My growing boy - 4 months old

My little guy just keeps getting bigger:
He now weighs 15.22 pounds which puts him at 55%
He's quite tall!  26.5 inches - 91%

He did well at the appointment...he had to have one oral vaccine and two shots.  He didn't really react to the first one - I guess he was letting it slide - but he was pretty pissed after the second one.  He was easily comforted, though, and was giving the nurse smiles by the time she left the room.

His appointment was in the middle of the day so I picked him up from Ms. Shelly and then took him back and went back to work.  Lucy never really reacted to her vaccines other than being extra sleepy but Shelly said this guy was a little fussy in the afternoon...and once we got him home, we could tell his legs - where the shots went in - were tender because he cried if we touched them.  I decided to take him for a little walk, during which he threw up a couple of times (one of the listed side-effects)...he sort of spit up a little bit and right after I wiped his mouth, he kind of opened his mouth and a milky liquid just poured out...it didn't seem to bother him one bit but it was a little alarming to me.  But we gave him another dose of Infant's Tylenol and he was back to his regular self the next morning.


After the barfing, he took a little snooze

 Look what my big guy did last weekend!

He loved it!
And look how red his hair looks!

He also helped Uncle Jason move into his new house...and by "helped," I mean took naps, hung out with Grandpa, and tried out the ND chair:

Hopefully Maxy likes owls as much as I think he does...when I brought him downstairs in this owl outfit, Dave just shook his head and said, "Max...I'm sorry, buddy..."

From the time he caught his first cold and had the ear infections, he wasn't the great sleeper we'd gotten used to...for weeks he'd been waking up multiple times - sometimes to eat, sometimes just to scream for a bit and arch his back and wiggle around and make us crazy, trying to figure out what he wanted and what to do. 
We still swaddle him at night but for the past week or more, we haven't "double bundled" - instead, we only put him in his "baby straight jacket".  Most nights he wakes up at some point, freaking out and needing his hands free so we un-Velcro the suit...and then he wakes up another hour or so later, freaking out and needing his hands trapped...so we re-Velcro...(tricky baby).

But for the most part, we feel like we have our good sleeper back (knock on wood!).  He's still in our room with us but he's ready to move up to his own bedroom any day now...

He does love hanging out in his bed to play and watch his mobile...

Loves:
Being outside.
Baths!  He just can't get enough!  He loves every minute of his bath and he just got a new owl towel (imagine that) from GranJan...such a sweetie!

Tummy time!  It continues to amaze us after how much Lucy hated it but seriously, this guy loves being on his belly!  He and his BFF, Leo, hang out on their tummies together (believe it or not, Leo is 5 months older than Max!):

Playing!  He loves playing and it's so cute to watch him...he's always grasping at things and moving his toys around...I'm telling you, this is the cutest baby boy I've ever seen in my life...

He also loves holding hands.  If ever he's crying in the car and Dave is with me, he'll reach back and hold his hand and it calms Maxyboy right down!  Recently GranJan was with us and Max was freaking so she reached back to hold his hand - he immediately stopped crying and went to sleep.  She said, "He's got a pretty good grip but he fell asleep...can I take my hand back?"
Um...No.


In the saucer at Ms. Shelly's...she says he looooooooves it in there

His friends!  I Iove getting pics of my baby throughout the day and love it even more when he's pictured with his friends...Talia likes to be a little mommy and Leo and Max love playing together...Shelly's going to have so much fun watching these two grow up together!

His sister!  What's not to love?

Being cute...seriously how cute (and hilarious) is he in these pjs and hat from my friend Gina??

He doesn't have many major "Dislikes," though he doesn't seem to enjoy being in the car all that much - it's not just red lights that set him off anymore.  Sometimes he cries all of the way to the sitter's house in the morning but is all smiles as soon as we arrive...maybe he just gets lonely back there...

He's found his toes!  He's been grabbing at his feet and holding on for the past couple of days...with all of those rolls on his legs, it's kind of amazing!

Watch him grow:


Can you tell he wasn't really in the mood at 3 months??



A little more Lucy

Dance class started back up this week and Lucy has graduated from the 30 minutes Tiny Tunes class to the full hour tap, ballet and jazz class - which she attends by herself (Tiny Tunes was a mother-daughter class).

I told her when we got to the studio that this was "big girl dance" and that I wouldn't be coming into the classroom with her and she looked at me...and said, "Bye, mom!"

They started with ballet and ended with tap...but about 20 minutes into class (with her upstairs in the classroom, me downstairs in the waiting area), I realized she didn't have tap shoes...so I rushed up to the office - luckily they had a pair in her size in stock so I bought them, wrote her name inside each one with a Sharpie and handed them to the studio owner to take in to her (so I thought).

After class, the cute little dancers made their way down the steps one by one.  My girl was the last one down...and she was still wearing her ballet shoes...
I asked Lucy where her tap shoes were and she stared at me blankly and just shook her head no (as far as she knew, she didn't own tap shoes).  The teacher walked by carrying a shoe box so I asked her if they were Lucy's tap shoes...she said no and opened the box to reveal and old pair of ballet shoes...I asked her where Lucy's tap shoes were and she, too, stared at me blankly.  I started to go upstairs to check the classroom when I hear a dad ask, "Who's Lucy Meyers?"

There was some sort of mix up that resulted in his daughter wearing my daughter's tap shoes (luckily I had written her name in them!) for the first class.
I was so sad that after I'd rushed up to buy them and send them in, she still didn't get to tap-tap-tap but when I realized Lucy hadn't been fazed, I made myself get over it.  After all, if I had been more prepared, Lucy would have had shoes in advance and therefore would have known she had tap shoes to wear.

When we got home, though, she put those little suckers on and tapped on every hard surface she could find.  I am so excited for her for next week's class when she gets to tap around with her friends and teachers!

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As sweet as our girl can be, she can sure be challenging at times...
Bedtime struggles have cropped back up - Tuesday night was bad (lots of crying when Daddy came back down from putting her to bed) but Wednesday night was horrific.  She screamed and screeched and cried, cried, cried. 

She's used to having a little snack every evening as part of her wind-down, bedtime routine.  I went up there Wednesday night and told her we were really disappointed with how she was acting and that she wasn't getting a bedtime snack for the rest of the week.  Dave had already been up there a couple of times and when I went up for a second time, I told her there was a new rule - for every time after being put to bed that she calls for one of us to come up, we're taking a friend out of her bed (she has A LOT of "friends" in bed with her - baby dolls, stuffed animals, etc.).

Last night rolled around and she asked what she could have for snack...
I know they say that punishments should be in the moment so the child can directly relate it to the offense but, trust me!  The bedtime saga was so intense that there was no chance she'd forgotten about it.
Just to be sure, though, I asked, "What happened last night?" and she quietly said, "I cried and screamed at bed time" and I asked, "What did we talk about?" and she said, "No snack?"

Yeah, she remembered.

Parenting is hard!  She'd been so good and fun and funny all evening and I felt like she did deserve a snack...but I also didn't want to back down from a consequence I'd spelled out.  And the way she accepted it made her seem so small and sweet; I just wanted to let her have whatever she wanted!  And maybe it is unfair to punish a 3 year old almost 24 hours later...?
But we went with no snack and she didn't put up a fight as we watched a little bit of a Tinkerbell movie.  At 8:50 (when the big hand got to the 10), I told her it was bedtime and she said ok - no fighting or whining!  Hooray!  She went right into the bathroom and brushed her teeth.  I told her to go potty and she actually pulled her pants down and sat there for a second but then said, "I don't have to go," so I took her word for it and took her upstairs.

We got up there and she asked me to read her a book but Daddy was out and Max was starting to cry so I told her, "not tonight" but said she could look at a book on her own for a few minutes.
As soon as I got back downstairs and settled in to feed Max, I hear her on the monitor, "Mommmmyyyyyy...I need to go pottttyyyy!"
I went up there, holding Max, and she was as sweet as she could be.  "I can walk down the stairs by myself since you're holding Max."

If she'd already gone once before bed or if I'd forgotten to make her try, it would have been one thing...but this is one of her frequently used tricks to prolong bedtime so I asked, "What else did we talk about last night?" and she whined, "But I want all of my friends!"

Yeah, she remembered.

I randomly chose a friend - the white stuffed unicorn she'd won at the St. Joe festival - and guess how she reacted...

"I didn't really want him in here anyway."
And she didn't say it snotty...more like, thanks for doing me a favor, mom...
You're welcome, kid...

Lucy and Max

Dave and I, Jeff and Ema, and Jason got my mom a certificate to have family photos taken for Christmas.  We finally redeemed it on what felt like the hottest day of the year (Sunday, August 30) at Devou Park.  Despite the heat, we had a really great experience with Annie Hatfield of Hatfield Photography and she took some great pics of all of us, including these two little cuties:

Max loves keeping an eye on his big sister and she loves playing with and talking to him.  She gets excited when she can make him smile...which she's pretty darn good at!

Weirdos!

Lucy loves playing with her doctor kit and has gotten really imaginative with it.  The other day we were in the basement and she told me Max had another doctor appointment but that he had to wait in the waiting room first!  She designated a spot for us to wait until we were called back.  When we got back there, she took another look in his ears...luckily she said they're getting better!

She also had to take his blood pressure

She goes back and forth between being a little mommy to him to seemingly forgetting he's even there...and I still can't convince her to change his diaper, but she loves pushing him in the stroller:

She's the oldest (and the bossiest and the noisiest...)
but one of these days, the boys are sure to gang up on her!



Watching a little tv together before bed



Maxyboy

My baby guy has been busy being cute and making friends!

He started going to Tammy's house last month...he spends two days a week there while Mama and Daddy are at work, just like Lucy did when she was that age.  He's been having a lot of fun with Dominic and Talia!

For most of August, he also spent a lot of time at my friend Harmony's house...we're so glad she was able to hang with our guy...he loved her and her naked baby!

Max and Lucas spent some time together and I loved hearing about how they'd babble back and forth to one another...they had a lot to talk about!  Harmony also said that whenever Max would cry, Lucas would crawl over to kiss him!  Such a sweet little friend!

But this month, Max met another new friend...Ms. Shelly!  She and her family are amazing and we're so happy we found them!  Max goes there 3 times a week and spends time with Ms. Shelly and her baby Leo (and then her older kids - Caraline, Max and Sadie - once they get home from school).

We found exactly what we were looking for - in-home care so that Max can get a little more attention than he'd get at a center and someone to love on our guy when we can't be with him.  Shelly gives me a little report every day that tells me everything he was up to, too - from naps to bottles to play time...lots of info for this hyper mama...it's perfect! 

Her kids are all as sweet as can be..."Big Max" holds the door for me most days when I come to fetch "Little Max" and Caraline helps me take everything to my car - such a sweetie!  Yesterday when I got there, Caraline was holding my Max and he was smiling away...he loves her!  We're so grateful to have found them!

Maxy still really loves being outside so he's enjoyed Thursday nights at Daddy's softball games...unfortunately, last week was the end of the season so we have to find new outdoor activities while it's still nice outside.


We had an unfortunate first recently...something that was inevitable but still a bummer - his first "sick" appointment at the doctor.  He'd had a bit of a cold and we were snot sucking (he looooooved that, let me tell you...) and using saline nose drops (he was a big fan of these, too, of course...) and running the vaporizer but just as the cold seemed to be fading a bit and he was sleeping a little bit better, I noticed him coughing somewhat frequently.  I called the nurse line and she recommended we bring him in since it had been going on for about 2 weeks - and it's a good thing we did.  My poor baby guy had a double ear infection! 

I was pretty upset because of course I don't want my babies to be sick but also because at 3 and a half, Lucy has never had one!  And it just seems like once a kid gets one, they're prone to get them frequently and I really hope that's not the case for Max.  I felt terrible - like I should have brought him in much sooner - because the nurse practitioner we saw said the cold likely led to the ear infection.  But then she said there was nothing they could do for the cold so I guess I wouldn't have been able to prevent the ear infections anyway...

He's such a little sweetie...he never gave us a single indication...his appetite didn't decrease (if anything, it increased!), he never tugged on his ears or anything (though he may still be too young for that anyway), he didn't scream and cry when we laid him down flat (though he was very restless, which we attributed to being so congested with the cold).  But we got an antibiotic and he's on the mend and hopefully almost back to being our great little sleeper!

While we were at the pediatrician's office, I had them weigh him...14.5 pounds!  He's rapidly approaching the 15 pound weight limit of the bassinet at 3.5 months (Lucy lasted until 4.5 months) and I think he's being evicted to his own bedroom this weekend...

Look how big he's getting!

This guy loves tummy time!  Too cute!  He loves watching tv (he totally gets sucked in!) and watching his wacky sister!  He loves grabbing onto things, too, so I try to give him toys but he usually just grabs (and chomps on) blankets...

He has his 3 month doctor visit next week and I am anxious to see his percentiles for height and weight...he seems so long to me...I feel like he barely fits in his baby bathtub anymore - he's going to have to learn how to sit up soon!  Sometimes it seems like he's really trying to, when he's laying in the tub or on his lounger...if he's already at an angle, he's always trying to get himself up even higher...and when he's on his belly, his little legs start moving like he's trying to get away!  He has rolled from belly to back lots more but has yet to roll the other way...

Ready to roll!



I just love my little baby guy!

We still swaddle him at night and below illustrates why we "double bundle" - swaddle him in a blanket and put him in the "baby straight jacket" on top of that. 

How cute is this kid??