Max Update

We have been busy here in this house. I recently went to Montreal for work. I was gone for only three nights and it was torture. I missed the big man tons. It really was my first time truly away from him and it just happen that I had to be in another country. I enjoyed my time in Montreal and I definitely enjoyed some adult time, but I missed this face tons!!!!

We FaceTimed while I was gone and that helped but it also made me sad because he kept yelling out "mamma mamma" into the iPad. He also gave me kisses as he licked the screen. Super sweet! He also was a little confused as to what was going on. 

Andy on the other hand was a super star daddy while I was away (not that he's not any other day). Those two bonded so much that when I got home my sweet little mama's boy turned into a daddy's boy. It was very cute!

Also, the day I got back from Montreal grandma Vicki and grandpa Jeff arrived to spend some time with the big man. We went to the zoo where Max got to feed the giraffe. He called the giraffe a doggie and handed him the food just like he hands our doggies their treats. The zoo keeper was surprised that he knew what he was doing at such a young age. I told him this is what he does at home with our dogs. 

We also hit up the train park again. It was a hot and humid day so we didn't last long, but Max enjoyed the train ride. 

Grandma and grandpa took him on the carousel too and that was an epic fail. He hated it! He wanted off the carousel. We will try that again when he is a little older and maybe a little less attached to his mamma.

Max also had his 15 month check up where we learned he is 24 pounds 7 ounces and 32 inches long. So he grew 2 inches and gained 4 pounds in three months. I am not surprised because of how much this boy eats. He's my growing little man. 

We have been busy here and time is flying by so fast. I can't believe it's going to be October this week!

Development Update

Last Friday we took the big man to his development appointment to see how he is doing. As his parents we think he is doing awesome and weren't sure if he really needed to go, but of course we took him. I also thought, what if we are just being "those parents" who think their kid is the best at everything and can't see the flaws, and then we get their and are faced with reality when she tells us he is super behind? Well, thankfully, that did not happen. We are right that Max is doing awesome. He is all caught up with his actual age for his language/vocabulary and playing skills. He is at 12 months for his motor skills. Not too shabby! The doctor was very impressed with him. She couldn't believe how caught up he is and how smart he is. I enjoyed watching the tests she would do and watching Max exceed them all. This mommy sat their with pride. I was very happy to see him be himself in her office and show her how awesome he is. The doctor actually said that if she was not aware he is a 10 week premie then she would never know and that is amazing. I just sat there and continued smiling with pride.

His vocabulary includes Mommy, Daddy, Doggie and Ball. Other things he just points at and says Bah. We can usually figure out what he wants. He also has four teeth in...the two on the bottom and the two on the top.

She is asking to see him again at 2.5 years old to make sure that he is still developing properly before he would head to preschool. She said she does that will all the premies, so ok, we made our next appointment for November of 2015.

Fun Family Weekend

I had a great time this weekend with my family. It all started on Friday night when the big man got to use his new "tree house" that I bought him. I thought it would be something for him to play with in the back yard and he just loved it. He first used it in the kitchen and was all giggles before we moved it outside. He loves to climb the stairs and then go head first down the slide.

Then on Saturday morning we went out for breakfast and Max thought he was so cool sitting right up to the table with his crayons. There were plenty of smiles and giggles that came from this happy little boy.

Later in the day we took the big man to his first circus, which are 100% for the children as no adult in their right mind can sit through that. The big man did not like the clown that stopped to talk to him and tell him how cool his hat is. Max was staring at him, but once the clown took a step even closer he got scared and cowered his head into my neck and held on tight. We then took our seats and the big man enjoyed all the little children around us even more than the circus, but his favorite part was the motorcycles. He enjoyed the mini parade when the shriners came out in their motorcycles and tiny cars. He thought that was pretty neat, but his favorite part was when the motorcross bikers were in the steal round cage. He sat in awe of that. He also enjoyed the camel and Arabian horse, but he pointed and said "doggies." Too cute! We left after the first half because Max was super tired at that point. It was a lot of fun to watch him at the circus.

This is the outcome from a day at the circus.

We ended the weekend with a Packer win, swimming in the pool and playing with the doggies in the backyard.

Such a simple, but very fun weekend. I enjoyed every second I got to spend with my family!

Figuring It All Out

Every mother out there can relate to this blog post. As a mother I (as I am sure you do too) try to be everything and do everything for Maxim and my family. I want to be there for Maxim for every moment of his life. I don't want to miss out on anything. I want to be there for his first crawl, tooth, step, word, etc. With that said, I also am a career woman and I love what I do...and I also have a wonderful husband. Besides Max, husband and career I also need to somehow find time for me. What's that? Time for myself? Since I have such an amazing husband I could easily find time for myself because I know he would watch Maxim any time, but then I am going to miss out on time with him. This past year I have learned how to be a mother, wife and career woman, but now I am trying to figure out being me. I am trying to do it all while having it all and not jeopardizing one precious minute with my sweet Maxim. That saying "they grow up fast, so cherish all your time with them" is so very true. I can't believe one year has gone by, so I am, and have been, cherishing all my time with Maxim. I do not take it for granted at all. I do not put our time aside so I can go do me time.

With that said, how am I going to find "me" time when there are only so many hours in a day? Pre-Max I loved my me time. I used to shop, workout and catch up on DVR during my me time. This is not important stuff, but it was how I spent my me time and regrouped. How am I going to fit that into a day when I have Max time, husband time and work time? There is just not enough time in a day. I was starting to get defeated and think that I can't do it all and I was going to have to give something up, but then I figured it out. That's what mommies do, they figure it out.

To catch up on DVR I started getting selective on what I was recording and only picked a couple things (instead of everything) and watched them after Maxim went to bed. This is normally when I would clean the house, but I started managing my time a little better so I could squeeze in a good hour of crap TV a couple times a week. I figured out the shopping issue too. I signed up for Stitch Fix. I gave up my me time of shopping by myself for an hour or two and swapped for a personal stylist with Stitch Fix where they send me 5 items a month (will switch to bi-monthly soon) for me to try on and buy what I like. I then send back the items I don't like. So far I have received two boxes and this is a great service for someone like me who has zero time on her hands. Finally, I figured out my me time with exercising. I have always enjoyed exercising and have been doing it regularly since I joined a gym when I was 18, so to give it up would be complete torture. It's what calms me, gives me energy and overall makes me feel really good. In order to fit it in, I now get up at 5am to work out. Yes, that is 5 in the morning before Max wakes and before work. Anybody who knows me, knows that I am NOT a morning person so this change was a big deal for me. I have been doing this for over a month now and it's going great. I actually really like it. The first week was rough, but now I am in a routine and I really like it. I think it's a great way to start my day.

I have learned that with a little compromising and thinking out of the box I am able to be super mom, super wife and career woman. I am able to have it all. It took a good year, a little anxiety and some self doubt, but I figured it out!

Feeding the Dogs

A while ago Andy would feed the dogs the leftovers from his plate right in front of the big man. I warned him a few times that this is a bad idea to do in front of Max because he will soon think it's ok to feed the dogs his dinner. Andy completely disagreed with me. Guess who was right?

This video was taken sometime last week and we tried to get him to stop feeding the dogs and without us laughing at him, because let's be honest, he's pretty funny in this video. I had to leave the room once or twice because I couldn't contain myself. I did the "I told you so" to Andy and now we have a bad habit to try and break...while not laughing! Ugh!

The Butterfly Museum

I was looking for something to do with the big man this weekend and it's kind of tough for his age. I didn't want to stay home cooped up in the house all weekend so we decided to take him to the Butterfly Museum...yes, there really is one here. 

This museum has over 200 butterflies flying around you and if you are really lucky they will land on you. I really wanted one to land on the big man, but unfortunately that did not happen. They came in all different sizes and colors. My favorite was the bright blue ones that were huge. I think Max liked them too because he would point at them and say "bah"...whatever that means.

He enjoyed the butterflies and pointing them out to us. We then checked out the giant catfish in the middle of the museum. Max thought these were neat too, but not as neat as the other little children were that were hanging around the fish pond.

We ventured inside where they had large fish tanks with very colorful fish and a pool to touch stingrays. Max really was not very interested in this part so we decided to head out. All-in-all it was something to do, but a little over priced...at least for entertaining a one year old.

Camping for Labor Day Weekend

This past weekend we packed up our house (literally) and went up to Woods Canyon Lake to camp in the wilderness with our friends. Let's be honest, I am not a camper and I don't think I ever will be. It's just not my thing. I do this for my husband and I gain huge wife points for my participation. This year I was definitely not interested in going since I have a crawler on my hands. If Max was a walker I could have mustered up a little enthusiasm, but that is not what I had. 

Friday started off a bit rough because I had a fire drill at work to deal with before we headed out of town. Then as we are driving I smelled gas. Andy thought it was a good idea to put the gas can in the car instead of off the back on the hitch because he ran out of room. Ugh! The smell was horrendous because it spilled in the car a little bit and I ended up with a headache. Finally, we get to our campsite and when I took Max out of the car I found out that he was soaked in pee as well as his car seat. He must have just sat in his seat the whole 2.5 hours peeing himself continuously for how wet he was. That started off the journey, so needless to say I was not super thrilled, but tried to turn it around.

We set up camp and Max was super thrilled with the tent. He thought it was soooo cool! His laughter over the tent made the whole camping thing so much better.

I bought a 10 foot pool at Wal-Mart so that Max could have a lot of space to play in with his toys. It worked well.

The pool worked great and gave this mommy some relief from holding him during the day. I did not hold him all day due to the dirt. The big man enjoyed putting rocks in his mouth and was trying to eat them. I fished out two rocks from his mouth, so that was not good. I also saw a lot of broken glass on the ground that I was not a fan of. The last thing I needed was for him to eat broken glass or rocks and end up in the ER. Even after that I still let him explore a little bit on the ground, but with a super close eye out for glass or for him eating rocks.

I didn't mind the dirt at all because Max liked playing in it and he did get a bath at night. We warmed up water and in the plastic tub he went. He thought this was great!

My favorite part of the weekend (and the part that made it all worth it) was seeing the big man giggle away as he played with Stella and Briggs on Sunday night. His laughter just melted my heart. He just loved playing with them. They played peek-a-boo and hide and seek. This was so beyond adorable that it put things into perspective for me. I stopped being miserable and focusing on how much I do not like camping and realized that we are making memories with Max. That made the weekend so much better, but too bad that didn't happen until Sunday night!

Monday morning we all packed up and headed back to the sweltering heat in Phoenix, unpacked and cleaned up. Even the dogs got a bath! Madison is not much of a camper and really seems unhappy camping, but Izzy seems to enjoy it. Either way, they both had their own chairs for around the campfire this time so they were not stealing peoples chairs.

The big man loved playing with glow sticks this weekend.

And of course there is always enjoyment with nap time...especially in a hammock.

Max had a great time this weekend. He laughed and giggled quite a bit. He loved all the dogs (there were 5 of them) and all the little kids (there were four other kids). He watched and observed most of the weekend. Overall the weekend started out rough, but ended on a great note. Obviously I would prefer cabining over camping, but if we go camping again I will try and have a better attitude because I know we are making memories with the big man.