He cut his top tooth!

Yay! Max cut his upper left incisor...finally. This morning he has been very happy. Here are two videos. The one where he's talking I took yesterday. The other one was taken this morning. I love my little boy!

Monkey Max

Max and Dad Sleeping

Max wrestling his blanket

Just being cute....he's so dang good at it!

Peek-a-boo under the walker

Mimi and Shane came down on Thursday. It was so nice to have them here. My mom and I were able to get a lot of cleaning done. Max now has his room to himself. It was being used as storage also, but now that he is so mobile he needs the space. Although I am still using his closet for storage. On Saturday night the whole family went to "Sea no Evil" an art show here in Riverside. I was really excited because Matt Costa was playing. Brett came up that day also. The show was really cool, unfortunately Matt Costa did not play until 10:00 pm. That was a little too late for Max so we missed his performance. Oh well.


Gilda got here yesterday morning. Max has been having a lot of fun with her. Max is now able to stand on his own and can take a few wobbly steps before falling. Yesterday he fell against the leg of our dinning room chairs and scraped/bruised his nose a bit. He loves to play peek-a-boo and roll around wrestling his blankets. I just love him so much! Jared has been working a lot and we miss him. Max gets so excited when Jared comes home. As soon as the door opens and Max sees his dad it's a mad scramble to the door. Jared has to go to Needles tomorrow so it will be a long day of driving for him, hopefully the new car will make the drive less tortuous.

Max - 0, Chair - 1

Cuatro de Julio...

Max loves to look up hot babes with Uncle Brett!

We went to Devin and Jills for the 4th and 5th of July. It was very fun. Moorpark does their firework show on the 3rd so we didn't see any, but that's okay Max isn't a fan of loud noises. Cousin Olivia had a lemonade stand on the 4th and was selling lemonade at a whopping $0.25 for a small and $0.50 for a large. She made $21.00; lots of people just gave her money because she was cute. Max had fun with all of the cousins; we went swimming, played games and ate good food. I loved the s'mores. On Saturday Denise, Bekah and Tim came down. Jill, Mom and I went garage sale hopping before they got there. I got a baby gate for 5 bucks and Rummikub. We had fun with the cousins. It was sad to have to leave, but we had to teach our Valiant's on Sunday.

This week Max has been a little fussy, his top two teeth still haven't come in yet. But they're close you can see the white through his gums. His naps are getting more regular. I ended up doing a modified "cry it out" for him. Now when he is sleepy during the day if he hasn't eaten for a while I try to give him a bottle. If he refuses that then I just put him in his crib. He cries for about 3 minutes and then settles and goes to sleep. At night time C.I.O. is less effective. So once he has had a bottle, I will lay him down on my bed with me and he is usually out within 5 minutes. The funny thing is it has to be dark, quiet and no cuddling...Max is not a cuddler. Mom and Shane are coming tomorrow. We are happy to have company. Oh I almost forgot. We got a new car...a Yaris for Jared to drive since we are getting rid of my truck in a couple weeks. Jared really likes it and it gets great m.p.g. I was really bad at taking pictures over the weekend, but we did manage to get one of Max playing gameboy.

Monterey

Max's imitation of "The Knockers" from Labyrinth

He was blowing so many spit bubbles he grew a spit goatee!

Jared and I had a most lovely time in Monterey. Mimi and Brett came and picked Max up on Thursday night. Jared and I went to dinner and a movie. We flew out Friday morning and went to the aquarium that day. The aquarium was awesome! I can't wait 'till Max is old enough to go. I especially liked the large open water tanks. My favorite fish was the sturgeon; it is so big and prehistoric looking. The sturgeon made me think of Hayley since it is her medicine wheel animal (or so we found out in Sedona). I really wanted to get Max a stuffed sea otter from the museum, but the only baby friendly one looked like a bear.

Jared and I in front of the hotel waiting for a cab

The view from our room

On Saturday I lounged around on the beach reading "The Host". Our hotel was right on the beach and our room face the ocean, we could hear the waves all night; I loved it. I saw lots of babies and I was missing the Mutz (Max). We went to this Beni Hana style restaurant called Saporo, which was fabulous. We flew back on Sunday. It was a nice relaxing weekend. Funny though, how weird it was to not be chasing the Mutz around. I came back refreshed and a good thing because he is especially grouchy. I think his top teeth are finally coming in.

Magic Hands

Father's Day!

Max and Dad on Father's Day

A Genuine Max Meltdown

So I was going to update yesterday, but Maximus decided he did not want to take naps. Father's Day was wonderful! We woke up and made Jared breakfast...it was yummy. At church they did pie for the dads, luckily they had way too much so we got to eat some too. We got Jared a video game for Playstation 3 - MetalGearSolid3 (or something to that effect). He really likes the game. In the evening we went to Cesar and Lindy's for tostadas. I rode in the back seat on the way home to keep Max awake. If he falls asleep in the car then he will be up for hours. We had a lovely Father's Day - we are so grateful for Jared and all he does to provide, lead and protect our family. I love watching him with Max; it just melts my heart. Now that Max is crawling, I love it when Jared comes home and Max crawls over to Jared's feet, ready to be picked up and played with.

Max and Dad Eating Strawberries

On Saturday we went over to Jared's boss' house for a pool party/bbq. I was very nice. Max enjoyed the pool as the water was warmer than Sedona. Brett came over for a few days last week. We had a fun time with him. He went with Max and I on a walk with some moms from our playgroup. The other mom's children absolutely loved Brett...he has mad skills so I understand completely. Mimi and Brett are going to watch Max this weekend while Jared and I go to Monterey, hopefully he will behave himself for them. Here is a video I took last week of Max whining but then becoming distracted by his magical hands.

Back to the grind

I've been meaning to update, but I've been feeling lazy. Sedona was a blast! It was a little overwhelming at first, because I was used to all of Jared's help in the evenings. But after a few days I got the hang of it. Max did well flying there and back, no tantrums, just a lot of busyness. He was always moving, standing on my lap, looking out the window, looking behind us. On the way there we hit a little turbulence and he laughed...I felt sick and just tried to keep myself from throwing up (don't worry, everything stayed down). The one hour flight was long enough for me, kudos to those who fly international with youngins (Linds).

We went hiking to Devil's Bridge on Sunday. It was like a million degrees out or maybe it was 90 degrees; same diff, right? Hayley and I were the only ones who made it across the bridge. Max threw up on Shane like three times that day. Oh we also went swimming, a first for Max. He was not a fan of the cold water.

The rest of the week was fabulous. We hiked Oak Creek Canyon on Moday. Went to Jerome, Montezuma's Castle and Well on Tues. And finished with slide rock on Wed. All the while Max chilled in his Ergo. I still love the Ergo;,best investment yet! Max decided he like to eat big people food on the trip like fries, cantaloupe and ice cream. I must say the ice cream was a bad idea, I have created a monster. Whenever Jared or I are eating it he whines and screams until he gets some and then he's like a baby bird. We have to keep his mouth filled with it to get him to be quiet. Here is the link to see the Sedona pics: http://s281.photobucket.com/albums/kk231/rachony/Sedona%202008/

Another thing Max encountered on the trip were cats. Max loves him some kitty cats. He would crawl all over trying to get Tucker and get totally excited and spazy when he got close. We flew back on Fri. afternoon. We had a great trip and loved spending time with family; although, we both missed Jared very much. Max was very excited to see him at the airport. We've just been trying to get back into the swing of things. Brett is going to come over Wed-Fri and we are happy to have him stay with us. Max is still a busy body, he is crawling everywhere and is starting to use his walker.

Btw I found these really cute blankets called Woobees that you can tie onto your carrier/stroller/car seat. I'm thinking of getting one. Has anyone ever heard of them?