Look how much I've grown!

These pics were taken 3 months apart. Hasn't he grown in that time!

General update (sorry for our slackness)

Apologies for being a bit slack in the blogging department lately. There hasn't been a whole lot happening, but there's a few little things that you may find interesting so I'll combine them all into one post.

Firstly Nanny and Poppy (Cam's parents) came down to visit Max (and us) last Tuesday. A fine day was had by all and we went out to Chinese for lunch to celebrate Nanny's birthday. Max was fairly well behaved apart from one screaming fit but he eventually calmed down after Cam took him outside and gave him a talking to, and we all had an elegant sufficiency and enjoyed the meal. Max gave out some cute smiles and talking noises to his grandparents and now has them even more firmly wrapped around his little finger. A grand day was had by all.

Max and I have now also attended a couple of parent's group sessions at our local child health clinic. I really enjoy these afternoons for the chance to get out of the house and chat to other mums and of course, compare Max against their babies to see if he really is as smart and gorgeous as I think he is. Since he is older than most of them he wins in the smartness department and I think he also comes out on top for cuteness. He doesn't always win the best behaved award since some of the others manage to sleep through the whole thing, but is instead smiling at the mums and babies around him and making cute talking noises so we have a good time.

Going to the clinics also gives me a chance to weigh Max and prove that it's not just our weak arms and imaginations in thinking that he's a nice big healthy heavy boy. As of last Thursday he weighed 8.24kgs, which is heavy for a 6 month old, let alone a boy who wasn't quite 3 months old yet!

Speaking of that, Max turned a big 3 months old on Friday! That time has just gone so quickly. We're really noticing daily achievements for him at this age now and he is rapidly gaining more control of his body, especially his hands which he loves to chew and suck on, and also to grab things and suck and chew on them. What a cutie!

Cutest to the Max!!

I know it is probably very scarring to make a pun out of your son's name in a public forum like this but he can't read yet and by the time he can I am sure we will have scarred him with much much worse.

We took this pic the other week and had to share it with you all.

The caption could go various ways. Max was ready for the landing of the mother ship to take him back to his planet. I also like why do you keep taking pictures of me when I am wearing daggy stuff on my head!

If you have any other please post them on the comments page.

Tummy Time

Max doesn't always enjoy his tummy time, but today he was quite happy for about 10 minutes looking at the colours on his playmat and being fascinated by the squeaking noise that it makes if you hit a certain spot.

I thought I'd take advantage of his happy tummy time to show off how good his head control and neck muscles are!

Look out Mum, I'll be crawling in no time!

Max's Baptism

Sunday was a very special occasion for young Max as he was baptised into God's family! Thanks to everyone who came along to witness and celebrate with us on the day - it was really awesome to have so many family and friends there.


Max was fairly well behaved for the church service, but by the time the actual baptism ceremony came around he was a bit hungry and loudly voiced his complaints all through the water being put on his head.


It may also have been just that bit too long to make him wear a dress. Although it was gorgeous and made the ceremony and memories of the day that much more special (thanks Nan!), I guess you can't expect boys to enjoy being dressed up like that for too long. Max made sure that everyone knew about his displeasure by competing with Pastor Nik for who could make the loudest noise during the prayer afterwards. I'm not sure who ended up winning but they both have good lungs!

Pastor Nik then gave a very good sermon about baptism and the importance of raising your children to know Christ both by what you as parents tell them and by what you do to set a good example and give them good guidance and boundaries. I'm sure it will be a challenge, but it's one we are looking forward to and know God will help us with, as well as Max's godparents and extended family.

Overall the day went really well, and we had a nice lunch afterwards as well, so thank you again to everyone who came along and brought food to share, and who helped set up and clean up afterwards. A special thanks to those involved in the service, especially to Christel and Shane for being Max's godparents, and Pastors Nik and Troy for running the service, and also to the worship team.

We had a great day and hope you did too!

Holiday!!!

Being a hard working provider for my family from time to time I am called on to miss a day off and in it's place is a precious day in lieu which brings on a 3 day weekend. So with this on the cards and having a pretty stressful run we escaped down to the far north coast of NSW and had 3 full days and nights in the charming fishing village of Evans Head.

We left just after Max's 6am feed to get the most of the day down there. After a pretty good trip and just one stop for a feed for Max we got to the house that was to be home for the next couple of days. It was a cool little bungalow that everything you needed really. It had 2 decent bedrooms and a sleep out area that had 3 sets of bunks. A undercover area outside with a big table and chairs and a very cool 4 burner hooded BBQ. I have never used one of these monsters before and it made a convert out of me.

Max was a bit grizzly after not sleeping the best in the car as he was too busy giving cute looks to Jo. We put Max in the pram and went for a walk over the bridge to the south side of town about 10-15 mins away to the fish co-op. It was pretty cool as they only have what is fresh off the trawlers that day. So we got some locally cooked prawns and a snapper for dinner. Poor Jo was doing laps outside with a almost asleep Max.

I could go on and on about the food and what a joy it was to cook with such fresh, good and cheap ingredients. But I have already been made fun of in the comments because of me always mentioning food when this blog is about the boy and not his father's gastronomic adventures.

Max coped pretty well with the whole being on the road and having to have showers instead of a bath. He hasn't screamed in the shower yet and we get the water over his face and everything. He is a brave little man that Max.

Max enjoyed lots of walks around town and went to the beach twice. The first time was for a walk and we have some cute pics of Max putting his feet on the sand and touching the ocean. But it was a windy cool day so we didn't take him for a swim just yet.


The next day we prepared Max for a big adventure his first swim. We did something brave or stupid for parents of a 10 week old we took his nappy off and put his togs on and then dipped him from head to toe in special bubba sunscreen. Max has acquired his father's colouring and is turning into a bit of a ginga!! He quite liked this process as I think he thought he was getting a massage. We drove down to the park near the river and Max did well not to befoul himself or the car seat (he was sitting on a plastic bag to save wrecking the seat). We got him down to the water and immersed him in a few times which he quite liked. The only problem when you do this to a sun screened baby is they get as slippery as a greased pig. Jo and I took turns putting Max in the water. He was very patient and didn't cry. it was his first time in cold water so we didn't know how he would go. But he did super. The water was a little too cold for his parents so after getting evidence of his first swim on video and stills camera we bolted with our mission accomplished.


We took Max down to the RSL for dinner and he had a wonderful time as he stayed asleep the whole time. Jo and I thought this was brilliant and had a wonderful time. For the record I had a ok mixed grill and Jo had the chicken parmiagana which she rated as pretty good.

On Saturday morning we drove back to Brisneyland and straight back to work and life as normal.

Triple Trouble II

Yesterday Amy and the twins came over to visit. All three babies were more alert this time since it's about a month since the last visit, so we decided it was time to introduce them to each other.

This is Max and Gabbie saying hello and checking each other out. They were both quite happy to stare and smile at each other for a fair amount of time so hopefully they've now made friends with each other.
Introducing Elke to Max didn't go quite so well because she was a bit hungry, so she rejected his talking and smiling by screaming at him. After a feed she was much happier though and I think she smiled at him as well, so now all of the cousins are friends. I don't know if that will last once they're old enough to steal each other's toys and be violent to each other, but for now everything's good.


In fact, Max was generous enough to share his playmat and bouncer with the girls (well he didn't have much say in it really). Here are Max and Elke playing together and sharing like good little children.

By the end of the visit they were such good friends that it was time for a group hug!