Back on the blogging horse

It's been a little hectic around here lately with some comings and goings and work picking up for me. But we have had some great times with little Max over the past couple of weeks. What's new? Well, here's a list.

Max is growing longer. So much so that we can't feed him in his favourite chair on the main floor anymore (he gets all kicky and doesn't focus). This is just as well as it's Lily's favourite chair too. Also, we have stopped bathing Max in the sink. He's too long and, again, active in the legs to contain in the little wash basin we have. Instead, we've resorted to bathing with him in the tub. He loves to float and, in general, is transitioning much better from tub to towel these days. I'm attaching a washing session he had with Holly in the tub and Auntie L on scrub mitt duty. He doesn't look very impressed here, but I think that's more because he's not a fan of cameras than anything else.

Max is getting more vocal. On the phone with my mom the other night, he was making so much noise talking to himself in the background that we had to stop our conversation and listen. This has been getting more interesting lately, with Max experimenting with sounds (I could swear he said something like Hi, with the breathy H and everything just last night...technically it was more like Haouua, but you know...), but started a while back when we began to be able to get him really riled up with toys and playtime. Here's a video from the holidays, after he had started squealing while having a blast with Auntie K and couldn't seem to calm himself down.



My comment with regards to "the hand" at the end of the video comes from Max's newfound obsession with sucking/gnawing on his hand. Lots of people are saying that this is a big sign that teething is around the corner, but we're in denial. Especially Holly. I wonder why. In any case, we're soaking up his gummy little smile as much as we can. Everything's different with teeth.

Finally, Max has started to smile more often. Not only does he seem to enjoy playing with us more, but he certainly uses his smile to flirt in public places a lot. We have no idea where he gets that from. He has also started to recognize the sound of Holly and I laughing and starts to smile when we laugh. Super cute. Holly has taken some great pictures that will be up soon (daytime shots, though few and far between, always seem to turn out better because at least Max doesn't get stunned by the light that comes on before the flash), but I'll at least put one up to sate your appetite in the meantime.

A peace offering?

Ever since we moved into this house, the cats have had a funny sort of ritual. Quite often, on weekdays, John and I return home from work to find one of the cat toys sitting at the front door to welcome us home. Maybe a candy cane with a bell in it. Maybe a fake mouse. It was like "Dear parents: we feel indebted to you for all that you do for us and therefore, we have gone hunting and present you with this (candy cane, catnip cushion, mouse, etc.) as an offering. Warmest regards, Cat." As a result, John and I started to call this "being left an offering". I have seen outdoor cats doing this with real dead mice, birds, etc. but I had never heard of an indoor cat doing the same thing with toys. I guess it is an animal instinct of sorts.

We're not actually sure if both cats do this or just one of them. I'd seen Bella skulking around the house with the toys in her mouth but had never caught anyone in the act of leaving us anything so we can't give Bella all the credit just yet.

Strangely (or perhaps not), the offerings have become quite sporadic since I have been home from work with Max. Maybe this can be chalked up to nerves or the catnippiness of the toys losing its oomph. I sure don't want to believe that the cats are harbouring some sort of residual anger and have deemed me unworthy of offerings for being so bold as to tip the human/feline balance in the house.

So this past Sunday morning, I came downstairs to see this on the living room floor:


Yes, the cats had left not one but two mousy offerings right next to Max's beloved play gym. I'm not sure if this actually means anything significant in terms of the cats' relationships with Max but I'm going to consider it an offering of peace and leave it at that. It certainly made me smile.

Below will be a line saying that this is posted by Holly. I did indeed start this post but anyone who knows us can see that it has a dash of John added to the mix so consider this a joint post.

Twelve is a pretty cool number

I've decided that good things come in a dozen. Eggs. Donuts. Roses. John and I. Yes, dear readers, John and I are celebrating twelve years together today. We met in September 1995 but we didn't become a couple until January 8, 1996. Crazy.

It has been quite the wild ride these last 12 years and most especially this last year with the arrival of Mr. Max. We have had some wonderful adventures.

Before Max was born, John worried a little because he didn't have any hands on experience with babies. Anyone who has seen him with Max can see that he had absolutely nothing to worry about. He is a wonderful dad to Max. They make each other laugh for hours. I think they are going to be great friends.

I could wax poetic for hours about John but my time is short today and the baby needs to be put to sleep so this short post will have to do.

I love you, babe. I can't imagine my life without you. I look forward to our baker's dozen year and many, many more.

Love and hugs,
Holly

Happy New Year

Quiz question: how old were you when you first stayed up for midnight on New Year's Eve? For Max, the answer will be at least one year old, as he was unable to make it this year. To tell you the truth, we didn't try too hard after seeing what happens to him once when we had him out way too late. Max ended up telling us that 10:30 was what he could handle, so after Holly and I and Max's Auntie KP played a few rounds of Set (which Holly now admits to unnecessarily hating for years after a heated game among math grad students at MJM's Vancouver apartment) and polished off a tray of baklava, Max fed himself to sleep and took Holly with him. I was left to have two games of Carcassonne with KP before midnight came around. After the fact, I heard rumours that one, maybe two of my friends actually made it to midnight. What's up with that? We're barely 30, people. We should be starring in TV shows about the banalities of thirtysomething life, except that there's nobody left to write the script. But I digress.

One totally wild thing did happen that morning, though. I have been known to read a lot of stuff in baby books, especially things regarding developmental milestones (probably just to convince myself that light babies can be just fine, too) and I was lamenting on New Year's Eve that I was a bit concerned about how Max might not ever figure out how to crawl because he never really wanted to be on his belly. One book in particular was suggesting that in his fourth month (as in now), he should be able to hold himself in that classic baby pose, on his front with his head craned up 90 degrees, scoping out the scene. I'd never even seen him lift his head up 1 degree on his belly (OK, maybe 4 degrees) so I was getting a little worked up over this. The morning of the 31st, when I finally dragged my sick self out of bed, I thought I'd give it another shot anyway. So I popped him on his belly and look at what happened:


Unbelievable. As if he just wanted to show me up. I was dumbstruck, flabbergasted and slack-jawed all at once. In retrospect, it's probably because we had never put him on his belly on a hard surface offering the proper resistance to pull this off, preferring beds and couches. Regardless, this really came out of nowhere and I was blown away. In a future post, I'll run down the list of developments for those of you who aren't familiar with them. It's kind of like reading ahead in a book, finding out what happens before it actually does. But I suppose on the flipside, it helps us train him to figure out how to do certain things to help him develop.

Anyway, all three of us hope all of our dedicated blog readers (you out there) had a great New Year's and that 2008 brings you all adventures as great as Max has been for us. Not that I wish you all become pregnant. You know what I mean.

Sniffleupagus

It's something that every parent eventually has to go through and it finally hit us. On Boxing Day, the little bacteria that had likely been incubating for a couple of days inside Max moved into their time share and our little monsieur got his first official cold. I say official because at the end of October, he got a bit congested with something that Holly and I picked up, but never actually got to the runny nose stage. This time, there was no doubt.

On the bright side, Max waited until after his first Christmas to contract his cold. Well, technically, from what we read, he probably got it at my office event on the 24th (boo), but it only blossomed on the 26th. The same day I caught it. So there we were, the two men of the house, snuffling and snorting. The one big difference, as one of my colleagues put it yesterday, was that despite all the snot and not being able to breathe well, Max's mood never really changed (still lots of giggles and smiles) while I just wanted to cry all of the time and curl up in bed. I bet it's once we realize as babies that if we look and act sicker, we get better treatment from everyone around us that we turn into complete sucks while sick. Until then, it's giggle through the mucus.

Most of it seems to have cleared Max's system now, with much help from our new friends: a) the little rubber bulb for getting stuff out of Max's sinuses (NOT Max's friend, apparently), b)a bottle of saline spray for moving the junk through Max (possibly less of a friend to Max than the bulb), and c) the steamy shower in our bathroom-cum-sauna (this, Max actually seemed to like...possibly because of the warm grown-up towel waiting for him outside the bathroom door). He has a little gurgle every now and then when he's on his back, but otherwise seems fine. I shook the last of the cold on the 2nd, while Holly exorcised (exercised?) it from her system when it was just getting started while playing in an Ultimate tournament on the 30th, her first athletic activity in, er, a while.

So all this to say that 2008 is upon us and we are finally ready to hit the ground running!