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!

Goose eggs and Watermelons

Maverick earned his first (of many, many, I'm sure!) goose eggs on his forehead the other day. He is crawling around like a super pro, and pulling himself up on everything he can reach (or not reach!). He can even stand on his own for a couple seconds. I'm surprised he hasn't gotten a goose egg sooner, ha ha!



He was trying to climb the computer desk and lost his grip, and bonked his forehead.




Of course he did it the day before a scheduled check up with his doctor, ha! She gave him a high-five for being adventurous. I'm a bit behind on the blogging front, I still need to post his monthly growth pictures. (I'm writing this so I don't forget, I have mommy brain)

To get a bit sentimental for a moment, I remember when we first bought our house. I stood on the driveway and thought how awesome it would be that someday we might have kids and I would see their little faces in the door from the front yard. I love that this has become a reality. :)




I also wanted to post a blurb about the very tasty watermelon my dad grew in his garden. He also grows corn, a variety of peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers (which he pickled in jars), and pumpkins (which will hopefully be Maverick's first pumpkin this fall). I think he tried strawberries too but the rabbits got to them.

Congrats Dad, it was super juicy and deeeeeeeelicious! Looking forward to any venison meat in our future. :)

It's A...

I was VERY anxious to hear from my SIL Johanna yesterday. They went for their 15 week check up, and were hoping to find out the gender of baby i. (I was suprised that they were able to tell this early, but Jo said that the sonographer was able to work some magic!)

Of course the best thing is that Jo and the baby are doing well.

However, it is SOOOOOOOOOO great to know that I am going to have....

....A NEPHEW!!

That's right--"lower case i" is a BOY!!!

I am sort of bummed that my perfect record of guessing baby gender is now over.

But I gladly celebrate!!
Maverick is going to get in SO much trouble with his cousin.

Like, epic proportions, I'm quite sure. Ha ha!
What one doesn't think of, the other one will!!

Maverick's 1st Big Swing

Sooooo....I've been slacking a bit on the photos lately. Still taking a million--I've just been lazy about uploading them into the computer, ha!

Here is something to hold you over for a bit. This was the first time Maverick swung (went swinging?) in a big boy swing all by himself. We were out enjoying an evening with our friends, and their little boy Isaac, who is 7 months older than Mav.

Sorry the quality is so bad, my only video camera right now is my phone. It is capable of better quality, but if I use a larger file size I can't text it to my email.

Oh, and sorry for the slightly-over-the-top "mom" voice, ha ha! I was trying to capture the boys laughing, but my phone mainly picked up my voice.

Blogs and Babies

So I was just thinking: What did Moms do before blogging? It seems like the vast majority of bloggers out there are mommies who just like to share what is going on in their crazy life, with or without the hope that someone is reading. I think all of us bloggers just like the feeling of sending our memories out there as a way to connect to the outer world.



Maybe it's kinda like sharing a billfold of your child's picture at the water cooler to a coworker. Except minus the water cooler...and coworker. Ha ha!



I love to blog because it is a great way to record family memories. I haven't even bought a baby book yet (slaps wrist). I have been keeping all kinds of things for his book (everything from our hospital bands to his first Valentine), and I actually write down just about every silly milestone on a notepad hanging on the refrigerator...so that I can transcribe it all to a baby book. I just haven't found a baby book that I like. I may have to settle though. Maverick could be in 4th grade before it's done.

I think I might invest in having my blog published in a book. There are some really cool websites that will print every single post (with your pics) in a hardback book.


Can you guess why Maverick is SO excited?!


Maverick is going to have a new baby cousin arrive sometime around February 9, 2011!

I can't believe I haven't mentioned anything on here until now. But, anyone who actually reads this blog probably has already known for a while!

My sister-in-law Johanna and her husband Jon are expecting their first child. I am SO excited for them. Like, super duper excited! Even though life gets to be pretty nuts when you have a kid, that is what makes it all fun.

I don't want to jinx myself, but so far I've been 100% correct guessing the gender of all my friends' babies. My feeling for Jon & Jo is that "lower case i" is a girl. But everyone thought we were having a girl...so I could be way off. They are hoping to find out what it is at their next appointment. I will be clinging to my phone that day!

I've been incredibly jealous that Johanna hasn't had any nausea, and she is already into her 2nd trimester. NOT fair! I could barely choke down crackers for 16 weeks. Although, she deserves not having to deal with that yucky stuff. I know that she has had some pretty rough migraines to deal with.

Maybe Johanna will start a blog? Hint hint. Hint. Ha ha ha!

Day at the Beach

Okay, okay we don't have a real beach here in St. Louis. But we do have a Mighty Mississippi river, and plenty of really nice lakes. :) Yesterday evening we went to Creve Coeur lake.



Maverick experienced sitting in the sand for the first time and had lots of fun squishing the sand in his hands. Fortunately Maverick is a weird kid and doesn't put anything in his mouth so I didn't have to worry about him eating anything. Have you ever seen a baby that doesn't put anything in their mouth?? I haven't. (unfortunately this isn't a good thing when trying to teach him how to feed himself)



I had a brief thought of putting him in a swim diaper before I left, and I wish I would have. I should have known better to think that baby + water = a messy Maverick. I thought he was gonna plunge in face first a few times, ha!



Strollers are not meant for sand. I felt guilty for leaving our dog at home, since she loves this park. But I'm glad I left her at home because I looked silly enough trying to hold Mav in one hand and drag the stroller with the other.





Gotta love the feeling of wet sand on your feet, I do!



Maverick wrote this himself, ha ha!

One year ago today

I remember this day SO vividly. Having no insurance, I really didn't have any prenatal care until I was about 23 weeks along. My awesome doctor, whom I visited prior to losing our insurance, was so wonderfully nice to Robbie and I during the first few months of my pregnancy. He never charged us anything for all the visits I made from when I first found out I was pregnant to week 23 when we made a reluctant move to a reduced cost clinic. Not to downgrade the kindness of my doctor, but all I had done my first half of my pregnancy was an external measurement of my belly and a listen on the hand held doppler to Mav's heartbeat. In a way, I think it's kind of cool actually.

That day was so monumental because for the first time ever, we would actually see that there was a living person in there. I had worried SO much that they would find something wrong, even though I had no reason to suspect anything. Just silly "mom" worry already kicking in I suppose.

Here is an excerpt from the post I made one year ago today:

August 5th, 2009
Until now we've nicknamed the baby Rubick--a combination of Ruby and Maverick. Ruby Mae for a girl, and Maverick William for a boy.

As soon as the sonographer put the wand on my belly she said, "Are you sure you want to find out? Because it's the first thing that popped up on the screen!" We told her we reeeeeeeally wanted to know and she pointed to the screen and said, "What do you think that is?"

Cue dramatic music:

I would like to introduce our son, Maverick William.

So that's when reality set in. I'm going to have a son. It is almost too much for my brain to process!

That poor sonographer. I think she thought we were crazy. We were so beyond ecstatic that everything was okay, we were giddy and laughing hysterically at everything. (you know, those moments when even things like a salt shaker is hilarious)

I remember that I never wanted it to end, but at the same time I couldn't wait to call my parents. Forget announcing it in a grandiose way like some people do, ha ha!

The hospital where I got this ultrasound done gives you all the images on a disc, instead of a printout. So we headed downstairs to the film library to get our disc.

Again, the poor hospital staff that encountered us! I'm not sure if our feet were touching the ground. The attendant sluggishly walked up to us and said, "Name, please?"

And before I could spit out our last name, Robbie huffed up his chest and announced to the entire floor in his biggest voice, "MAVERICK WILLIAM [last name]!!"

The attendant almost had an aneurysm, I think. She was so in shock with the amount of force Robbie used! I almost can't type because I'm cracking up so much thinking about it. The poor lady was probably just used to handing over x-rays of broken bones and not trained to deal with overly happy new parents.

I said, "No doufus! She only needs our last name. As in, just me--the patient." And then I was almost on the floor laughing so hard. Robbie was such a proud daddy! It was hilarious!

Of course, now that Maverick is here and the most wonderful kid ever, I couldn't imagine having a daughter (not saying that I wouldn't want one, for future reference...waaaaaaay future reference, like a few years future reference). I am SOOOOO blessed, beyond anything I deserve. Thank you Lord for my wonderful family.