Maximilian 4 years

Weight: 33 pounds 15.2 ounces (30.81%)
Height: 39.37 inches (27.34%)


I can't believe my first baby turned four. He is my snuggly boy.
This year, he went to preschool and really excelled. He has been reading since Christmastime. Like, actually reading. One of the first books he read was Go, Dog, Go. He reads to himself, reads to others, and still wants some stories read to him. Now, he knows how to spell a lot of words and can even spell some based on saying them.
He loves to ride his bike, especially to the park. He likes swimming, but does not like being sprayed with water.
He is adjusting to his big brother role really well. He loves to hold his baby bro. He also sings to him "I will protect you" and other cute little songs he makes up. A couple times he has said something about him going back in mommy's tummy now. I think he has felt a little left out because mom is unavailable or shared a lot of the time while I'm feeding the baby. All in all, though, he is doing well.
He still loves his Halley Bean. Sometimes when he's upset he'll cry "I miss my sissyyyyy." A little cute, but annoying :).
He has said he wants to be a singer when he grows up. At least, he did a few months ago when he had a project about himself for preschool. He does love to sing and dance.
He loooooves Grammy. She spoils him with her undivided attention and with letting him get away with murder. He goes to her place for the weekend once every month or two.
He is mom's little helper. We put the dishes away out of the dishwasher together. He also feeds the dog and cat. He needs encouragement and continual redirection when it comes to picking up, though.
He loves to go places and gets stir crazy just like his mother does.
Dad took him to get his first professional haircut a couple months ago. He sat well for it.

1 month old!

Miles is one month old! I don't even know where the past month has gone. Mr. Miles, or Mr. Smiles as we sometimes call him, is a little snuggler. He loves to eat and today probably spent more time eating than he spent not eating. Last time he was weighed he was 10 pounds 2.2 ounces on July 8. We got off to a slow start with breastfeeding because he got a cold a few days after coming home and was sick for 2 weeks.
He is not a fan of being put down.
He likes to furrow his brow when he's looking around. He's smiled quite a few times in the past few days... possibly gas related.
Speaking of gas, he does get fussy sometimes when he's gassy.
I love his hair. He has a natural faux hawk. I think he looks almost exactly like Max did except Max's hair laid down. Miles' hair sticks up on top no matter how you comb it.

I put him in the crib tonight for the first time. It was 10:30 when he went down and 11:37 now, so I think it's going okay.
He doesn't seem to mind tummy time too much. He is really good at holding his head up when being held, and does not like to be held horizontally unless being fed.

Crabby shark

Trick or treating last night was... something. We dressed Max up as a shark, since he still fit in the costume from last year. We drove into town, parked, and decided to try to let him walk with us. He just wanted to run! By himself! Without holding hands! Onto the road!... Yeah, no. AJ took him up to one of the houses, and Max picked up a piece of candy, put it back in the bowl, then took a piece of the candy from his bucket and put that in the bowl, too. It was cute. And then, he tried to run away from us, so I picked him up. And he screamed. And screamed. Then we decided to go home. As we were walking back to the car, he screamed the whole time. Like 10 minutes of screaming and bucking while we carried him. AJ thought maybe his costume was bugging him, so I set him down to try to adjust it. Well, the second I set him down he stopped crying and started running. So... we strapped him in his carseat and booked it home with him still screaming in the back seat. It was the worst fit he has ever thrown. Fast forward to tonight when I was playing with him before bed. I noticed a little white speck towards the back of his mouth. I thought maybe he was chewing on something, but lo and behold... he got his 7th shark tooth! It was the 1st molar on the top right.

6th tooth!

We noticed Max's 6th tooth 2 days ago! It's on top, to the left of the middle two.
Also, I've been trying to work with him about saying "please" when he wants something. He is getting the hang of it! He will say please when we tell him to when he starts whining. I am hoping that he learns that "please" is a good alternative to whining!

15 months

Words: shoes (just started that today!), mama, dada, book, ball, bear, baby, boat, bowl, hi, and sometimes will say something like "Halley" when we ask you to. You have yet to say it without prompting, though.

Sleep: usually 8-6. You are not one for sleeping in. You are in between 1-2 naps.

Teeth: still 5 (top 2, bottom 3). You're getting better about letting me brush your teeth.

Eating: you will generally eat anything we put in front of you. We do need to work on utensil use, but I'm in no hurry! You have slowed down on your weight gain again, so we do need to up your calorie count more.

Reading: you still love your books! Grammy brought a whole bunch of books that were mine when I was little. As we go through them, it is apparent which books you enjoy and which ones you don't. If it's a book you don't like, you will push it closed after about the first page. Your favorite book right now is The Hair Book by Dr. Seuss. You bring it to us, and if we do not take it right away, you'll throw it at us. When we read your counting books, we point to each number. Now when we do this, if I don't point, you will use my finger to point at each number.

We have a magna-doodle (or doodle pro? not sure what the exact name is anymore) and you will "write" on it.

Potty: We usually set you on the potty about once a day, and you usually will go pee on it! This has created a whole new awareness of your penis. If we don't have a onesie or one piece jammies on you, you will have your hand in your diaper or pull your penis out of your diaper. One morning, I came into your room to find that you standing up with you holding your penis (outside of your diaper) and you had peed all over your crib! Ahhh the joys! :)

New actions: you started "jumping!" A couple weeks ago, I was lifting you up and down, and I said, "you're jumping!" After that, you'll walk around, stop, then stand up on your tippy toes! You'll also do it if we say "jump." You're so proud of yourself!

When Grammy was here, you started having a bigger interest in pop/water bottles. You will unscrew the cap, then screw it back on. You get upset if you screw it on too tight to where you can't loosen it again.

Something you've been doing for a while now (much to your mother's displeasure) is going into your room and pulling every. single. item. of clothing out of your drawers.

The cutest thing: you will get your bear that Halley gave you or my old teddy bear and will hug the bear! Then you will bring the bear to me to hug, then you hug me and the bear. You are such a little lover boy. You will also get one of your sister's baby dolls and hug the baby or bring the "baybaybaybayby" to me.

You have been really into your blocks the past couple weeks, and now will put them into the right shaped holes! You will spend at least 15 minutes at a time doing this.

NurseMom gets healthy(ier)

Ughhhh the scale. That damned scale. In April of this year, I bought a scale and weighed myself.  The blaring red numbers showed 250. Two hundred fifty pounds. The last time I had weighed myself was fall 2011, a couple months after Max was born, and I was at approximately 236.

In my defense, in the last year I had given birth, said goodbye to 2 of my grandparents, had the 5 year anniversary of my dad's death, lost my job of 3 years, and moved across the state.

Today, I am at 237. Last week I was at 235, but I had a bad weekend of bad food and no exercise. It has taken me 5 months to lose 13 pounds. It's better than nothing, I suppose, but definitely not what I had hoped. I have been slowly trying to change habits, and it does seem to be working.

Goals for this week:
1. No eating after 7pm. I had been doing well the past couple months, but the last week I have been snacking late night.
2. Go for a jalk(jog/walk) or bike ride 5 days per week. Sunday, yesterday, and today I have jalked. Yesterday's was pretty short, so I tried to make up for it today.
3. Limit soda to 2 per day. I have been failing at this. Bad.
4. No eating out. Since we moved, we really only eat out or get fast food once every couple of weeks. Except when I'm at work and am really wanting Sub.way. I need to break that habit. I've limited it to once a week or so, but my belt and wallet would do better if I just skipped it. The sandwich itself isn't what gets me, but I always get cookies. They call to me!

A reasonable set of goals, I think. I will check in this weekend to update on how I did.

14 months

You are 14 months old today! It's crazy how much you have developed into your own little person.

You say ball, book, bear, hi, mama, dada, "bum" (for bumblebee). You repeat some things when we ask you to, and you've even said something like "Halley" when we asked you to this weekend!

You are a full time walker, and have been for over a month. Just a couple days ago you started spinning! It is so cute. You'll be walking and all of a sudden you'll just pivot. So funny. You also are very into dancing, which consists of some combination of stomping your feet, shaking your arms, and swinging your head around. I love it.

You are great at giving hugs now, too!

When you are asked, "how big are you?" You put both arms straight up in the air and we say, "so big!" Grammy taught you that when you visited her last month.

You know which button turns dad's Xbox on, and you have for at least a couple months now.

You sleep from 8 or a little after to 6-7 now and it's so wonderful! You even slept well when you and I went to Auntie Mallory's house last week. You don't fall asleep very well (if at all) if not in your bed, though. When you were sick 2 weeks ago, we brought you in to our bed and you won't settle down, really. You climbed on us and kept pretty much scooching around.

You can point to your ears, our ears, nose and mouth, and can show your tongue when asked. If you're sitting on one of our laps, usually you will just start touching one ear, then the other, then nose, mouth and eyes. You're so smart! (I will shamelessly brag about you lol).

You love love love books. Every night at around 7, you go over and start looking at your books. Then you bring one over to me, and if I'm sitting on the ground, proceed to turn around and plop down in my lap. It melts my heart, and I love that you seem to enjoy books as much as I do.

You still have just the 5 teeth. Top middle 2, bottom middle 2, and the 1 next to the middle bottoms on your left.

You're coming in at about 20.6 lbs according to our home scale. We need to make a doctor's appointment for next month to have you weighed again.

You eat anything and everything we put in front of you. You've been liking cut up grapes a lot recently.

We went swimming last month and you really enjoyed it this time! You wanted to walk around in the water, or have us hold you up so you could kick your feet! You were so proud of your "swimming."

All in all, I can't even begin to express how much I enjoy being your mother. You are such a blessing. I love to sneak into your room when you're sleeping to steal you from your crib and rock you. You are such a lovey boy. I never imagined that I would like this age so much more than I adored the newborn/little baby stage. Just thinking about you growing up makes my heart ache. You will always, always be my baby, though, no matter how toddler/big boy/teenager/adult-ish you become!