Max is 4 months... mom and dad need sleep

Our littlest Law is 4 months and a lot has changed.   First of all he is a BIG BOY.   We had his 4 month check up and he was 17.1 lbs and 26.5 inches.   The same height as Kam was but almost 2 pounds heavier.   He is the cutest chubby cheeked baby around!

Mom returned to work - I went back to work on Dec 15th - 14 weeks with my sweet boy went by way too fast.  Luckily I was able to return back 4 days a week, having Fridays off.  Also with the Holidays coming so quickly I basically went back for 7 days and then had two weeks off to go back to IL for the holidays.   Ken's parents where out visiting from the 18-27th so it was nice to have extra hands on deck to help with the transition back to work.  Going back with 2 kids has been much harder that going back with one but I'm thankful for a great nanny (Al) and a super supportive husband who has given up his morning workout routine to help me get out of the house in the morning.  It's also super helpful that Ken now works from home so he can relieve Al by 5 or 5:30 almost every night.

Max's first Christmas

We celebrated Max's first christmas and the first christmas we were able to celebrate in our own home as a family.  We had a beautiful, warm sunny Christmas day.    Ken's parents were able to join us.  Kam was thrilled to get up Christmas morning and tear open all of his presents.  Ken and Kevin fried a turkey and we all pitched in to prepare a delicious meal.  Max got a doorway jumper, a toy mirror and lots of new clothes.  He's too big to fit in a lot of kam's winter hand me downs!

Max's first flight!

flight to Illinois

flight back to california

We flew home with both boys on December 27th.  This was Max's first flight, and the first time flying as a family of four.  Luckily Ken's parents returned to IL on the same flight we were on so they were able to help us get to the airport, bags checked and get through security.   PHEW.  I'm exhausted just thinking about it.   Max was a champ on the flight.   He was very laid back and well behaved.      Kam on the other hand was completely wired.  This was the first time we had to buy him a ticket so he had his own seat.  I'm not sure if he was overwhelmed, over tired (it was a 6 am flight) or over stimulated b/c Kevin and Sue were across the aisle from us, but he would NOT sit still.   He did not want to be buckled in and he wanted to run up and down the aisle.    Even worse, every time Max would start to fall asleep Kam would lean over and yell "cock a doodle doo" as loud as he could in Max's ear.  I don't even know where he learned that from b/c he had never done anything like that before.   Ken and I can laugh about it now, but that was definitely the longest 4 hour flight we'd been on.  The good news is that the flight back to  California went much smoother

this is what max thinks of winter weather in Illinois

The one back thing about our trip home is that Max got a cold on the trip.   Then he gave it to me, and eventually to  Kam.   Our whole house was sick for about a week and a half.    The cold didn't help Max's already poor sleep patterns, although you couldn't tell by this picture below!

Our good sleeper left the house.  Since about mid December (right when I went back to work). Max started waking up multiple times a night.     He had been down to one wake up, then it was two, and now it's as many as three time or as often as every 2 1/2 hours.    It got pretty bad when we were home for the holidays and has continued to be bad since we returned.

Below are some fun pictures with all of the cousins while we were home.

He got 2 teeth.   Max is on the same teething schedule as Kam was.   We've noticed he's been extra slobber and his gums have been swollen for a few weeks now.   This week we finally can see two teeth cutting.  We are praying this is part of his sleeping problem and that once they finish cutting completely we will have a better sleeper return.  You can see his cute little teeth in this great video of him giggling

While we were back in Paxton, we were able to get Max baptized.   I was thrilled to have him baptized at the same church I was baptized and confirmed in and the same church we had Kam baptized in.   My best friend from childhood, Kaci Rust was Max's Godmother and Ken's brother Justin was his Godfather.   Max was a perfect angel during the service and smiled the whole time.   Kam was great too and he wanted to go up with us and give Max a big kiss right before he got the water on his head.   Kam was quite the ham during the service, even letting the pastor hold him during the sermon.   Unfortunately the weather was not very good and Ken's parents, Laura, Hailey and Natalie were all unable to make it as the roads were icey.    We are so thankful Justin was able to carefully make the drive down and be part of Max's day.   Also on the same day Max was baptized, we said good bye to my Grandpa Rodeen.    He was 92 years old and just a few days shy of his 69th wedding anniversary with my Grandma.  He lived a great life and we will miss him but I'm so gratefully I was home and was able to say goodbye.

This week we started Max on rice cereal.   He seems to like it well enough.  We are hoping that introducing solid foods will help Max sleep longer and drink less breastmilk.  Up until now my supply had been doing really well but with the stress of work and getting sick last week,  it has dropped a bit.  I'm hoping that once things calm down a bit it will recover.  We are also hoping that Max will return to a better sleep pattern.     Last week before we realized he was sick AND teething, we attempted to sleep train him.   The first night he cried off and on for 2.5 hours, the second night he cried for 1 hour and the third night he would go back down after only a few minutes but he would wake himself up about 30 minutes later.    Night 4 is when I realized that he was sick and I was getting sick so we put the sleep training on hold.  I'm hopeful that after we are all better, and his teeth have come through we can get some solid sleep and hopefully train him quickly to sleep through the night.  I can't tell you when the last time I had more than 4 hours of sleep at the same time.  If was definitely before I was pregnant.  

KAM
Kams Christmas:

Kam had a great christmas.  Of course he loved all his presents.   Ken and I even pulled a few presents out from under the tree Christmas morning and hid them for later because he was so overwhelmed with the gifts.  He played with everyone before opening and new one.  I think he was most excited about his train set and a garbage truck that his uncle Paul got him.

Being back home for the holidays was very hectic with two kids but it was so much fun to watch the boys play with all their cousins.  We were able to see a lot of extended cousins from the Law and Ohse sides of Ken's family.     We finally were able to meet sweet Hailey.  She is soo adorable and I don't believe Justin and Laura when they says she cries because she was a sweet happy girl when we were around her. Kam and Max a lot had a lot of fun play time with Johnny and Lucas as well.  Believe it or not, Kam was the ring leader of the boys.  He would round around saying "come on johnny, come on lucas, follow me!"    It was sooo stinking cute.   Johnny was great with the little boys and with baby Max too.  Johnny is just a sweet boy.  But even Lucas liked having a baby around.  All the boys were so gentle with Max and gave him a lot of attention.  I just love seeing them all grow and play together.  There are some very fun memories.  

Favorite movie is currently toy story.  He's obsessed with Woody and Buzz.  While we were back in IL for the holiday, Ken's mom brought out Ken's old Woody and Buzz Lightyear toys.  Kam was in heaven.   He even was able to bring Woody back to California (on the plane) and Grandma is mailing Buzz out too.  Buzz can't get here soon enough as Kam asks about him everyday.   Kam loves to say "to infinity and beyond" although it sounds my like "infinity beyond"     It's so cute.  He pretends to fly around the house like buzz light year and he will ONLY wear his buzz light year pull ups to bed.   He also saids "Howdy cowboy"  or "Hello Cowboy" and then will pat Max on the stomach.   He also says "there's a snake in my boot" just like Woody.   It's pretty adorable.

christmas morning bike ride!

Kam speaks in full sentences and is learning more and more words each day.     Today in the car he turned to Ken and said "Daddy, max is so cute"   :-)   He also sings his ABC's pretty well while he washes his hands.

Kam calls Max, "Maxi-man"  and the other day when I was eating breakfast with Kam he pointed to max and said "Maxi-man" then he pointed to himself and said "Kam Man" haha.   Max also has a red birthmark that is on his back and it's looks like the shape of the rolling stones logo.   Kam always points to it and says "nipple?" haha.

Kam is going through a stage where he isn't eating very well.  Ken and I try to get him to eat everything but we usually have luck with waffles, eggs, and/or a shake at breakfast and the rest of the meals are hit or miss.  Potty training is still going strong though - he even showed his friend Mila how to go and she started potty training the next day!  way to go Kam!

Kam is in a stage where if is over being somewhere he will say "GO HOME"  over and over again until we leave.   He said "no home" about 10 minutes into our flight to Chicago.  Ken and I were dying thinking you're outta luck kid!

Kam got his very first ear infection.    As I mentioned earlier, after we came back from Chicago, we all were sick.   Kam had a low grade fever for several days which I didn't think anything of but it was going on 6 days so I called the Dr and they wanted to see him immediately.    They looked in his ears and sure enough the poor guy had a double ear infection.   I felt awful because I just assumed he had the same thing I had (which lasted over a week).   He never once complained about his ears and was sleeping fine.  In fact, I had taken Max in to have his ears checked because he was fussy.  His ears were clear and I never would have guessed I'd be bringing in Kam 2 days later to have his ears checked.  It sure did make me feel like a bad mommy but I guess it's a good lesson to learn!    By the way when I took Max back to have his ears checked he weighted 17.4 lbs! ha

This is definitely the craziest most hectic time of our lives.   I know we will look back at this time of our live and miss the chaos but somedays  I wonder how we are going to get through the day.   We love our boys to pieces but they definitely keep us on our toes!  We wouldn't have it any other way!