Toothless

Group lessons with Josie and Alexandra

Make-up class with just her teacher

Big Max teething

Poor Max with a fever :(

Healthy Family photo in our "garden"

Cousin Amara visited for the weekend

Again, sorry for the delay of posts! (I secretly wish that blogging was my full time job, and, if that were the case, I would not be a slacker!) So, looking back, Max had his 7 month birthday, which was not celebrated as usual, due to a crazy week before. Let's start there....Memorial Day weekend....We had a wonderful weekend planned, as we certainly needed a mini vacation. Grammy and Papa were coming into town for a week!! All was good, as they started the trip in Tampa to see Cousin Amara in a school competition. They returned on Saturday, which was a good day, but things went downhill from there. Max would not sleep hardly at all on Saturday night and kept me up all night. Sunday, he wasn't doing so great either, but was just more cranky than usual. By Sunday night, he was running a temperature of 104 - which caused a phone call to the ER. Tylenol and a cool bath got it down, but we had a visit to the doctor at 845 am the next morning. The Doctor predicted this was the beginning of a stomach bug, and to treat it with motrin ot tylenol (alternating) to control the fever, and keep nursing him to keep him hydrated. Well, he was right. Max threw up Monday, and a little on Tuesday. He was fighting the fever until Wednesday morning, when it finally broke and he started to get his appetite back. Mean while, on Tuesday, Papa woke up with a fever and the bug. Luckily his only lasted 24 hours. The Doctor also said that if Karmann were to get it, she'd have it by Thursday, and if not, then she is out of the woods, so she went back to school on Thursday. THANK GOODNESS Grammy and Papa were here to watch the kids during the day and help with night duties. Deb and I were exhausted. I felt horrible that they had to spend their vacation this way, but I am so thankful that they were here to help out! Kris stayed home with Max Thursday just to make sure, but come to find out, 7 other babies and their parents got the bug in his class. It was crazy and vicious, and the school sanitized and did their best to keep it out of the other rooms. It ended up pretty much contained, thank goodness! So that was a crazy weekend and week. The weekend after that was pretty much a recovery weekend for sure, and I don't think we did much but lay around.

We got back into the swing of things on the following Monday, and Karmann started her summer swimming lessons!! THAT was an experience. The first day, we get to the pool a little early and we were watching the other 6 or so kids taking one-on-one lessons, and all of them were screaming their little heads off. I thought, oh they are just afraid of the water...Karmann will be fine! Then her class started. She was just fine until the teacher stopped 3 feet from the wall and said "okay swim to the wall" and let go. Of course she starts to sink, freaks out, gets to the wall, and IMMEDIATELY, starts to scream her bloody head off. They all did the same thing, and before you know it, they are all screaming in the pool. The teacher told me that she was very polite and every time after that first time, when she asked her to swim to the wall, Karmann would say "no thank you, no thank you, no thank you!" Of course, she survived, but getting her there the next day wasn't as easy. She survived day two, with crying, but improvement. Day three was rained out, and day four was much much better. She was swimming to the wall, floating, kicking, and smiling too! The make-up class was Friday, and it ended up she was the only one at the pool so she could have total focus. She told her teacher (Stephanie) that she likes swimming and she wasn't going to cry any more! From then on, she was progressing quickly. This week is week 2 and its a group class with her class mates Josie and Alexandra. They were super cute tonight, and again, are improving.

Max watched Karmann's swim lessons tonight. He was very impressed and loved the action. Though, he can't get his fingers and fist out of his mouth! The poor little man still has no teeth!! They've got to get here soon!! He's been waking up 2-3 times a night wanting to nurse, and just can't seem to get comfortable. Though, he still is in a happy mood most of the time! He's really started to move around and is an expert at rolling over and back, and maneuvering his way around to get a toy or what ever he sees that he may possibly get into his mouth! He can push up and grab his crib with one hand! So he'll be crawling soon for sure. He loves to smile at himself in the mirror. And, he loves to touch my face, nose, mouth, and ears whenever we are close. He's eating anything we put on a spoon, and is a very clean, non messy eater - so far! We've just got to get those teeth! Though, I know when they do come in, he's going to look so different, and time will flash by and before you know it, he's walking and a year will be over! So, I can't wish too hard for the teeth, as they will get here soon enough.

Here's a few photos, but more will come in the next few post. Enjoy!