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: