Just for you Michael

I know how Michael loves it when I post about my running, but with today's 7 mile run in 25+mph wind (BRUTAL), and it being my last run of 2011, my total mileage for 2011 is 115 miles.  I started in October.  Maybe my New Years Resolution Goal should be to beat last years mileage.  Shouldn't be too hard since I'll have a full year to accomplish it =).  I find that I am much less likely to be disappointed when I have low expectations.

2nd tooth!

Max got his 2nd tooth (the other bottom tooth) on Dec. 22nd the day he turned 5 months old.  He has also started solids since then.  He's had green beans and carrots.  He's doing pretty well eating.  He still has a long way to go, but is doing better than Luke and Leta did at first.  Although, this might be because I started them on rice cereal and neither one of them liked it..

Already!?!??

Max got his first tooth yesterday. His front bottom right.  He's not even 5 months old yet!  This is so sad.

Gobble Gobble!

Over Thanksgiving our family drove 10 hours to Iowa City, IA to visit my brother and his family.  They've been there for over 2 years and this is the first time we've gone to visit them.  I'm a bad sister.  My parents also came for the weekend so with them, Michael and Audra's 2 kids and our 3, it made for quite a full, loud house.  But it was lots of fun!

We drove up Wednesday and brought bread, veggies and the turkey.  Kyle's CPA raises turkeys and gave us one so we volunteered to bring it for the weekend.  Audra did a great job with it and it turned out REALLY good and juicy.  We mostly hung out and watched the kids play with each other.  One evening my dad's brother and his family came over for supper.  It was nice to see them, especially considering how long it had been since we'd last seen them.  Leta quickly warmed up to Gary and Mischa...they colored with her. =)  Saturday Audra, Max and I stayed home while everyone else went to a play land at the mall (since it was rainy).  It was nice and quiet then!  And I managed to squeeze in a run (my only run that week).  Michael and Audra took us on a tour of IAC.  It is a smallish town with a very large university and accompanying medical schools.  It's a very pretty town and really seemed like a nice place to live with lots of nice amenities, especially given it's size.

Luke was all excited to sleep in Solomon's room with him, and did the first night, but then after that decided that he wanted to be in the same room as the rest of us.  Overall, this is the best long trip we've ever taken drive and sleeping wise.  Let's hope this streak continues as we're traveling to Ruidoso, NM later this month.

Well Child and Well Baby Check Up

Recently we went to see Dr. Stephens for Luke and Max's well child/baby check up.

Luke was 4 years in October, but I waited so that I could do his and Max's appointments at one time.  Luke weighs 34lbs (29%) and is 39" (17%) tall.  He is moving up on the growth charts people!  Look out!  We talked a little bit more about his tummy issues.  He's to continue taking his Digestive Aid for Milk.  He hasn't been complaining about his stomach as much but we are still somewhat limiting diary.  I watch how much cheese I let him have in a day and we're still buying him lactose free milk.  According to Dr. Stephens there are only 4 basic/important things: 1.  Eat dinner together  2.  Wrestle with dad  3.  Poop daily  4. Sleep well every night.  Going by those standards, Luke is doing very well and on days when he's pushing every single button I have, that's what I need to remember.  That and a little time in his room never hurt him ;)  Luke got 4 shots, poor guy and he managed to cry harder about them than Max did about his.  He got him so worked up that he got himself over heated and broke out in a heat rash and to make sure it was just that, we had to stay a while after the appointment to monitor him. Sheesh.  He did run a low grade fever (99-100) and complained of sore legs for a couple of days.

This was Luke's solution "to make sure Max doesn't go anywhere"...no he didn't enjoy picking up this mess before bed =)

Max is 4 months old, he is 24" (5-10%) tall and weighs 14lbs 6 oz  (25-50%)in a wet diaper.  Max is still very content and smiley.  He giggles easily and loves watching Luke and Leta.  He can roll over from tummy to back and back to tummy.  He just started a new schedule today and it is as follows:

8am-eat

9:45-10 down for nap

11:30 wake and eat

1:30 down for nap

3:00 wake and eat

5:00 down for nap

6:00 wake and eat

8:15 eat and bed

10:30 Dream feed

This is new as he is being moved from 4 naps per day to 3 and is dropping one feeding per day.  Up to this point he has been cluster feeding in the late afternoon/evening, so this will free up our time in the evenings to have a bigger window to be out and about if we want.

He has not started solid foods yet but I imagine he will soon.  I would like to wait until after we get back from our Christmas travels to start that so I don't have to worry about that while we're gone to Ruidoso with Kyle's  side of the family.  Ruidoso is a small ski resort type town in the mountains in New Mexico.  We spent our first Christmas there after we were married and it was gorgeous and so much fun!  I'm sure Kyle will be spending some time skiing, which will be nice for him as he hasn't skied since I sent him for his 30th birthday and hopefully I'll be able to get out and browse around in all the cute shops they have in town.  Vicki likes to kick me out to have better quality time with my kids and I don't mind AT ALL!   

Anyway, back to eating.  Dr. Stephens introduced a new "food introduction" schedule that he's switched to since Leta was a baby.  

1-Veggies (green first, then yellow and orange)

2- Meat/Veggie combo

3-Fruits

4-Cereal

Instead of introducing rice cereal first, he's now placed it last.  He said there have been recent studies showing nutritional benefits to introducing it last and that many babies don't really care for it anyway.  I had thought all babies loved rice cereal before I had kids, but Luke and Leta both preferred oatmeal, but really didn't care for it much at all. In fact, Luke pretty much hated it.  I have pureed green bean and have them in the deep freeze, but I haven't worked on anything else yet.  I imagine I will stock up next trip to the grocery store.

Comparison Time!

Luke at 4 months

Leta at 4 months

Max at 4 months.

Since the pictures of Max really at 4 months are all farther away and not up close, here is a recent close shot. He's only 3.5 months in this picture, but you get the idea.