decided that maybe she just needed to sleep there to make sure Maxim was safe at all times.

Once Maxim was completely over the car ride (just like mommy) I pulled out the rings. My girlfriend swears the rings are what do it for her little girl, so I was ready to give it a shot. So far a Maxim has not been interested in any rattles or toys, so this was a first with him. At first Maxim didn't know what to do with them. He just looked at me funny, but who wouldn't when a woman in her 30's shakes the crap out of plastic circles while making a ridiculous face? After many stares he finally grasped the rings and held on for dear life. He didn't do much else, but just gripping the rings entertained him for a couple hours and mommy was happy.

He also needed his paci here to make him happy.

We made it back to Arizona in good timing. I thought it would take us three days (yes, I was being dramatic) to get home, but we got a routine down at each stop and it made for a smooth process. A 24 hour road trip turned into 29 hours of travel time. The trip wasn't as bad as I thought, but I plan to never do it again!

Maxim Invades Wisconsin

We were recently in Wisconsin for ten days. The trip was planned around our friend's wedding where Andy was the best man. The wedding was a great time and the first outing for us without Maxim. It was tough on this new mamma as I thought about him a lot and couldn't wait to get home to see him.

While we were having fun with good friends the big man was in good hands with grandma and grandpa.

This trip also gave us the opportunity to introduce the big man to our friends and family. It was a crazy busy ten days of go-go-go and I am glad family got to spend time with Maxim. To make things easier there was a Meet Maxim party for Andy's side of the family and one for mine.

Here is Maxim just chilling with his new shades on at his party.

While in Wisconsin we enjoyed the beautiful weather as it was a nice change from the hundred degree temps in Phoenix. I took Max for walks in the Bjorn and we sat outside on the deck enjoying the beautiful afternoon.

We did our usual family photo in front of my parents fire place in case we don't make it back for Christmas.

While in Wisconsin Maxim grew quite a bit in those 10 days. I don't have numbers for weight and length but the Bjorn fit hm quite differently by the time we left and he grew out of these pajamas as they are too short on him. When I got there they fit him perfectly, but now they are being retired as they are not pants on him anymore, they are shorts that are jacked up his butt.

He has a doctor appointment on Monday and I will find out then how much he has actually grown.

We had such a wonderful time that I even thought how it would be nice to move back so Max can be around family, but then Andy reminded me of the winters and how much I hate them. I quickly got over that move to WI thought.