8 Months

Maxim is 8 months old today and I am wondering where the time has gone because it goes by WAY too fast. He had his RSV shot today so I know he is 16 pounds 11.5 ounces. He gained 9.5 ounces since his last RSV shot on January 28th. He is getting heavier and heavier and my poor arms are going to fall off from carrying him around, especially in his car seat. I am starting to gain some serious muscles from the big man!

Maxim, you are such a sweet little boy already who smiles at mommy and daddy all the time. Your smile makes the lack of sleep well worth it. This past month was a lot of fun watching you learn and do new things. You want to touch and grab at everything around you and you find the grass in the backyard very interesting. You have also started to copy everything we are doing. When daddy shakes his head, you feel the need to copy him and do the same thing and this turns into a game between the two of you. I drink my water out of a large cup with a straw when I am at home and after watching me do this you always want to copy me with the straw. You haven't quite figured out how to use a straw, but you do copy what I am doing.

You are a very good eater. The only thing you have declined to eat are sweet potatoes. I will try and introduce them again to you to give it another try. Right now you eat the following: oatmeal, bananas, mangos, apples, pears, green beans, peas, carrots and butternut squash. We are going to introduce plums to you this week. Your absolute favorite is banana and you love the squash too. I am very happy that you are such a good eater.

You like to grab at everything and especially beer bottles, and we find this very funny and of course take a picture every chance we get.

You are such a good baby that I never worry about taking you places. I know that as long as you can see what is going on around you, you are a very happy and content little man.

You love going to the sitter's house as you get super excited (but still shy) when we walk in the front door. This makes me feel so much better to leave you for the day and go to work. You have a lot of fun playing with Stephanie and watching her kids play. Soon you will be big enough to play with her kids...hopefully not too soon though.

I am starting to wonder if you are going to skip crawling since I can't get you to do tummy time and you are barely interested in sitting on your bottom. You only want to stand. You think it's very cool to stand as you stand there with big smiles on your face. You still don't sit completely on your own yet, but I am sure the constant standing isn't helping that at all.

Daddy brought home your high chair and you just love it. I know you have sat in one at the sitter's house, but I think you are pretty excited to have your very own chair at home. You love it so much that I am able to let you play in it when I am trying to get dinner cooked, or your food made for the upcoming week.

You have had some firsts this past month: Valentine's Day, sleeping on your tummy, the zoo, hiking and playing cards, to name a few.

 

You are such a little snuggler. You love to snuggle with mommy and daddy, but right now you pretty much prefer mommy over daddy as you are a mamma's boy. I don't mind at all and actually I am loving this right now because I know one day you will be too old to snuggle with mommy.

I am finding that you like animals as you really enjoy the three we have in the house. You love to stare at Captain as you are probably trying to figure out what he is since he never comes anywhere near you. Whenever Madison or Izzy come around you get excited and smile and you always want to pet them. You think it's hilarious when they lick your toes. You don't mind when they are in your face as you just squeal with joy.

Right now you are a rolling baby. Forget crawling, you will roll all over the floor to get where you want to go. You have mastered the fine art of rolling on the floor to get that toy that you want or pet the dog that is near by.

So far no teeth have poked through but we think it's coming soon. We can see the white spot where the tooth is and you are drooling A LOT! You also feel the need to gnaw on anything that comes your way. I am thinking your first tooth could be coming very soon.

Bath time is fun time for you. We had to move your tub from the table to the floor because you go crazy with the kicking and splashing. I am usually soaked by the time your bath is over. Besides the splashing you enjoy playing peek-a-boo with daddy. 

I honestly cannot believe you are 8 months old already. I love you more than words can say and I love seeing your face every single day and spending my time with you. Maxim, you have brought so much happiness in my life and I look forward to watching you learn many more new things.

Love, your mommy

Day At The Zoo

We decided to get the big man out of the house today and take him to the zoo. We know he's pretty young for the zoo, but it gets him out of the house and there is plenty for his nosie self to look at. Since we figured this would be a good activity for him we opted to get an annual membership so we can take him whenever we want.

Even though he is so young he still had a good time just soaking in all the sights. He loved the people watching, especially the young kids running around. I think he enjoyed the people watching over the animals. Out of all the animals we did see he enjoyed the flamingos, orangoutang, the giant parrot, the monkeys and the birds flying around. We were able to get pretty close to the flamingos so the big man noticed them and was just staring at them trying to figure out what they were. We also got pretty close to the brightly colored parrot and as he was squaking the big man was in awe. The orangoutang was right up to the glass and he was just watching very intently at him. We walked through the monkey house and I didn't know if the big man was going to be able to see the monkeys since they blended in with their surroundings, but when the monkey jumped on his rope and walked right above our heads the big man spotted the monkey and wasn't sure what to think.

Even though the big man is so young he enjoyed the few hours at the zoo as he zonked out and I put him in his stroller and we headed home. We look forwad to watching him enjoy the zoo much more as he continues to grow and get bigger.

Cubbies

March is right around the corner and that means spring training here in Phoenix. It's a great time to get out and enjoy the AZ weather. Since it's the big man's first time at spring training I had to get him some Cubbie gear that included a bucket hat, collared shirt and a jumper (I think that is what it's called). His bucket hat arrived and thought it would be fun to get some photos of him as a sneak peak to next weekend at his first Cubbie game. 

When taking photos of him in the rocking chair he gets pretty excited. He acts like he is a big boy in a big boys chair. He just laughs and giggles. It cracks me up.

Happy Valentine's Day

"Ruff" Weekend

The weekend did not start out so great. Izzy spent all day Friday at the vet as she was having a cyst removed from her side. This cyst had been there for about two years and it was time to get rid of it. Every time we took her to the vet they kept telling us it would go away and not to worry about it. Of course I was worried and we even had it tested for cancer at some point, but the test came back clean. Well, the cyst got so big and there was no indication of it ever going away so we told the vet it was time to have it removed. Izzy was dropped off bright and early on Friday morning while Madison was left at home to wonder what was going on.

I get a call from the vet around 11am stating Izzy's blood work didn't look very good. Her numbers for her liver are extremely high as they are 250 when this past November she was at a 46. The best case scenario is that she ate something toxic and her liver is working extra hard to clean itself out. The worst case scenario is that it's cancer. There are also some mid-level scenarios too, but I was immediately concerned about cancer since boxer dogs are prone to cancer and we are having one large cyst and three small cysts removed from her side that day. The vet said she will be on medication to clean out her liver and in two months she will draw blood again to see if it was just something she digested. If the numbers are still high then we continue on the path to determine if we are sitting at the worst case scenario or not. Either way this bummed me out. I don't even want to think about Izzy having cancer. The vet felt very positive that it's not cancer since she was behaving just like her normal self and not showing any signs that something could be wrong. Well, I am going to think positive for the next two months and hope for the best.

After work I picked up Izzy from the vet and poor girl looks likes she was attacked by another dog.

She will have the stitches in for two more weeks and until they are removed we have to limit her activity (yeah, that's going to be hard) and keep her from licking her stitches. Due to that Andy decided to sleep on the living room floor with Izzy to keep her from jumping on the bed and to keep an eye on her with the new drugs that night.

Also on Friday the big man decided to get a fever. Now, we have Frankenstein Izzy above to take care of and a baby with a fever. He got as high as 101 and was not interested in sleeping so I put him in the swing in the living room while I slept on the couch. It was family slumber party in the living room on Friday night.

The big man ended up with a cold and of course I now have it too since he does enjoy coughing and sneezing in my face as I am burping him. The rest of the weekend was spent taking care of both Izzy and the big man, so not too much fun in our house. You wouldn't even know the big man was sick as he was still his fun and happy self.

Busy Weekend of Golf, Friends and Football

This past weekend was busy, but it always is as it was the Phoenix Open and Super Bowl weekend. I have blogged about this weekend many times before. Also, Ryan was in town and stayed with us. Every year we spend the Friday at the Open together with our friends and out-of-town guests. Now that we have the big man it's kind of hard to do that on a Friday since it's hard to get a sitter since most people work on Fridays. After some compromising and negotiating it was decided that I would spend Friday at the Open in my Firm's 16th hole Skybox. Andy and Ryan will bring the big man at the end of the day and I will take him home while those two go whoop it up at the Birds Nest (a large tent full of party festivities). I really didn't mind going home and not going out because I got to hang with my handsome little guy all night and I did not have a hangover the next day. 

From the Firm's Skybox!

Had to get a selfie at the Open!

On Saturday Andy and Ryan went to the Open all day since they did not get to go on Friday. I had absolutely no desire to go on Saturday in the hot mess of a crowd with 200,000 people, so I spent the day with who else...the big man! We went shopping for bigger clothes for him since he's growing super fast. As I pushed him throughout the stores the big man just kept talking my ear off. It was too cute. After shopping I strapped him in the Bjorn and hit the mountain for some exercise for me and some scenery for him. He absolutely LOVED it. His hat is still pretty big on him so I was holding it so it wouldn't fall in his face. If I slipped, the hat would fall and the big man would get mad because he couldn't see. I would watch him with my cell phone and he was just so happy on the hike. He gave me such a workout adding 16 extra pounds to the hike. I was exhausted once I got home. 

On Sunday, we went to the Seifert's annual Super Bowl party. This is always a good time and the big man had a lot of fun checking out all the people around him. Tom got close to his face to say hi and the big man reached out to grab his beer. This was way too cute so we had to reenact it to get a picture. 

The game was a blowout, the big man was sleeping in my lap, and I was tired so it was time to head home early. I packed up our stuff and left the party about 7 and the boys took a cab home. 

It was a busy weekend and I am happy how we figured out what to do for the Open so we could both go and have fun.