Thursday, January 28, 2010



A friend of ours told us recently that at Max's age babies are likely to do something new everyday. It could be something useful like learning to sit up or feed yourself or it could be something just strange like scrunching up your face, sticking out your tongue, and breathing heavy for no apparent reason whatsoever. Guess which one Max is doing now.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Monkey Business



It is hard not to compare our little Max to a monkey, what with all the jumping, screeching, and his fondness for bananas. But did you know that, also like a monkey, Max enjoys an occational grooming?

Funny that the same boy who can't go a waking moment without trying to lunge out of your arms, poke your eyes, pull your hair, headbutt you, etc. will sit calmly and let you clip his nails and clean out his ears.

A little late with the nail clipping Dad, as is evident by the huge scratch on my nose! - Max

Monday, January 25, 2010

Max can't feed himself



Our little guy still hasn't quite gotten the hang of feeding himself. Which is very suspect because he seems to be able to put any non-food item into his mouth with the precision and skill of a surgeon. On the plane, on the way home from NJ, he could pull an earbud out of my ear and be sucking it in a matter of seconds. Yet for some reason he can't seem grab a Cheerio right in front of him and bring it to his mouth. I have a feeling he really can and just likes to have us feed him, like some kind of Roman emperor.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Babyspeak?



The books say that this is the age when babies start babbling and repeating sounds. If this is Max babbling I can only imagine what his first words will be. I'm used to it being home with all day with him but poor Amber still rushes into the room everytime she hears it thinking there is something seriously wrong with her baby.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Bouncing has its ups and downs



Bouncing is serious buisness, any 7 month old can tell you that, but there is just something about that Daddy guy that cracks me up. There I am, getting my bounce on, and Daddy looks over at me and I just lose my poop. He doesn't even really have to do anything! What can I say, he gets me.

Monday, January 18, 2010

You can take the baby out of NJ...

Bottle Bling!
Eh, oh! Looks like the 3 weeks Max spent in NJ has rubbed off on him.


Max at 7 months
19 lbs 14 oz
29 inches

Friday, January 15, 2010

7 months & slacking

Max is 7 months already and time has flown by. For those of you that are waiting for his 7th month photo, it is coming soon, I promise.

In order to keep the masses happy though, I thought I would post a picture we took last weekend of Max dressed up in a 'monkey suit' as Nana would say.
If you look closely you will notice a line down the middle of the photo. At first we thought our camera was acting up but then soon quickly realized it was a huge amount of drool coming out of Max's mouth.
and yes...he still doesn't smile that much!

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Romolo's Baptism


As I mentioned in the last post, one interesting thing that happened while Amber was back in Seattle was Romolo's (Max's cousin) baptism. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the church, but here is a picture of Max, Romolo, Jackie, and Mom with the priest. It was taken at the reception at Andrea's (Romolo's dad, my sister's husband) resturant, Luca's

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

It's good to be home



Whoa...has it been almost 2 weeks since my last blog? Sorry, but when I'm at my parent's home in NJ the days just kinda blur together. Between the food and the constant visitors I'm all doped up like a bear in the zoo.

The most eventful thing that has happened in the past two weeks (besides Romolo's baptism which I will get to later) is that I flew back to Seattle alone with Max. Everyone thought I was crazy, but Max is a great baby and I had planned out each aspect of trip.

1. As soon as we pull up to the curb I strap Max into the Ergo-baby (it's like a Baby Bjorn)so I could have both hands free.

2. Check bags so that all I have to contend with is Max and one small carry on.

3. Once I get through security head to the nearest Starbucks and make a bottle for take off.

That's when I saw the yogurt parfait.

A pre-flight snack was not part of the plan but I was feeling a bit peckish (the past few weeks having conditioned to me to be eating every half hour or so), and Max likes yogurt, so I bought it.

For those of you who do not know me well I tend to run a little hot so at this point Max was starting to feel like a lava rock strapped to my chest, so I decided to just carry him.

The flight was full and when we got to the gate nearly all the seats were taken. Of course the only empty ones were in the middle of the row so it took some jostling and several "excuse me's" before we could settle in and take out our yogurt.

Now, I don't know how many of you have purchased the yogurt parfait from Starbucks, but to keep the granola from getting soggy it is packaged in its own separate cup suspended above the actual yogurt. You simply lift the granola out, dump it into the yogurt, and enjoy your snack.

But with one arm holding Max, and no table to put the yogurt down on this was proving to be a herculean task.

At first I tried lifting the ganola cup out with my teeth but it fit too snugly inside the main cup so I couldn't get a grip.

Then I came up with the brilliant idea to sqeeze the main cup so that the granola cup would push up and I could grab it.

So I gave the main cup a slight squeeze.

Nothing.

I squeezed a little harder.

With a barely audible pop the granola cup shoots 2 feet into the air showering everyone within 5 seats of us with granola.

For a moment everyone just sat there. It is amazing how throughly a small cup of granola could disperse itself once airborn. I was covered in granola, Max covered in granola, and about a dozen people I was about to share a 5 hour flight with were covered in granola.

And then everyone got up at once, as if they were choreographed, and performed the same moves. Shake, brush, untuck the shirt, fingers through the hair. One guy in an obvious toupee walked stiffly to the men's room. Max tried to eat a piece off the front of his shirt.

Most of them had a good sense of humor about it, a few looked like they wanted to kill me. I muttered some lame apology and we ate what was left of the yogurt parfait without looking up.

All in all, that minor episode not withstanding, the the trip went smoothly and fotunately we didn't have to sit next to any of the victims.

And of course we were both very happy to see Mommy.