Feeding....

Yes, I'm aware that I'm the absolute worst about blogging, and I have no excuses left (except the full-time job and nine-month old) but if anyone is still listening, Max and I appreciate it. I am working through all the holiday photos to upload a bunch, but in the meantime, I have to discuss the feeding process that has been driving me somewhat crazy.

First of all, the products...having a baby is kind of like having a new roommate who doesn't pay rent, takes up a ton of space, racks up the bills, and refuses to clean up after themselves. Exhibit A - check out our dishwasher last night. And no, those pastel colored bowls aren't Charlie's.

Secondly, and most importantly, the cooking/reading/studying/deciding, etc. and all that goes into making sure your child is healthy, developing, well-fed, full of vitamins but not pesticides and hormones, gets enough iron so he isn't anemic, learns how to strengthen his jaw and chew properly, picks up his own foods, you are not harming the environment or wasting money or looking like an idiot is EXHAUSTING. I've now read three books on baby food, each with their own point of view (eat meat vs. don't eat meat, be very careful vs. be very free and let them enjoy, babies need a myriad of vitamins and foods vs. babies only need breast milk, baby should avoid all salts and spices vs. baby should try everything we eat, make sure everything is smaller than a cheerio vs. let them "gnaw", each meal should have a mixture of vitamins A, K, C and E, (no joke) etc. etc. etc. I won't go into the details anymore but its downright overwhelming - not to mention I have a deathly fear of him choking and therefore hold my breath which eat bite he takes.

Bottom line - I request to all the authors out there - if you are writing a book about baby food and eating, DO NOT pretend you are care-free, casual, and that it's all so easy. Accept that if you are invested enough to write a whole book about feeding your baby, you are pretty into it and you spend a lot of time and effort on the topic....HMPH.

Anyways, I guess this new roommate is all worth it, especially since he has taken to reading SKINNY ON books :)

Gobble Gobble

As always, it's taken me a while to get all my photos up but Thanksgiving was simply WONDERFUL - we had such a lovely time having a Florida turkey day with the family around and I actually let Max eat some turkey (organic, of course). We were so sad to miss the Manuel clan and the extended Biernbaum clan in CT, but since we can't travel as much these days, it was nice that we didn't end up alone...thanks to Mom for heading up the cooking marathon and Dad's touching speech :) and of course, to E and Phoebs for making the trip down...

And hey - Thanksgiving on the beach ain't bad (hint, hint, above family members) - see Max on Turkey day below.

Additional photos from the weekend, hard to choose there were so many cute ones!

Almost mobile

I will upload all the amazing photos of our wonderful Thanksgiving with the family, but I took this video and wanted to share quickly - Max is VERY close to crawling....

So far, he is pretty mobile by rolling around the floor, "scooting" backwards, and going from sitting up to landing flat on his face, or "falling with style" in the words of Woody from Toy Story.

He is getting so frustrated, I feel bad for the little guy but it's pretty cute nonetheless...

p.s. this video took almost a week to upload as you can see, kept freezing my new MAC, i sure hope i didnt make a mistake going non-PC....

I wear my sunglasses at night....

Maria took a really funny picture the other day - not sure if these glasses really do anything at all but he looks funny in them.

My Future's so bright, I gotta wear shades...

By the way, people keep telling me they can't make comments on the blog :( Keep trying - I'm not sure why it doesn't work, but I love seeing them! I'll see if I can figure out the problem.

Food!

Max is really enjoying the introduction of foods, he takes to it like a fish to water (not exactly suprising given who his mother is)....Thus far, he likes just about everything - but prefers for it to be homemade....great, this has been interesting.

In the long tradition of apple-eating Randels, I let him suck the juice from my granny-smith the other day, and while he certainly found it "tangy" I definitely think he liked it! Even Linc tried to get in on the action. Other intro-eating pics below...

"TREAT OR TREAT NOT, THERE IS NO TRICK..."

I know, I'm the worst blogger EVER. But, I haven't had a good computer for over a month, all I have is an old desktop IN Max's room which makes it pretty impossible to blog after work when he is sleeping...ANYWAYS, new computer arrives next week - I will blog so much you'll all be sick of us :)

Last night was Max's first Halloween...I've definitely been low-key about the whole thing, I didn't really see the point in making a fuss since he doesn't eat candy, which means we would dress him up, walk around, and end up eating candy ourselves which I need like a hole in the head. BUT, last minute G-ma and aunty Lynn decided to come down and we ended up having a WONDERFUL night. Max was Yoda (partly because Charlie is a Star Wars geek...ok, he has made me a Star Wars geek too, and partly because we thought Max looked like Yoda as a newborn - side note, I think all newborns look like Yoda).

We started the night walking on Lincoln to see all the craziness (another side note, I wanted to dress Lincoln like Yoda also but charlie said it was mean), then went to a wonderful dinner on Espanola. All the Italian waiters were dressed up, singing, dancing, and playing with Max, and he was LOVING it...singing along, laughing, playing, getting a bottle from G-ma (as Aunt Lynny and I polished off a few bottles ourselves) and just being wonderful :) It was a truly FUN night.

Dress rehearsal, turns out the hat is a bit too small underneath. What, it's not like he has ten chins?!?

I decided he needed to do it up anyways...it just wasn't the same otherwise. He loves me.

Sitting!

Rather quickly, Max has suddenly decided he can sit up on his own. We began leaning him against pillows which quickly turned into sitting him semi-upright and leaning against toys, then he progressed to sitting on his own bent in half (Maria says "Max is making yoga"), and in a matter of days he was sitting perfectly straight on his own.

Now we love to watch him balancing and learning how to stay upright longer and longer (while playing Moraccas, nonetheless). Charlie says he'll be at the sink when I'm playing on the floor with Max and he can just see Max's head bobbing up and down and side to side as he works his little tummy muscles to stay up. Now, when he "makes yoga", he tries to eat his toes then comes back up - another feat of strength...

See the progression below, yes we prefer sitting practice in the nude.