He's Getting So Big!

Maxim had his two year checkup appointment on Monday morning. He aced his hearing and vision tests and the doctor said he is a very healthy two year old. She seemed kind of surprised at how healthy he is because he was born 10 weeks early. Besides that, she seemed surprised at how big he has gotten. He weighed in at 30 pounds and is 36.5 inches tall. That puts him in the 96th percentile for height and 75 percentile for weight. The 36.5 inches also gave the prediction that he will be 6' 1" tall when he is done growing. He will surpass the six foot mark! Yay!

He gained 10 pounds this past year and grew 6.5 inches in one year. WOW! He's a growing boy! I know Andy really wants him to be more 6' 5" or around that, but I did remind him that my family is mixed in there so he should be grateful that Maxim is predicted to pass the six foot mark. The doctor also said he could be taller than 6' 1" because of his 10 week premature status. He has a little more time to add to that final total. If he keeps growing the way he's been growing he will probably grow another inch in the next two months. I am not that concerned about his height, but I know Andy has been rooting for him to be tall.

Happy Fourth of July

I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend. We definitely did. Normally we go camping for the holiday, but our regular camping friends were out of town this year. Instead we ended up on a staycation with our other friends and their two month old baby. I've never done a staycation before, and I never understood why people would do a staycation...until now. We booked joining rooms with our friends at the Princess Resort. It's really not that far from our house...about a 15 minute drive. It's a beautiful resort and even though we were so close to home it felt like we were on vacation. I was understanding what all the hype was about when people talk about doing a staycation.

We checked into the resort on Friday. Our room was huge and it was so nice to have our room joining to our friend's room. After we unpacked our car we hit the kiddie pool for some fun. This pool was great for toddlers...it had everything Max needed. It also had a ton of people. The resort was booked for the weekend and the pool definitely showed that. 

Friday night we had takeout in the room and then put Maxim and Evan down for bed so the parents could have some fun. We shared wine and adult conversation out on the balcony of our rooms.

We spent almost all day at the pool on Saturday. Max just loves the pool and has been doing much better this past week when it comes to swimming. Now he loves jumping in the pool and going under water. Prior to this week he wouldn't do that at all. He hated going under water, but now he seems to have the hang of it. This pool also had a giant sandbox. That was a big hit with Max!

During nap time daddy hung out with Max in the room while I went and enjoyed a much needed mommy massage. It was phenominal and I would recommend this spa. The massage therapist definitely knew what he was doing, the spa was huge and the staff was very friendly.

After nap time Max was celebrating the fourth at the pool with flags.

Saturday night we joined the other hotel guests out back for fireworks. This resort had plenty of activities going on all weekend, but the main event was the fireworks. They lit them on the golf course and we lined up to see them. This was the first time Max saw fireworks and he loved it. He kept giggling throughout. It was way too cute. It was a late bedtime for Max, but his happy face made it all worth it. 

On Sunday I took Max to the resort playground while daddy packed up the car. It took a little bit of time because we packed the whole house for less than two days. That's what happens now because we travel with a toddler. 

We then headed home to relieve grandma L from her doggie babysitting. Maxim and grandma said their goodbyes before daddy took grandma to the airport. 

It was definitely an awesome weekend. It would have been fun to take Max camping, but the staycation was much better. We were all clean, the drive was short and we got to see fireworks. 

Weekend Overview

We kept busy this past weekend. I had Friday off to have a Max and mommy day because I scheduled family photos that day. I am very excited to get the photos because it was a great session and the photographer did an amazing job. I will post once I have the photos. We also spent the weekend with grandma Laura as she is in town. 

We spent a lot of time playing with trains. This kid loves his train table. It was hard for him to leave the table, but I did manage to do a few other things this weekend. For starters, we played with the birthday balloons...a lot!

We also had a picnic in the kitchen. Max grilled us some burgers and set up his picnic tables with plates. 

It's super hot here so we played with the water table and went swimming.

On Sunday morning Andy was planting cactus in our front yard to beautify our home for the day we put it up for sale. Max took this opportunity to play in the dirt with his dump truck and "dovel," or shovel. 

Playing in the dirt didn't last that long because my son doesn't like to get dirty. He didn't care to have his hands dirty and had me clean his feat as soon as he was done. This kid is definitely my son!

We did all of this and we managed to leave the trains behind and head to the circus with Grandma Laura. Max was in awe of the circus and had a lot of fun. We have never seen him sit still for as long as he did. With about 30 minutes to go he said he was all done and ready to leave, just like he did at Disney and at Sesame Street Live. What can I say? My kid knows what he wants.

Max Turns Two

How is is that it's been two years since Max was born and surprised us by arriving ten weeks early? All I can say is that time flies when you are having fun. I mean that too, because these last two years I have had so much fun with my family...more fun than I ever could have imagined. Max has brought so much joy and giggles into our lives and taught me many things about life. One big thing he taught me is patience. That is something I did not have until two years ago. The first lesson of patience was waiting out the NICU time for him to feed and grow. I did that without asking one time when he could go home. I started to learn patience and Max was my teacher. Max has also taught me to sit back and enjoy life, and not to worry about the little things. I now don't care about my messy house...I care about the quality time with my family. I live in the moment more than I ever did before he was born. 

Max has turned into such a sweet little boy that I love more than anything in this whole world. I look forward to watching him grow and learn many more new things...but not too fast. 

Max started off his birthday with his special shirt. 

At Ms. Marie's house they celebrated by wearing hats that they created especially for Max's birthday. I also sent a special snack for all the kids to enjoy. He looks HUGE in the picture below. 

We came home to balloons and presents in the living room, along with grandma Laura. The balloons were a big hit, so much that he didn't even care about the presents for quite a while.

It was time for dinner and it was pizza and pasta. He ate his dinner at his new picnic table grandma Laura got him.

Moving on to the big gift of the night...a train table. We had that set up in his play room. This was a big hit! Max LOVES his train table and hasn't stopped playing with it since Thursday night. 

We had cupcakes for dessert and Max blew out the candles on his own. He remembered from last weekend when he watched me blow out ha candles at the Seifert's house. 

A big giant happy second birthday to my sweet boy!!!!