21 Weeks Old

This week has been a really good week. I think Max has recovered from his visit last week and is on a schedule and getting lots of rest. We took him to see the dermatologist on Monday. She said it was really bad eczema and that we needed to get it under control. She prescribed an ointment that we had to put on him twice a day for three days, head to toe. After that three days we were to stop doing his face and head and only do the body from the neck down once a day. It is amazing how fast it cleared everything up. I think we washed away the last of the skin flakes last night. I only hope that we can maintain it and keep it from getting that bad again. We are supposed to use hydrocortisone as needed and just keep aquaphor or vaseline on him. Needless to say, he is one greased up baby! One of the girls at daycare commented to me yesterday how he looks like a totally different baby without all of the dry skin and scratches. I also think that it has helped him to sleep at night as well. Max, like his mommy, gets hot when he sleeps. I think he would get hot and kind of sweaty at night and that would start to irritate his head, he would start to scratch it, and it would eventually wake him up because it was so itchy and uncomfortable. Now that we have it all under control, he has been sleeping better. We've been putting him down in his crib around 9:00 each night and he will sleep until about 4:30 or so and then wake up, eat and go right back to sleep. Last night he slept all of the way through the night until around 7:00 this morning. I hope that we can keep up this routine! I still have to wake up at some point in the night and pump, but that's not too bad.

He has also started to sit up on his own too. I think it was Monday or Tuesday, I picked him up from daycare and the girls had written that he had fun sitting up like a big boy. So, I went home and put him down and sure enough, there he was just sitting up and playing. He would get really excited and flail his arms about, so we put the Boppy around him to make sure he doesn't take a dive to the carpet (which he has done a few times). I posted a video of him earlier this week. So, needless to say, things are starting to get a bit more structured around our house. No longer can we just leave him to play on his back under his little gym. He rolls around all over the place and looks for absolutely anything to put in his mouth! Speaking of putting things in his mouth...he has become OBSESSED with having his feet in his mouth. I looked over at him the other day and he was trying to cram both of them in there. This makes changing his diaper interesting as he just wants to play with his feet. In some ways, it's easier than having him squirm and twist around, but it is still difficult. Another not about putting things in his mouth...we noticed the other night that he has two little bumps where his bottom two teeth are going to be coming in. He likes chewing on his rag or a cold wash cloth. This is the only thing that really soothes him. Most of the teething toys we have are pretty big and won't fit in his mouth, but we bought a few that we keep in the fridge and he will go after those like nobody's business. He is such a wonderful little guy. We were giving him Tylenol, but then he seemed to be fine, so we haven't given him any for a few days.

All in all, we've had a good week. He is growing more and more each day and keeping us entertained along the way. He is with Eric this weekend as I will be working in Cedar Rapids on a show through Sunday, so we'll see how the boys get by without me. I'm sure they'll be just fine! :-)

Not too many pictures this week, but there are some good ones!

My big boy!

He loves to put his feet in his mouth!

My chunky little boy passed out!

Vroom Vroom...he loves his driving toy!

Poor penguin...if he ever gets it to his mouth, it's all over!

Sitting Up!

Today Max started sitting up and playing with a toy that Aunt Susan, Sophie and Ellie got him for Christmas. He is also starting to kick and pull his knees up while he is on his belly...he'll be crawling soon! Check it all out in the video!

20 Weeks Old

My little guy in his high chair after enjoying some banana!

What a week! Grandma, Papa and Wyatt came to Iowa for Spring Break. They got here Sunday night around 8:00 and just left today around noon. It was great to have them here to visit and play with Max. They hadn't seen him since before Christmas. I missed Doug, Mary and Cora, but hopefully next time they will all make the trip. Eric and I worked on Monday and Tuesday, but then were able to take the rest of the week off. We made pizza and cookies and Wyatt and Eric played quite a bit of Castle Crashers on the xbox 360. It was a busy week. On Wednesday, we all went to the Children's Museum. Wyatt had a blast. He got to make a shamrock hat, look at lots of different stuff about airplanes, race cars, go grocery shopping, make pizza and serve it and they also had a little hospital corner. We were there for the morning and he still didn't get to go to everything. I think he had a great time! We took a break to eat lunch and run into Target for some things. Then, Uncle Eric took Wyatt ice skating. There were some falls, but he got right back up and kept going...Wyatt did great too! (just kidding) After skating, Grandma and Papa took Wyatt back through the museum and we brought Max home. It was a fun day, but very full. It was a great week! I got to celebrate my birthday with my family. Dad and Eric put a storm door on our front door and we all went out to eat. I'm so happy that they were able to be here and spend time with us. We are going to miss them and we are looking forward to when we are going to be down there for our beach trip in September. After they left today, we came home and just relaxed. Max slept most of the day. He woke up for awhile and we played and he even tried a little bit of a frozen banana in one of his mesh eaters. He seemed to like it until it started getting mushy and then he wasn't interested anymore. Here are some pictures from this week...there were so many good ones!

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Best Buddies! I love this picture!

Bath Time!

Papa and Wyatt flying a plane at the museum

This is how Max enjoyed most of the museum!

But then he woke up and was a happy boy!

Wyatt's first time ice skating!

Our happy family!

Enjoying watching a movie with Grandma and Wyatt!

Papa and his boys!

Cuddle time with Wyatt

Om nom nom...munching on Wyatt's ear

Mmmmmm....banana!

Spring Break Play Time

So today was the first full day of Spring Break. Grandma, Papa and Wyatt had lots of time to play with Max. I thought this moment was too cute with Wyatt and Max playing on the mat together...listen closely to what Wyatt says. I love these guys!

19 Weeks Old

Max being silly after cleaning up a blow out!

So we are changing things up a bit and leaving our website behind. I am hoping that this blog will be better in terms of allowing people to leave comments for us each week. I'm still learning how to use the site and hopefully our posts will just get better and better each week.

This week has been pretty mellow. Not much happening at our house. We had a great weekend last weekend. On Saturday, we all went to Cedar Rapids to run some errands and had lunch with Grandma and Grandpa Ellingson at Zoey's in Marion. Then, we went by Aunt Susan's house and visited with her, Sophie and Ellie. The girls are getting so big! On Monday, Mommy was sick, but her fever broke around midnight and she was feeling much better. Just a stuffy, runny nose to contend with. We tried to give Max some rice cereal this week and after two nights of being up with him, not being able to calm him down, we realized that the cereal was giving him gas and making him constipated. We decided not to give him anymore and after talking to the doctor have decided to wait awhile longer before trying any more. Max had a great week at daycare too. They say every day that he is such a happy baby. He is playing more at home. He had a great time in his exersaucer this week. He is tall enough to stand up in it and reach all of the things around it. He spins around in his seat and plays with all of the toys. I put him in it and pulled him over to the kitchen and he was able to entertain himself while I cleaned and got dinner started. I can't believe how big he is getting. He is pretty close to being too big for his infant tub. I ordered him a little seat for the bathtub, so he can start taking baths in the big tub. Time is flying by and I'm amazed at how much he has changed already. He is starting to laugh a lot. If we blow raspberries on the front of his neck, he just giggles so loud...it is the best thing in the world.

We've had warmer temperatures this week and some rain. Mostly all of the snow is gone. I hope that we don't see any more and that it just keeps on getting warmer. 

I hope you all like the new layout and feel free to leave comments for Max!

He's such a big boy! This doesn't work every time, but we're practicing.

He loves his noodle bug teether that he got from Grandma Borden for Christmas

So many toys! I want them all in my mouth...NOW!

In his Tigger outfit that Aunt Susan, Sophie and Ellie got for him in DisneyWorld.

Having a good time in his exersaucer.

Daddy and Max

He fell asleep on the floor playing and watching TV

My happy boy!

I think you can tell what he thought of the rice cereal!

18 Weeks Old

We are all healthy this week!!!!! We have had a week clear of congestion and coughing. It is so nice to see Max feeling better and playing. He is even getting his appetite (plus some) back! He had his 4 month visit with Dr. Powers on Tuesday. He is 13 pounds 8 ounces and 24 1/2 inches long. He is getting so big. He dropped down to the 30 percentile in his weight, but he’s been sick so that is probably why. He got another round of vaccinations and did great! Didn’t even need any tylenol this time. He is such a tough guy!  We also talked to the doctor about Max’s cradle cap and he looked at it and said that it wasn’t cradle cap, but eczema on his head. He told us to put a little Hydrocortisone ointment on it, so we did and the next morning it was almost all cleared up. Now that we have it under control, we are just putting regular vaseline or creams on it. It is so nice to feel his soft baby skin rub across my face again and he’s not itchy as much, therefore not scratching his head and face all up. We’ve also had some warmer weather this week, so maybe that is helping.
He is starting to be more vocal, making lots of funny noises-sometimes he sounds like the smoke monster on LOST...it’s pretty funny. Eric even got him to laugh the other night.        vc f   cdvg        mnnbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbrytghr5ttb                  vvvhnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn           m,,km           
 t
That’s a little message from Max! :-)
He is starting to scootch around, continues to grab things and is trying to sit up on his own. it is amazing to watch him grow and develop more and more every day.  We love our little guy so much and are looking forward to warmer weather when we can get outside and take walks with him and play in the pool. We are looking forward to Grandma and Papa driving up next weekend from Texas. It will be so nice to see them! Here are our pictures from this week...