An update

We have finally settled into a routine here in Little Rock, and are enjoying our new neck of the woods. Literally, it's a forest out here! When I would tell people we were moving to Arkansas, their first reaction was usually, "Why Arkansas? That stinks."  I guess Arkansas has a bad reputation.  Surprisingly, I am loving it here.  The ward is full of young families, and stay-at-home moms.  There are get-togethers and playgroups almost every day of the week, and we are staying happily busy hanging out with friends all day.  There are a lot of free kid activities to do around town.  Max and I are goers and don't really love being stuck at home all day every day.

Recently I started babysitting a 7-month-old baby boy full time to help make ends meet.  His name is James and he is one of the sweetest, most calm babies I have ever met.  Max really likes having him around and has been so sweet to him.  I feel it's good practice for Max to get used to my attention being divided between him and another baby because his little sister arrives soon.

I can't believe we are having another baby in two months!  I am extremely excited to meet her, and not nearly as nervous this time around.  I know there will be an adjustment period, and having two kids has its challenges, but I am looking forward to having another baby.  The second trimester of this pregnancy went smoothly.  I just started my third trimester, and so far I have had a lot of energy and have not been too uncomfortable.  I was a lot more uncomfortable with Max.  He was in the transverse position until 36 weeks, and caused me constant pain!  This little girl is breech, and so far, I hardly know she is in there except when I feel her delicate little kicks and movements through out the day.

Max is getting more personality every day.   He is 21 months now, and the closer he gets to two, the easier he gets.  He has grown out of his fussy stage and stays happy most of the day now.  He does have bad days every now and then where I feel he cries and whines all day long, but for the most part he is a complete joy to be around.  He is talking more and more every day and I am amazed at how quickly he is learning new things.  He loves to count to ten and can recognize most of the alphabet.  We have been working with him on colors.  If we ask him what color something is he usually says, "blue." Every once in a while he will get a color right, but most of the time every color is blue to him right now.  He is like his mama, very sensitive to hot and cold.  He won't eat anything that is even slightly warm or cold.  He wants all his food and drinks to be lukewarm.  He also recognizes when something feels hot or cold to the touch.  Every night after his bath, while I am drying him off with a towel, he says, "Brrr, cold!"  and gives me the biggest snuggles to warm up.  I love it!

Max likes to get out of the house constantly and begs to go, "Bye bye" when we've stayed in our apartment for longer than an hour.  I am nervous he will go completely stir crazy once the baby arrives because we will have to stay in more often for the first few months.  He is an extremely picky eater and really doesn't eat that much food during the day.  We wonder where all his fat rolls come from.  The boy hardly ever eats, and when he does it's just a few bites here and there.  Cars and trains are his favorite toys right now and he loves scooting them around the house.  He has a fascination with trucks, and freaks out with excitement when he hears a fire truck or ambulance outside, he calls them "big cars."  He also loves the moon, sun, planets and stars.  He likes reading books and watching shows that has anything to do with the sky.

Three months ago we had the big paci break-up.  We just took the dang thing away cold turkey and it actually went pretty smoothly.   Max had about 2 days where he whined for his paci on occasion, but quickly forgot all about it.  He still uses it for naps and bedtime and I am not looking forward to taking it away at night because it helps him sleep so well.

For the past two months, every hour or so, Max will stop what he's doing, point to me and yell, "My mama!" It's like he wants to make sure everyone knows that I am his mom, and it's just about the cutest thing in the whole world.  He melts my heart daily, and I feel overwhelmed with the amount of love I have for this little boy.  I stare at his perfect face every day and honestly think he is the most beautiful child.

Daddy takes Max on donut dates Saturday mornings.  Messy morning hair and a chocolate smeared face, does a kid get any cuter than this!?

Max loves the splash parks.  He gets a kick out of the water shooting off his bum.

This is the face he gives us when we say, "Show us your funny face."

Bath time is always fun around here.

Silly boy runs around with this bucket on his head all the time.