This afternoon Dez and I decided to take our beautiful baby boys down to the park for some fresh air.
Ethan is still a bit young to fully appreciate the outdoors, but Max absolutely loved it. He watched the big kids riding around on their bikes, played with the grass, crawled around and generally had a really good time.
It was a welcome change from the usual afternoon play date Dez and I have. Max is normally a bit moody in the afternoons and gets grumpy easily. The change of scenery did wonders and he was too busy exploring to be grumbly.
Something we will definitely have to do more often!
My engagement ring broke last night. I was getting down on the floor to dry Max after his bath and my hand slipped and smashed into the door frame. I looked down at my hand and the diamond was missing from my ring. There were a few moments of panic when we couldn't find the stone, but eventually we did.
I'm going to drop it off at the jewellers at lunch time today. Hopefully the get it back to me really quickly. I feel a bit naked without it.
Being a parent is by far the most amazing and rewarding thing I have ever experienced in my life. So I can only imagine the feeling when you become a grandparent. Seeing your babies have babies of their own must make you feel like you are going to burst!
We we're fortunate enough to have quite a few family members come and visit us last week. First up was my Mum. She hadn't stayed with us for about 8 weeks and Max had so many new things to show her. He crawled around like a demon, stood up (with some help from me), showed his Grandma that he could feed himself and topped it all off with a monster tantrum! Luckily Mum loves him unconditionally :)
Today I spent the entire day hanging out with Max and my adorable niece Ava.
Seeing as I am Ava's funniest Aunt (so much fun that apparently she doesn't think that I'm a grown up and double checks everything with her Mum to find out if I actually know what I'm talking about or if I am just making stuff up again...) I decided to plan a super-fun day for the three of us.
We started the morning off with the Big Man's famous pancakes. Even Max thinks they are delicious.
Then we hit the town.
First stop was the petting zoo. Ava had an absolute ball patting all the baby animals, watching the baby chickens in their cage, getting licked by a calf and watching a piglet having a bottle. Max really enjoyed it to, I think he was itching to get in amongst the animals and touch them.
Next up we headed to a huge indoor playcentre. Max and Ava both had a blast here. Max even got to experience his first time down a slide. He loved it so much that he started laughing, so cute!
We topped it all off by heading to Hungry Jacks for a late lunch and more playtime.
We're back home now, both Max and Ava went down for naps without any fuss at all and are still sound asleep two hours later. Bliss.
It was such a fun day, I can't wait to do it all again some time soon.
8 months is everything I imagined and so much more. You are a fun, smiley, happy, laughing baby boy. Every day with you is fun and every day is a new adventure.
About five weeks ago you started to show signs that you were thinking about crawling. It started out with you rocking back and forwards on your hands and knees. Then you started to experiment with different ideas. Some days you would be raising up a hand, the next day moving your legs. Every day Daddy and I would look at each other and say 'he's so close to crawling!'. It took a little bit longer than we expected, but one day about a week ago we looked down at our feet and there you were properly crawling around! No more falling down every couple of paces, you really have the hang of it now. You chase after Cooper and go after the things you want. We are so proud of you!
The next biggest change we've noticed is playtime. You don't really like to be in one spot anymore, you like to crawl around on the floor playing with your toys and chasing Cooper. You spend ages crawling over to where Cooper is, reaching out and touching him, only for him to get up and walk away. Again and again and again! And you love it :)
Your have heaps of toys (mainly hand-me-downs from Cousin Ava) to play with, but your favourite toy in the world at the moment is your plastic fish. Your 25 cent plastic fish. I love that you get so much joy from simple things!
There is one sad part about you growing up so quickly and that is that you're not a fan of cuddles anymore. You still like being held and sitting in our laps. But snuggly, sleepy cuddles? Not on your life! You push us away and kick up a big fuss, especially if you think there is a chance that we might be tricking you into sleeping. I miss those beautiful sleepy snuggles that we used to have. But all the exciting new things that you are learning help to make up for it.
We love you so much Max. You are everything that we could have ever hoped for and so much more.
Ever since Max was really little he has been having showers, mainly with the Big Man and sometimes with me. He loves them. He gets to hang out with Mum and Dad and gets to play in the water, perfect!
I figured, seeing as he loves showers so much, that baths would be the most fun ever. Wow, how wrong was I! Bath time very quickly became Max's least favourite time of the day. The only way we could bath him without him screaming the house done was to hop in the tub with him.
About a week ago that all changed. All of a sudden the bath toys I had been bribing him with became interesting enough to distract him.
Now he loves baths! We get smiles and giggles and the only tears are when it's time to hop out. Thank goodness. I can't imagine a Queenslander that doesn't love the water :)
