Small Town Chic: Max's style 04.03.11

I feel as though I keep losing track of how old Max is. Not losing track exactly, but confusing the concept of age. In Spanish, the verb that is used for turning a certain age is cumplir, which literally means to complete. Max has completed 7 months of his life. I feel like saying he is 7 months old is misleading....

What a month it has been! Max is saying momma!!! Well, maybe not exactly but it sure sounds like it and he does it seemingly with intention. Many times while he's crying he will say mom mom mom momma over and over again. All of the kids at daycare were so excited to tell me he was saying momma! He is rolling over like a champ, laughing at us all of the time (we have some video of him cracking up and it some of the best footage I have ever seen), and constantly learning new things. We officially started swimming lessons a few weeks ago and he loves it. He's gone under the water a number of times now and every time he comes up, he looks around for a bit and then gets excited, ready to do it again. We go with 3 other friends, all of his girlfriends, and it is so much fun.

Our lives have just fallen into a nice groove with Max. He is so easy to take out with us, never really fusses or cries, even when we spend the day out and about, in different restaurants, or shops, or just out exploring. He loves seeing new people, and familiar faces alike. He is always smiling. I was lucky enough to take him with me to a Student Council conference last month (3 days in a hotel with 1500 teenagers) and he was awesome. He went to workshops, lunches, dinners and was fine through all of it. I was constantly stopped and asked how old he was and was complimented on his behavior. He certainly made me one proud momma.

He also loves going to school (well, daycare). He is the youngest of 6 children there and it is just the perfect fit for us.

I am still able to nurse Max at least once or twice a day. I would love it to be more but with working, it just can't happen any more than that. I can't believe how differently I feel about it, thinking back to those first few months when it felt like the hardest thing to do. Don't get me wrong, it was one of the hardest things to do but I am so happy that I have stayed with it; I only wish I was still able to do it exclusively.

We are 100% on gdiapers now. We had a slow start to using them, mainly because he was peeing out of them so frequently and it was overwhelming to use them. They are wonderful though and I happy not only with the ease of them, but also how much they lessen our impact on the environment.

Our biggest challenge lately has been sleeping. He was doing well for the last few months but we were still swaddling him. It is late in the game to still be doing so but we knew he wasn't at risk for rolling over swaddled and he just slept so well that we that we kept doing it. We finally stopped cold turkey Friday night and the little bugger slept through the night. And then again on Saturday night. But come Sunday, it was a different story. Since then, he has been waking a bunch of times, wide awake, unable to simply fall back asleep. I have had to nurse him in order for him to sleep again which is a habit I do not want to fall into but it becomes a necessary evil when I have to get up and go to work at 6am. He is also teething and I think right in the middle of a growth spurt so I think all of these things combined have added to our difficulties at night. I know we will get through it; it's just been a little difficult. You know you are overtired when your 15 year old students are asking you if you are, in fact, tired. They can't even begin to imagine...