Mmmm... food!

Part of the fun of reaching the 6-month milestone for Max is getting to finally eat some real food, instead of just watching everyone else eat.

We started Max on rice cereal just after Christmas, and he was very quick to catch on to the idea of eating and opening his mouth when the spoon gets close. To be fair, he opens his mouth no matter what comes near it, but still, he did very well eating rice cereal for a week or so before he started getting a bit sick of it and wanting something tastier. Very understandable, if you've ever tried to eat that stuff.

These days Max has upgraded to eating apple mixed with baby cereal for breakfast, and pumpkin for dinner. We've also moved him into his high chair so that hopefully it's only Max who ends up as a sticky mess, instead of it being both Mummy and Max who needed a bath after dinner.

Max loves to chew on the spoon, and letting him do this is a good way to cheer him up to get those last few mouthfuls in, even though he looks almost like a pumpkin himself by the time he's finished!

Happy Half Birthday

Today is Max's half birthday!!! To celebrate he has been given some new outfits from Nanny who is down for his other present - vaccinations!!! Max has been rather grumpy this week because of teething we think. Before he got jabbed he was measured by the doc he is now 71 cm long! 9.5 kg and 44cm round the head. He has certainly grown in the last six months.

In the last week or so his new achievements include giving hi five's and starting to pull up on things to stand; mostly his parents. He has also started on stewed apple and cereal which is made lovingly by his personal chef mum and he wolfs it down with such gusto. He is up to 2 cubes of apple a day already and can't get enough. I think he has his parents love of food somehow.


We have had a great time getting to know and love our rapidly growing little boy. He has just changed so much since he was born. I had a look at the photos from July and I don't recognise that little helpless baby.

Save a date in your diary for Saturday July 19 as Max will have his first Birthday party!!

Max and Mummy go visiting

My sister Amy and I usually take it in turns to visit each other every fortnight to give the babies a chance to play with each other and ourselves a chance to catch up and show off their latest achievements. The Christmas break put a bit of a halt to this and so last week it was definitely Max's and my turn to go visiting.

The twins have both been practising their sitting up and all three are now stable enough to line up so that we can take photos of them.


The twins were very generous in sharing the toys they got for Christmas and all three had a good time playing together, even though their favourite activity was grabbing each other. The adults also had a great time since our other sister Tammy came over as well and we had three adults for three babies, which is a great ratio.

Standing up by myself!

Max has always loved to stand up. Lately when I hold both of his hands while he's sitting down he pushes off with both feet and stands up with the proudest expression on his face. I thought he might be able to do this without me holding his hands, so I put him in front of the bedhead and let him grab onto that instead, and he stood up!
Then he started to show off by letting go with one hand and turning around to look at me, so I quickly snapped some pictures to show off his new skill. Not bad for a boy who isn't 6 months old yet!

First Christmas - Part 2

We weren't sure just how well Max would handle the long trip from Bli Bli to Millmerran and were prepared for a noisy ride with a few breaks. However, Max surprised us both with his excellent behaviour by sleeping all the way to Toowoomba, where we stopped for a quick feed, play, cuddle and stretch, and then being super good and even having another short nap on the rest of the drive to the farm.
When we got there Max had a quick bath and then it was time for more present opening!
Since he had so much sleep in the car, Max was able to enjoy more shiny wrapping paper, toys and books as well as saying hello to all of the Pfeffer clan before going off to bed, while the adults enjoyed Christmas lunch leftovers for dinner.

Over the next few days Max got to spend lots of time playing with his cousins the twins. They all love being free with nappies off before bathtime, even though it usually means some puddles to clean up!
Grandma and Grandpa were also delighted to be able to spend time playing with Max. Grandpa was very happy to show off his bumper sorghum crop growing around the house, which is the best in several years with the recent rains.
After a few nice relaxing days at the farm we headed back to Brisbane again. We made sure to take time to see Max's great-grandparents on the way home, since they don't get to see him very often. I'm sure Max enjoyed their cuddles as much as they enjoyed giving them.
After all that travelling it was nice to spend a few days at home as a family together to finish off Max's first Christmas.

First Christmas - Part 1

Max's first Christmas was a very merry one, shared by lots of family and friends. We wanted Max to be able to see both sides of the family over Christmas, and of course they wanted to see him too, so we did quite a lot of travelling over the break.
We headed up to Bli Bli on the day before Christmas Eve to see the Batkin grandparents. Max was very well behaved in the car, and slept almost the whole way up, even through some slow patches of traffic.

His Poppy was especially happy to hold Max since it's been a while since they saw each other. Can you notice the family resemblance?

Max had a great time at Nanny and Poppy's place since some of their other grandchildren were also up there visiting for the holidays before Christmas Day. Cam had fun dropping Max in on cousin Liam at 5am in memory of having had the same done to him when he was a teenager. The cousins also had fun playing with Max and I'm sure he enjoyed all of the attention as well.

Christmas Day was a big one for Max, as your first Christmas should be! The rest of the Batkin clan arrived while Max was having a nap, so we started on the nibblies and waited to open presents until he was awake. Once he woke up cousin Caitlin dressed up in the Santa Claus costume and the present opening began.

Max could barely contain his excitement at all of the brightly coloured paper and exciting, noisy and shiny new toys and books, and wanted to play with everything at once. There was also no shortage of people wanting to cuddle and play with him, so he had a great time.
After a couple of hours of this Max was getting tired again, so we put him down for a nap and started on the magnificent Christmas lunch, with delicious contributions from everyone. As usual there was far to much to eat, but it just wouldn't be a proper Christmas lunch otherwise, and everything was just so tasty that you had to keep on going!
Unfortunately Max didn't want to miss out on the fun and woke up halfway through, but uncle Lance showed off his baby settling skills and quietened him down again for a while with a nice cuddle.

After dessert and the cleaning up, I took the chance to have a quick nap while Cam and Max spent time with the family. Then it was time to say goodbye and thank you for all the wonderful gifts, pack up and head out to the Pfeffer grandparents for Christmas part 2.