While Daddy's Away...

This past weekend Andy took off to Anaheim to watch the Badgers beat the Wildcats and enter the Final Four in March Madness. He left on Friday and returned on Sunday. With Andy gone I had tons of Max and mommy time...so much that I am exhausted today! This cute little guy requires a lot of energy to keep him entertained.

We started out our Saturday morning in jammie's with tons of laughter and playtime. He figured out that when he turns the wheel on the car it makes a noise, so guess what we did for the next hour?

The big man was introduced to pasta for lunch. This went over well with him as I put a little butter and parmesan cheese on it.

More playtime as he is all dressed to cheer on the Badgers.

We ended our busy Saturday lounging watching the game.

On Sunday the big man was just as excited to see daddy as I was. I wish I would have taken a picture of his face when Andy walked in the door because it was super cute.  It was nice to have my alone time with Max, but it was even better when Andy got back home because this girl was (and still is) exhausted.

9 Months

Seriously, where has the time gone? Maxim is already 9 months old. How did that happen? I don't have his exact size, but his doctor appointment is next week so I will have an update then. My monthly photo shoot with him is starting to become a bit more difficult because he wants to play with the blocks and doesn't necessarily want to lay on his back. 

Maxim, you are the sweetest, happiest and silliest little boy ever. I feel I have lucked out with you and how good you are. Every week that passes you become even more fun to be around. I enjoy watching you learn and discover new things and most importantly I love when you laugh and smile. Your latest thing is giggling really hard when we play peak-a-boo with you. You will sit in the bed while we duck on each side of the bed and pop up saying peak-a-boo. You will roll with laughter at this every time. I find this hysterical.

You also laugh and giggle every time the dogs come anywhere near you. You find Madison and Izzy a lot of fun as you always want to pet them and explore to see what they are. My favorite thing is at the end of  they day when I come home from work (or pick you up from the sitter's house) you squeal with joy and reach out for me. That just melts my heart. You are definitely a mamma's boy and I am loving every minute of it.

This past month you have decided you do not like the Bumbo at all as you want to sit up all by yourself. At the sitter's house you decided you wanted out of the Bumbo and got out, looked back at her and started laughing. I am happy she got a picture of this as I can definitely see you doing this. After that, the Bumbo got retired.

You think you are such a big boy out of your Bumbo sitting up all by yourself. You think you are an even bigger boy when you stand up. For both activities you have a huge smile on your face as if you are very proud of yourself. Sometimes it's hard to get you to sit down because you just want to stand ALL. THE. TIME.

Now that you are such a big boy sitting up all by yourself you sit in a high chair at restaurants and you think you are so cool.

You also want to feed yourself with the spoon or grab the dish with your food in it and feed yourself. When you do this I will let you so you can learn. You find this a lot of fun and I enjoy watching you learn...ok, I laugh more than anything, but we are both having fun.

You survived the month of March in Phoenix as it's spring training here and your daddy has us go to a Cubs game every weekend for the whole month. You were such a good little boy the whole time. You enjoyed playing outside, watching all the people and going for walks to the splashpad and of course the porta pottie's with me.

You still stay home with daddy on Thursdays and Fridays and you enjoy this just as much as daddy does. This month you experienced the craziness of daddy and March Madness. Poor guy!

We still call you The Big Man all the time, but we are trying to use your name so that you don't get confused on what your name is. That is hard because you will always be the Big Man to us. That nickname came about because you were so small when you were born, but a big deal.

We had our first selfie together.

We celebrated your first St. Patrick's Day together. By celebrated I mean I put you in a cute onesie and took many photos of your smiling face.

You love sitting in the grass and running your fingers through it as you try to figure out what it is.

You are still drooling like crazy, but no teeth yet.

Maxim, I am more than happy to have you in our lives as you bring us so much joy. I love our little family and I look forward to watching you grow and learn more new things this next month.

Love, your mommy

Happy St. Patty's Day

Development Update

Nurse Jackie came to the house yesterday to check-in on Max's development and it was all good news. Here is the rundown on how it went.

·       He is 8.5 months old, but 6 months and 4 days old developmentally so he is measured according to the 6 months age.

·       He weighed 17lbs and 10oz. That is a 1 pound weight gain in three weeks. He is 27 ¼ inches long. That is a 1 ¼ inch longer since early January. She says there must be a lot of fat in my breast milk for the rate he is growing. I agree because he keeps sucking all the fat right out of my body as I haven’t been this thin in a very long time and I am not even working out…I am not complaining!

·        For most of the skills test he sat at a 7 month old. All of the other skills test he is right at a 6 month old (where he should be).

·        Nurse Jackie was very impressed with him. She is amazed that he does not even look or behave like a premie. She said nobody would even know he was a premie. She is so surprised for a baby that was born at 30 weeks along to be doing so well. See, it does pay to take good care of yourself. Exercise and eat well!! Heck, I was on a spin bike the day before I gave birth! J

·       She introduced Cheerio's to him. Nurse Jackie gave him a cheerio from a bowl and put that bowl to her side away from his view. He was very curious about it. It took a bit, but he munched on it and ate it. Afterward he lunged for that bowl that was out of sight but he remembered where she put it, so I think he is very smart. She told us to start giving him mashed food instead of processed and give him Cheerios and other puff treats so he learns to grab for food and put it in his mouth.

·       The only homework we have is to get him to crawl. She gave us exercises we have to do with him to get him to crawl instead of rolling everywhere to get what he wants. She said the rolling everywhere will stunt his development and a premie does not need that. So, we have to work on that.

·       Max has been refusing the bottle for the past couple weeks so I let Nurse Jackie know this to see if she could provide some advice on this. She agreed with us that it’s either because his gums hurt from teething or he is just over the bottle. She said some babies are just over the bottle and don’t want to have anything to do with the bottle. So, now we really have to work with him on the sippy cup. We have been lately but more for fun. She said usually once a baby is done with the bottle they will not go back to the bottle, unless it’s due to teething.

·        I told Nurse Jackie that we noticed a white spot on his lower gum so we are assuming a tooth could come in any day now. She took a look and said that was not a tooth. He is heavily teething, but there is no tooth in sight so it could be longer than we thought. He will just continue to drool all over everything and munch on everything in sight until it does come in.  

·       He put himself down for a nap towards the end of the appointment and nurse Jackie couldn’t believe it. I told her that is what he does when he is ready for his nap or bed time. She was just shocked and said I am very lucky to have such a good baby. She also commented on how happy and chill he is and has been during her visits. That's my boy...a very happy laid back baby.

I know my post sounds like a mom who is going on and on about her baby boy and how great he is, but I will admit that is exactly what I just did. This mom is very proud of her baby boy for doing so well since he was born so early. He is doing so well that we decided to see Nurse Jackie one last time just to be on the safe side. She will come back to the house in September unless we can't get him to crawl via the exercises that were given to us. He will also see his developmental doc one last time in May, so only two more developmental appointments to make sure the big man continues on this path.

A Whole Different View

When you graduate from playing on your back and tummy to sitting up all by yourself it's kind of a big deal. Or, at least this guy thinks so.

The world looks a whole lot different to the big man now that he is sitting up. He finds it very exciting that he can sit all by himself and tends to giggle the whole time. This mom finds it very adorable.

This whole new life that he is living now allows him to sit in a high chair at the restaurant. He felt like such a big boy in his own chair that he couldn't stop laughing.

The above photo, which marked his first high chair sitting in a restaurant (hashtag ridiculous, but I am a new mom) is not the best photo, but I think Andy was laughing at him being silly while taking this.

Now that he's such a big boy and sitting up on his own I have a feeling crawling is right around the corner (hashtag so not ready for that). I understand the useage of hashtags are very annoying, but I am actually making fun of them and not being serious at all about the hashtag, so don't worry you won't see them all the time.

Cubbies & A Tornado

I should be blogging about the big man's first baseball game, but instead I will blog about his first tailgating party and first storm. This past Saturday was supposed to be our first Cubs Spring Training day and I was all prepared to put the big man in a very handsome (I am not supposed to say cute) outfit for the day. The weather report changed that since I had to bundle (think AZ bundle) him up for a somewhat chilly/rainy forecast.

The day started out a little chilly (AZ chilly) but not too bad. We were with our friends outside the new stadium enjoying laughs, chit chat and of course beer pong. After a couple hours a cold wind started coming through so I decided to take the big man and play with him in the back of Andy's SUV with the hatch still open so I could still participate in all the happenings of the tailgating. Thank goodness I did because shortly after the clouds DUMPED rain on our party. This was not just rain, but a massive downpour that came in sideways. The wind was attempting to take down our canopies so everybody (except me since I had the big man) grabbed what they could to keep the canopies from blowing away. This was crazy weather for us AZ people. I sat in the back and watched the insane weather and everyone get drenched. The big man enjoyed watching this too.

I later read online that this was a weak tornado that blew through Mesa. There was a funnel cloud, but did not touch ground. What? In AZ? Yes, folks, it did happen.

This weather only lasted 20 minutes and then the sun came back out and it was really nice out. They called the game off anyway since the field was so wet.  Apparently the grounds crew did not get it covered in time. So, the big man did not get to his first baseball game, but he did have his first tailgating party and witness a weak tornado here in AZ. There will always be next weekend!

After the crazy day I had two tired boys at home!