Daddy's Little Wingman

Okay...so by tomorrow, I actually meant like 5 days, ha! Here are a few cute pics of Maverick wearing his "Top Gun" shirt his Aunt Jo bought him. :)



His shirt says, "Daddy's Little Wingman"



I love those wrinkly faced smiles! (he snorts when he smiles like that)

Pictures tomorrow, I promise!

Sorry that this is the 2nd post without pictures, gasp! I promise I will have some up tomorrow or Sunday. Sunday Maverick turns 10 months old! Holy Guacamole!!!!!

I'm supposed to be enjoying some "me" time right now. Robbie took Mav to friday night youth group, and I stayed home to relax away my headache. It's funny though, all I've done since they've left is clean the house, ha ha! I tried sitting on the sofa...but the house was just glaring at me...and I couldn't relax in such a crazy mess. So pretty much all my usual Saturday cleaning is done tonight. :)

It's funny--what takes me 3 to 5 hours on Saturdays to get clean, I finished in an less than an hour tonight! I forgot how nice it is to clean a house without my son climbing up my leg, ha!

Loaded the dishwasher without him climbing into it, or pulling the dishes out.

Cleaned the bathroom without having to detain Mav to the crib. (he likes to climb into the bathtub)

Did a load of laundry without carrying Maverick in the basket. (which is sort of fun, I have to admit)

Vacuumed the floor without having to put Maverick in his Jeep walker. (he likes to pull the vacuum over...while I'm vacuuming)

Restocked the nursery supplies (diapers, wipes, etc) without Mav climbing up the changing table and pulling everything off the shelves. (but I kept the boxes, he LOVES those)

And then I poured a nice glass of diet pepsi and grabbed a bag of goldfish crackers. (without Mav pulling on my arm, with his mouth open for a cracker)


Now...to enjoy some Netflix.

Except, I'm feeling kinda lonely. Hope the boys come back soon! :)

Late Night Post

Ah, this is nice. As I type it's almost midnight. The house is very quite (except the occasional rumble of thunder) with everyone, including the dog, fast asleep. And the best part is sitting at my computer in front of two big windows watching the rest of the storm rumble on to the next city. Oh, and enjoying one of my favorite snacks--which is chips'n'salsa.

Here in the midwest a storm usually blows out as quickly as it blows in, but not tonight. It's been a while since we've had severe storms hang around for a few hours without fizzling out. We pulled the Jeep in the garage because it started to hail, and we lost our power for a bit. It's been one of those really awesome electrical storms with the beautiful lightning that scurries across the sky.

Fortunately the crazy weather doesn't phase Maverick when he's sleeping. Although, tonight as I was walking home from my parents' house (I love that they live close enough to walk to!) the lightning was starting to light up the sky and Maverick cried the whole way home. Not sure if he was crying at the lightning or the bumpy ride from me running us the entire way home. :)

I can't believe this week marks the beginning of fall. Fall is my favorite time of year!! Halloween is fun, but my heart LOVES Thanksgiving and Christmas. There is just no better time of year. I may or may not start listening to Christmas music by the middle of October...

The holidays have always been such a wonderful thing to look forward to. As crazy as it gets with us, I love getting together with all my family. Such wonderful memories! I love all my family so much, they are awesome.

And this year we get to celebrate Maverick's first birthday! It is SO perfect that he was born on Thanksgiving. God is just cool like that. :) Something I'll never forget--during one of my last NST's of my pregnancy the nurse was trying everything to get Maverick to be active for the monitoring (drinking orange juice, etc).

Once the nurse and I started talking about all the things we love about Thanksgiving, Maverick started moving and kicking around like crazy! He must have been planning his visit. :)

Maverick's (current) holy grail

This week has been MUCH better with bath and bedtime. :) Woo hoo! Still not sure why all the craziness...but we survived, ha!

I wish I had a video camera other than my phone. Maybe I'll score one for my birthday or Christmas. This week Mav is perfecting the "tongue click". Its so cute! It' pretty easy to get him to do it, since he's really into mimicking right now.

Everyday Maverick's sole purpose is to reach the holy grail--which is apparently the keyboard and mouse to our desktop computer. He grunts, whines, cries, and fully extends to his tippy toes to play with them. This is what I usually see almost every minute of everyday, ha ha!



Look at ALL the other stuff he could be getting into. Only the keyboard and mouse will do.



If you're wondering why we have diaper boxes everywhere, it's our temporary solution to Mav climbing on everything and keeping him away from power cords and stuff.


(He knows the sound of the camera switch. It's almost impossible to get a candid shot anymore!)

Mav is getting pretty brave with the furniture cruising. If he's standing next to the couch, he will extend his hand and transfer to the coffee table. (which often results with a bump on the head)

My kid thinks he is a dog, I think. It makes sense. The only other creature in the house his size is a perfect role model: using all fours to get around, playing with toys on the ground, scrounging for food, and communicating through grunts. Ha ha!

If I'd let him, he'd go outside with Belle too. (maybe that's a good idea when potty training arrives!) This is where he watches her while she's out there. Just stands there with his nose against the window.



But then he gets SO happy when I let her back in.



And they can continue their daily antics together. :)

What happened?!

Maybe it's just been a bad 2 weeks for bedtime around here...but I'm starting to really miss how easy it was to give Maverick a bath and put him to bed when he was a small baby. (and I thought that was hard!)

Let's start with bath time. It was so easy to put him in the little baby tub, and he just laid there buggy-eyed while I washed him. The only 'tricky' part was making sure everything was rinsed well. (sigh)

Apparently Maverick thinks sitting down for baths are too babyish now. He gets SO excited to see his reflection in the knob that he goes C R A Z Y trying everything he can to get to it.

I end up soaked and covered in soap, with a death grip on Maverick so that he doesn't slip and fall while he's thrashing around. Picture a 3 yr old tantrum (stiff body, red faced one minute and wildly flinging arms & legs the next).

I tried covering up the knob. No bueno. Dern "object permanence memory"! ;)

Meanwhile, after the crazy bath comes bedtime. Which used to be so lovely, ha ha! I could lay Mav down in his crib while he was still awake, and he would seriously soothe himself to sleep. No problems at all. And he would sleep straight through 10 hours. Or even better, he would just fall asleep before he finished his night bottle.

Now, after his night bottle and we start walking down the dark hallway, he is already squirming to get out of my arms. He doesn't want to be held (because that would make him succumb to his obvious need of sleep), but then as soon as I lay him down he screams.

What ends up happening is this: I lay him down. He cries. After a few min I come in and soothe him. He cries when I leave. Repeat for 30 minutes until he finally falls asleep.

And then he wakes up at least once a night now, if not two or three times. If I don't get up and rock him back to sleep, who knows how long he would stay up. Yikes!

Please tell me this is just a phase!

Meanwhile, seeing this face all day does make it worth it I suppose. :)

Lots 'o Stuff to Remember

I just realized I never posted Maverick's 9 month update. Oh well, ha! That was like 2 weeks ago and it seems like he is doing so much more now. This post is a bunch of stuff that I want to document for my sake. :)




Maverick is huge. Literally the size of a 1 year old. Although, it seems like he is getting more lean than chunky nowadays. It's probably because he is climbing up EVERYTHING!




Seriously, I can't stand still for more than 10 seconds in the same spot without Mav climbing up my leg. The only way I can get dishes done is if I hop back and forth, dancing around Maverick so he can't get a good grip. It's a great work out! Although, I feel bad because this lasts about 15 minutes before Maverick starts crying from frustration.




Forget toys. The only thing he wants to do all day is pull himself up on the couch, window sill, tv desk, computer desk, chairs, walls, and even the dishwasher. I can't load or unload the dishes unless he is in his highchair. He is tall enough now to reach the top rack, so he will grab it and start to fall over when the rack rolls into the dishwasher. Aghhhhhh! And I thought a newborn was hard work!!



Everyday he has a new bump, bruise, or scratch. People must think we abuse him, lol! He is starting to get bored with just hanging on to furniture. He is now pivoting away from the sofa (or whatever) and holding his arm out for balance. I am so not ready for a walking child!!



Mav can wave hello and bye-bye. Just today as I dropped him off at Nana's house he waved 'bye-bye' to me before I got the chance to wave to him first. He also gives "high fives" too. It's really fun. :)

Last weekend he went on his first boat ride. We went down to the Boathouse in Forest Park and rented a couple paddle boats. I think Mav would've had a better time if it weren't for a few things:
1) The smallest life jacket there was still huge on him, and it squished his face the entire time. And I think he was pretty hot wearing it.
2) He was battling a bad cold (ooey gooey runny nose)
3) Lack of sleep from teething



Hopefully his next experience in a boat will involve fishing. :)


I'm pretty sure his top teeth are trying to push through. He has been waking up frequently at night and he has been increasingly fussy. Sometimes he takes forever to finish a bottle and I might have to put some Orajel on his gums.

I have a ton of cute pictures I wanted to add to this post, but it's almost midnight. And I get up at 5:30am for work...so next time! :)

Lastly, we're still working on self feeding and transitioning to a sippy cup. I've never heard of a baby who doesn't put anything in their mouth...Maverick is the only one I think. Which is lovely, except I don't think he quite gets the idea that food is okay to shove in there.

Granted, his pincer grasp still needs a lot of practice. He tends to get frustrated easily and just smacks the food everywhere instead of trying to pick it up. When he does get food in his hands I try to guide his hand to his mouth, but that makes him mad. He stiffens his arm and drops the food. (sigh!)

For months now I have been leaving food on his tray to let him explore in hopes that he will just figure it out. Eventually he will...right?! It always ends up everywhere but his mouth, or in Belle's mouth, ha ha! She anxiously awaits any falling morsel of food by waiting underneath his high chair.

Okay I lied, one more thing. It's pretty hilarious. Maverick growls all the time. I think it's because he LOOOOOOOOVES his "sister" Belle. He likes to follow her around and pester her to no end. Plays in her food and water bowls without cease. Pulls and tugs on her, and Belle is super nice about it. If it were any other person she'd nip at them. But she loves her little brother...I think. Ha ha!