Lots of new skills

All of our efforts to keep Max stair-ignorant were lost when my mom put him on the stairs intentionally for fun. Luckily he has also been busy learning how to get down from the couch and a few stairs. Of course he gets it right more and more of the time, but has his occasional spills so we keep a close eye on him. Watch carefully for the expression on his face when his foot hits the stair below him!

Here are a few things he can now do on the eve of his 11 month birthday: go up stairs, go down 1 stair, get down from the couch, turn while walking, feel his own tooth (with his fingers or his tongue), stick out his tongue, wave bye-bye, walk a long ways (but isn't "running" yet) pretty fast with short steps, step sideways, open drawers (after watching mommy put away a remote! big mistake to do that right in front of him), take things out of containers, drop balls & go after them, bang pretty much whatever his has in his hands together, get into & out of his radio flyer car, open & close the door to his radio flyer car and lastly will sit down in his radio flyer car when we scold him for standing up in it.

Look what I taught Max!

 

Course there is no proof that it was me...so years from now everyone will blame it on dad!

Lunch with the cousins

Last week, Max got to hang out with my cousin Noelle...

 

 

On Christmas Eve, he got to hang out with his 2nd cousin and her family. So this year we almost got to see just as much family as a trip to Cali!

Santa found it!

 

Santa brought Max the school bus! Rumor has it that he got some help from craigslist in finding a used one, but Max doesn't seem to care and has been having quite a ball with it. On Christmas day, Max surprised us by taking things out of a gift bag...the first time for doing something like that. He also got quite a few cute new outfits, so he's going to be quite stylish this year thanks to all of his friends and family. We got Max a toy remote which he loves.

Old friends

 

In Seattle we got to visit with some friends that we've known for a long time (not the other kind of old)!

All dressed up

 

So sorry for the delay in posting - we made it to Seattle and back with only 1 flight cancellation due to snow in Las Vegas (our connection on the way there). Thankfully, even with all the snow & ice in Seattle we did make it back in one piece.

Merry Christmas!

 

Home!

We made it back to Raleigh ~2hrs late, but back to clear roads & our
own beds! Yay, we are definitely grateful!

Sent from my iPhone

Coming home

Off through Chicago

We'll the flight is ~25 min late now, but we're on the plane waiting
to push back. Keeping our fingers crossed, folks are stuck here til
Xmas or later, so def want to get out of Seattle.

Sent from my iPhone

More snow in Seattle

This is a picture of the snow last nigt. Max had a low fever
yesterday, but luckily the Tylenol helped. We are headed to Wei Yan's
uncle's place today to spend the night right next to the airport.

Seattle

Well, we finally made it. A few delays & I think our 2nd leg was 30
min on the tarmac before & after the flight. No car since the roads
were bad enough that we did not make it to Wei Yan's uncle's place,
but max slept a whole lot so all is good. Extra yay for him not
throwing up on either of us! :-)

Sent from my iPhone

We're in phoenix

We got re-booked today & even though the flight was overbooked we got
on with no problems. Flight from phoenix to Seattle is not full, so
hopefully we can bring the car seat. I unfortunately cannot sleep on
planes as well as the boys can!

Snowing in vegas!

We're in line to re-book our flights. Sothwest airline's lines are
busy, and we're tired from staying up late packing. Max learned to
drink a little water from a sports bottle though (he won't drink water
from a zippy cup or bottle), so guess one good thing came of it.

Getting ready for a trip!

Well, Max's snow suit is washed. His snow shoes were in INDIANAPOLIS, IN this morning at 4am, and shipping status still says they will be here by 3pm today - so I'm crossing my fingers that they will arrive in time & fit. I'm excited and anxious about our first trip cross country since Max has become mobile (last time he was just learning to push up & rock back & forth) and that we will all be able to see some snow (first for Max). We're headed through Vegas tonight, but on the way back we're going through Chicago, so let's keep our fingers crossed. Overall the next 5 days will be COLD! :-)

In Seattle we'll be going to a wedding (I'm a bridesmaid in the wedding), seeing cousins (both mine & Wei Yan's) and aunts/uncles and hopefully getting a full out break from work (leaving town works so much better than being in town). So we'll be checking in, but hoping for smooth and safe travels!

More walking & tickle

His balance is getting better and every day it seems he can walk a little farther.

First tooth!

Oh, and I think his first tooth has just broken the surface or is about to. He really doesn't like us poking around in his mouth (and as his pediatrician said when trying to use a stethoscope on him "he has really good defense moves") so we'll keep trying to look and feel for that first tooth!

More laughter

Max is a little ticklish and also learning how to anticipate things that are going to happen.

One step, two step....

Max is doing well with the walking, although it hasn't been as everyone has said - that he'll go straight to running. He will take somewhere between 3 to 8-9 steps before he loses his balance, so I think this is just going to be a gradual process. He will push is push toy & then just pick it up & change directions when he wants. And attempt to get him "motivated" to walk don't work, because he gets too excited & falls down since he's not concentrating on walking. But here is a little clip of his progress so far.

Stockings

 

Thanks to Pottery Barn kids, we all have new stockings this year! They are much bigger than I expected them to be (I didn't pay attention to measurements on the website) but the quilting is really cute and the detail is great (I love the reindeer tail on mine). :-) Now we just have to wait for Santa to fill them!

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

 

Introducing our fake Christmas tree for those years where we just don't have it in us to do the whole live tree deal. I'm giving myself a backup plan to give myself a break from all the holiday stress this year or for future years. This year is one of those since we will be traveling right before the holidays for our friend's wedding (some stress this year, but more just trying not to come home to a decorated dead Christmas tree 3 days before Christmas).


I always have a bit of a sentimental place in my heart for Christmas ornaments. My grandmother and aunts always had lots of handmade ornaments and ornaments with sentimental value on the tree each year while I was growing up. So these first few years might be a bit sparse, but I'm looking forward to building up my collection of memories. :-) Don't get me wrong, we will have some ornaments that don't have sentimental value....cuteness & some fun are always in order.

Bye!

Oh, and today was the first time that Max waved on his own! Wei Yan was leaving after dropping him off at day care, and he waved! Course we've been getting him started and every once in a while he'd continue waving after we let go of his arm, but today was the first time he really waved and we recognized it as such.

Santa

 

Long story short, we found ourselves at U-Mall in Chapel Hill on Black Friday (or as Target calls it "Thanksgiving Friday".) Luckily it was pretty dead except for Southern Season which was busy but not crazy. The mall was so dead in fact, that there was no line for Santa and Max was handed to Santa without him seeing the stranger, so we got a half smile out of him before he turned around to figure out who was holding him!

Thanksgiving with the family

My mom and brother came to visit from California, so they both got to spend time with Max over the long weekend.

 

 

Max's Christmas gift from grandma, complete with the license plate that she gave him on her first visit!

 

And with Uncle Ryan who is passing along his love of superman!

 

Visiting with friends

Holidays this year was a time to catch up with some old friends who were home for the holidays. We got to see a lot of old friends this Thanksgiving weekend.

Wei Yan's high school and college roomate & his family:

 

Max got to visit with one of Wei Yan's high school friend's daughter Sarah:

 

A shot of Max showing off his new habit of laying down when he gets tired but still wants to play:

 

And finally getting a taste of what it will be like growing up with lots of little boys to play with.

 

Silly grin...

 

Our friends gave us this little push toy for Max. He practically picks it up & puts it down in a new direction when he hits a corner & needs to turn, but he enjoys running around with it.

Pic taken: Nov 19th

Baby steps

So yesterday, Max's day care teacher said that Max was standing & picking up his left foot. She said that he's going to start walking really soon. Last night, Max took 2 tiny steps toward Wei Yan. They looked like a little stutter step, but guess it counts. There was forward motion & picking up & putting down of both feet, so we were excited. Then today, another teacher was filling in for his regular teacher and she said he took a step toward the exersaucer! :-) Go little Max!

Stand up

A week and a half ago, Max decided to stand up by himself. Oh my, we are behind on our postings...

9 Months Old

Max turned 9 months old this past week. I thought I'd share some of what he is up to these days:
* His hair pretty much only sticks up only when we give him a bath & got the suds going. Otherwise, it's been months since it's stuck up or even done anything other than lay flat. We miss his "crazy hair"
* Stranger Anxiety - seems to be worse with men than women (all the day care folks are ladies so this makes sense) that he does know. When he's tired it's worse and he gets very clingy with mom & dad when he's cranky. And he's also often scared by loud or sudden noises. He usually warms up to folks after a while, especially if they make silly faces & noises with him.
* No longer likes to shake his head no, instead he seems to be trying to nod "yes" but it looks more like a whole upper body dance move. All just for fun, no connection to the meaning just yet. He will go through a few days at a time where he's practice a new move like touchdown or the sign for more - but again, no connection to the meaning and then they are gone after a few days.
* Scoots around the coffee table and along the couches a little. We noticed he will occasionally crawl on his knees or 1 knee on carpet, but uses the spiderman for speed or on hardwoods/linoleum. Can stand for a good while by himself and even does some squats to everyone's amusement.
* At his 9 month appointment: 18 lbs 14 oz and 28 1/4 inches tall! Time for the new car seat soon! (Ours goes up to 29 inches)

Early voting

So Saturday we tried to go vote. Yes, I said tried. Max fell asleep in the car on the way over to the polling place and when we got in line we were informed that the line was about 1 hr & 45 minutes. After a few hemming & hawing, I decided that 1 hr & 45 min with the baby was not going to happen - and that although I would rather go ahead & vote, missing work on Tuesday & waiting in line without the baby would be a much better wait. All in all, I guess it worked out since I did end up doing research last night & deciding on who to vote for. All but 2 of the candidates I decided to vote for were endorsed by the Indy Weekly, so probably didn't matter all that much, but at least I feel like I did a bit of due diligence.

Last one, I promise!

So I think this might be our favorite Halloween pic. ;-)

 

A few more good halloween pics

 

 

 

Halloween 2008

 

 

 

 

We sent Max to day care this morning with his Elvis costume. His teacher made sure to show him around to everyone since I was picking him up before the costume parade at the end of the day. I picked him up at 3pm, and Max came to work for our annual Halloween celebration. He ended up winning the kids costume contest (Go Max!) Elvis was a big hit! Later that evening, Max was pretty over stimulated with all the activity, so no 2nd nap, but he had some fun crawling around the house in his spiderman costume & saying hello to the neighbors and Auntie CC. There were a LOT of spiderman costumes, but I think the best part was us "awwwing" at some of the cute tricker treaters, they were "awwwing" at Max who kept crawling over to check out our vistors. Well, I'm pooped! Adjusting his costumes last night and finishing carving the pumpkin at 6pm! I must need deadlines, huh?

Pumpkin picking field trip

Today we went at lunch to take Max on a little field trip. Across the street from his day care is a small farm. We picked out a pumpkin for him, but he hadn't taken his nap yet & he wasn't too interested. In fact, he was a bit wary of the large orange things, and when I took him to visit a blow up scarecrow, he gave me a big hug and was definitely scared of it. So, his little field trip ended up being about 15min as we decided it was best to just go ahead & get him out of the cold & back to his day care crib for a nap.

 

 

 

 

Oh, and picasa screwed up & deleted the pictures (our NAS is a bit flaky) - so after pouting & searching all the temp directories I could think of, I found a site that pointed me to a program that could retrieve the pictures off my SD card so long as I hadn't written much to it after picasa deleted everything off of it. The evening just got better from there!