new faces!

Max loves meeting new people and checking out new faces! He got to meet JuJu and Megan yesterday! Judy was visiting her sis in WA and was kind enough to drive to Spokane so we could meet up. It was great because 1.) I haven't seen Judy since I moved to ID and 2.) We went to a MALL!!!!! Which I also haven't done since I moved to ID.... over a year and half! So Max got to make new friends and experience some retail therapy!

Max did great on the ride and slept most of the time. Although, about half way home, he woke up and was screaming and crying. (very unusual for Max) I had to pull over on the side of the road and give him a bottle. He wasn't thrilled about getting back in his car seat; he was searching for his jumperoo! When we got home, he didn't even want his cereal; he just wanted to JUMP! He had lots of energy to burn after all that snoozing in the car. Took him a while to go to bed, but once he did, he was out like a light!

there was only one thing missing ....

Happy Guy!!

This is just a random picture of Max's cuteness!!





Max is such a happy guy! Here's a great video of Tommy being silly and Max loving every second of it, totally cracking up!!

We are family

We had a great visit with Cindy, Brett, Chase and Abby! Cindy is Tommy's sister and such a wonderful lady! Abby loved Max and did a great job holding him - she even helped me give him a tubby and make his bottle! We took Max up to Schweitzer for his first mountain adventure. He really dug it! He mostly liked hanging out with his new found family members!

Finding your voice ...

Max is discovering his voice! If he's not blowing raspberries, he's testing the myriad of sounds his vocal cords can make. I like to try to mimic his sounds back to him. It seems to crack him up a lot. He does this crazy yell, we fondly call, "the pterodactyl scream". I guess it's only music to mommy and daddy's ears!

Dispite his red face, and "straining" noises ... no, he did not take a poo! LOL

Max likes to snuggle...

Over the last week or so, when you pick him up and put him over your shoulder, he hugs you back. Talk about your heart melting!!! He also has this great blankie with a little sheep attached to it that he's sleeping with. Now, he's hugging it when he is slumbering. He's a very good snuggler! HOW CUTE!

The way old friends do ....

We had a really nice visit with Abby and her mom who came up for a bit last week. Abby's folks moved to Spokane and she went to see them. Lucky for us, that is pretty close to Sandpoint, so I got to catch up with my old friend. She's doing great, excelling in school and as beautiful as ever! It sure was nice to see a pal from my old church and spend time just chit chatting, doing the girl thing. It was super fun to show off "Marvelous Max" and big surprise ... she thinks he looks just like daddy too! ..... We're hoping she gets the hankering to spend time with her parents frequently so we can see her too!

mmmmm .... Sweet Potatoes!

We had a really great weekend. Max has it a milestone; he opens his mouth for the spoon!! This is great; I no longer have to pinch his nose to get him to 0pen his mouth so I can stuff food in him! KIDDING ... I'm kidding! :) It's just fun to watch him enjoy his new foods now and gobble them right up! He went back to the doctor to get a couple more shots and he had gain over a pound in two weeks. So, he's just over 17 pounds now! The little truck!

Mema was excited when she heard that Max was willingly eating the veggies now. She's been wanting him to have it for about 2 months now. When I told her he was opening his mouth up for the food she said, "See, he's hungry!" LOL! Somehow I don't think he's starving to death!

PS- yes, that is a Crème Brule dish he's eating from . Auntie Amy will love that.

All that new food and full belly makes for good sleeping! .... it also does crazy sturff to his poo, but nobody wants to see that! :)

Meanwhile ... Baby Cat can't believe we're not over it yet ... and that Max is actually still in the house!

Spoiled? Moi??

Tommy hung Max's family tree in his room this weekend! It looks fantastic!! We LOVE it! I think Max really likes it too; he kept smiling looking at it. Must be all the bright colors, and the fact that he knows Auntie Candy made it with love.

It's official, Max now has the nicest room in the house. Maybe he will actually start sleeping in it soon!! LOL ... we're making progress in that area. All his cloths have moved upstairs and we had some "fun time" in his crib, playing with his mobile, etc. Heck, I want to sleep in his room! He has nicer bedding than I do and the feel is quite cozy, if I do say so myself. Once the heat of summer dies down, he'll be moving up there for sure... unless it's too cold. :)

We can also thank Auntie Candy for the killer tie dye onsies!!! Makes Max look like such a hip dude! It was started the whole migration of clothes. All the 3-6 month stuff got pulled out and all the 6-9 month stuff got put in the drawers. My goodness, he's just growing like a weed! Such a big boy!

Grandpops Bob, sent Max a present in the mail this week too. All those New Englanders are a little nutty over the Red Sox ... rightfully so, I guess. Anyway, I didn't know what the "green monster" was until I was in my late 20's. (Thanks Amy for telling me ... and she's from CA!) Anyway, did you know that there is a mascott? Wally, the Green Monster! Well, I didn't either... but apparently there is ...and Max loves him! This kid just has everything!

Auntie Candy

We LOVE Auntie Candy ... and hate her at the same time. :) She's sooo talented and I am a bit jealous! She mad the amazing wall quilt, family tree for Max. She hand dies all of her own fabrics and somehow manages to create all this fantastic art while working full time, taking care of her own two boys and husband! I'm convinced she doesn't sleep ...ever!

Max's name is embroideredon the apple, it also has my name, Tommy's name and Max's birthday embroidered on a leaf! It's beautiful!!! I can't wait to get it on Max's wall. Daddy has yet another weekend project. LOL!

She also made these great onsies for Max! I can't wait until he's big enought to be sporting them! Then again ... he's growing sooo fast, I don't want to rush it anymore that it already is going by!

To see more of Candy's great art ... click on the "Candied Fabrics" link under "Cool Stuff" on the left of my page! :)

Just like peas and carrots...

Max has started on baby food. We did rice cereal snuck in his bottle for a while, but that made it hard for him to do his "business". We gave him some prunes to help with that, and what a blow out that caused! LOL! Anyway, we're slowly introducing new foods. He started with some sweet potatoes given to him from my finger. I figured the food was enough to get used to, let's not add the spoon to the mix just yet. He didn't LOVE the sweet potatoes, but it went OK. We tried pears over the weekend ... let's just say he didn't really like those at all.

The doctor also told us to start him on some watered down juice. So, we tried apple juice. The first time he flipped like a damn pancake! And cried like a crazy man! The second time, he took two sips from his bottle and started spitting it out. Tried again last night and he gave me the big boober lip as if to say, "Where's the white stuff, mommy?" So, I gave him the boobie! LOL...

Last night we had our first adventure with carrots. I think he's a vegetable man, like his daddy. But then again, what part of him isn't like his daddy? He didn't gobble them up, but he seemed to enjoy them a bit more than the peaches, that's for sure. We even used a spoon! WOW! What a big boy! ha ha ha.... So, I'm calling the carrots a mild success. Maybe we should try peas next!

Max is not quite sure what to think of his new food.

5 months

Max went for his 4 month doctor's appointment on Friday, even though he's 5 months tomorrow. He's a champ! He's 26 1/4" tall (70 percentile), 16 lbs on the button (50 percentile) and his noggin is 16 1/4" (75 percentile). He did one oral vaccine and on shot. He was supposed to have 3 shots, but I just think that's too much all at one time. So, he's going back for the other two in a few weeks.

Saturday was the monthly run to Coeur D Alene, to do the Costco/Target extravaganza and stock up. Max was a trooper considering we spent hours in the car. That's what happens when you're in the stix, you have to drive 50 miles each way for decent shopping. Then, we just hung out in the back yard for a bit.

We just got home from church and I guess the sermon was very stimulating for Max; he's been asleep in his car seat for the last half hour. I might also add, he's snoring up a storm.... he's a lot like his daddy!

That's a funny way to sleep ....

So, this is one of the perils of learning to roll over. Max is sooo into rolling over, that he even wants to do it in his sleep. We keep waking up and finding him in really funny positions. Sometimes, sideways, or with a blankie over his head, or bum up in the air trying to complete his rotation … Tommy caught this on the other night. He said Max slept like this for a few hours. Too funny!

Summer breeze, makes me feel fine ...

It's been a lovely weekend here in Sandpoint! The weather has been perfect! Daddy spent a lot of time in the yard pulling weeds and making it look all pretty. Max went outside to hang out and provide some moral support. I'm sure the neighbors think we're crazy because we had the huge shade umbrella out and the super cool sunhat on Max. We spared him his baby sunglasses on this occasion. :) But we enjoyed the sunshine and the nice breeze ... we being Mommy and Max ... Daddy was working his butt off. That Daddy, he's awesome!!

Born with a Silver Moon in his mouth

This one goes out to Auntie Becky ....

Max has the awesome silver moon rattle from Tiffany's that his Godmother, Auntie Becky, got for him. I was going to save it so he couldn't ruin it, but Auntie Becky insisted he play with it. Well, it's a good thing, because he loves it! It's very shiny and pretty ... and hard to chew on. All good things in a rattle. I hope he doesn't grow up to have expensive taste! Heck, I didn't see the 'little blue box' until I was in my 30's!!! Talk about born with a silver moon in your mouth! :)

Do you Jumperoo?

Another one of Max's favorite things to do is bounce around in his Jumperoo ... or as I like to think of it ... the "make Max super tired" toy! He's usually good and mellow after he jumps around in this bad boy for a while. I wish they made these for adults! ... oh wait; I'm already exhausted! :)

I made the mistake last night of taking the pillow out from underneath to see if his feet touched the floor yet. He flipped like a pancake! He couldn't make it bounce for 15 seconds and just started crying! I immediately stuffed the pillow back under his feet, then he cried/laughed and just started bouncing his head off again!

4th of July weekend

We had a great 4th of July. Very mellow, but we got some much needed rest. We skipped the parade because it was kinda hot outside and that makes Max fussy. (it makes Mom fussy too, but that's another story) We found out later that there was a prize for the kids' parade. I was disappointed then, because I was sure Max would have won the first prize! It's about time he started earning some cash and pulling his weight in the family! :)

We thought about going to see the fireworks, but Max was sleeping by then .... and frankly, I think I was too! Oh well, there's always next year. And the good thing is, he's so little now, he'll never remember how lame we were! Ha!

Max spent a lot of time doing his top three favorite things:
flying, learning to roll over, and of coarse ... drooling! Drooling is a constant these days. I'm thinking of just putting a drip bucket under his chin and cleaning it out as it fills up! :)

It's great fun watching him learn to roll over. He's mastered back to belly in a couple of days. But, he often gets stuck on his belly trying to complete the rotation to his back. He's managed a couple of times but usually gets stuck. I'm sure he'll have that down in a couple of days as that is how long it took him to get good at the initial roll over. (coming soon: video of stupid pet tricks - Max rolls over) Ha!

Flying is great fun ... just make sure he doesn't drop drool on your face!

The First Blog Post

I've been inspired by a friend who made a great blog for her friends and family that live far away. I love being on her blog and seeing what is new! It makes me feel close and part of the action although I'm thousands of miles away. So, I figured I'd give it a shot! I hope it's a fun way to stay in touch.

Anyway, here are the main characters in our life story. Me, Tommy and Marvelous Max! This pic was from when Max was 2 weeks old.



More to come soon ....