Maximus is Eight Months Old

This month was a HUGE month for Maximus.  Mason and I felt like everyday he was changing, growing, adding a new skill, or improving on a skill he had already figured out.  It was exciting, life-changing, and a little sad to see this baby turning into a bigger guy so early.  I'm holding out that he doesn't have any teeth yet, so that keeps him little awhile longer. 

At the beginning of the month Max had figured out how to pull-up onto his knees.  He'd practice in his crib, and when his little face was peeking over the side of the crib, I lowered it one level.  Well, it didn't take long before he figured out how to pull himself all the way up, and doooooown went the crib mattress.  He can pull himself up like a champ now.  He's a super speedy crawler and it's funny to watch him crawl to a toy or the couch and then pull up to see what's going on in the world around him.  A friend gave us a toy that he can pull-up to and play with and he enjoys that.  He's noticed the walker, but hasn't quite started that yet.  He just falls flat.

In addition to moving like a beast, he's eating much more baby food and we're alternating bottles and food.  He loves to eat, but we've found that by dinner time lately he's just exhausted and gets a bit cranky.  I remember Theo used to take a quick 30-60 minute nap around that time of day and so we're trying to incorporate that a little bit.  Max has been waking up once a night still.  It's the battle of deciding if he's truly hunger or if he can cry a few minutes to fall back asleep without waking the entire house in doing so.  In the meantime I'm getting lots of late night reading done when I am feeding him.  It's not shocking that he's waking up with these huge leaps since that seems to be his pattern, but hopefully we can get a little more consistent with sleeping all the way through the night.

Maximus loves people.  He's super friendly, smiles when you talk to him and isn't afraid of strangers.  I just love that he's so smiley and likes to be held by other people and flirt with them.  But, he definitely knows who his people are and his smile grows even bigger when he sees his brothers.  Theo is always doing silly things and gets the biggest belly laughs out of Max and it is so precious.

Recently we were finally referred to an ENT for Max because he's had eye discharge since birth.  It's so bad that he wakes up with his eyes crusted shut with green goop and then it continues throughout the day.  He was given an oral antibiotic and eye drop and it cleared right up.  It was amazing.  I was so happy and felt so glad that he could finally see clearly!  Unfortunately about five days after taking the meds is came back.  We did another week of eye drops and it was much improved, but not 100%.  We we referred to an Ophthalmologist who saw Max and  believes he has a blocked sinus passage, but doesn't recommend the procedure to unblock it until around 14 months old.  So, we're going to try a new eye ointment twice a day to see if that improves things for Max in the meantime, and hope all the passages grow and that it will unblock on it's own. 

First haircuts!  Holding his bottle!  It's so exciting to see our little guy grow!  He hangs in there on all our hiking and beach adventures, sneaks naps when he can, loves playing with his brothers, and is just a huge blessing to our family.  

Giant Latte and Fonte Dam

Yesterday was the first day of Summer vacation and I have a list of fun things that I'd like to see and do with the kids this summer/our time here in Guam.  As it goes with most of the hikes I attempt with the kids I always tell them and myself that we'll start out, see how it goes, and if it gets to hard or sucky, we'll turn around.

The latte stone is famous in Guam and was used by the Chamorro people as building supports and now it is a sign of the Chamorro culture.  There is a giant latte here and every time the kids and I try to tour it, it has been closed.  Yesterday we were  able to catch it open, paid our $2 and climbed to the top.  It was a nice view of the ocean and areas around the middle of Guam.  The kids were excited to finally climb to the top.

Next we ate our PB&Js in the car and headed to the parking area for the Fonte Dam hike.  This hike took us about 55 minutes round trip.  In Guam, I've done stranger things that I wouldn't have done elsewhere.  One of my guides said you could park in a parking lot a little ways from the trail head, and another said I could drive down closer to the trail head, so we drove in the grass (next to some power lines) and parked on a hill. 

The hike was not too steep and had a few muddy areas.  We hiked through the forest/jungle and arrived at the top of the dam.  Theo and Woodrow especially liked when the trail would split and rejoin and they could walk on "mismatched" paths.  We climbed down to the bottom of the dam and the boys liked using a rope to steady themselves.  We didn't linger too long at the bottom of the dam since I didn't want to risk anyone slipping into the river.  On the way back we chugged our water.  The boys had sweat pouring down his head.  They were challenged to drink their entire water bottle before getting back to the car.  I should mention Maximus was a trooper and hung out in the backpack carrier and dozed off for a little bit.

On the way home we stopped at the Asan Bay Overlook and a bookstore for mom.  It was a fun day exploring.  We came home tired, muddy, and with lots of stories to tell Mason.

All pictures: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100322846480639.1073741901.77800450&type=1&l=e2cd7b92ff

10 Years!

Some days it is hard to believe that Mason and I have been married for ten years already and at other times it seems like it has just flown by.  For our tenth anniversary, on May 5th, we went on an afternoon date and had a blast.  We decided to rent stand-up paddleboards (SUPs) from the Navy base and try them out at one of the beaches on the Navy base.  Everyone makes them look so effortless, and people frequently wear clothes on them, but I was skeptical, but it was on my Guam bucket list. 

We went to Dadi beach on a beautiful afternoon.  Mason was able to get up pretty well and had a quick learning curve...I was not as successful.  It was definitely a challenge and we were told the time of day with the wind and water ripples weren't the most ideal.  I'll blame my lack of success on that.  Mason found the trick was to keep his feet facing forward.  We paddled around the beach for an hour and then went back to the Marina where we rented them to try out the flatter water.  Mason did great and I just floated around.  I'm so glad we did it and it was definitely fun to laugh at myself. 

We had heard that there was a stingray in the Marina, so we asked about it at the Outdoor Recreation office and they told us that there were three stingrays that hung out around a certain dock because that's where the fishing boats often gut their fish, and so they come to the surface when they hear the boat motors.  We hung out for a bit and sure enough, one of the stingrays came to the surface.  It was very cool.  Mason would like to see one when he's in the water, but this was great enough for me. 

After we returned our boards we went back to Dadi Beach to snorkel.  We snorkeled for a little over an hour and saw NINE turtles.  I swear Mason is the turtle whisperer.  I think he should start charging and doing turtle tours.  I think it has to do with his amazing eyes.  I can't see nearly as far as he can, and he can spot the turtles often when I don't see them.  The snorkeling was nice and peaceful as normal.  We then drove to Gab Gab beach to shower off and change before heading to dinner.

We ended up waiting so long to grab our food at a newer restaurant, Mi Sazon (like Chipotle) we ended up taking it home for dinner and a movie since our sitter had been with the kiddos for quite the afternoon.  There's no one I'd rather be doing life with, that is for sure.  As a military spouse, with the life we lead I get told a lot, "I don't know how you do it."  Well, I get to do it, and do it with my best friend and soul mate which makes it quite the adventure.