Max is 6 Months Old!

If I had to describe Max in one word, it would be “happy.”  He brings so much joy to our lives, and I love see him learn new things.

He started babbling a lot more lately . . . he does it mostly when he’s alone playing on his mat or in his OSV (my dad dubbed this an “Over Stimulation Vehicle” a.k.a exersaucer) or lying in his crib.  

He still doesn’t have any teeth (which I love), but I can tell they’re coming soon, since his fist is always in his mouth.  He sleeps between 12 to 14 hours at night and takes two naps a day.

In the last month, he’s really started to get excited when Noah or Amelia plays with him.  He definitely knows who’s family, but he’s still great about letting anyone hold him.

He weighs 16 pounds and is in the 16^th percentile for weight; he’s 26 inches long and is in the 25^th percentile for height.  We introduced him to rice cereal a few days ago.  He did okay with it, but since he’s only breastfed up until now, he has a hard time not pushing the food out with his tongue.  We’ve also tried sweet potatoes and apples, and he doesn’t seem to like either.  He makes the funniest face, like he’s eating something incredibly sour.

He has started trying to crawl, but it looks more like an inchworm moving.  He can get up and move on his knees but has a hard time staying up and keeping his chest off the ground.

 

The one thing that drives me crazy is that he spits up WAY more than Noah or Amelia ever did!  I not only have to change him multiple times a day, but I usually go through a few shirts myself. 

One of the things I love most about him are his beautiful blue eyes and strawberry blond hair.  How lucky am I to have one child with brown eyes, one with green eyes and one with blue eyes?!

Summer Fun

Is it just me, or does it feel like summer gets shorter every year?  I can’t believe that school starts in two weeks.  Noah will be going into the 3^rd grade and Amelia is starting preschool.  She will only go three days a week for four hours, but I know I am going to be a COMPLETE mess when we drop her off that first day.  I am getting teary eyed just thinking about it.  

We’ve had an amazing summer, and I’ve tried to keep coming up with activities for Noah and Amelia so they don’t get overly bored.  If you ask them, the pool has been, by far, the best thing about this summer.

We've had LOTS of tea parties

Cheers!

Here is an update on Noah and Amelia:

Noah feels more like 16 than 8 years old.  He’s a wonderful big brother and overall very responsible.  His favorite things are building Legos, K’NEX, biking, playing Wii and guitar.  He has really enjoyed having friends who live on our cul-de-sac.  We’ve started planning his 9^th birthday party; half of the people on the invitation list that Noah compiled are Mike’s friends (in their thirties!).

Noah built a theme park out of K'NEX

We had Mike's team over for dinner and Noah set up a race track and they had quite the competition!

Amelia is a firecracker; I cannot tell you the number of people who’ve said that to me.  She says the funniest things.  She might kill me one day, but there is one story in particular that I have to share.  She’s a very literal child and doesn’t like nicknames, she names her toys exactly what they are… puppy, kitty, baby, Barbie.  So a few weeks back she started calling Max “Peanut,” and Mike and I both thought that was so cute, since she’s never given anything a nickname.  So we all started calling him that for the next week . . . that is, until one day when I’m changing his diaper and Amelia goes, “Look Mommy, there’s his peanut!”  I realized at the moment she’d been really calling him a penis all along.  I can’t tell you how hard I laughed!

Her favorite things are playing Barbies, dressing up, laying out outfits for herself (she has even started laying out outfits for me as well).  She loves to color and snuggle, especially with her daddy.  She is the first one up every morning, so she and Mike usually get at least 15 minutes of snuggle time before he leaves for work.  She loves to bake with me, and I think she definitely inherited the sweet tooth gene from the women in my family.  

Max is now six months old as of yesterday, but I’m going to wait and give an update on him until after his six-month “well child” check-up next week.

A Weekend Away

Max went on his first road trip this past weekend and got along amazingly well in the car . . . he only cried for about five minutes out of the entire 14 hours we were on the road.  We drove up to Burlington, Kansas, to see my grandparents, uncles, aunt and cousins.  My grandparents recently moved from Medicine Lodge, Kansas, a town where they both spent most of their lives.  They moved from a house in which they had lived for 40 years – a place that was special to my whole family.  But after staying the weekend in their new home and getting to see all that Burlington has to offer for them, I am so happy they made the move!  They have a beautiful home and such wonderful outdoor space; you can tell they’ve worked hard to make it feel like home.

 

My grandma gave Amelia a necklace and "slippers" so she could play dress-up.  They got to experience the continuous clacking sound.

It was great fun to see so much of my family, although I am looking forward to our next big family reunion where we can all be together.  I ate way too much good food and played even more cards (my family’s favorite past time).  We got an extra special treat of meeting my cousin Ashley’s four-month-old twins, Nate and Nora.  Amelia made the observation, “We’ve got lots of babies here!”  I could kick myself for not getting a picture of all three babies next to each other!

On Saturday, my Aunt Amy, Uncle John, Ashley and her husband John, plus their twins and their four-year-old Rowan drove down for a BBQ.  My cousin Kate had driven down the night before; her dad (my Uncle Bill) and Aunt Devra and my cousins Eli and Noah live in New Strawn, which is just a few minutes’ drive from my grandparent’s house.  It was great to spend a little extra time with Kate, Bill and Eli.  Amelia and Noah especially had fun playing with Eli!

In the words of my Aunt Amy, "How many men does it take to light a grill?"

Noah's first experience with "dead tree".  Amelia was more upset than Noah!

I haven’t had dairy products in almost five months, since the pediatrician and I discovered that Max doesn’t do well when I include dairy products in my diet.  Well, unfortunately, I completely “spaced” on not having dairy -- I had both lasagna and pizza on Friday, and poor little Max suffered majorly on Saturday!  I felt so badly for him . . . he was not the same baby we’ve had the last six months, and I felt so bad that my family who was meeting for the first time had to see him like that.

I feel so lucky to have such a big family that gets along so well!  My grandparents were so gracious for hosting us; having three little kids in your home for the weekend isn’t for the weak!

I’m also including some pictures from Amelia’s dance camp, which she loved.  However, they had a little performance for the parents on the last day, and poor Amelia was so scared that she totally froze up and looked like she was going to break out in tears.  However, she says she wants to go to dance camp again, so I guess the experience didn’t “scar” her too much.