Decking the Halls

After much consideration, we decided to leave our big tree in the store room this year. Max currently pulls up on everything in sight, and I just didn't feel like playing "pull Max out from under the tipped over tree" all day every day for the next month. We opted instead for this cute little tabletop tree. 

Natalie thinks the tree is "so beautiful," but she also loves the nativity scene. She got a little plastic nativity toy for Christmas last year, and she has played with it ever since. This afternoon she held her plastic Baby Jesus up to the nativity scene and said, "Can you see your friend?" Hopefully we can make it through the Christmas season without any headless figurines.

Thankful

Thanksgiving a few days late.

We celebrated Thanksgiving in Yates Center on Thursday with my family and made it back to Hesston in time to see most of the O'Hallorans on Friday. Good food and good company!

Bundled

Leaving the house in the summer required a romper for each kid and sandals for Natalie, and it still took us an eon to get out the door.

Now that it's cold out, their outfits each require at least four more pieces. Pants without buttons and shoes without laces are becoming our friends.

Seven Months

Our sweet Max is seven months old!

Do you notice his fat lip? I was hoping it wouldn't show up in his seven month photo, but on second thought, I'm so glad that it did. It depicts his current stage perfectly. Crawling, standing, on the go -- sometimes it results in a fat lip. It definitely won't be his last. Of that I'm sure.

At seven months old Max:

• is really getting the hang of eating baby food. His favorites are bananas, sweet potatoes, pears, and blueberry applesauce.
• has two teeth poking through! And he's sleeping like it.
• LOVES to stand. He grins and laughs every time he pulls himself up. 
• goes by "Maxy" around our house. It's a nickname that, before he was born, I didn't want him to have, but I'm the one who started it, and I love it now. 
• is getting better at crawling. His scoots have turned into a combination bear/normal crawl. 
• loves his baths so much that he starts crying the second that I lift him out of the water.
• is a little leery of most people other than Chris, Natalie, and me. He is not nearly as quick to smile at other people as he used to be. 
• is good at getting into Natalie's things, but Natalie is good about giving him something else to play with. I'm dreading the day when he no longer goes along with that trick. 
• makes lots of faces with his mouth and tongue. My guess is that he is feeling out the new teeth in his mouth. Look reeeeaaaally closely (and maybe use your imagination a little!) and you might be able to see them:

We love you, Maxy.

Boxes, Puzzles, and Teeth

I'm going to go ahead and blame the polar vortex outside for the lack of blog posts lately. There is only so much to say about being cooped up in the house, but here we go:

The Amazon box and Natalie's Frosty the Snowman puzzle took up most of our morning today. Natalie got some puzzles from my cousin Lorie a few months back, and she has suddenly figured out how to do this one. She does it over and over and over.

Max's teeth are the big news of our week! He has one sharp little bottom tooth poking through and one extremely swollen bump on his gums where the other bottom tooth is trying to come in. Yay Max!

Grocery Tales

Grocery shopping with Max and Natalie is always an adventure. It takes some mental preparation, a deep breath, and a small prayer, but we usually brave the store one weekday morning a week. I like going in the mornings because we always always get encouraging smiles and comments from little old ladies who have been in my shoes.

Now that Max can sit in the cart (and now that Natalie will let him have the seat), we seem to have somewhat of a system. If I know my list well enough and if Max is rested enough and if Natalie has enough samples, we can usually make it to the check out before anyone has a meltdown. On our way to the car today Natalie insisted that everyone in the parking lot hear how badly she needed another cookie sample, but we had made it out of the store, so I counted the trip as a success.

Nap Time Surprise

This is how we found Max today after his morning nap! This is one of my favorite milestones. It's so sweet to walk into the room to a smiling baby waiting at the rail to be swept up!

Halloween with an Indecisive Mom

I couldn't make up my mind on whether I wanted Max and Natalie's costumes to coordinate or if I wanted Max to wear the puffy robot costume I found on clearance last winter after we found out we were having a little boy.

So Max had two costumes.

He was only Mickey Mouse long enough to take a few pictures with Minnie, who happened to love trick-or-treating this year.

Then it was back to the robot for trick-or-treating because I finally decided it was my favorite. I mean, look at him. It kills me.