Saturday, April 21, 2012

A Few Firsts...

We are loving spring around the Clayton household, not just because of the gorgeous weather, but because our Mr. Max has had a few firsts these past few weeks! Max has started to play in the ExerSaucer which is the entertainer where he stands. Of course he is a little small for it still and wobbles quite a bit, so we have blankets stuffed everywhere, but he loves it...
 It has actually helped him strengthen his core as well as his neck muscles. He tends to keep his head and gaze staring down, so this toy is helping him look up more to see what he is reaching for. After all our indoor workouts, we thought we would let him relax on his first very first stroll...
 and introduced him to the beautiful outdoors! He has been a recluse indoors for 14 months, so we were all super excited to show him the sunshine! Of course our walk was extremely short (just down our street), but we still had a great time doing an activity together as a family. Another first was Max got his first taste of a couple new sweet treats...

pudding and suckers! Maxers started out eating really well and seemed to like it, but after a couple of weeks his excitement ended and now won't hardly eat at all. As you can see, he is telling the speech therapist "Not gonna happen"! The little stinker won't open his mouth at all to eat, so our speech therapist has me trying different sweets that might be tempting for him, but he isn't being fooled...
he knows what we are up to! The only encouraging thing is that when I am able to slip a little food in his mouth he is doing a better job swallowing and sucking it off his lip...if only he would join in the glorious fun of delicious foods...one day my friend...one day! At least he hasn't lost his love of his tummy...
that is right, this little guy not only likes napping on his tummy, but he is now starting to slightly push up and take a look around! He doesn't have enough strength yet to stay up for too long, but he is getting there little by little. My goal is to have him sitting on his own by 18 months (end of July) and crawling by 2 years (end of January). It takes Max several months to learn what most babies learn in one month, but don't underestimate this little fighter...he will be there before we know it! I think what I love most about the newest progress with Max is that he is loving being held...
Holding Max has never been anything that Daniel and I have taken for granted because Max hasn't always allowed us to really cuddle with him. Now that he is growing and developing thanks to his nutrition, we are now able to hold Mr. Max and play with him for longer than a 10-15 minute period. We are having so much fun interacting with him that there are times we just can't seem to let him go!

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