Maxers is 4 months old!

Another month has flown by. Max is getting cuter and chunkier by the day! His current stats:

17 lbs 14 oz

25 1/2 inches

Rolls, rolls and more rolls!

Brown hair that still stands up straight

Blueish, greenish, brownish eyes

No teeth yet

Max means business. There is a time for play and a time for seriousness. Most times, it's seriousness. But, when he is playing, he's too cute. He is a very sweet, chilled out baby. We've almost got him laughing a couple of times.

He always smiles when: Brad talks to him, he sees the girls, we lay him down to go to sleep (you can see it behind his paci, so cute) and we sing to him.

He is always mad when: we change his clothes, stop in the car, burp him during a feeding or wait too long for a nap.

This picture cracks me up. This is SO our everyday right now. The girls cannot get enough of Max. I'm sure sometimes, he has had enough of them (like this moment)! Mallory is all about the kisses...every inch of exposed skin. Morgan likes to move him. As in, grabbing him by the ankles and dragging him around the floor. Yikes.

We have found our hands! Max has some part of his hand, or the whole fist, in his mouth the majority of the day. This started more when we "ferberized" him. So far, he doesn't have a preference. We'll see if he turns into a thumb sucker like his sister.

The kid loves TV. He immediately turns to it when it's on. He'll sit in his bouncy chair for an entire Praise Baby DVD. I'm not sure that is a good trait. But, unfortunately, the TV is on in the morning and afternoon at our house. It is good for his head problem (flat spot behind the right ear). I usually put him down so he will turn his head to the left...whatever it takes to (hopefully) keep the cranial band away!

Max loves his tummy time! I don't remember either girl hating it or loving it. But, Max will stay on his tummy for a long time, just watching all of us running around. Again, this is great for his flat spot. The girls now know to put toys on his left side and to sit on his left side to talk to him. I have to time it right or else we end up with a pile of spit up.

We hit a big milestone in the sleep department a couple of weeks ago. He had been doing great during June and July, going about 6 hours at night. And then, all of a sudden, started waking every 1-3 hours for his paci or to eat. The timing was perfect while the girls went to my parent's house, so we "ferberized" him. That kid has some lungs on him! Brad and I both had flashbacks of Mallory as an infant:) But, it only took three nights of crying it out and now he's sleeping 10ish hours straight. I feed him around 8 and then he's up for the day, between 6 and 7.

Each month just gets better and better with our little buddy! We're so thankful for a go-with-the-flow baby. With kindergarten and soccer season starting at the same time, he kind of has to be:)

For some reason, when I publish my posts, my spaces between paragraphs disappear. This is annoying and makes it really difficult to read. My apologies:)

Not the way we thought it would be

I think we may have to have a re-do of the first week of school for Miss Mallory. Poor girl hasn't been back to kindergarten since the first day! I knew she might have some sick days, but four in the first week is crazy!!

A little history about our first born. She's been having vertigo (waking in the middle of the night saying her bed is spinning) and headaches every three months for almost two years. Last summer, we saw an ENT doctor. She had a hearing test done (passed), a thorough exam (passed all the balance, inner ear tests) and we basically left, not knowing why this was happening. Over the past year, we've really noticed a trend with her vertigo, or "spinning" episodes. They come every three months, in the middle of the night and watching TV helps with the spinning/pain. Weird. Not your typical, lights out in a dark room, migraine. Since December, she's actually pinpointed the pain to the back of the head.

So, when August came, we kind of joked that it was time for one of her episodes, hoping to get it over with before school started. Sure enough, Tuesday around 1am, she woke up with a horrible headache and vomited. We layed out a pallet on the floor in the living room and did our usual...Netflix for several hours. She usually falls asleep for a couple of hours and then is totally fine for the rest of the day. This time, however, she woke up grabbing her head and screaming in pain. She also vomited again. For the remainder of the day, she had episodes like this. By dinner, she seemed a little better. She ate a sandwich and did her normal bedtime routine. Around 8:30, I peeked in on the girls. Mallory was sitting up in bed and then started with an episode. I picked her up and brought her into the living room. She promptly vomited all over me and her. I emailed our pedi and so began our night of fun.

Our pedi called in Phenergan. I gave her a dose around 10:30. She fell asleep about an hour later, but still woke with episodes of pain/vomiting. By 1am, she had nothing left in her tummy, but was still vomiting mucous, with blood in it. After a call to the ER, we knew that is where we needed to head. My very sweet friend, who happens to be my neighbor, came over at 2am to stay with Morgan and Max while they slept. Brad and I took Mallory to the ER.

We went right back to a room, saw a couple of doctors and told Mallory's history probably three different times. Through all of this, she was very drowsy from the Phenergan, but still waking with her episodes. She had a CT scan of her head, an IV, blood drawn and Zofran for the nausea. Everything came back normal (so, so grateful for that!) and the Zofran stopped the nausea and let her sleep. We were discharged home around 6am. She slept until 9 and then spiked a fever of 101.7. I emailed our pedi again and we determined it's probably a virus that triggered her headache episodes, and intensified it.

So, here we are on day #3. The nausea and vomiting are gone. She still has fever and a small headache...nothing like what was going on, thankfully! When I called the school office this morning, I didn't even have to give our last name, they immediately recognized her name, and said that they have had lots of kids out for the same virus. We are hoping she can go back on Monday. And, we're waiting for a referral to a pediatric neurologist.

It's been so weird having her home this week. I emotionally prepared myself for her to be gone, so to have her home (and sick) is so strange already. I'm bummed for her to miss all the fun stuff during the first week of kindergarten and missing out on getting to know little friends. I think Mallory's a little bummed, too. Tuesday morning, she asked, in a really sad voice, if I could call her teacher and tell her she was sick. Then, later she said, "I wonder what my friends in kindergarten are doing right now."

So, the first week of kindergarten didn't go exactly as we imagined. We're ready to be in a school routine and for Mallory to have some fun!

Her first first day of school

Well, we all survived Mallory's first day of Kindergarten. There were no real tears shed by any of us, and she wants to go back tomorrow. I'd say that's a successful first day!

Everyone was up and at it by 6:30 this morning. Mallory picked out her outfit, a teal ruffle dress. She also picked out my outfit. I was wearing this shirt the other day and she asked if I'd wear it on her first day of school. Great. She already is embarrassed by her mother, at the ripe age of five....or, she just has a thing for ruffles.

The five of us made it out the door (and completely ready) with some time to snap a few pictures. Our neighbor, Claire, started 1st grade this morning. She gave Mallory some pointers for posing.

Brad and I took two cars this morning, since I was staying for the "boo hoo breakfast". He was a little behind me and wasn't sure where to park the car. So, naturally, he called me on his cell phone. In the school zone. Right by an over-eager motorcycle cop. And promptly got pulled over and ticketed on the first day of school. With Mallory in the backseat! It changed the mood of the morning. Very quickly. But, we had to remind ourselves this was Mallory's big day and to put on a (fake) happy face.

I was so proud of Mallory. She walked right in, hung up her backpack, found her spot at the table and grabbed a cup of playdough. I gave her a kiss and asked to take a picture. She said "no" and then I knew it was time to leave, but I snapped a picture anyway:)

We walked in the gym to pick her up and she gave me the biggest hug. The tears almost came then. She had the best first day! Her favorite part was P.E. She made a little friend and re-connected with one from her preschool two years ago. My fears of her eating lunch by herself and playing on the playground by herself were relieved.

I'm so grateful that she loved her first day of real school. When I told her it was time to go home, she said, "I want to stay forever!"

Between three and four...

...is a fun stage for this girl:

When we found out we were pregnant with Max (before we knew he was a he), everyone said, "Oh, you need a little Brad!" I'm sure they meant a boy, but I always answered with, "We've already got one...she's just a girl!"

Morgan is hilarious. She for sure has Brad's sense of humor and keeps us laughing. Just fyi, don't laugh at what Morgan is doing if you'd like her to stop. Her speciality is to keep doing it over and over and over to make you laugh more:)

She is also a sweetie. We're pretty positive her "love language" is touch. The girl love for her hair to be played with, "spiders" on her back, to snuggle on the couch and has to touch some part of your body if she is close to you. She's been that way since she was a newborn. The first week she was home, Brad and I would take turns with her on the couch at night. We would lay her down (swaddled) next to us and every time she would turn her body in our direction to be closer.

photo by the talented melody clampet

Morgan has great potential for an imaginary friend when Mallory is at kindergarten. The girl is always in her own little world. Last soccer season, we went to dinner with the team. She had a little family of ketchup and mustard bottles, salt and pepper shakers and her milk cup. There is never a dull moment with her.

Dancing might be one of her favorite things to do (and ours to watch!):

One of my favorite things she does is change her mind. Not really, but what she says is too cute. If I ask her to make a choice about something, she'll tell me and then say, "Actually, I want..." It's way cute in person and makes me laugh everytime....well, most times. She also asks a TON of questions. I usually can't get through one page in a book without her asking something.

We are very proud of Morgan! This summer she started keeping her blanket in her bed after she gets up in the morning and after nap. This is HUGE! When she has her blanket, she sucks her thumb. So, with the new change, came less thumb sucking! She has been a champ and 99% of the time, only does it in bed. Supposedly, she's going to stop when she's four. She said that when she turned three and then that night said, "Actually, maybe when I'm 3 1/2." Ha!

If Morgan could wear one outfit everyday, it would be her "shaky skirt" and turquoise tank top. The girl loves to dance...and be naked. This could pose a problem in the future.

Morgan learned how to swim without floaties this summer! Back in June, she wouldn't even jump off the edge for $5 (Aunt Kelly was bribing the kids, starting with $1)! Now, she'll jump (sometimes before you're ready!) and swim underwater to the steps. I'm still not 100% comfortable letting her go on her own, but this is HUGE progress!

I wish everyone could meet Morgan, especially on a day when she's "in her element". She is reserved (usually) when you first meet her, but warms up pretty quick...and sometimes you wish she'd go back to being reserved:) I'm afraid she's going to be the trouble maker at school. She's already had to be scooted away from some boys in her Sunday School class. Her teacher said, "Morgan did great, but had a little trouble staying quiet with the boys." Yikes.

We love our little 3 1/2 year old. She makes us laugh, makes us smile and sometimes makes us want to pull our hair out! Life would be pretty boring in our house without our Morgie Porgie!

Getting the hang of it

Night #3 was good. We had small group, which meant we got home at a decent time and Max was in bed, asleep by 8:30. He woke around midnight and cried for about an hour, then again around 4 (not sure how long he cried), then slept until 7!

Yesterday, Mr. Max was a trooper! We were in Round Rock from 11am until 8pm. He did GREAT! Best shopping partner ever. I fed him before we left and then put him straight to bed when we got home. He fussed for about 10 minutes and I went in once to pat his bottom. I think he woke up sometime in the middle of the night, but by the time Brad went to check on him, he was already back to sleep. He slept until 8! Night #4 was a success! Now, that might be because of the long day we had, but I think the whole sleep thing is starting to click....hopefully:)

July, in a nutshell

July was fun for several reasons. We had a lot of family time, more swimming, a week to myself (and Max), "B Mom and Pop camp" for the girls, Brad's birthday, the circus with Mimi and Grandpa and some more lazy days at home.

We traveled to Burk for Brad's birthday weekend. We were glad to see Maw Maw and her new apartment! She is doing great since Paw Paw passed away in April. I know she still has hard days when she misses him a lot (us, too), but overall, she is doing really good. She has made some "dinner friends" and only lives 15 minutes from Larry and Sharon. It was a treat to see both great-grandparents this weekend!

Sweet Nanny and A.O. came down from Oklahoma. They got to meet Max (who is named after Brad's grandfather, Ed, who passed away 30 years ago). Nanny loves his name:) She is a sweetie!

We celebrated Brad's birthday! Can you see how old he is?

The girls love BMom and Pop! It's always a fun trip when we visit.

On the way home from Burk, we stopped at my parent's house. Mimi and Grandpa took the older kids to the circus. It's the 3rd year they have done this, and the girls were really excited! It also included a sleepover with Tate (while all the adult kids had a date night and sitter for Will and Max!). They got to swim together again the next day. Why are pictures of cousins in goggles so darn cute?!

In the middle of July, Brad had another week of soccer camp. So, the girls went to "BMom camp" for the whole week and I stayed home with Max. To say the girls had fun was an understatement! I have no pictures to prove it, but just imagine four cousins (almost like 2 sets of twins) playing and going, going, going for a whole week, ending with a family reunion together. I love that our parents are making such fun memories for our kids!

While the girls and Brad were away, Max and I got to hang out. At the end of our week, we had some visitors from Abilene! Kara and Micah came to stay two nights. We squeezed as much shopping, talking and eating into those two days that we could. I loved having her here and miss living so close to each other.

Max and Micah:

There were some lazy days at home, too. I know the girls enjoy those after being really busy. I got to sleep in a little one morning and came out to M&M swaddled!

Mallory and Bella got to celebrate their birthdays at the tea room in Salado. This is the 3rd year we've joined Karen and Kay. I noticed how big and grown up these two cuties are getting. There isn't much "baby" in their faces anymore!

Max took another dip in a pool! We went to a little pool in Salado one Sunday afternoon. We stayed for three hours. By the time we left, Brad had the girls holding their breath under water and touching the steps under water. This is HUGE! Back in June, they would barely even put their chin in the water! I'm proud of the girls. They have made a lot of progress in the pool this summer. Mallory can officially swim without floaties. Morgan is getting there, but still makes us nervous:)

Both of the girls had dentist appointments. This is Mallory's 3rd (or 4th) time to go. She showed Morgan the ropes first.

Morgan hopped up in the chair and got her teeth cleaned like a champ! It helps that we have one of the sweetest (and most patient) hygienists ever.

We're about to hit Max's four month birthday. I'm still just amazed at how much the girls adore him! I know it will change when he's crawling and walking (and knocking down everything they play with). I love walking into the room and finding toys set out "just for Max to look at". Morgan thought he'd like to see every McDonald's toy we have during his tummy time. Check out Max's cul-de-sac of hair! It's sloooooowly falling out.

I keep saying it, but I can't believe summer is over in one week. Life as we know it will change as we adjust to a school schedule and soccer starting up!

Super dads vs. Super reptile

Last weekend we headed to a wedding out of town. We piggy backed this trip as our "last free weekend until after soccer season" trip. We stayed in a hotel, swam, shopped and ate. And now, we are gearing up for Brad's season to start on Wednesday!

But, before we left, we had a surprise visitor! It was crazy last Saturday morning. Brad was packing up the car, I was feeding Max and the girls were so excited they were driving us crazy:) Connor (our skiddish Cocker Spaniel) was barking incessantly in the backyard. He does this quite often. It's usually because of something in the backyard. Usually something like a beach ball, the blow up swimming pool or a balloon inside the kitchen that he can see. He's weird like that. However, it's NOT usually for something like this:

Yes, that would be a SIX FOOT SNAKE on our back porch! Holy moly. I remember saying, "What's Connor barking at?" Brad walked over to the back door and said, "A huge snake, holy cow!" I didn't believe him until I walked over and saw that there was in fact, a HUGE snake staring down Connor and Connor staring it down. I have never been more thankful for a quirky dog that barks at things in our backyard! Brad got a shovel and walked into the backyard. We put Connor outside of the gate. This guy quickly got his "snake game" on. He followed Brad wherever he walked. I've never heard a snake hiss like this one. It was so loud. Almost sounding like locusts in a tree. After a couple of jabs with the shovel, and the snake striking at the shovel, the snake was mad...and Brad was a little freaked out:)

He called our neighbor Brent who came over with his shovel, too. These two guys were pretty funny to watch. They stood there staring at the snake trying to figure out a plan for almost five minutes. Finally they decided on one.

Brad grabbed two old towels and an axe. He threw one towel over the snake and then a second towel, which had a hole in it that the snake conveniently stuck his head through. Brent was able to pin down his head and Brad whacked at it with the axe. The creepiest part was that it still moved. Even with it's head separated from it's body. Gross. The guys were pretty proud of themselves, which they should be! The girls were fascinated with all of it. We didn't let them watch the slaughter (ha!), but they wanted to see the snake after. It ended up being almost as tall as Brad! Morgan kept saying it looked like it was from the zoo. I agreed and said that is where all snakes should live:)

I am so thankful that we found this before Brent and Linsdey came over to feed Connor that night! We're pretty sure it's a rat (or chicken) snake. So, if Connor had been bit, it wouldn't have hurt him too bad. I don't think I need to see another snake exhibit for a long time. This guy gave me the heebie jeebies. It confirmed (not that we had been thinking about it) that we will NEVER have a pet snake!!

Night #2

Well, unfortunately, night #1 didn't end when I thought it would. It actually continued for one more hour! TWO hours of screaming off and on (and trying to console off/on) until I finally ended up re-swaddling him and...giving him his paci. I know! I caved. But, I was tired. Max appreciated the comfort though. He went right to sleep until 6.

Night #2 is underway. The girls went with grandparents (again, woo hoo!), so Brad and I had a date with Max. We got home kind of late, so it will be interesting what Max does tonight. So far, he's been crying for 40 minutes. It's muffled screaming (if that's possible), so I know he's trying to stuff his hand in his mouth. Poor guy. As I put him to bed, he got his hands around his mouth. I gave him a kiss and said, "You may not want to do that...the paci isn't going back in after it falls out buddy."

The only plus is that it's Brad's turn to get up with Max tonight:) I'm hoping to get a little more sleep. I'm sure Max will sleep all the way through the night tonight, just for Brad. Some kind of male bonding or something.

Deja vu

Look at that sweet, precious face (photo by my super talented bff, Kara). That wouldn't be the face of a baby waking up at night every couple of hours...after he teased us sleeping so good for a while. Or the face of a sweet baby boy by day and confused, unable to self soothe baby boy by night. No, not that face. Never.

It's time. It's time to "ferberize". It's only fair, since both of his sisters went through the torture, I mean, training.

So, here we are, at 2 am, on night #1. It started at 8 pm. Max screamed for 45 minutes. I went into his room every 10 minutes and rubbed his head and said "It's oooooookay. You can do this. I love you." He finally settled down and slept until 1:30 am. And, here I am, in the living room listening to my son scream off/on as he tries to figure out how to get back to sleep. It's been almost an hour this time. And, he's blessed with a strong set of lungs. Maybe someday he'll put them to better use!

I love my kids. I love them when they aren't sleeping well (I'm a zombie loving them, but I still love them). I love (and like them a whole lot more!) them when they sleep all the way through the night.

It's silent. I think he's done. I'm off to bed, crossing my fingers and toes session #1 is officially over!

Summer Fun

We've had a fun and busy summer! It didn't go exactly as I planned out in my head (wasn't really considering having a newborn, ha!), but was fun nonetheless. June seemed to fly by. It started with Mallory's birthday, a visit from our California cousins, then off to DFW for 11 days at my parent's while Brad was gone, a visit with my youth pastor's wife/youth group friends and lots of family time.

All of these pictures are in reverse order. I don't want to waste naptime changing them, so we'll start from the end of June and go to the beginning!

After such a busy month, it was nice to have some slow days at home. Just a normal day in our house with two girly girls. Reading books in tu-tus, with tank tops to match!

I got to have a mini reunion with some old youth group friends in Waxahachie. It was a great visit! I brought Max along to introduce him to Ruth, my youth pastor's wife. She has been a huge part of my life through mentoring and ministering. I loved seeing her, Bruce and lots of old friends I don't get to see often enough.

The girls got to play with Julia and Johnathan while I played with my friends. They also got to attend VBS with their cousins. Apparently, Morgan can't go to Waxahachie without adding drama. She passed out asleep on the floor of her VBS room with a 102 degree temp and then threw up when she got to Jason and Jenn's house. We felt awful and had no idea it was coming! Luckily, it was a one time thing and she didn't infect anyone else.

Brad is a soccer coach. He coach's a men's college team during the fall, starts recruiting the weekend after Thanksgiving and ends in April, takes May off from traveling, works several different soccer camps during the summer, and has about a week off before it all starts up again. It exhausts me to type that out. He is a hardworker, that is for sure. What is more impressive, is that even with all he puts into his job(s), he still gives 100% at home. For instance... After working for 10+ days in 100+ degree heat and babysitting teenagers all week, we came home to this:

Brad immediately wrestled, tickled and took the girls on horsey (or stallion, as he likes to be called!) rides all around the house. It's impressive. I'm a thankful mom and wife to have him. The girls and Max absolutely adore their dad. He's by far the funner and funnier parent.

While Brad was slaving away in the heat, we stayed cool at Mimi and Grandpa's house for eleven days! We had a lot of fun swimming, playing with more cousins, meeting old friends, attending more VBS and getting in some quality time with grandparents. I tell the girls all the time how lucky they are to have two sets of grandparents that we get to see so often. Both sets of mine lived out of state. I'm thankful to have two sets that love my kids and get to see them often!

We take showers at our house, but the girls love taking baths at M&G's, so a bath it is. Grandpa gave them a new hairdo this time (and Mallory has some sleepy eyes from the flash)!

Kelly and Wade get the "super aunt and uncle award"! For three nights straight, they arranged their schedules to pick up the girls and drop them off (and feed them dinner at CFA with their own kids as well) for "Summer Spectacular". The girls absolutely loved it! It was their first VBS experience and it was a specatacular one...heh heh. My dad and I came on the last night for the big show. It was pretty amazing!

I always joke that Morgan looks more like Kelly's child than mine. Here's a little proof:

Max got his first dip in the pool...and loved it!

Wearing a hat like Grandpa to take a walk to the store. Morgan's a little ghetto:)

I took advantage of being in the metroplex for so long by seeing lots of friends! My fun friend Marla had us over for a playdate. The kids loved playing with Shepherd, Owen and Marley!

And as a bonus, I got to see Marla twice! My sister is now friends with her, too. Cool, huh? We had a late night treat at The Cheescake Factory for dessert.

Cousin swimming! They had so much fun!

Even Connor "got" to swim!

We had a playdate with some old friends from high school, Melanie and Jennifer. We did this last year and I'm so glad we did it this year, too. Next year, we'll add two more babies to the mix!

It was a special treat to have my cousin, Amy, here from California! She and her daughter, Audrey, came along on a business trip with her husband, Paul, to Austin. She braved the Austin traffic and headed south to spend the afternoon with us. The girls loved playing with Audrey and I loved talking about mommy stuff with Amy. I'm sure they didn't love the heat.

July seems like it's been just as busy! I can't believe our last summer before we're on a school schedule is about to end. Craziness!