Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Max catch up

So I haven't done a monthly post on Max for a while. It's not because I haven't been taking the pictures or don't have anything to say. 

The truth is, I was in the middle of writing his 5 month post which was days after his surgery and the thought of all that he had been through was too much for me. I had to stop writing and thinking about it. I  felt so overwhelmed by life and all the changes we had been through. I spent a few months just surviving and struggling. 
That's why my blog had been so quiet. 

Then one month went to the next and it was hard to catch up. So here I am now on month 8 with 4 months to do!!!







Stats:
Right now he is in the 97th percentile for hieght at 31inches. He is in the 60th percentile for weight at 19lbs. He is wearing 9-12 month clothing and size 3 diapers. His hair is light red/blonde. Some lights it looks really red and other times it looks blonde. He has bright blue eyes. 






Sleeping:
He was probably my worst sleeper and until fairly recently was up EVERY TWO HOURS! Oh man it was so tough. We made a few important adjustments and he has been sleeping through the night for about a month. We moved his pack n play to the livig room downstairs where it is quiet at night. We have him a bedtime routine and started putting him down awake. We also let him cry for a few minutes before patting his back to help him learn to self soothe. It was tough and we had a few long nights but now we are all happier and well rested. 








Milestones:
In the last few months he has gotten 8 teeth. Four on the bottom and four on the top! He learned to sit by himself. He is now crawling and pulling up to standing! He now babbles and interacts with the family instated of being in his own world. Lol. He can find and put his binky in. He is great at finding the tiniest piece of trash or toy on the floor and putting it in his mouth. 








Food:
He was exclusively breastfed for 7 months. Then my body started slowing down on my supply. I could have done things to increase it but truthfully I was emotionally exhausted. I was just surviving. I also realized there has not been a month in the last five years when I have not been pregnant or nursing. Not one month IN FIVE YEARS. Wow. I think my body was telling me I needed a break. It was a really hard and emotional choice but I knew it was the right choice to stop nursing and to put him on formula. He did really great with it! Also around seven months we started adding solids. He was so proud of himself and loves to eat. He is still doing purées because he gags on solid chunks. He loves puffs and we just started introducing crackers which he loves! 





Personality:
He was a very needy baby for a very long time. He wanted to be held constantly. He would cry a lot during the day. It was very frazzling. I am not sure what changed but in the last few weeks he has totally turned a corner. Actually now that I think about it crawling changed. Once he learned how to crawl he became a new baby. He is so happy and content now. He let's me put him down and explores and plays. He is now an easy and content baby. He goes to other people. It is easy to make him smile and laugh. He is really sweet. 




Favorites:
He has one binky he prefers (green soothie), he loves his sleep sheep, Pierce, Crash and food. He has recently really bonded to Dan and this week has preferred him to me (say wha???). He loves being outside and going on walks. He likes his jumperoo. 




Kidney:
We had a 6 week post check up the beginning of October with the pediatric urologist. He did a sonogram of his kidney and I am happy to report it looked normal!!! The doctor was really pleased and said he considers the surgery successful. We will see him in about 6 months to do a recheck and if all is well at that appointment (which we have no reason to believe it won't be) we won't have to see him again. *HUGE SIGH OF RELIEF*


Max is a fun and sweet baby. We love him to pieces and are thankful for his sweet little life. He has taught me so much about God and myself. The last few months have been so very hard but he is worth it. So very worth it. 

Halloween

Only a month late...sheesh. Lol!

This year I needed to do something easy. No homemade costumes or super imaginative themed costumes either. I wasn't up for it. So instead I took the kids to Target and let them pick whatever they wanted. Pierce instantly picked a monkey costume. He would not be swayed by the super heroes, or any other costume. 


He really really loved this costume!

Colt saw and wanted Captian Amercia. He was adamant. Lol! The boys knew what they wanted!


When we got home and tried it on Colt very proudly says: "I so handsome!"

Saffryn had a harder time picking. Very time she picked one I would confirm that this was the costume she wanted and she would get cold feet and put it back and would try to find a better one. Lol. Finally we both decided she should go with the one she was initially interested in: Minnie Mouse. 



Max got tigger. 



The week leading up to Halloween Pierce wore his monkey costume EVERY DAY. He even wore it as pj's one night. Lol. It seriously cracked us up. 

On Halloween the kids got dressed up and we took some pictures. 




Max was NOT digging it. At all. Lol. 



We walked around our street. The kids had a blast. There were a few houses that really went all out on decorations and had a few scary ones. Saffryn was not phased in the slightest. She was too focused on the candy. Pierce was cautious but still went ahead. Colt got super scared. He his behind my legs and kept saying, "It cares me mommy. It willy carey." Lol. Poor baby. 




We came back and passed out candy and the kids had just as much fun doing that as trick or treating. It was so fun seeing the kids enjoy it this year. Pierce asks about Halloween a lot. A year wait seems too long for the monkey boy I guess. :)

Friday, November 14, 2014

Screen Porch

One of the things we loved most about our new house was the outside space! The yard and deck is so wonderful! There was a bit of an awkward space between the deck and the inside. It has nice slate tiles and is covered but didn't seem very useable. So after talking about it Dan and I decided to hire someone to screen it in and make it a screen porch. We are SO pleased with it! Here are the before pics:



So you can see the fans were old and needed to be replaced. The space was just kind of odd and not very well done. 

We found the BEST home renovators here. They had a great vision for what should be done and worked so hard on this project. Here are a few during pics:


Okay...now for the after pics!

And now furnished...



We are so happy with this space! It is so fun and cozy!!! Feel free to come over and enjoy it with us :)