An overdue Max update

It's been ages since I've posted, so I figure its about time for a big Maxine update! Lets see...

She started walking the week before Halloween. That was right at the 15 month mark. She walked with our assistance starting at 8ish months, but she only just got the nerve to let go! She was walking with one hand for a month or two, then one day got confident enough to try it on her own. Once she figured out she could, she figured out she could also stand up by herself in the middle of the room. We got some funny face-plants while she was learning though! She still walks with her hands up by her ears, since she's been doing it so long that way. She's starting to drop them, but throws them right back up when she starts to wobble and lose balance.

She has just recently decided that it's ok to try new foods that are savory, instead of sticking with our beloved fruits. She's tried everything lately, from chicken nuggets to fried okra (plus some healthy things in between, I promise). She doesn't love it all, but it's progress just to have her be willing to give it a shot.

She's learning to use a spoon and fork, and while she still needs us to put the food on the utensil for her, she's pretty good at getting it into her mouth. She's also learning to use an open cup. I'm sure that one is a long way off, but she has a lot of (wet) fun trying.

She's not talking yet, but she makes the general sounds of words - 'a' (like at) for cat, 'il' for milk, so she's getting there. I don't qualify it as real words since she doesn't repeat them or use them to ask for things, and really, lots of things are 'a' these days. But she's getting there!

Now on to the good stuff...some photos from the last few months!

From Maxine Month 15

From Maxine Month 15

From Maxine Month 15

From Maxine Month 15

From Maxine Month 16

From Maxine Month 16

From Maxine Month 16

The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly

I recently had a 'spa afternoon' at a local salon. I had an eyebrow wax, massage, and ended with a haircut. The wax/massage were great, but EEK on the haircut. The stylist did the whole thing - wash/cut/dry in about 25 minutes total, and sent me away looking like this (taken as soon as I got home from the cut)

From worst haircut ever

I think when I walk out of a cut/style, my hair should look better than it'll ever look again! And while the stylist didn't butcher me, my hair didn't look particularly good either.

Once again, a well thought-out letter saves the day. I let the salon know of my experience, maturely and calmly (and in detail), and the owner re-did my hair this afternoon. She showed my original photos to the stylist who did my hair, and when asked what he thought of the cut he said 'BLECH!' without realizing he had done it. They were both extremely apologetic about my experience, and now I have a great cut and they have a happy client. Ahhhh I love good service! Here's me now. :-)

From worst haircut ever

No TV Before 2...

I guess this is why that recommendation is there!

From Maxine Month 14

I don't think I'm frying Max's brain by letting her watch Sesame Street, but I can see how it could get easy to stick your kid in front of something captivating so you can get a few things done.

The summer of contests!

Here's yet another amazing one I found!

Win a Bum Genius 3.0 Starter Kit from Nature's Child - Wholesome Goods for Mothers and Babies

Holy Babywearing!

Win the Essential Babywearing Stash from Along for the Ride (one Beco Butterfly, one Hotsling baby pouch, one BabyHawk Mei Tai, one Zolowear Ring Sling, and one Gypsy Mama Wrap)

50 Foot Trees

A couple of nights ago during one of the terrential downpours that is apparently quite common during the North Carolina summer, the wind started picking up and the trees started swaying.

Now, these aren't just 'trees'. These are Trees. They are very tall, very thin, well, there is a forest behind our house! So the fifty foot tall trees are swaying back and forth during the thunderstorm, and I'm watching them in awe wondering how they stay up. Then in a flash I see one fly over and crash down - right on top of the playset!! Upon further inspection it was a near miss to the playset, thank goodness, and it landed about 5' to the right, probably missing it by just inches.

Now the one a couple feet to the left of the fallen tree has a big chunk missing from the trunk, presumably where it started to break during the storm. Guess we're rolling the dice on that one!

She's getting so big!

I thought it was time for a Maxine update so here goes.

She's been crawling now for about 3 weeks. She learned to pull up about a week ago and she's been slowly and carefully cruising the furniture. Her favorite activity is walking with mom or dad, and she's getting enough courage to let go with one hand. She's gotten super fast at crawling too so there's no more leaving her for just a second while I do something. She's off before I know it!

She's got 6 teeth now, 4 on top and 2 on the bottom. Hopefully those teeth will take a break for awhile, 6 weeks ago she had NO teeth. wz`

She's EXTREMELY social and grunts hello at everyone who passes by. If they don't turn and talk to her, she grunts again, louder! Hey!! Lookit me!! She continues to get a ton of attention, primarily because of her big blue eyes that everyone asks about since mom and dad are both brown eyed.

She's sweet natured and rarely gets upset. If she's hungry she tells you, but otherwise she's a quiet kid who just watches the world.

She's learning to dance and loves to jump and rock on her legs. She loves to swing on the playset and could it for hours.

The hundred degree heat isn't phasing her, she doesn't make a peep!

Finally, here are some Max photos over the last month.

Ignore the bad grammar...

But enjoy the photos: http://icanhascheezburger.com/category/invisible/

The Bachelorette

I've never watched The Bachelor OR The Bachelorette before, but for whatever reason (probably the lack of Tivo the last week or so) I was drawn into the previews. So here I am, it's nearly midnight on a Tuesday and I'm finishing the second episode of The Bachelorette. It's so odd, this artificial environment where 15 men are trying to fall in 'love' with one woman they have never met, yet just know she is The One. Seeing the testosterone come out (particularly with several of professional athletes - one being a mullet-loving shiny-suit-wearing martial artist), the competitive nature of the show is I imagine more pronounced than in the shows where 15 women are after one man (though I have no doubts the catfights abound there too).

It's weird, and I sit and judge these people for trying to find love in this 21st century way, but I am still watching. I wonder what that says about me...

I am just sad the oyster farmer didn't make the cut.

I used to be smarter.

45

Oh it's funny...

If you've paid attention to YouTube for the last year or two, you'll get a kick out of this.

When it rains, it pours

In the last month or so, Max has:

Gotten FIVE teeth (4 on top all came in a few days when I posted about her teeth a few weeks ago, and we just noticed one on the bottom this evening)
Learned to get to sitting from lying
Learned to get to hands and knees from sitting
Learned to crawl
Is trying to walk (assisted by mom, but she can get a good four feet pretty solidly)

There may be more. She clearly likes to lump things together!

Closed On Sundays

As it turns out, half of Chapel Hill is closed on Sundays. Lawrence drove from place to place trying to find us lunch that wasn't Quiznos. BBQ place - Closed. Local delicious deli - Closed. We ended up with Subway. Sigh.

Another interesting Chapel Hill (and greater Triangle area) thing is that liquor sales are regulated by the government. Some counties are actually dry, but the ones that aren't sell hard alcohol only in the government-run ABC Stores. Oh yeah, and that stands for Alcohol and Beverage Control, courtesy of the agency aka 'commission' of the same name.

Weird.

And she's crawling...

I asked Maxine nicely at least 27 times to please wait to crawl until we moved to North Carolina. She obliged...by 1 week! So at just a week shy of 10 months, I think it's safe to say she's officially crawling. While she hardly qualifies as 'all over the place' she is on hands and knees going in a mostly-forward direction. She's been rolling her way to where she wants to be for awhile now, but she's never been really motivated to get anywhere. But tonight she's enjoying practicing her new skill and is all over the place! Roll, crawl crawl, fall on face, roll, crawl some more. It's fun!

Yeast, kelp, and water.

That's what's going in my sofa and area rug right now. After a disastrous carpet cleaning a few weeks ago, Max and I both started getting reactions to the chemicals used. Max got rashes on her arms and legs after coming into contact with the 'clean' carpet, and I got joint aches after walking or crawling around on them. It was easy to figure out with Max - no rash, crawl on carpet for 10 minutes, raging red rash on bare skin that was in contact with the floor (when this didn't happpen at all pre-cleaning). But for me, I just felt achey and though maybe I was coming down with something, or not getting enough sleep or something. Then I started noticing it would happen only after I was walking with bare feet on the carpet, or after wearing a short sleeve shirt while sitting on the couch for extended periods (like while knitting).

I looked into some options to remove the chemicals, and settled on a natural carpet cleaning service, Naturell, http://naturellclean.com/. When I spoke with the owner of the company and mentioned the weird joint thing and that I wasn't sure it was related, he said YES indeed, joint pain can be a common reaction to the chemicals in the cleaning agents traditional carpet cleaning uses. As for Max's rash, he thought that was likely a reaction to the detergent/deodorizers used (like you may get a rash when switching to a new soap or laundry detergent). It all made sense to me, so I figured it couldn't hurt at this point, I needed to do something! Max had been playing on a sheet but since she's mobile(ish) now, I can't really keep her on it, so every time she wanders off she ends up with a nasty rash.

So that brings us to today. My couch and area rug are currently being cleaned with an unscented, organic mixture of kelp, yeast, and water. There is some sort of fermentation process that activates surfectants, making the mixture worthy of being a cleaning agent. Cross your fingers for us! And regardless, we will be doing all carpet/upholstery cleaning with a 'green' service from now on. I only hope we can find something similar to Naturell in NC!

We Have Teeth!

Max was super clingy and fussy yesterday, and fell asleep on me several times (unheard of!). This morning as I was feeding her, I noticed an odd scrape of the spoon against her top gums. WE HAVE TEETH! Top teeth, yes, two of them, of course she couldn't do it the 'normal' way. ;-) But there they are. Too bad little missy is still in a lot of pain as they finish breaking through, and her unexplained 103 fever isn't helping. Poor poor baby.

I rarely laugh out loud...

at least to stuff like movies or TV. But ohmygosh, watch this!

We're famous.

And no, this wasn't our wedding planner.

Everyone Likes Ice Cream!

Nuff said.

Rock 'n Roll

Max has officially started the up-on-the-knees-rock. Sort of like a lizard who fears a predator, except cuter. It looks like she'll be crawling before we know it. It seems her timing is impeccable - we move in 16 days! Will she wait until we move, or get going before? Hmmm...

It could have been an uncomfortable conversation

Virtual tour man comes to my house, shortly after the mail came in. Lucky me, my order from Homemade Mama had arrived and I had promptly opened the package and checked out my new items. Fast forward to the virtual tour man watching me clear off the couch to prep for the shot. He eyes the clear bag my items have arrived in.

VT Man: Those are nice, are those swatches? Are you decorating?
Me: No, they aren't swatches.
VT Man: Really, what are they?
Me: Um, do you really want to know?
VT Man: Yes, definitely.
Me: Those are cloth menstrual pads.
VT Man: Oh, so you wash them?
Me: Yes
VT Man: Neat.

When did she get so big?

Comparing Maxine to Tracy's precious little one week old son Oliver, the difference just 9 months can make is really astounding! Max is so big, no longer a helpless infant. Now she tries to crawl, throws fits (it's a fun new development), shows pride when she accomplishes things, and has really turned into a little lady. Where did my tiny newborn go?

Such a big girl.

Going once, going twice...

SOLD! The house is officially under contract and closes 5/13! It sold to a super nice fella with a big wad of cash for a down payment so escrow should be smooth sailing. :-)

Another thing we can cross off the list. Woot!

Teehee!!

Thanks to Meremy for finding fun videos on YouTube. :-)

Forty Three

That's the number of people that came to the open house today! Add to that the 7 parties that visited over the last couple of days, and the offer we already received (contingent, blech no thanks) and we are in good shape! I hesitate to mention it lest I jinx it, but I feel good enough about it to say I think we'll have this house sold soon!

Here's a link to the virtual tour. www.repsweb.com/vrtour/mbm/0408/1148lily/index.htm

Favorite Photos

Here are some current favs of Max!

Kissing Mommy



Kisses from Mommy



Family Portrait



Baby Portrait



Next Step: Childproofing



Trouble's Coming...

a too pooky aye mon tee, arda doo mo pu

That's what Max just said. I'm quite sure she was telling me that the fish tank is pretty and boy, what a nice day it is outside!

On a more serious note

I think every parent should watch this. I wish they would show it in the hospital when you have your baby. You can make whatever decision you feel is right for your family, but not without all the information. Please watch.

Do people not sue in Japan?

That's the only explanation for this. It's long. Trust me, it's worth it.

Holy Cow, Final Stretch!

This house goes on the market on Monday! This weekend will be a blur, just like the last couple of weeks. We've done landscaping, painting inside & out, carpet replacement, carpet & upholstery cleaning, window cleaning, moving (60% of our stuff lives in storage now), and next week will be the photos/virtual tour and The Big Tank Break-Down. Then the open house and hopefully, fingers crossed, it'll sell fast! Then double fingers crossed that our loan for the Chapel Hill house goes without a hitch. I can't believe we're actually moving to the opposite end of the world. Errr, ok, maybe just the United States. It's still far!

This kid is cute.

One day Max's friends Connor (4) & Aubrey (1) came over to play and were building towers and knocking them down. This was the first time the tower got knocked down when Max wasn't watching, and boy was she surprised by the noise! Ever since then, when she knocks over her tower she braces for the noise, even though she is the one making it! She braces before she even knocks, and since her eyes are squeezed so tightly shut, sometimes she misses and has to try again. Is that not the cutest thing ever? Of course it is.

I like it when you call me...

Beard Papas! I am seriously going to miss these little puffs of deliciousness. I just introduced my dear friends Nathan and Tracy to them, so hopefully the addiction will live on.

What Max and I are going to do tomorrow

I'm sure she's going to hold nice and still for mama, lol! She's just too squirmy for a normal ruck, she tries to climb off before I can get her good and strapped in, but this one with the chest belt looks promising!

Prefold, in all its glory

I finished this last week, so figured I'd finally post a photo. Too bad it is too short, but still, I think a pretty good job for my first real sewing project! Particularly since bamboo velour is so hard to work with, it's thin and slippery and bunchy. Next time I'll measure better and think more about my seam allowances. I was just sorta winging it this time.

It's here, it's here!

I have been waiting on this Goodmama Wishbox for MONTHS. It's finally here! So soft and squishy and delicious! Max likes them too.

The house on a hill

Or, should I say IN a hill - Chapel Hill! Here's our new house, we close on April 30. Yay!

I sew!!

I'm learning to sew and have actually made a few things that function. First was some cloth wipes which turned out a bit more trapezoid-y than square, but they work. Then I embellished and trimmed a prefold diaper so that it was shorter to fit Max better and pretty. Then yesterday I started a bamboo prefold, from scratch! It's all cut and laid out, here's all the parts. I got the soaker sewn so today I need to finish it up!

Yes you CAN wash a Whoozit

I searched and searched and searched, to no avail. How do you clean a Whoozit anyway? I mean, the baby chews and sucks on the thing, it gets thrown around on the cat hair-ridden carpet, and lord knows what other bodily fluids are crusted on its various parts. So you would think a good scrubbin' from time to time would be helpful. I couldn't find any instructions so since I have two big ones (thanks Mindi!) I figured what's the worst that could happen? One is ruined and we have a spare. Turns out, it machine washes just fine. You may want to avoid a tumble dry though, plastic parts like the triangle may melt. Not that I would know that. But an afternoon in the sun is probably a better idea.

I am going to miss my fish.

Since we are moving to North Carolina, I have to sell most of what's in my precious fish tank. I am going to miss these guys! Not to mention my favorite corals and all that yummy rock swarming with coralline and little buggers. Sigh.

Where life takes you...

I remember when I was in high school, filling out my memory book, I put that by the time I was 25 I would be a married pharmacist, getting ready to have a baby. Here I am, 30 (on the edge of 31), married for 3 years, and a stay at home mom to our first child, my 8 month old gorgeous and hysterical daughter. Pharmacy? Nah, I changed my major after 2 semesters. I went into advertising, online mostly, and had a good run at Google for 4 years. Who knew? And now, after 8 years in the Bay Area, we are picking up and moving to North Carolina. On to the next phase of life!

Back then I would have never figured myself for a hippie dippy crunchy stay at home environmentalist high-tech momma, but that's what happened. So here we are and I figure it's about time I started blogging about my life, if only to make a life memory book as I started in high school!