the day max ran the coffee shop.

brenda (max's wonderfully-awesome-and-spectacular babysitter!) had a doctor's appointment in the middle of the day on tuesday. her husband watched the other (slightly older) kids, but was "afraid" to watch the baby. :) i was all too happy to take him in at the coffee shop for a few hours. he did a fabulous job and actually didn't shed a tear or let out so much as half of a screech. i, of course, got nothing done coffee shop-wise, but max and i had a blast taking pictures, looking at the mural, and just playing. it's definitely not something that would be practical on a regular basis, but an every once in awhile thing is nothing short of wonderful.

just some misc. ones....

this is often what we have to look at when we try to put max to bed at night. do you know how difficult it is to make this cute and happy of a baby go to sleep? (the answer is: very difficult!)

i love the juxtaposition of his hand with mine. i don't know why.

and another one:

happy rockstar:

bad a$* rockstar:

then & now

i don't have a lot of pictures that i can use as comparisons to illustrate how much he's grown, but i was looking through some pictures from max's first month or so of life, and i came across some of him in his bath tub. and since i'd just taken some of him last week taking a bath (he just recently started sitting up on his own and splashing....very cute!), i thought it would be fun to put them side by side.

two more "firsts".

within the past few weeks, max has started eating solids (well, he had been eating cereal, but that seems so not as cool as vegetables and fruits) and tried his hand at drinking out of a sippy cup. the first meal of green beans he was a little unsure, but now he screams whenever the container is empty. and as for the sippy cup? well, he either doesn't get it, or he doesn't like it. time will tell....

the human pretzel

one of max's newest favorite ways to pass the time is to suck on his toes. it's extremely entertaining to watch!

"get out of that bed, and wash your face and hands..."

grandpa pete got max this singing elmo for Christmas. it's super annoying in the fact that once you play the thing one time, the song is stuck in your head for the duration of the day. but max is infatuated with it. i don't know if it's the vibration, the music, or the lights, but no matter how cranky his mood is, if we press the button, max immediately stops what he's doing and just stares at elmo. (and apparently sometimes also tries to tear out his eyeballs.....it's out of love, i'm sure!)

i've become "one of those mothers" who talks about poop.

it's not uncommon for max to poop while i'm breastfeeding him. in fact, he probably does it at least half of the time. (i *promise* that this has a point!) so last week one night when i was feeding him, it wasn't alarming when i heard him poop. however, it smelled worse/stronger than usual, so i was quick to change him as soon as he was done eating. i was totally surprised to see that he hadn't "blown out" (a term brian and i have come to use quite often) his diaper. usually when it smells that strong, it's because the poop has not been contained in the appropriate area.

minutes after changing his diaper, i was meandering around the house, attempting to pick a few things up, when my hand brushed against something moist and sticky on my pants. yup......it's exactly what you're thinking i'm going to say. max somehow managed to poop ON me. i still have yet to figure out how he didn't get any on himself. he's either a magician or a trickster. either way, i'm disgustingly impressed.

i took photos of the oh-so-wonderful event: