Firsts

Sorry for the long stretch between updates. Mr. Max has been keeping me verrrrry busy. I never fully understood what women meant when they said that maternity leave was a ton of work, until I went on leave myself. Don't get me wrong, I know babies demand a lot of attention, but I thought that being off of work would still leave me some spare time to get things done. HA! Parenthood has been nothing if not enlightening. And awesome!

Max is growing and changing in leaps and bounds. I went through all of our pictures of him yesterday and he is now almost unrecognizable when compared with the little baby we brought home from the hospital. My tiny, delicate newborn has turned into a chubby, robust, smiling little man. And...a loud little man, might I add! We are already experiencing lots of those "firsts" I hear other parents talk so much about.

Rolling Over (Kinda)
When Max was a couple of weeks old, we started doing tummy time with him every day. To my surprise, he actually rolled from his stomach onto his back all by himself two different times. I know that the actual milestone of rolling over isn't counted until baby rolls from the back to the tummy, but I was still impresssed. Max hasn't repeated this in the last couple weeks, and I think it's because he is becoming more comfortable with tummy time and is no longer so desperate to find a way to put an end to it himself!  

Smiling
This has been the most heartwarming milestone for us to see. Max smiled at me for the first time a little over a week ago. The funny thing is that for the few days leading up to it, I had been doing everything I could think of to make him smile, because I knew that babies sometimes start to do so around one month of age. My funny faces and sounds were met with sighs, stares, grunts and hiccups, but no smiles. I guess I was trying too hard, because the first time it happened, I was just shifting him into a more comfy position in my lap when his face lit up. I smiled, and he smiled back again even bigger so I knew it was the real thing. It was so great! Also, I was sitting in the exact same spot as I was when I felt him kick for the first time while pregnant, way back in August. I just love that couch.

Date
On Friday, Nate and I went out and enjoyed the gorgeous day while his mom hung out with Max for a little while. Max slept almost the whole time we were gone, but managed to fill his diaper right before we got home just so Cindy wouldn't get too bored, haha! We went to a restaurant close by home and enjoyed a quick lunch and cocktail out on the patio in the 79 degree weather. This was the first time we had gone out somewhere just the two of us since our little guy was born, and it was so much fun! After so many years of being able to do what we want, whenever we want, this has surely been a change. But these times we get alone are all the more special now.  

There have been a lot of other fun things going on (including a wonderful baby shower thrown by our friends a couple of weeks ago) that I will write about in my next entry. For now, I'll leave you with some more recent pictures of Max...