I've been busy....

WE've been pretty busy lately so I haven't been posting like I should- *sorry* :(
Quick update- this is the cliff's notes version since I am still in the process of moving while taking care of a baby.
Max loves to drink out of cups and is really strong and hard to get cups away from once he grabs hold. It's pretty adorable.
He's been sleeping a little bit better and not waking up at 5 or a little before, so that's been nice. Plus we're doing a quick reassurance IF he wakes up before he should, just going in and patting him, letting him know we're still around and then leaving. That's working pretty well too.

Max had a bunch of firsts just recently and he is SOOO close to crawling- it will be any day now. (I keep crossing my fingers that he'll wait for the carpeted new home)
He has very recently started to pull up, mostly to his knees but he can pull up to his feet and is doing it more and more. These pictures don't showcase his utter glee at this new accomplishment- but he loves to do this.

He has not figured out quite yet that it's not a good idea to suddenly let go with both hands when I'm close by but it's real sweet to have him reach for me which is sort of a new thing too. While he has been standing with assistance for months and months now he just yesterday took steps while holding Jack's hands. His first "fingerwalking" was very exciting for me. It's pretty crazy to see him growing so fast. We had suspicions that he was sitting up on his own but got proof yesterday evening on our bed. He's been good at staying sitting up when placed that way for close to a month now, but now can get there all by himself!

Also, last night and this morning he seems to be doing a new trick where if I make a smacky pop sound with my lips he'll give me a big slobbery "kiss". He's done it for Jack too- we'll see if it sticks around- it's super cute. Here's a video that shows him doing this. It's not good quality because it was shot with Jack's phone- so I promise I'm not slinging my baby around haphazardly, it just looks that way because of the speed. I don't know why it freaks out right before the end either.

All this amidst lots of packing and rain and moving boxes into the rented storage unit in our front yard. Jack is being dramatic for the picture- and that's not sweat, it's rain. Sorry for the half orange upload, I don't feel like trying again.

Only about a week to go and we're very excited! I'm really looking forward to having our house "warmed" by a bunch of people soon so they can see the house before I do a bunch of stuff so they'll know what it started out like. Yay- super thrilling times!

BIG weekend!

We (my sister and I plus our children) had a playdate with our new little/big friend Jordan Junior- It was super fun and Max brought a toy to share and everyone seemed to like it. It was nice to see the lovely Petmecky ladies and start down the road of our babies being friends. JJ is funny and adorable and we discovered that he had two newly cut teeth while we were there! Very exciting. :)

Carolyn let Selah and I go through all the clothes that JJ had outgrown and in addition to some awesome playclothes that are the right size for Max RIGHT NOW, there was this little chef hat! I surprised Jack with it and we had a good laugh.

On Saturday I awoke to my husband running through the house yelling "Oh no, Oh no!" Upon rising I find that he just opened our interior garage door to find that two of our longhaired cats had been locked in there all night and had somehow managed to knock over some motor oil and were both covered in it. Lola got the worst of it. We manage to capture them and Jack is trying to rinse Lola off in the bathtub. I bring in Magneto and he moves Lola to the kitchen sink (we had put Max in his playpen). Once I got some of the oil off Mags I went to assist with Lola because as squirrely as Neto was being I knew Lola would be worse, plus she was DRENCHED while he mostly just had it on his undercarriage. Surprisingly Lola was basically inert for most of the bathing. I was so worried that this meant that she was ill, but it seems that maybe she knew we were trying to help her. At some point I called my parents because bathing each of these cats was a two person job that could go horribly wrong at any moment and we have a 6 month old to look out for as well. I felt we needed reinforcements. Max was so good though, that Jack and I had the cats washed (as good as we could at the time) and in boxes ready to go to the vet by the time that Mom and Dad got here. Big boys went to the vet, girls stayed with Max-o. The cats are fine, and my parents get to blow bubbles for Max. They brought us moving boxes, and while all of this is happening, we get our Falcon Storage Go-Mini delivered to our yard. It was a crazy morning.


This is a very cool way to move by the way- you just get this delivered, rent it by the month, fill it up at your own pace, then have them take it to your new house, you unload it there and then call them to come take it away! Awesome! Next on the agenda is meeting our friends to show them our house-to-be. We meet at my sister's house (because it's so close!) and she reminds me that some friends are having their son's 1st birthday party that day! I'd totally forgotten- add one more thing to our so far very full day.
We checked out the new digs and Max got to play on the floor, but the power was off and we were all wilting, so after a quick once over and some pictures we went to lunch- yum. :)
This kitchen shot is my favorite pic of our house to be- it looks so bright and open and I can't tell you how happy it makes me. It's not the most amazing house and it wasn't our first choice either, but it's the one that was timed right, priced right and located right and it's really growing on me. :)

After lunch, Jack and I make a quick detour to Half Price Books to pick up a birthday present for little James. When we arrive at the birthday party Max is fast asleep- I tried to get him to nap again while we were there but to no avail. He starts to get pretty cranky and tired around 6 these days and is waking up before 5!! I (so far) have not gone in his room until it is actually 5 am or a little later- but this is no fun. He's sleeping at least 10 hours still so I don't feel like I can make him wait longer and when I try to keep him up later he still wakes up just as early. Any advice?


His first birthday party to go to was reasonably successful, it's nice when you go somewhere that understands what it's like to have a baby. The hosts were very accomodating and lovely- they have so many friends with babies right now! Little James has lots of friends :)