Down on the farm

Scott and I took our first overnight trip away from Max to Tunica.  It was Max's 4th night away from us but his first when we wouldn't be 15 min down the road. We left him in very capable hands though...Aunt Jackie!  They had a great time!  Aunt Jackie and Uncle Paul and Jacob have a farm so Max got his first "farm experience".  Aunt Jackie found one of Jacob's old coats from when he was a baby and got Max all bundled up and out they went.  Here are a few pics.

Shots shots and more shots

Today Max and I loaded up and headed off for his 6mo DR visit.  When I layed him down on the scale he was straining to sit up, so I helped him a little.  He hates to lay down now.  Max now weighs 15lbs 9oz.  Babies are supposed to double their birth weight by 6 months and 15lbs 5oz would be double his birth weight so he reached that goal!  Max is also now 25 3/4th inches long.  He is still in the 10-25th percentile range but he is still steadily gowing so the Dr B is not concerned at all.  Max's head on the other hand is right at the 50th percetile.

Max reached all of his milestones except saying baba or dada.  Max is more of a screamer.  Dr B was very impressed with Max's sitting abilities saying that most babies his age are not as steady and can not sit as long as he can.  The next milestone we will look for is crawling around 9 months.

Poor Max got 4 shots and the oral rotavirus.  He was only supposed to get 3 shots but they still had flu shots left so I decided to go ahead and let him get that too.  He will have to go back in 4 weeks to get a second flu shot(Scott will have to take him...that should be interesting...)

On an end note Max didn't really cry this time at the office when Dr B examined him, just fussed.  He did cry for his shots.  Oh and I forgot my camera...bad momma...so sorry for picture quality, taken with my phone.

6 months old!!!

Wow oh wow Max is 1/2 a year old!!  The past 6 months have been so many things- tears, laughter, frustration, fear, FATIGUE, happiness, and most of all love.  He is really becoming such a big boy.  He isn't fully sitting on his own but he is!  If he moves to fast he will topple over so pillows around him is a must.  Boy is he a talker, well more like a screamer.  He likes to vocalize but screechy screams instead of babbles.  He has even had a few temper tantrums(for which Scott say's "that is so you").  He loves to play on the floor.  He is still rolling over like crazy and trying to get up on his knees, if only he would push up with his arms when he was up on his knees.  He is scooting a little, but nothing major. 

Sleep is our biggest issue.  We have a pretty routine schedule and do the eat, play, sleep routine.  We have even had a few attempts at the cry it out method...that did not work!  Max screams louder the longer he is left alone and does not stop(we gave once at a hour).  Not only that but I have read some really bad things about the cry it out method.  We have tried keeping him awake till he is totally exhausted. On an average night Max gets up(between 10pm-6am) twice to eat and 1-2 other times that require one of us to attend to him.  Now we usually have at least 2 nights where he gets up more frequently.  I realizee being a parent means your restful nights are over but 6 months straight without more that 4hours of continuous sleep can take a toll on you.  The few nights Max's has spent at aunt Jackie's Scott and I have come home early so we can go to sleep.  So sad that now we would rather get a few hours of sleep rather then party with our friends, but we have to do what we need to do. The last few nights we have taken a step back and Max is now sleeping in his rock and play in our bedroom.  It has been so much nicer!!  He is only waking to eat and all I do is pick him up and feed him and then back in his "bed".  I never even get out of the bed.  If he try's to wake I just reach over put the pacifyer back in and rock him back to sleep.  Probally not the best move but it is working so we are going to stick with it.

Max has also started on real food!  I made his food(see previous posts) and we started him with squash first.  The fight night did not go so well.  He was ready to eat but then started gagging!  The next night he did better.  We are about to finish carrots tonight and then on to sweet potatoes.  Then peas, green beans, and zucchini.  Tonight I started to make some fruit.

Max has his 6mo Dr visit on the 15th.  I will try my best to update the blog then.

Vote for Max!

Max is in a Valentines day photo contest.  In order to vote for him you have to be on facebook.  Look up precious moments photo's and "like" them.  Then go to their photo albums and in the "I LOVE that shot contest" album you have to find Max's picture(#25) and "Like" it.  We are currently in 2nd place and 1st place has a ton of votes...but the top 3 get a prize.  So if you have a couple of minutes please vote for MAX!!!  Thanks!!

Green=Gross!!

Ok so I just finished making Max's green veggies(they are still cooling as I type).  Now sure this went as well as the orange ones.  Today I made green beans, peas, and zucchini. 

Well the green beans seem real clumpy.  I pured and pured but still kinda clumpy.  Now don't get me wrong I do think he will eat them, not too clumpy. 

The pea's actually turned out ok.

The zucchini on the other hand....yucky!!  No where did it said to peel the skin off, so I didn't.  Plus the zucchini is very watery.  I didn't even have to add any breast milk(which I'm afraid means he won't like it, because he is used to the taste of my breast milk).  So I have this watery dark green flecked concoction in my food processor.  Well I did put it into the freezer tray and I will eventually try to feed it to him, but yuck! 

So to all my baby food making mommas, did you have this same experience or did I do something wrong?

Oh and though I would share a pick of Max's frozen cubes.

The orange ones come first....

So today I had some unexpected time to myself with nothing to do.  I think the last time that has happened was sometime before Max.  Anyways I thought I would get a jump on making some of Max's baby food.  I trekked up to the grocery store and bought organic carrots, butternut squash, sweet potato's, zucchini, pea's and green beans.  My total at the register was only $14!  Today I decided to make the orange one's.  We have been told that you give orange vegetables first.  If I was a stay at home mom I would just make a small batch at a time and keep it for 3 days in the fridge and feed Max it fresh, but with me working 4 days a week that will be impossible.  So I am making a medium sized batch and freezing in 1oz size portions.  That way we can just pull out a cube at a time.

I got a great baby food cookbook for Christmas that I am using to help me get started. There are several ways to cook the food- steam, boil, bake, microwave.  Today I decided to use a few different ways to see which way was easier for me.  I ended up liking all methods but the steaming was definitely the easiest!

I diced up the sweet potato's and put them in the steamer. 

 I sliced the squash in half(cleaning out the seeds) and placed face down in a baking dish with a little water and put in the oven. 

For the carrots I cleaned and sliced up and put in a blow of water in the microwave.  The carrots were done first so off the the food processor they went.  I added a little breast milk to help it thin to the consistency I wanted.  After the carrots were done in the processor I put them in a ice cube tray with a lid.  After cooling, into the freezer.

All together I made 32 food servings for Max for probably only $7.  I haven't even looked at the prices of baby food int he stores but I am guessing this is a lot cheaper! Not only cheaper but I know exactly what is in Max's baby food.

Cereal time!!!

Max has reached a big milestone in his life, he is now eating solid(well semi-solid) food!! As I wrote in a previous post we are waiting till 6months to start him on food. I decided to start him on cereal at 5 1/2 mo because cereal helps him learn how to eat. Well this past Sat morning we mixed up his first batch. I mixed it per box instruction and it was basically milk on the spoon. Max wasn't so sure about and most of the cereal ended up on his bib. We gave him so more at night(a little thicker) and he did a bit better. Well 5 days have passed and man does he love his cereal!! We are just giving it to him in the morning after he nurses/bottle and after his bedtime feeding. He loves it so much that today at the sitters he wouldn't eat his bottle because he saw his cereal bowl and in the evening times if Scott starts to get his bumbo on the table and turns on the light he stops nursing and starts whining for it!

Max with his first cereal

Max on day 4 of eating cereal

We got our canvas in the mail this week. I got a great Groupon coupon for either $40 or $45 for canvasondemand.com. The canvas normally cost $126 so we got a great deal!!

Max is also starting to scoot! This evening I had him on the floor playing and the next thing I knew he was about 6 inches closer to me! I watched him and he was pushing his knees up! Yeah for Max!!

Here is Max's contribution to the blog!

yuuf t568iyy

Starting the new year

We have had a busy start to the new year. Scott and I went to a party with some friends and Max spent the night with aunt Jackie on NYE. We left shortly after the ball drop and headed home, I just wanted to go home and sleep. Yeah I know no fun anymore but I will take advantage of any sleep I can get!

I started my new full time job on the 3rd and am sooooo excited! I am now working 4 days a week and get vacation time and a retirement plan!! This is my first job that I have ever had that has any benefits! Not only that but I am working with GREAT people!! I have also joined the world of Ebaying(thanks to Amy) and have some of Max's item's up for sale. That is a job in its self!

Scott and I have planned(well mainly me...I love to plan!!) a trip to New york city in March for Scott's spring break/our anniversary. We are so excited and this will be Max's 2nd big trip(first was to the beach). All we really have planned is to do the double decker bus--easier to sight see with Max, and Scott and I are going to a show. I have a friend from college/work and his wife and kids that live in Brooklyn so wonderful Nikki has said she would love to watch Max while we go see the show! They have a son who is about 6months older than Max so they will have a great time playing! I splurged and got a new stroller for our big trip. It is a Maclaren. They are all over the city and by far the most popular stroller in NYC. They fold up quickly, have a shoulder strap, and are light so perfect for going down to the subway and weaving in and out of walking traffic.

Max is continuing to grow and change everyday! He now hates to lay down. He wants to sit! He try's so hard to sit up when he is laying down. I am thinking in the next few weeks he will be sitting up on his own. He is still bobble's some but does pretty good with pillows propped up around him. He is also big enough to start using some of his cool things we got as shower gifts. He loves his froggy bouncer!!

The Bolden's 2010 in photo's

Grandma's December visit

My mom and brother came down from Michigan on the 26th for 4 days. This was the first time she had seen Max in person since she left in Aug., when he was only about a week old. She was amazed by how much he has changed and how he is such a big boy! While grandma was here Scott and I took advantage of that by going shopping without Max and we even went and saw a movie! Grandma made a great babysitter! Max really like his uncle Daniel, one afternoon they played on the floor for about 45minutes and Max was just entranced!