Father’s Day, and a Visit from Shani

We celebrated Father’s Day last Sunday. This was actually the first Father’s Day that Jeff and Max got to spend together, as last June I was on my trip with Max to Michigan for Jeff’s first Father’s Day. Didn’t think about that when I was booking that plane ticket. We were also enjoying a visit from my cousin and dear friend Shani, and we had a great day together. Here’s Jeff and Max starting the day with a little father-son (and Froggy and Blankie) snuggle:

Later we all went out to lunch at Red Robin. Maxwell loves their grilled cheese and mandarin orange meal.

We had such a great time with Shani and the visit went way too fast as always. She just left last night and already I miss her! Here are some pictures from the week.

Max giving Shani a nose beep while Pixel looks on in the background:

Playing in his wooden cart:

Fun at the park!

One of the days when I had to work I met my mom, Shani and Max at Starbucks for a chai break. Max has decided he no longer likes eggs prepared at home, no matter how I make them, but he loves the egg from a Starbucks breakfast sandwich. You can see the sandwich taken apart and cooling in preparation for his enjoyment. See the guy in the background reading? Max kept trying to get his attention, he would wave at him, wait a few minutes, wave again, wait a few minutes, hold up Froggy for the guy to admire…sadly, the man was oblivious to the cuteness and very focused on his book.

Here’s one that Shani took at dinner one night. Max likes to have music on while he’s dining, and he loves to try to do the “Itsy Bitsy Spider” motions when that song comes on. Here’s a nice family sing-along moment:

Finally, sporting his cool shades with Mom at the park:

The fabulous Justine of J. Shelton Photography put a “sneak peek” of our Mom and Me photos on her blog. We love them and can’t wait to see more! How beautiful is that first black and white?! You can see them here

I’ll end with a physical therapy update. We had Max’s first physical therapy home visit on Friday. The therapist (Lisa) was very nice and said that Max is doing really well and has come a long way in the six weeks since he was evaluated. She doesn’t think he needs every-other-week visits at this point, we scheduled our next appointment in three weeks. Lisa said that while Max is still a bit wobbly when doing his new skills, that that is not a concern because he is still so new to doing these things. She gave us some things we can do to help Maxwell build his skills, like encouraging him to play while standing rather than sitting, holding his hands at chest level when we help him walk, and encouraging him to walk holding only one of our hands when he’s ready. One interesting thing Lisa shared was that while a lot of kids will practice and practice at a new skill and you can see them going through the process, other kids will wait until they can do it “right” to start. Max definitely seems like he’s in the latter group, which is probably one of the things contributing to his slower attainment of the gross motor skill milestones. It was great to get good news from Lisa as well as some things we can work on.

My dad and Helen arrive tonight, so Max is in for some wonderful grandparent spoiling in the week ahead!

Family Day

We had a great family day today. After a run of cool and rainy weather, this weekend was warm and sunny. Max is finally feeling better after his cold-double ear infection-throwing up illness. This morning Max and I had our “Mom and Me” photo shoot with the fabulous Justine of J. Shelton Photography
This was our third try after getting rained out twice, and the weather finally cooperated. I can’t wait to see the pictures and will share them here for sure. Justine did these mini-sessions for Father’s Day and I couldn’t pass it up. Max was apparently very excited as well, as he woke up this morning at 5am. After strutting our stuff for the camera, we went out to lunch and Max enjoyed a cheese quesadilla. Then it was home for a nap…we thought after that early morning wakeup we’d get a longer nap, but after an hour our Bug was awake and ready to go.

We had to take advantage of the gorgeous weather, so we went out for a nice long walk around the neighborhood and visited the park. Before we do the park pictures, I must introduce you to Froggy. I may have mentioned him before…our friend Eric (dad to Emmeline, who appeared in last week’s blog entry) made him for Max. Max loves Froggy and sleeps with him every night and at nap time. Today Froggy accompanied us to the park, and for the beginning of our time there, Maxwell was not at all interested in putting Froggy down. So, without further ado, Froggy:

Isn’t he cute? Max loves to play with Froggy’s tongue. Here there are in the swing together. Max is doing the sign for “please” because Jeff stopped pushing the swing so I could take a picture, and Max is requesting the pushing to commence again.

After a good round of swinging, it was time to explore other areas of the park. Max likes to walk holding both our hands, but he didn’t want to put Froggy down yet. A conundrum that he managed to overcome, no problem:

Here’s Maxwell walking between a ladder and a red pole. I think he looks like I did at his age in this picture:

Next it was off to the slide:

Then he crawled up the steps a couple times by himself, with me close behind in case he decided to suddenly stand up and then sit down in the air, as has been known to happen:

Enjoying the view from the top:

Time for a snack break. Mmmm, mandarin oranges…

Max loves the park. It’s hard to leave a place you love, even when Mom and Dad promise you’ll be back soon. Here’s his reaction when it was time to go:

Parting is such sweet sorrow. See you soon, park. Thanks for a great afternoon!

Home Again

I’m still here! What with being out of town over Memorial weekend and following that with a busy weekend, I have been a blogging slacker for a couple weeks. My apologies. I’m happy to report that everyone survived my trip away very well. Of course we knew going in it would be harder by far for me; Max had a great time with Daddy and Oma as expected. I missed my boys a lot but knew they were very well off in each others’ hands, and I had a great time at Jessica and Wes’ wedding in Ohio. It was hot and humid, as Ohio can be this time of year, but the setting was absolutely beautiful and there wasn’t a drop of rain on their wedding day. It was so special to be a part of it and the time went by so fast.

Poor Max got his second double ear infection last week. That probably contributed to his poor nighttime sleeping the past few weeks, combined with teething and his earlier stomach bug. After a good six months of solid nighttime sleeping, we must have been getting too complacent, because the past few weeks have had multiple nighttime wakeups each night. Thankfully the past three nights he has slept all through the night (please don’t let me be jinxing myself by writing that!). Jeff and I both suffered from ear infections as kids; I was hoping perhaps Max would escape that fate but so far no such luck.

In happier Max news, he continues to learn new things and amaze us with his cuteness. One of the therapists from the Early Intervention program came out on Tuesday so we could write the goals for Max’s physical therapy. We set goals of crawling further distances, climbing stairs, standing independently and walking. Wouldn’t you know it, Wednesday morning he starts climbing the stairs. Check that one off the list! His crawling is much refined from the video I posted last time. He’s also a pro at pulling himself to standing and creeping sideways while holding onto something. He also likes to walk holding our hands. He’s started to do a couple more signs and now consistently signs: More, All Done, Please, Bath and Milk. He also does the “round and round” motion for “The Wheels on the Bus” and attempts to do the Itsy Bitsy Spider motion with his fingers. So cute! He’s also very in tune with what we say and do. If one of us coughs or hiccups, he will do a fake cough or hiccup in return. When I took him to the pediatrician Thursday, I was telling her his symptoms and I said something about having her check his ears, and right away he reached up to touch them.

Here are some random pictures from the past couple of weeks. I forgot to change my camera’s white balance on the indoor ones, so they’re a little yellow. I think the cuteness still shines through.

We have some friends who have little girl just a couple months older than Max. It is so fun to see the two of them together. On Monday I went over to their house for a play date and some lunch. While my friend Angel was fixing our lunch, the kids played in the kitchen. Here’s Max looking a bit concerned that Emmeline is holding the salad spinner over her head:

Then he decided he should help her pull it off:

Here’s Max holding a big spoon during dinner. He was enjoying some asparagus:

And a couple cute ones from the playground, first with Oma:

And enjoying the sunshine after many days of rain: