quick update

i still don't understand how to control the placement of these pictures. someday...

anyway, time continues to fly by. it seems like everyday max does something new and (obviously) cute. he's lifting his head, "talking" to his mobile animal friends, sorta-kinda smiling, and, saving the best for last, sleeping through the night. these are all the kinds of things that i swore i'd never care about, but it turns out that i do. i love max, and i love just about every tiny thing that he does. i don't know if this means that deep down inside every woman there's a maternal instinct or what, but i really thought i'd be the last person to think and act and feel this way. but i really couldn't be happier right now.

i'm short on time, but just a quick explanation of the pictures that i assume will appear above this text. i'm positive that they're out of order. deal with it. :)

1. max is starting to semi-enjoy his baths. i say "semi" because he no longer screams through the entire process. i found that the trick was to fill the tub about a quarter full of warm water. he appears to like sitting in the warm water as opposed to just being sponged down with it. i suppose most of us do, so it only makes good sense. (seriously, i'm going to write a book for mothers like me some day.)

2. i'm starting to put max in pj's at night. before i was just attempting to change him every 24 hours. but now that he's starting to get what nighttime is for, i'm trying to get him in some kind of bedtime routine. also, brian has hairy legs.

3. max and brian were both baptized this past sunday. i actually straightened my hair and put in my contacts for the event. in attendance were: my aunt kay & uncle rick, my grandma johannsen, my parents, kathy, and pete & ruth. it was good. God is good.

4. & 5. max is cute. sometimes i just like to take pictures to prove that statement.

good thing he has thunder thighs!

max had his two month doctor's appointment yesterday. i really hadn't anticipated how difficult it would be for me to watch him get his immunizations. i liked it about 17 times less than i thought i would. i actually cried just a little bit in response to his crying. thankfully he was easily calmed, and before we even left the doctor's office he was perfectly content to look around the room quietly while i made the co-pay and scheduled his next appointment.

just fyi, he now weighs 11 pounds, 6 ounces, which means he's gained 5 pounds since birth. pretty impressive if you ask me! he went from being in the 7th percentile for his weight (based on age) to the 50th percentile. he's also currently in the 40th percentile for height (which is also impressive considering the fact that i'm almost a midget). i forgot to ask him what percentage he is for cuteness, but i'm fairly certain that it's 100%.

max was pretty fussy for awhile last night (although he slept from 10pm until 5:15 this morning!!!), and he has a little fever today. i've only (ha!) allowed myself to call the sitter twice today. i feel so fortunate that we found someone who brian and i both like and trust. it's hard to be away from max when i know that he's a little sick and uncomfortable, but at least i know he's with someone who is giving him attention and is taking care of him.

anyway, i'm including some pictures of his chubby, little legs post-injections. (he got three! *sad face*) i'm also posting pictures of him right after the appointment (totally zonked out) and then 10pm last night (totally wide awake). i can tell that i've been a combo of sick and busy lately, because i have very little in the picture department to share right now. but here's what i DO have.....

it took me a long time to figure out what 8 times 7 was. apparently motherhood doesn't help math skills.

i can't believe how quickly time is going! max turned eight weeks old on monday, and it's weird how the 56 days has gone by so incredibly fast, although at the same time i can barely remember what life was like before we had a baby to take care of and love. brian and i were reflecting on my pregnancy last night, and even that is hard to remember (yet i somehow manage to conjur up the bad stuff just enough to compolain about it!). it's totally cliche, but what all women kept telling me throughout my pregnancy is true: it was all totally worth it. every swollen-foot, nauseous, back-aching minute of it. i really didn't know i was capable of loving someone this much so quickly. it's so amazing.

anyway, since i last posted a blog we've attended yet another (horribly depressing) iowa state football game. max actually woke up for the second half of this one. and i think the highlight of the entire outing was when grandpa tom sternly told a guy in our section to stop smoking. (i don't know when i became the paranoid mother who doesn't want her baby within a mile radius of second hand smoke, but i'm totally that mother.) i thought possibly a fight was going to break out, or at least words were going to be exchanged, but instead the guy just discreetly put out his cigarette.

so here are some more pictures. they're mostly of the game (and our tame version of tailgaiting beforehand) and there are, as always, a few random ones because i just can't go more than a day without documenting his cuteness.

oh, and p.s., the picture of what appears to be taken of the UNI side line is actually supposed to be a picture of brian. if you click on the large version you'll see a blurry guy with a neon green vest. that's brian. :) he had the very cool and important job of taking the headphones to the referee if there was a replay.

random pics: mobile, costco, and more!

just within the last week max has starting becoming very aware (and seemingly interested) in his surroundings. he's actually focusing on our faces, looking at book pages while being read to, and he's taken a new and definite liking to his mobile in the pack n' play. in fact, i think the closest he's come to a full-blown smile was while staring intently at the animal mobile. very, very cute!!

brian and i stopped at costco after the i-cubs game on sunday. i just *had* to take a picture of max in the backseat with the coffee shop groceries. he seemed completely oblivous to the fact that he was surrounded by baked goods and whipped cream!

and now, nothing more than some more evidence that sometimes i just sit around and take pictures of my son!

p.s. the spacing on this post is driving me NUTS, but i can't figure out how to fix it. sorry!!

you're never too young to go to a sporting event!

in max's seven short weeks of life he's already been to three i-cubs baseball games and one iowa state football game. he's been awake for about 12 minutes total of these four games. :) the kid really can sleep through anything. but i suppose we should enjoy that while it lasts (i've watched some parents with toddlers at games, and it seems a little draining!).

brian and i quickly realized that it takes about three times longer to get ready to go anywhere, and the amount of stuff a baby needs just for an afternoon outing is amazing. i didn't think we were EVER going to get out of the door last thursday for the ISU game, and then after triple checking to make sure we had everything, we somehow managed to forget the pacifier once we did get to the game. thankfully, as above mentioned, max slept through 99% of the game and didn't require the use of the blessed quieting device!

also, i have to mention that i nursed max in public for the first time ever at the ISU game. that was quite the experience that involved the sympathetic mother of twins next to us (we were in the unofficial baby row, i think, which isn't suprising given the fact that we were in the last row in the stadium!) letting me borrow her big blanket. the other fun first was me changing max's diaper in the backseat of the car (we were parked...don't worry!) on the way home. this task was complicated by the fact that it was the poopiest, most disgusting diaper max has yet to create. (the picture below of him crying and looking *extremely* pissed off is moments before i discovered the said diaper of poopic proportions.)

the sleeping/dino onesie picture is max at his third i-cubs game. he didn't open his eyes once!

because they're still age appropriate naked pictures.

i don't believe that i've posted any bath time pictures yet. i don't actually have very many pictures of max's baths, but i think that's mostly because he screams through 90% of the activity, and i feel bad pausing long enough to take pictures. (i know, i spoil him in so many ways that it's ridiculous!) anyway, here are some naked baby pictures...