Max's favorite thing

Max loves balls...footballs, golf balls, basketballs, bouncy balls, big, little, etc.!  There have been a few instances when other people were playing basketball or football, and Max follows the ball, saying "ba, ba, ba" over and over until someone gives him the ball. He can roll, throw, and kick them. He also knows how to run for a touchdown if the football is passed to him! Maybe he'll be into sports or be an athlete?...we'll see.  (I don't like labels for kids)  All I know is that for now, give him a ball and he's happy!

 

 

Max is walking!

He had been standing alone for awhile, but not taking steps. Then he practiced going from sitting to standing by himself, without holding on to anything. After he got that down, he would stand up and take one or two steps and then fall. He did that for a couple weeks. Finally, three days after Max's 1st birthday, he started walking across the living room. It seemed like it was out of the blue when he first did it because I looked up and he was walking across the room! It was like he just decided he was ready one afternoon, so he started taking several steps and falling and doing that over and over. Now, about two weeks later, Max is walking about 85% of the time. When I see Max walking, it still takes me awhile for it to sink in. It just doesn't seem right!  Now we're in the phase of having to keep an eye on him at all times!  He's all over the place!

Max turns 1!

I'll say it again...that year flew by! My baby boy is 1 year old!

We had a small party at our house, and it was just perfect. There were lots of babies who had fun playing with toys and balloons all over the floor, we enjoyed good food, friends, and cupcakes. Max loved his birthday cupcake and made a mess while eating it, which made for great 1st birthday party pictures.

On Max's actual birthday, we had a play date with some friends at Zilker Park. Harper, who is two weeks older than Max and Eliza, who is one week younger than Max plus their moms, who are my friends, met us there. We rode on the little train called the Zilker Zephyr, swung in the swing, and had a picnic lunch. It was fun for all!

Max is learning new things and accomplishing new skills daily, it seems. As a matter of fact, as I was in the process of writing this blog post (I started it a couple days ago), Max has started walking! I'll write all about that and include a video in a separate post.

He is saying more words, (his favorite lately is "hi"), signing "more", "dog", and "all done", and doing things to make us laugh, like his surprised face that you see in a lot of the pictures, or laughing, or making funny faces. Max is copying what we do, especially if we think it's funny. His babbles are sounding more like words, and he wants to talk but it's not coming out right!

This is a fun stage, but definitely a hands on stage for us since Max is mobile and very curious, not to mention very fast and stealthy about getting into things. His favorite thing to snatch are markers. One minute he's right next to me and the next, he's found a marker and it's all over his face. Eli and Jed help us keep track of Max, too, which is helpful.

Max's little personality is emerging more and more. I just wish he would slow down because he's already growing up too fast!

Baby Yoda

Remember that baby Yoda costume I had for Max when he was first born last year? I needed to give it back to my friend, so I had to get a few more pictures of Max in it before I gave it back. I think it is the cutest costume ever!

Max went from this:

To this:

He's got the light saber fighting down, thanks to his brothers!

Max's first word

Bath!  Max started saying bath ("ba") at around 9 months old. He loves the bath, so of course it was his first word!  Since then, he's said other words, like hi "I", Boone "boo", Mama, Dada, book "buh", yay "ay", and most recently Eli "eeyah". Now that he's almost 1, his babbles are sounding more and more like words. It's fun to hear!

It's hard to capture him talking on video, but I was able to get him saying bath this time.  This video is from a couple months ago...

Stranger Danger?

Last time we were in Dallas in July, we went out to eat with Grandpa and Gramma Ninny to their favorite Mexican restaurant. They go there every Friday night and know everyone who works there. However, Max was not a fan of our server for some reason. Every time he came to our table Max would start to panic. Since then, Max has gotten better with waiters, but if we have a male server, Max gets worried.  Not sure what it is, but it is pretty funny. Poor Max is scared and we're all laughing at him!

Max is 9 months old!

Wow, Max has accomplished so much in the last month! In fact, at his nine month well check today, the doctor said that he's doing so much that he's all messed up. In other words, his brain is working hard keeping up with all these new developments. Unfortunately, I think these new milestones are all affecting his sleep as well, and he's not wanting to stay asleep. He wants to practice his new skills instead of sleep! Here's a list of his new accomplishments this month:

• he got another tooth on the bottom and three more are close behind, making eight total teeth
• eats finger foods and loves feeding himself
• waves bye-bye/night-night
• clicks tongue and loves when you click back
• likes growling back and forth with people
• gives kisses by smacking his lips
• likes to dance whenever any music comes on by bobbing head and/or body up and down
• he practiced all month and finally started crawling one week before he turned 9 months! First he went from being on his belly to sitting up, then he was doing a move where he would do a push up and balance on his toes with stretched out legs, then he did the crawling position and rocking on his hands and knees, he could crawl backwards for awhile, then he finally took off!
• a few days after he started crawling, he started pulling up to his knees and then to standing soon after that
• he likes to pull up on the ottomans and bite off the leather on them; not sure what to do about that
• he also likes to pull up on the piano and play it; he's so tall, he can reach the keys already
• and as of today, he can clap his hands

avocado!

The Plank

You see his tan lines? He even has tan lines
on his wrists and ankles where his rolls are.

We'll blame this on the angle of the camera : )

Whew! Needless to say, Max has been busy! He's also been busy growing. He weighs in at 23 pounds and is 31 inches long. At the doctor's office, the nurse asked me how much I thought he weighed, and when I guessed 23 pounds, she laughed and said, "Thant's a little ambitious, don't you think?", and I was right on the money! He's about the size of a 15-18 month old. Slow down, Max!

Max 6-8 months

He is the size of a toddler, literally!  Max was just under 23 pounds and about 30 inches long at his 7 month appointment.  He's in 12-18 month size clothes.  It looks like he should be walking, but for now Max is just rolling to where he wants to go. He finally started sitting up by himself a couple weeks ago. That stage was short (a little over a week) but sweet because I could sit him down next to his box of toys, walk away, and he would still be there when I came back. Now he can go to a crawling position from sitting and then rocks back and forth on his hands and knees like he's going to take off crawling. Not yet, Max!

There are now four teeth (or toofies, as Jed calls them) in his mouth! Max eats like a champ and seems to like baby food more than Eli or Jed ever did when they were babies. We've started some finger foods as well, which he also likes. The boy just likes to eat!

Max still just goes with the flow. Even when he should be fussy due to the fact that he needs to nap, he still is generally happy except for some eye-rubbing and minimal fussing. I don't get it, he'll take only and 30 min. morning nap, we'll go swimming at the pool until past naptime but he's fine. He'll conk out a couple minutes after we get in the car to head home though.

Another new thing Max has started doing is babbbling! I love the baby babble. So far, he's only saying /ba ba/ or /ma ma/, and a few /guh/ sounds. Max likes to try copy us, especially Eli or Jed. He laughs back when we laugh or grunts/growls back to us. It's a fun game!

Oh, and his hair seems to be thicker and getting some curls in the back. It's still blonde with some red tint to it. He has more hair like Jed did and it's blonde like Eli's was...a good combo!

Max has a tooth!

On Saturday, the morning of Eli's party, John discovered at tooth in Max's mouth! I guess Max wanted to add something else to the Easter weekend festivities. I was expecting his tooth to appear at any moment. It's tiny and you can barely see it, but it's there. He is proud of his first tooth! Eli says that Max must have got the tooth that he lost a couple weeks before.

one tooth in, one tooth out

Max the Baylor Fan

We got to go to see a Baylor vs. UT basketball game last week. Eli and Jed stayed home with a sitter since it was a late game on a school night. Gramma was in town, so she went with me, John, and Max to the game. Max was great, as usual. He was sleeping in the Ergo carrier when we arrived, so when he woke up, he was very surprised to see where we were and amazed at all the hub bub going on around him. As you can see, we captured the look on his face in the pictures.

It was a good game since Baylor won! As John says, "it's always good to see UT loose, especially when it's to Baylor". Sic'em Bears!

look closely to see Max's expression

check out those surprised blue eyes!

of course we all wore our green and gold with pride!