Evidence of a sleeping boy!

Here is the real evidence that Max sleeps quite nicely on his own. I was a little nervous about taking the picture especially since it was completely dark last night-but he slept like a rock and never wiggled!

I was even able to straighten him out and cover his feet with his blanket without so much as a squirm!

Adventures in Sleep Training!

I figured an update was in order.
We started making Max sleep in his crib last Monday night-a week ago. I assumed it would be this awful struggle and I prepared for the worst. I was completely determined to steel my heart against his screams and just let him cry it out. Thanks to some encouragement from a good friend (THANK YOU KIM) and a very supportive husband we got down to business at 8pm.

Well-my fears were for no reason apparently, the entire past 7 nights have gone extremely well! We give him a bath after dinner, let him play after that until about 7:45 and then he gets to read 2 books, say night prayers, nurse (he only nurses at this time and when he is first waking up-but these are going to both be phased out but 18months), then I put him in his crib and close the curtain. Yes-curtain. The way our house is (all 800sq ft) requires us to have a curtain between our side of the room and Max's area. So-the first night I laid him down (always awake) he cried for about 10min and then curled up on a pillow and he was out! The rest of the week only got better-now we are at about 2mins of whimpering and then he hugs up to his pillow and goes to sleep. Granted, he does wake up at about midnight still, but mean ole mommy doesn't respond to his halfhearted cries to come to bed with us. I will say that I am still struggling to not go and at least reassure him that we still love him and it is all OK. Everyone I talk to tells me that, due to Max's personality, this just wouldn't work. It would simply fuel his fire and he would scream way longer. I tend to agree but that doesn't make it easier! So-for a week now he has slept from about 8:15pm to 5:45am in his own bed! Yay to a good nights rest! Hopefully I am not jinxxing it by talking about our success. Oh well-it was too good to not tell you about.

This photo was taken during naptime-hence the fully clothed boy-we do put him in PJ's for night time. We use the cry it out technique for naptime also-with basically the same response, less than 10mins of tears!

First Ever Video!!!!!!!!!!

Celebrations!!!! I finally got a video to upload!!!!

This is our little boy walking-and he is just wearing a diaper and shoes courtesy of Cody, he thought it would be funny. He was right!

Introducing our little toddler! Pt 2

Now I can fill you in on everything else that has happened since the holiday season.

• Maxwell Joseph Lukas turned 1 on Jan 8 2010 *tear* Where did the year go?
  

  
  Jan 8 2009, 7:30AM

7lbs 5oz 21 inches

Jan. 8 2010

23lbs 32inches

• He now has 13 teeth and counting. He continues to bite anything that gets close to his mouth, including mommy while nursing. This has resulted in almost complete banishment from the boob. We are currently in the process of weaning him entirely-a long process since I am somewhat lazy in that area-it always seems like a quick and easy fix-just let him nurse....until he chomps down!


• He started walking the week of his birthday. He wasn't so interested in it until the next week when Baker came to visit. B turned 4 eight days after Max's birthday, so we did a joint birthday the next week. It was a ton of fun and hopefully a tradition that we will get to carry on for a few years-or until joint birthdays are no longer "cool"! So when Baker got here and started running around Max discovered that he couldn't keep up on all fours-thus the motivation to become vertical! Within a day our little boy really started going and hasn't slowed down since.

Happy to just be moving!

Now nothing under 40inches is safe

• He doesn't say much. To date the only real word he has said is "dadda" and as far as I can tell, he applies that to everything. He does know who "dadda" is and if I tell him to go bring Dadda a car he will do just that. However, he will also point to the bowl of noodles he is eating a say "dadda" or pat a DVD case and call it "dadda". So, while our language skills leave something to be desired, he is learning. If I ask him if he is ready to read a book he will point to his bookcase and grunt in that direction. Yes, grunting is his favorite and most frustrating mode of verbal communication. Lets just leave it at-it is a work in progress.
  
• He is now eating real food-THANK YOU GOD!!! He refuses to eat oatmeal, apple sauce or anything else that might be confused as baby food. He also has ZERO interest in "toddler food" like the ready made meals by Gerber. I never really intended to feed him those on a regular basis but out of curiosity I bought a couple and let him try them. His final answer-YUCK! He wouldn't let me get more than one bite past his lips and I can see why. Those little things are nasty and bland. The container said it was one serving and that one serving contained 450g of sodium-is it just me or does that seem excessive? Not to mention-for that much sodium it should taste spectacular but it doesn't. (I will go home and double check-but I am pretty sure it said 450g not 450mg-hmmmm-now I am second guessing) Anyway-I am not a nutritionist and if someone knows how much is a "healthy" amount feel free to enlighten me-I am always up to learn something. So you know what he wont eat, here are a few of his faves: pizza, cheeseburgers (he will NOT eat it without cheese), chili, spaghetti, tacos, cooked sweetened carrots, any bread. We haven't let him have any dairy-except cheese in/on things, no honey and no eggs. It may be a little silly but since those are a few of the most common allergy aggravaters we have opted to skip them until he is 18 months. There are plenty of other things in the world to eat. Oh-he LOVES guacamole-a child after my own heart!
  
• He currently love to dance to any music he hears and just yesterday he started singing along-very sweet!

• I will use another post to fill you in on our adventures in sleep training! Fun Fun!

Here are a few more pics to wrap this entry up-enjoy!

This is the weekend that Max started walking-he wouldn't let Baker get out of his sight!

Thank you Baker for being so patient!

Happy Birthday to both of the birthday boys!

Max's first introduction to snow-isn't he just the cutest little bear ever!

He is learning that books are not for eating-this is the first one that has captured his interest. All hope is not lost!

Introducing our little toddler!

OK-so I have missed a lot-more like a TON in the past month. In my defense-Max is now walking and sprouting teeth faster than I can keep up. Before I get to all of his milestones I need to tie up Christmas....

I said in the last post that I would explain what our "chairs" were. My whole life we have had them-it is just what mom does instead of wrapping all of our gifts. Each child gets a chair with their initial on it and on Christmas morning it is covered with all our little gifts like new socks, chocolate, a new flashlight, a few books and other smaller items that were from mom, dad and "Santa". The items on our chairs were what we got to enjoy before Mass-the gifts and breakfast were after.
So there you have it-we had a great Christmas!