5 months old

Max is now 5 months old and bigger than ever. He was tired when I took this photo which is why he's so angry- he was only on the floor for a couple of minutes so I could get his birthday shot. He's really what I consider to be an easy baby. He prefers to go to sleep right at 7 pm, MAYBE 7:20 or so. But he does so promptly even at other houses without his bed, bath or jammies- normally only "tired crying" for maybe 5 minutes or less after being put down. Jack has started reading to him right before he goes to sleep as well- he starts while I'm nursing then I'll put an awake baby in the crib and Jack will continue reading until he gets to a good stopping place in the story and then Jack and I are regular grown-ups again. I love the time after he goes to sleep but I also miss him. Sometimes I just want to go and snuggle him again- of course I never would- but these are the desires of a new mommy I guess.

Naptimes also go well- he has a general cyclical nature of :
1. wake-up
2. play (might need to comfort nurse depending on how upset he is when he wakes up)
3.feed a little while after waking
4.play a bit more
5. nurse for comfort
6. nap for 30 minutes or so

Even when he turns over onto his tummy and gets frustrated because he can't get back over I just go in and flip him over and leave and he goes to sleep shortly after.
Of course, this is all broken up and further complicated by wardrobe changes, accidents, getting bored stuff like that- but essentially those 6 things are what happens over and over until it's time for bed. Unless we go somewhere- then things get a little off- but not too far.

Now that he is 5 months old he is getting really good at sitting and he wants to do this more and more often instead of laying safely on the floor where I don't have to watch him every second. On our bed or with a bobby on some paddy blankets on the floor are both pretty safe but with sitting comes falling. He bonked his face yesterday and got pretty upset- but he also soothes pretty quickly too- another Max bonus.


AND- he is getting really good at sitting in my opinion. I love to watch him be able to do it with no hands and adjust his balance when needed- makes me really proud. There's a video on Flickr- I tried to put it up here but it took too long.

Of course, having two babies around is extra fun- we get them together often- Dicey is learning to have gentle hands and doing really well with the cats and also Max's head- which she seems fascinated with. They are so much fun, but each of them can be difficult to hang onto. Dicey is because she is in near constant motion and tends to buck and flail about with energy glee, Max is because he's so heavy- 19 pounds is alot to lug around for longer than a couple of minutes, especially when that's mixed in with picking up and putting down that same 19 pounds. Just look at those legs!


Side note- it's pretty difficult to change someone's diaper when that someone has their foot in their mouth. (But it's still easier than changing Energy-Girl)

A couple of weeks ago Max started making this face- he sucks on his bottom lip and hums and splutters- it's ridiculous. He also has started to stick his tongue out pretty often- it's pretty pointy- I think he got that from his Daddy. Anywho- life with a five month old is pretty great- even when he grabs my neck so hard anyone else would bruise and even when I'm changing him and he pees all over his clothes and then I put him in a new outfit and he immediately spits up on that one. It all seems so inconsequential when he snuggles against me for comfort or I feel his soft little hands gentle on my arm or face, and especially when I catch his eye and his whole face lights up with a delighted smile.

Summer Days

I found out that Jack had some pictures on his phone that I had intended to put up on my blog- so this is a little random. Here is Max getting his head measured at his 4 month appt. a little while ago- I thought he looked cute with this on his head.

I put Max in my moby wrap whenever we go to the store because it nearly guarantees baby happiness for a long stretch of time. He fell asleep though and it was so sweet- this hold is not proper for a sleeping baby so I had to hold his head once it started to dip but I didn't mind one bit. :)

Here he is asleep in Jack's baby backpack- another good trick for happy baby. He fell asleep on Jack and they looked so cute. I know my son looks like me mostly (at least for now) but here he really looks like Jack to me- I think he may have gotten Jack's lips, mine don't really do that downward turned thing at all.

Okay- that's all the old photos. Jack and I went to Central Market with Max for the first time over the weekend and we had a good time. Max was very well-behaved while we ate lunch and then he got to look at everything while we shopped and had samples. Our mission was to get some organic produce to make some "real" food for Max. I wanted avocado and butternut squash to be the first things we tried with him. But of course, you have to stop and smell the roses.....

They were on some crazy sale- like six bucks for a dozen I think- too bad we didn't have any extra money and they wouldn't have lasted in the car anyway. But looking at them in the store was almost as good as taking some home.

I'd never seen these before- they're called oca potatoes and they looked almost like ginger flower buds- you don't need to peel them- they were very shiny. We also showed Max the meat market- he seems to be interested in this guys cutting filets.

Success!!!! I was very pleased that they had both items I wanted in organic varieties. I was afraid it was the wrong season for the squash so I was excited. I had considered ordering off of Greenling for my organic baby food stuff (and I probably will sometime) but was very pleased to be able to do it in person because I was able to get the cutest little butternut squash! Just right for baby :)

The guy next to me in this picture actually mumbled "That's a good picture." to me as he walked past- Ha! It's kind of fun to get random unsolicited approval from strangers.

So, the next picture didn't load properly- but you get the jist. I am gleefully pureeing organic avocado with the food processor Jack got for me while Jack gets Max into his high chair and all bibbed up and ready. This is the first food that doesn't taste like breastmilk that Max will be eating- very exciting for us new parent types.

End result: a very messy baby :) What he really seemed to enjoy most was cramming his fingers into his mouth once he got a spoonful of avocado in there- also, smearing it onto the bib and then avidly chewing on it. He managed to consume a fair amount though and wasn't miserable or anything. I think he may have gotten avocado up his nose and then when he was done and I was going to comfort him he had a hidden store of avocado mush in his cheek. Jack, with his lack of long fingernails helped fish it out much to Max's displeasure.

The next day though I tried him on the remainder of the avocado and he ate it ALL!!! There was a good amount in there- especially for how little experience he has with solid food. He really seemed to enjoy it and ate it quickly. By the way- good trick for keeping avocado green in a little jar: pour some olive oil on it to cover the surface and refrigerate- then just mix it all up when you want to eat it. A little olive oil is good in just about anything! I was pleased with how well it worked- I know I don't like to eat brown avocado.

I have tried him once on the butternut squash and so far he does not seem to like it. He not only made faces (pretty normal) but fussed and squirmed a whole bunch. So, we'll try again and see if it was the squash or something else. I tasted it already and it's pretty yummy- it was fun to make as well- I may have to give it to Dicey.

Max's First "Food"

We have officially started Max on "solids" (organic rice cereal mixed with breastmilk)- it's pretty exciting even though most of his nutritional needs will still be met by breastmilk for months to come. We're supposed to introduce things slowly- I'm not sure what we'll try next- probably squash or something. We knew that he was okay with a spoon because we tried one in our attempts to get him to actually consume some of the expressed breastmilk I have stockpiled. (He really doesn't care for bottles). So, we tried him out and he did pretty well- he ate about 2 tbsp. if my calculations are correct and wasn't miserable or anything.

Perhaps a bit unsure- but not miserable! :) The second attempt went a little better still- it's all very exciting- plus it's super cute and fun.

In other news- I ordered some turkey eggs from Etsy and am super jazzed to start dyeing them- with my new electric kistky!!!!! Unfortunately I need to order some new dyes and I'm still trying to decide if I should go tried and true or branch out for the "promise" of new colors. The website with new colors seems like their ordering process is a little convoluted. Anywho- I'll get antsy soon and probably go with a reorder of my tried and true 17 color set from UkrainianGiftShop.com

Max's new stats

Max's 4 month appointment actually happened when he was closer to 4 and a half months old- so his percentiles are a little skewed maybe- but here goes.

Height: 26 3/4 inches (that's 5 INCHES taller than he was at birth!) 95th percentile

Weight: 18 lbs. 10.4 oz. 98th percentile (their chart did not actually go past 97th, so this is a guesstimate)

Head circumference: it was 42 something in centimeters I think but the percentile is 88th

I really thought that at least some of his percentiles would be the same or maybe even smaller- but they ALL increased! The nurse told me to keep eating whatever I was eating- that's always nice to hear. He also got his second round of vaccines, which went much better than last time, he wasn't nearly as shocked and didn't cry for anywhere near as long.

That night though he woke up wailing at 3:40 in the morning- I went in to check on him and picked him up only to realize that he was very warm. He had a slight fever from the vaccines (totally normal side effect) but I felt really bad that I hadn't given him the children's tylenol earlier. I gave him some and nursed him a little and put him back to bed.

He seemed to do okay today, he definitely still had a slight fever and was more irritable than normal- but that's all to be expected in the day or so after vaccines. He didn't have hardly any symptoms the first time around. I was really frustrated last night because I find our baby thermometer kind of difficult to use and am never sure if I'm doing it right. It kept reading 96 or 97 and I KNOW he was hotter than that last night. I got a couple of readings today of 101.4 (which is still below the post-vaccine limit). I kept him on his tylenol and tried my best to keep him cool and happy- he seems okay, just a little cranky. He doesn't like the tylenol drops.

First post-baby date!

A while back Jack did some A/C work at McCormick and Schmick's- they have a regular guy but needed additional help- he ended up spending hours and hours of overtime over a period of a couple of days and the manager thanked him by giving him a very generous gift certificate. At the time Max was only about a month old and wasn't ready to be babysat for any significant length of time. So, last night we finally got to use the gift certificate for our (drum roll please) first night out together since Max was born! Yippee! Bryan and Selah were kind enough to let us prevail upon them to be guardians of sleeping Max so we put him to bed in Dicey's bassinette and we were on our way!




We got EVERYTHING- appetizers of Crab Lump Queso and really good raw oysters, plus I tried a new cocktail and it is one of my new top five alcoholic bevvies- it was a basil grape refresher which was white grape juice, ginger ale, vodka, angostura bitters and lime juice garnished with 3 green grapes (one of which I managed to roll across the floor to underneath the nearby table with the tiny baby. Cherry tomato flashback anyone?*) and a few mint leaves. It sounds sweet and maybe even cloying- let me tell you- it is not. It was, true to it's name, quite refreshing and I couldn't taste the alcohol at all- but knew it was there after halfway through the second one. yum.



*My mother loves to tell a story about Selah and I being small and out at a restaurant for probably the first time- we got salads with cherry tomatoes in them and were totally weirded out and fascinated/repulsed by them I guess. Anywho, to get us to stop talking about them or make them less weird, in a perhaps regrettable move my mother told us to think of them as little balls. I promptly picked one up and threw it across the restaurant, only to have it land in a lady's purse.





Jack got wild king salmon with yukon gold potatoes and I got stone bass with jasmine rice cakes in a pineapple coconut sauce- both entrees were amazing with nothing left to be desired (except maybe a smaller portion for me- everything was delicious and we were already getting full).

But that wasn't going to stop me from ordering dessert.....


Jack got some yummy cinnamon brownie thing and I got a chocolate bag filled with white chocolate mousse and berries- it was awesome! The bag is hard to finish though folks, just so you know.

And for Max news: Selah got him the best onesies ever! One says Mr. Amazing and the other says Captain Adorable- they are 9 MONTH sized onesies.....
We'll see about his stats tomorrow at his slightly late 4 month checkup.

BIG Fourth celebration-LOADS o' pics

Max had not seen his GrandBears in person since the hospital! So, we thought that Independence Day would be timed well for him to make the LOOOONG car trip up to Dallas to stay for a couple of nights. We gave him a bath and put him in his jammies just like always for his bedtime but then stuck him in his carseat instead of his crib. We were on our way!

It didn't occur to us that it would be so bright and sunshiney at 7 pm - so he didn't actually go to sleep until about 7:30, and then he woke up about 30 minutes later and complained for 10 or 12 minutes and drifted off again to sleep for the next 2 hours or so that it took us to get there. He "woke up" when we brought him inside and the GrandBears were very excited to see him and wanted to hold him and be a bit more awake than he was ready to do- when you wake up babies in the middle they can appear wide awake and ready to go- trust me, they are not.

We set up his pack n' play in one of the upstairs guest rooms complete with his sound machine and the baby monitor and he went off to sleep with no trouble- AWESOME!

He was up again the next morning after a cumulative 12ish hours of sleep and we put him in his Dallas Cowboys onesie to present to the Heberts. They all talked about how perfect his head is and how well he sleeps and what a sweet face he has. They are impressed with his mellow temperment.



He played with his Grandpa "Yogi Bear" for a long time on the floor that morning and a fun time was had by all. We discover that Max will smile nearly every time Grandpa does his Yogi impression- much to Jack Sr.'s delight. Then after an effortless nap (yay!) we packed him up to go visit his Great Grandma Peggy. She's one hardcore lady- she has been a rock for her family and extended family through some really hard times and she is who people always turn to when they have a baby and need a little help. At one point she told us she had three young moms and their babies living with her and she would bathe them one after another in the sink and pass them along to their moms assembly-line style. She also has had one of her collarbones removed because of cancer and Max is her THIRTEENTH Great Grandchild. She's really sweet and boisterous and happy whenever there's a baby around. We got this awesome pic of her with three of her kids (she has two more sons), one of her grandkids and her newest great grandson. I really hope we can get a picture with everyone in it soon.

Yay Four Generations! Grandma Peggy declared Max "a Grammar" as soon as she laid eyes on him (her side). Everyone exclaimed over how big he is and how alert and calm he was. Peggy kept talking about how he is sure to be smart. Jack Sr. is convinced that Max is destined to play football and already has the nickname of "Ragin' Cajun" picked out for him.

After that we went to Fiesta and put Max in the moby wrap- he was a bit sleepy and just stared at everything the whole time. When we got Max back to the house he had another nap and then we headed over to Aunt Brandi and Uncle Tony's house for dinner. We had Chinese delivery - it was really good and Brandi got to play with Max a whole bunch- he stayed up way past his bedtime.
At one point Brandi "put Baby in a corner"- it was really funny.

He went down like a dream once we got him back and gave him a bath- he was real tired by the end which is why he looks so uncertain. GrandpaBear loves to play games with babies and especially loves little bathtime games with squirty animals and little boats and stuff. He was so happy to have that little time with his new grandson and I was glad too- it was pretty silly to watch this giant man be a total goofball playing with the bath toys.

The next morning we woke up to the Fourth of July!! Yippee! Max's first holiday where he actually notices things (he was really too little at Easter). HoneyBear had all kinds of festive preparations as always, and Max was equipped with appropriate sleepwear.

Max got in some good HoneyBear time and some floor-play before he went down for a nice long nap- Jack and I tried to make breakfast but it didn't work out as good as we planned- poo. There was lots of food for the rest of the day. I'm always confused because Jack's parents always make a big deal about saying how good Jack is at making steaks and that he'll be in charge of them but then it seems like his Dad always ends up making them anyway. Who knows? Anywho there were mountains of food- most of it delicious.

So, I got him up from his nap and put him in his special Fourth outfit, but it turns out that overalls, adorable as they are, are too constricting for what Max would like to do- namely roll around on the floor and grab his feet- so he didn't stay in them for too long. Then he did another wardrobe change because the GrandBears had put up a little pool in the back for him and so he got into his little baby swim diaper and had his first pool encounter. It went really well and he seemed to like it alot, I swirled his legs around in the water and he didn't complain once- this was the first time he's ever been in cold water so I was pleasantly surprised by how mellow he was. It was really hot outside though.

Max also got to play with a windchime and he liked it alot- I had to pry the pull out of his little fingers to be able to walk away- he pulled on it alot and seemed to enjoy the sound.

Brandi and Tony bought some pretty tame fireworks that were legal for Dallas suburbia and reasonably safe for baby and Great Grandma and among them was "The Climbing Panda" which turned out to be pretty exciting actually.

These three had so much fun setting off fireworks for us all to watch. They only had one little bag but really made the most of it setting up various tableaus with smoke bombs and sparklers and jumping jacks and such- with the Climbing Panda being the first of a few "Grand Finales".

Brandi made sure that Memaw and the GrandBears got sparklers and they enjoyed them in the shade- especially Memaw- she loves 'em.
Max seemed pretty focused on the fireworks- we didn't get too much reaction out of him but he stared at them whenever they were happening.

I just love colored smoke bombs- who's with me? They're awesome and lovely- Brandi felt the spirit and danced in the smoke- I was glad that they were included- I think people forget how lovely they are and that there's an unfair preference in society for noisy fireworks.

We also played Sorry- which I'd never played, but it's remarkable similar to Parcheesi or Trouble so I picked it up pretty quickly. It is a strategy game where you can send people back to the beginning- so of course Tony won- he's very much the competitor.

So, that's pretty much it- we gave Max another bath and put him to bed in his carseat- he slept all the way home. The GrandBears called him an angel and said that he was the best behaved baby they'd ever seen and that we were surely doing things right. That's always nice to hear. They always compliment Thor's behavior too so it's good to feel like my "boys" were on good behavior. It was a really nice visit and everyone had a good time and laughed alot. We probably won't be up in Dallas again until Christmas when Max will be 10 months old! Hopefully they'll come visit him at his home sometime before then. He's changing so quickly I'd hate for them to miss that big a span of time.

Happy Fourth to everyone- Yay America!