Pictures from May

Mason finally showed interest in playing with dirt again!  I obviously didn't expect this when we went out to play in the backyard that day, which is why his clothes look way too nice for this activity. :/  But there's no way I was going to make him change his clothes and risk him losing interest.

He asked me to fill up that big blue bucket with water, and then he proceeded to dump dirt in to make muddy water.  He ended up pretty messy, but mostly on his clothes and feet.  I could have easily just changed his clothes and hosed off his feet.  But in true clean kid form, he *insisted* I give him a full on bath immediately following this activity.

Which brings us to bathtime.  Only as of recently have these two started taking baths together.  Up until then, Mason was against it.  I don't know why.  Except that he does have a thing about personal space.  Now Mason LOVES bathtime with Max and gets sad when it's over.  He even helps pour water over Max (a little too much).

I think it's SO cute seeing them in the tub together!

I really like this picture.  I think it's seeing Max's naked baby body in a big room with lots of toys and seeing how little he is.  And realizing he won't be this little for very long.

Many Family Nights these days are visiting parks on evenings when Daddy needs a break from studying.  We have  a really nice time as a family at parks.

We call this the stink bug.  Mason used to always sleep stink bug style too.  I think it is so cute.

Is there anything better than a sleeping baby?!

Max is always happy when he wakes up.  I love it.  It's like the second he opens his eyes he shoots up and thinks, "I am so incredibly excited to see you!  This is the best day EVER!"

Mason and Max love to slide together over and over.

I just love my boys.

I told Mason to smile.  Marcos told Mason to stick out his tongue.  Who do you think he listened to??

Finally got smiles. :)

They are starting to have so much fun together.  Mason's fun is pretty rough, but I'm always so surprised at how tough Max is.  They both climbed into this big tub and thought it was hilarious.  This picture was a split second before they both leaned forward and tipped over onto their faces.  They still thought it was pretty funny. :)

Walking

Max is walking!  I'm not sure how I feel about my baby walking already.  Max will be 10 months on Friday.  It's a little sad that he's growing up so fast, but I'm happy that he will be able to defend himself from Mason pretty soon.  And they'll be able to play together better.  That makes me happy. :)

And yes, the background theme music is Jake and the Never Land Pirates.  Haha.  We had to put it on Netflix for Mason so he wouldn't interfere with the video.  Speaking of Mason, and not to take anything away from Max, but I thought it would be fun to post the video of Mason taking his first steps, too.  Mason was 11 months.  I actually don't think I ever posted the video of Mason walking....oh well, better late than never.  And it's kinda cute to see them both at around the same age.

9 Months

Max recently turned 9 months old!  Ya know, 2 weeks ago.  His 9 month well baby checkup turned out to be a sick baby check up.  (Fever + crying all night = ear infection.)  In this case he had a double ear infection.  Luckily I knew the signs and got him hopped up on antibiotics and ibuprofen quickly and he started to feel better.  I always know when my kids have ear infections when they cry all night.  My boys always sleep through the night unless something is wrong.  (Thank you, Babywise, I owe you my life.)

Max was 20 pounds 3 ounces at his appointment a couple of weeks ago.  Babycenter says that puts him between the 25th and 50th percentile.  He's growing just like Mason did, really fast in the beginning with higher percentiles, then leveling out to average.  I think he is absolutely perfect.

Max is such a happy baby with oodles of personality.  He's just got this sparkle in his eyes, and people stop to tell me how adorable he is everywhere we go.

Max crawls everywhere and pulls himself up on everything.  No matter what I'm doing....the dishes, brushing my teeth, getting something from the fridge...you can always count on him to be be right there crawling to standing up my pant legs.  Basically, any time I move I'm knocking him over.  This is new to me, because Mason didn't truly crawl until he was around 10 months and then started walking at 11 months.  He kind of bypassed the traditional crawling stage.  Max is always moving and constantly grabbing everything and has a ton of energy.

For the past week I've been like, Why is Max doing this funny cry?  Why does he scream whenever I put him down?  Why does he keep waking up during his naps?  Why isn't he interested in eating when I know he's not sick?  Why has he been spitting up so much when, thanks to solid food, we have been past that phase?

Teething.  Yep, all signs of teething.  He got his first 2 bottom teeth in at the same time.  And he was so miserable, I'm like...Wait--do I have a newborn?  Sheesh.  It was bad.  And of course I don't really know what's going on until AFTER the fact and I actually see the teeth.  Duh.  Then I'm like, Poor baby!  Sorry I've been so confused and disgruntled with your behavior!  Mason got his teeth really late.  He turned 1 and still didn't have any teeth.  Then he'd get like 4 of them in at a time.  It was crazy.  For almost everything, Mason was way more difficult than Max, but this time Mason wins.  I don't remember any real problems with Mason and teething.

Max's favorite things to eat right now are yogurt, bananas, applesauce, string cheese, and Cheerios.  To get him to eat avocados or anything else not on this list, I have to mix in yogurt with it or he won't eat it.  In general he's a good eater.  He prefers to feed himself and not be spoonfed.  Which is the exact opposite of my 3 year old. Lol.

Happy 9 months 2 weeks Max!  We are so blessed to have your sweetness in our family.

Some Things We Do

We play in the toy aisle at Target.

We play with magnets.  This is Mason's favorite thing to do right now.  He loves making designs with the shapes.  I love seeing what he does with them.  Can you tell by his groupings that he appreciates order in his life? Hahaha.

For a little while there I actually got Mason to play in the dirt in our backyard.  He wouldn't sit in the dirt, so I got him a tub to sit on.  He's got some cheap digging toys and buckets and such, but he doesn't use them.  He won't play in the dirt anymore.  I tried, people.  The kid just doesn't like to get dirty!

We play at parks.  Max loves to be outside.  Even if he is tired or hungry, he won't fuss at all if we're outside.

Mason rides his bike nearly every single day.  Sometimes we see ducks along our walk and it reminds me of Napa.

We play at more parks.  Seriously.  Like everyday.  We play at one park or another here in Turlock.  It's hard for me to get  good pictures at parks because I'm usually holding Max.

Sometimes we paint on the patio.  Again this is something he will enjoy for a little while, then  be done with it because he starts to get messy.

Trying to capitalize on my son's love for cleanliness, many times I'll just give him a squirt bottle and send him in the backyard to "clean" everything.  "Mama, I want to clean my truck.  I want to clean the windows.  I want to clean the fence." LOL.

We play with Play Dough.  Not too many things hold his attention for a long time these days, but play dough keeps him entertained for a long time.  We do it out on our patio, because good gracious it makes a mess!  (I wonder where he gets his neat freak gene from...hmm...let's hear it for messing up our kids by our own idiosyncrasies.)

We play Legos.  Lots and lots of Legos.

Mason really likes doing puzzles.  As he is putting it together he tells me he is "fixing it."  Spoken like a true  little man...who's gotta fix things.

Max Pictures

My sister Amy texted me today asking for a picture of Max.  I asked why.  She said so she can see what he looks like now.  (sad)  Methinks it's time to put some more pictures on here!  Especially since right now our family rarely gets to see each other.  Haven't seen Amy since last September.  Haven't seen Tracy since her wedding October of 2011.  It's ridiculous!  

So here are some updated pictures of Max.  They're not the best quality....maybe someday I'll get a phone with a much better camera.  (Am I the only person in the world without a smartphone?!?!)  

Max will be 9 months next week!  He is such a joy!

He loves to eat food.

He loves to take baths.

This is how he wakes up in the morning.

He loves to go for walks and be outside.

6 Months!

I just love this little dude.  He is so happy!  And I took these pictures the same day he got shots in the morning.  What a trooper!

Max is just a joy.  Although, he is nearly as hard to keep entertained as his 3 year old brother--and that's saying something.  This guy goes goes goes and complains when he gets bored, which is often.  I have to get really creative sometimes to keep this guy entertained all day.  I really look forward to when my boys can truly play together.

Max weighs over 18 pounds and is around 26 inches long.  That's 75th percentile for both weight and length.    And let me tell you, this kid is already a tough kid.  He loves rough and tumble play, just like big brother.  And I'm so surprised sometimes what Max will allow Mason to do to him and he doesn't even cry.  Mason's never mean to him, but sometimes Mason plays too rough and half the time Max doesn't even care.  In fact, he gets a kick out of it.

Max is still a pretty mellow, easy-going child.  He used to be my little cuddle bug....but now that he's so active he can't sit still long enough to snuggle.  He LOVES to be held....just not necessarily to cuddle (there's a difference!).  He's just so active.  He gets to everything he can on the floor by scooting and he gets up on hands and knees with belly off the floor and does the rocking thing babies do before they crawl.  I'm astounded, because Mason didn't truly crawl until he was around 9 or 10 months and started walking at 11 months.  And here Max has already taken several steps crawling.  Funny how each baby has their own unique timetable for things they master developmentally.  I don't know what I'm going to do with this baby.

And thank goodness that the risk of SIDS dramatically decreases once they are 6 months, because ever since we stopped swaddling him (which was after the first month cuz he's never liked it!) he always sleeps on his stomach and seeks out a cozy corner of the crib to shove his face into.

This is how it started

Then it got better, face down in the bumper

Then it got even better, where he grabs the bumper and folds in down over his face, ya know, just in case some oxygen could still get through

Oh kid, so many nights you worried me.  I would go into your room every night before I went to bed and pull you a couple inches away from the bumper.  And yes, I know experts now say to remove the bumper for safety reasons, but the one time I tried to do that and put him to sleep, within 2 minutes he had all manner of limbs stuck outside of the crib and was screaming.  So I fixed him and left.  Within 2 minutes the same thing happened....you get the picture.  Apparently, his bumper is his lovey right now.

My Happy Boys