9 Months

Max! You are 9 months old today buddy!!! You get sweeter and sweeter each and every day. We love you with all of our hearts.

Dr. Appointment: You went to see Dr. Thompson today. You weigh 17 lbs. 3 oz. (5th percentile). You are 27 3/4 inches long (33rd percentile) and your head circumference is 18 in. (63rd percentile). You are doing great! Your pediatrician said that you are right on track with everything and a little ahead in some areas, like pointing.
Eating: You take (4) 8 oz. bottles a day. You eat three solid food meals and sometimes 1-2 snacks. You are eating chunkier foods now. And, last week we gave you yogurt for the first time and you LOVED it! Earlier this week we started giving you some finger foods and you have really taken a liking to feeding yourself. You have had bread with cream cheese, bread with peanut butter, and banana. You also had the yolk from a hard-boiled egg. You are still a wonderful eater! You are getting better and better about taking a sippy cup.
Sleeping: You sleep from 6:30-7 p.m. to 6:30-7 a.m., so 12 hours still. You take 1-2 naps a day, which are usually 1-2 hours long. Every once in a while you will wake up around 3 or 4 a.m. and want a bottle. Otherwise, you are a pretty good sleeper ;)
Activity: You are all over the place! You crawl soooo fast. You are pulling up on anything and everything. You "cruise" on everything also. You have mastered the stairs in our house. Yikes! It won't be long before you take that first step...
Misc.: You are talking like crazy! You say mama, dada, baba, and other combinations of consonants and vowels. You are very vocal and very loud these days. You love to belly-laugh at everything, especially Jasper. You guys are going to be the bestest of friends one day.

We love you so much Maxwell! You make our hearts smile.

I Voted

Daniel, Max, & I all went together and voted in the Primary Elections that were held last Tuesday. We actually early voted and it was really fast--no lines at all. Max was super-excited to get to go to the polls for the first time with Mommy & Daddy. He even got a sticker! (Which I found stuck to his carseat a couple of days ago! Haha!)

Here are some pictures of us at our polling site.

 

Max on the way! Can't you just see the excitement in his sweet little eyes?!

 

 

 

A nice man stopped and offered to take a family picture for us.

Well, looks like we will be back at the polls in the next week or so. There are some MAJOR run-off elections going on. So, get out and VOTE! Early voting begins a week from today and continues until the Monday before the run-offs, which are Tuesday, June 8th.

And, please vote for Mark Wilcox for Seretary of State!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful week! We are surely enjoying this warmer weather. Can't wait to go to our neighborhood pool this Saturday so that Max can show off his mad swimming skills :)

Water Baby

Max & I enrolled in Mommy & Me swim lessons at the YMCA in LR. We had our last swimming lesson on Monday. This was his fourth week of lessons and Max has improved tremendously! We were in the 6 month-3 year old class at the YMCA Westside Branch. His teacher, Ms. Regina, was great. The class was geared toward water safety.

Swimming lessons are something that I highly recommend. Especially at this age when it is all about safety. At each lesson, Max would practice crawling out of the pool & jumping back in at my command. Although he cannot climb out all by himself or stand up & jump back in by himself, he does understand the concept. We will continue to practice these skills this summer at our neighborhood pool and we will hopefully continue swim lessons for the next few summers. Max also enjoyed the fun songs & activites we would do each class. His favorite thing was popping up out of the water on the song "Pop Goes the Weasel." He also enjoyed the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and the rain falling down on his head, as well as tipping his head into  the water during "I'm a Little Teapot."

He practiced riding the horse (the long noodle thingy) in the water for balance, and riding the boat (the flat boogy board). It was really a fun class!

Here are a few pictures Daniel took of us at one of our classes.

(Pardon my extremley sunburned shoulders. Apparently the UV rays were much stronger than I thought at Toad Suck!)

Unfortunately, we did not make it to the very last class yesterday because Max was not feeling well. Poor guy! He woke up with a fever of 101 degrees and a slight cough. His pediatrician said to monitor him overnight. So that is what we did. He slept great through the night, and woke up again this morning with a 101 degree temperature. We went to see his pediatrician, Dr. Thompson with the LR Pediatric's Clinic, and he determined that Max probably caught a virus that led to croup (a condition that causes inflammation of the airways and a nasty barklike cough). He also has some fluid in both of his ears, which could be the early signs of an ear infection, so he is taking antibiotics.

Max's fever broke before we went to see Dr. Thompson, and Max seems to be handling this nasty croup as well as he can. He is in good spirits. Especially when he sees his Daddy :) I just hate that my poor baby is sick! Please pray for his speedy healing.

Farmer's Market & Toad Suck Daze

Daniel began a new rotation last weekend working nights. Boo! BUT, he has weekends off! Yay! So, we took advantage of his offtime & visited the Farmers' Market at the Rivermarket in downtown LR on Saturday. Then, we headed to Conway for Toad Suck on Sunday after church. We had such a fabulous weekend spending time together as a family. Family time is a rarity these days, so we really cherish it when we get it!

Below are some pictures from our weekend. I hope your weekend was just as great as ours!

These first (2) are from the Farmers' Market:

My two guys!

We had a fun time just walking around downtown & chatting with the farmers/vendors. Daniel found a couple of men that were selling cutting boards, so he was just smitten talking woodworking with them :) I will have to show you Daniel's cutting boards sometime.

They are really beautiful!

These are from Toad Suck. Daniel's family (originally his grandparents, now his uncle) owns Boyd's Lemonade & Funnel Cakes & they are at Toad Suck each year. We really enjoyed the lemonade on such a hot & humid day! Yum!

This is our little family in front of the Funnel Cake stand.

Max's fist taste of lemonade! He loved it! After these pictures we let him try to use the straw to get some lemonade, and he caught right on. He's such a big boy! (He now has a sippy cup that has a straw!!!)

Mommy & Max. Love this little guy!

This is Max & Mamaw.

Mamaw with all of her great-grandchildren: Elise, Eliza, & Max.

Sweet little chubby-faced Max! He was worn out by the time we left!

I hope that all of you Moms out there have the BEST Mother's Day...you definitely deserve it!