Eli lost his first tooth!

As of Monday, March 26, Eli is now missing a tooth! He had been working on it for weeks, wiggling and wiggling. I was worried he was going to loose it at school and I'd miss the momentous occasion. Luckily, the tooth was still there when he got home from school, barely hanging on. John ended up pulling it out and that was that.

I was little sad about it because it meant that my boy is growing up. It was amazing, as soon as his tooth came out, he started acting all grown up and being very compliant...teaching Jed how to read, happily taking out the trash, playing nicely with no intervention, and no whining! I guess Eli felt more grown up now that he had lost a tooth. Even though I was sad, his reaction after it was out was a nice surprise...if only that behavior lasted!

The tooth fairy came that night and Eli got $5 for the tooth. He got $5 because it was his first tooth (and because the tooth fairy may have heard that Eli was saving up his money for a $29 Lego set he saw on the Scholastic Books form from school and only needed 4 more dollars in order to buy it, and he had to turn in his money to school a couple days after he lost his tooth). That is one gracious tooth fairy!

This is the before picture

...and the after picture, with tiny tooth in hand.

Spring Break/Seattle

Bubba and Max

A couple weeks ago was spring break. John and I decided to go to Seattle to surprise our friend, Bubba, for his 40th birthday. So, I took the boys up to Dallas on Tuesday so that Max and I could spend some time with family. Then, on Thursday evening, Max and I met John at the airport (he flew up from Austin), and the three of us headed to Seattle. Eli and Jed stayed with my mom (Mammy) and got to spend time with family while we were gone. It was cousin Grayson's 12th birthday, so they got to go to his two birthday parties! They did other fun things like go the aquarium and see The Lorax at the movies. They had a blast and got lots of family time!

We had so much fun in Seattle, too! Bubba was very surprised when we walked into his house Thursday night. He had no idea we were coming. What made it even better was that he does that kind of stuff to people all the time, so we got to do it to him. It was nice to spend time with Bubba and Anna. We stayed at a little Bungalow a few houses down from them. Their neighbors rent out their basement for visitors, so it was perfect. We even got the neighbor discount! I was expecting it to be rainy and cold the whole time since that's what the forecast said. However, each afternoon, we got some nice sunny weather. It wasn't too cold either. One morning, it snowed huge giant flakes, but it wasn't too cold even then. Bubba said it rarely snows there, too. When it was snowing we were at the top of a hotel where Bub's parents were staying in downtown Seattle. It was really pretty watching the snow in the city from their room.

look closely at the big snowflakes

Bubba's party was fun. They rented out the community center in their neighborhood and everyone played dodge ball. I didn't play because I was wearing Max in the Ergo carrier. I'm glad I had an excuse because I'm not a huge fan of dodge ball, but it was fun to watch! The guests were all supposed to wear their best workout attire, Bub style. John wore his old Baylor basketball uniform, and everyone got a kick out of that. After the game, we all went to Bubbanna's to hang out. What a fun memory!

Max did great on his first vacation. He was happy being carted around the city, and just hanging out with friends. He was a happy baby on the plane as well. He mostly slept or ate or smiled at the people near us. Having only one kid with me feels like nothing now! When I'd tell people we were going to Seattle, I'd say "John and I are going...oh yeah, and Max, too". Max is just so laid back and easy...or maybe it's because he's our third and we're pros...or both!

One regret on our trip...we didn't take enough pictures!

Max at 4-5 months

Let's all say it together..."He's so big!" At his 4 month check up, he weighed 20 lbs. and was 28 in. long. As usual, they put >97%, which means he's still off the charts. He's rolling from back to belly and belly to back now, although he usually cries when that happens. I think it scares him. Max's head and neck are getting very strong now. He lifts his head way up during tummy time and looks like he wants to take off. He's not sitting up and not really close to doing so. When I sit him down on the ground, he just folds in half. We're working on that though. Max likes to sit in the highchair while we eat, but he's not eating solid food yet. I want to hold off on that as long as possible (at least one more month) because I'm not looking forward to the poops and the messes and the spoon feeding and the pureeing of foods when he starts eating solid food. We are hearing more babble out of Max as he experiments with new sounds. Lately he's been squealing very high pitched sounds. Eli and Jed think that's hilarious. Max is still a laid back little guy. He loves watching his brothers and they love making him smile and keeping him entertained. The last five months have gone by so fast! Slow down, baby boy!

PS- I was looking back on the blog at posts when Eli was 5 months old, and the post I wrote for Eli was very similar to the one I just wrote for Max. They look so much alike, it's amazing! Check out the post here.

tummy time

he's only 5 months, I promise!