Peaches & Scream*

(*Alternate title: "I really love your peaches, want to shake your tree" rejected because it sounds vaguely inappropriate for reasons that aren't entirely clear.)

Max had his first solid food a few days after his six month birthday.  Chris whipped him up some fresh pureed peaches and I pulled out my old Benjamin Bunny china baby bowl that BB saved all these years for future grandbabies.
 
For fear of retribution from She Who Does Not Want Baby Brother Sitting in Her High Chair, Chris held Max in his lap for the big moment.

The stage was set.  It was time to see what Max is made of.  Peaches, apparently.

First bite.

"Hey, what is this stuff?"

"MMmmMMmmm, peeeeaaachhheeessss.  Why have you people been holding out on me???"
 

It's been about a week and Max is doing great.  For now we're only feeding him solid food in the evening.   Much to my disappointment, it hasn't decreased his desire to eat throughout the night, but I know that will improve with time. 

The good news is that my my Jedi mind-trick worked with Scarlett; she is now happily sitting in her "big girl" booster chair at all of her meals and Max has taken over Scarlett's "baby" high chair, which is now outfitted with a manly red cushion in place of Scarlett's pink polka dot cushion.  Scarlett loves to help feed Max, and surprisingly, she's pretty good at it.  Plus, it offers her the perfect opportunity to boss him around, although she's equally generous with praise as she is with orders.  Phrases such as "no, baby brother, put your hands down!"  or "no, Max, don't bite the spoon!" are usually followed by "good bite, Max!" or "awesome job!"

"I want to hold him."

As I reported in an earlier post, Max is sitting up now but still needs spotting. (This was reinforced today when I left him sitting up on his own on the rug in the playroom and turned my back for a second only to hear a resounding *thunk*, turned around, and found him face-planted on the floor. Scarlett reenacted the scene several times with much dramatic flourish, including whacking her own head on the floor and fake-crying to make it as realistic as possible. Look out Meryl Streep Susan Lucci.)

Now that Max can sit up and reach out and grab things, I am slowly starting to see a shift in their relationship. Scarlett continues to be very sweet to Max. And Max continues to stare at Scarlett adoringly, laughing at just about anything she says and does. But these days there's a lot more grabbing of Scarlett's things by Max, and a lot more "no, baby brother!" and "no, Max -- that's mine!" from Scarlett. Once he's mobile, I suspect Scarlett will be beside herself trying to protect her things from his grasp and scolding his every move. (Last week, Scarlett (the Queen of No) gave Max an ironic lecture on saying no. "NO, Max. Don't say 'no' to me. Stop saying 'no'!" Max of course was saying nothing and smiling happily, but Scarlett must have used her baby ESP skills to sense that he was thinking it.  Babies can be really sneaky that way.)

In the meantime, I'm savoring the sweet hugs and kisses Scarlett gives Max and her frequent requests to hold him while she still finds him huggable and while he is still willing to indulge her.






(Don't they look just alike in this last picture?)

Max is Six Months Old! (May 17, 2012)

Max-a-million is six months old, and he has all kinds of big news to share:  He can sit up all by himself!  He has a tooth!  He started eating solids!  He was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys!  Ok, so the last one may or may not be true, but nevertheless, that's a lot of excitement for a (not so) little guy.

Speaking of being not so little, at his 6 month exam with Dr. Curry, Max weighed 19 pounds 14 ounces and was 28 inches tall.  Both measurements are in the 90th percentile for boys.  (By comparison, Scarlett was 18 pounds 9 ounces and 28 inches long at six months, so Brother has her outweighed by well over a pound.  My poor, poor back.)

He still needs to be spotted a bit when sitting up -- just in case -- and he's too unsteady to place on a hard surface, but on a bed, rug, grass, etc. he's pretty much good to go.  (Note that the photos in this post were taken before we cut his hair.)

As for the tooth, one of his bottom front teeth decided to finally poke out of his gums on his 6 month birthday after months of incessant gnawing.  Even though it's baaaarely there (and too small to successfully be captured on camera) that little sucker is razor-sharp.  Max continues to chew on anything he can get in his mouth, so more teeth are surely soon to follow.  There will be a separate post about his first meal of solid food, but not surprisingly, he eats like a champ.

Max loves playing in his exersaucer, watching the cars drive by on Colorado, grabbing his feet, chewing on his hands, and watching Scarlett do just about anything.

A few more shots of sweet, happy Max ...

Relaxing with Mommy on Mother's Day.

Max and his Daddy.

Lucky boy got to spend his six month birthday with Mimi and Papa Tig, too!  (And of course big sister Scarlett.)

Happy six month birthday, precious boy!

Max's First Haircut

I finally took the plunge and cut Max's hair.

Before.* 

After.

LOOK OUT, LADIES.  

(*In fairness, I should point out that I brushed his hair into this wild 'do for a more dramatic "before" picture.  His hair was a bit crazy before, but not THAT crazy.)

Sharing is overrated

Max will be six (!) months old next week, and that means that solid food is just around the corner.  Chris and I have been discussing whether to get an additional high chair for Max, or whether to transition Scarlett to a booster seat and let Max use her high chair.  We decided to stick with just one high chair and figured we'd talk up the "big girl" booster seat, Scarlett would fall for it, and we'd have one less baby contraption to add to our ever-expanding collection.
 
Last night I stashed Max in the high chair for a few minutes while we were getting dinner ready.  (The balloons are leftovers from the shower we hosted earlier in the day for Penny and baby Alysse.)  Sister got one look at Max in her high chair and was NOT PLEASED.  Tears.  Drama.  Howling.  Max's expressions are just as funny as Scarlett's, ranging from startled, to concerned, to confused.

"Hey, why is baby brother in my high chair?!"

  "NOOOOOOO!!!"

"Get him OOOUUUUUTTT!!!"

"It's MIIIIIINNNNNEEE!!!"

Poor Scarlett.  What could be worse than your baby brother sitting in your high chair?  Nothing.  Nothing could be worse.  It's so profoundly terrible, in fact, that Scarlett could only make eye contact with the floor after the initial "outburst" phase was over.  Max, on the other hand, was making all kinds of eye contact that pretty clearly said something along the lines of, "Can somebody please explain what just happened?  I was just hanging out in this chair with these sweet balloons and I have absolutely NO idea why things went so very, very wrong.  Anybody?  Anybody?"

Max, I suspect this is the first of many times that your sister's actions befuddle you.  Just roll with it, buddy.  And good luck to you.