Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas Everybody! It has been a great week so far. Started out with Oma and Jiggs coming in for a (brief) visit last weekend, then Zack, Misty, and the girls coming in from Dallas, and then a whole week spending time with the Greer & Colbert clan. We now have a couple of days to rest, then head to Mississippi for our Vardaman Christmas. Can't wait to see everybody and have the whole Hamilton and Ward families together on Tuesday and Wednesday. Here are a few pictures from the past week. There are A LOT more on the shutterfly site. Have fun!

Merry Christmas Nicola and Thomas! Thanks so much for the toy and chocolate! Max loved opening his first present from Germany! It got here first thing Christmas Eve. We love you!!

First Christmas Present from Oma & Jiggs. He looooooooved the paper!

Playing with Cousin Caitlin. Thanks Aunt Bri & Caitlin for babysitting on Sunday! Max had a great time. Caitlin is a fantastic little babysitter!

Christmas Eve '09 - Merry Christmas from the Greers!

Max and all the girls - Isabella, Caitlin, Reagan, and Delaney. Max loves his cousins!!

8 Months!

Today Max is 8 months old. This tells me two things...first, he's growing up waaaaaaayyyy too fast. Second, it's been way too long since I posted anything (considering my last post was titled 7 months!).

We've hit a few milestones in the last month. Max has learned to sit up by himself. It's amazing to watch him, because you can tell that he thinks "ok, I'll sit up now" and then he does it. :) So much fun. Here's a video:

Max also has 2 teeth now! The first one popped through a couple of weeks ago, and the second just this weekend. He has also discovered his tongue, which is making it quite a challenge to feed him. After every bite, he sticks his tongue all the way out and licks his chin. It's pretty funny, unless you're the one trying to feed him!

Matt and I have been busy Christmas shopping. We can't wait to spend time with family this Christmas. Zack and Misty and the girls are coming in next weekend for a week. It's been since June since we've seen them, so we're so excited for Max to get to spend time with Belle, Reagan, Delaney, and Caitlin. He looooooves girls, so we think he'll have a good time.

We'll be going to Vardaman the week after Christmas and will be there through New Years. Max will be happy to be at Oma and Jigg's house so he can have some freedom in his walker. Their housefull of hardwood floors makes it easy for him to move around. Here's a video of that:

We've been bad about keeping up with the pictures lately, but here are a few of the past month. Enjoy!! In case I don't get to post again before Christmas, Merry Christmas to everybody from Matt, Jen, and Max!!

My Little Redneck :)

This is his model pose - if he's crawling and you call his name he'll turn around a pose like this.

Merry Christmas!!

'

Up close!

Trying to see what's under the tree....not much at this point!

7 Months Old!!

Can you believe it? Yesterday Max was 7 months old! I can't believe how fast time is flying - and everyone assures me it will just go faster and faster the bigger he gets. He is so much fun now! He still isn't crawling in the traditional sense, but can army crawl fast enough that we have to be on our toes to make sure he doesn't get away from us. He's just starting to try to pull up - we don't think he has the arm strength yet to do it, but you can definitely tell he wants to.

Last weekend we went to Vardaman for the Sweet Potato Festival. We were a little worried about how Max would do, because he really hasn't spent a lot of time around that many people. He was wonderful though! He loved seeing all the people and fun stuff everywhere. The festival this year was absolutely packed! Here is a picture that I took around 11 that morning.

We had a great time hanging out with all the family last weekend - it was great to be home and see everybody. It had been 3 months since everyone saw Max, and I think everyone was shocked by how big he is! Aunt Emmy & Oma are here this weekend and we'll be heading back to Vardaman next weekend to spend Thanksgiving week. Max is getting to spend a lot of time with family, and we can tell he loves all the attention.

Here are a few more pictures from the last week or so. Have a great rest of the weekend!

Couple of Videos

Happy Saturday all! Here are a couple of videos. The first one is Max's version of crawling - more like Army crawling. He will get up on his hands and knees every once in a while, but then he can't figure out what to do next! :)

This one is Oma making him laugh this morning. Turn up your speakers! :)

We'll be in Vardaman next weekend for the Sweet Potato Festival! Can't wait to see everybody!!

6 Months Old!!

Hey everybody! It's been a horribly long time since I've posted any pictures or a blog - so sorry about that. My good camera is broken and I don't like taking pictures of Max with the little one because it does a double flash and he always has his eyes closed. There are some below - it's crazy how big he's getting!

What's even crazier is that Max was 6 months old yesterday! I cannot believe how fast time is flying! It really seems like only a few weeks ago that we were in the hospital. A lot has happened since the last time I posted. Max had surgery a couple of weeks ago to remove some scar tissue and perform the circumcision they couldn't do when he was born. The surgery was a little more involved than we originally thought, but he came through it amazingly well! We were worried about him going so long without eating - he couldn't have anything past midnight. Luckily we were scheduled to be there at 7am. We hoped it wouldn't be long before they took us back for the surgery, but it was 2 hours!! He was such a little trooper...even took a little nap before they came to get him. All the nurses said he was the most adorable little thing they had ever seen. The surgery took about an hour, and he was only in recovery for about 30 minutes...after sucking down 3 bottles of pedialyte, they said he was ready to go!

Recovery at home was a little scary at first, but he has done so well...only a little screaming at us during diaper changes...but who could blame him! The worst part about it all is he can't get in his walker or bouncer for 3 weeks. Only a week and a half left now, but it's hard to occupy him for 2 hours of waketime without one of those!

I'll try to get another video up soon of him "crawling". He still scoots, but can go a lot faster and further now. When we talk to Oma and Jiggs on Skype, we put him about 6 feet away from the computer and let him scoot toward them. He shimmies his way over there pretty quickly!

This week we went to a 4-hour feeding schedule, so Max's meals line up a lot more with ours. He eats now at 7am, 11am, 3pm, and 6:30pm. He has a bottle, oatmeal, and a fruit for breakfast, bottle, fruit and veg for lunch, just a bottle for the 3pm snack, and a bottle, rice cereal, and veg for dinner. We still feed him around 9:30pm, but he very rarely wakes up for it. He has a pretty big variety of foods now...sweet potatoes, avacados, green beans, peas, peaches, apples, pears, bananas...he likes them all! So far we haven't put anything in front of him that he won't eat!

We're so excited to see everybody when we come home for the Sweet Potato Festival the first weekend in November...it will have been 3 months since most of the Vardaman family has seen Max...you guys will not believe how big he is! Hope you all have a great rest of the week! Enjoy the pics!



Enjoying the fall weather - he can sit up by himself, but we were sort of on a hill so Oma had to help steady him a little.


Hanging out after eating breakfast this morning...love all the fall clothes! This one is a 9 month, by the way!!



It looks like he's sleeping, but it's really just the camera flashing and making him close his eyes. I put this picture so you can see how long he is...we're going to have to start changing him somewhere other than the ottomman!


Playing with Tip Top after dinner.

Hi again everybody! Getting lots of fun video this weekend. Max has finally figured out how to bounce in his boucer. We've decided he may be able to try out for Riverdance soon...

We've also figured out this is a great way to tire him out before a nap! He's slept better in the last couple of days than ever! :)

Crawling? Close!

Max's new trick!

It's not quite crawling, but close!

Aunt Em got here this afternoon and we decided to try it again. Looks like I'll be buying a baby gate soon!

Hope you're all having a great week. We hoped we would make it home this weekend, but with the flu in Vardaman, we decided to stay around home. We miss everybody so much, and will try to make it home soon!

Have a great weekend!

Hi everybody! I wanted to share some videos so you can see what the little man has been up to. Enjoy! :)

In his "walker" - he hasn't quite figured out yet that he isn't going anywhere. Bear with me on this video, it takes him a little while to get going. But when he does, he's definitely going....

...and going....and going!

Rolling around with his new monkey. :)

Another of him "monkeying" around. :)

First Illness, First Vardaman Taters, First Ole Miss Game...

Lots of firsts this weekend! Oma and Jiggs came in Friday night, and not long after they got here, Max got a little fussy. We realized he felt warm, so we took his temp and it was 100.6! We were worried, because I found out this week that a girl I work with had the H1N1 virus, or swine flu. He had a little fever off and on throughout the night, and Matt and Oma took him to the dr yesterday morning while I was at work. Luckily, the doctor said it's just a little baby cold or other virus. He was a little fussy and pretty far off his routine yesterday, but today acts like he feels great and is sleeping great!

Yesterday was Max's first experience with solid food other than cereal. I've decided to try to make at least some of his baby food (thanks for the idea Mariah!), so Oma brought some Vardaman Sweet Potatoes and pears to get us started. She baked the potatoes and we pureed them, froze the ones we aren't using right away in ice cube trays. Max got to try them for the first time yesterday afternoon, and it was a great success! We were worried he wouldn't like the runny texture, because he likes his cereal pretty thick, but he loved them! Ate about 1/4 cup in about 3 minutes! We have to start slow, introducing new foods every 4 days or so to make sure he isn't allergic. We'll either do pears or squash next.

Today is Max's first Ole Miss football game! He (well, really his Daddy) is SO excited! Here are a couple of pics of him getting ready for the game. Thanks Aunt Cindy for his Ole Miss gear!

Hotty Toddy everybody! Have a great rest of the holiday weekend!!

New Pics on Shutterfly Site

Hi all! New pics are up on the shutterfly site. Enjoy! Here are a few...



Mommy, Daddy, and Max before Kyle's wedding. Thanks Oma and Jiggs for coming to Memphis to keep him!!

Posing like the ladies man he is...

Probably my favorite picture of all time! Love it! :)

Big Man!

Hi all! Happy Tuesday! If you haven't been able to tell from the pictures, Max is growing like a weed. At last Friday's dr appointment, he weighed 16 lbs 1 oz, and was 26 inches long. Since he's 4 months now, we have started him on rice cereal....and I have to say it's been interesting....

We're not sure he really likes the taste or the texture of the cereal. He will eat a little, but mostly make terrible faces and spit it out. Oh well -we'll keep trying! In a few weeks, he can start oat cereal, so maybe he'll like that a little better.

Our little man is definitely growing into his personality. He loves, loves, loves his toys - all of them. When they're all out in front of him he does whatever he can to touch and grab all of them at the same time. He loves to mimic Daddy and has even started singing along when Matt makes up songs for him. We enjoy letting him sit in his bumbo seat because he gets to be up and looking around and both hands are free to do what he wants. He seems to like it too....

His other new favorite thing is his feet - this little guy has a major fascination with them. He even figured out how to get them in his mouth while he was in his high chair yesterday! Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of that one - I was too busy trying to get the cereal off him and his feet!

More pics are on the shutterfly site. I have video of his first few tries with cereal that I'll try to get up soon. Hope you all have a wonderful week!

Videos for Oma

Hi all! Just some videos tonight. I heard Oma didn't have a great day so thought Little Man might be able to cheer her up a little bit. Enjoy!

The first 2 are more of Max playing with his Daddy - mostly mimicking him. He wasn't very happy about the 3rd one, but I wanted you guys to see how well he's lifting himself up when he's on his belly.

Dr appointment on Friday...I'll try to post again after that.

Love you all! :)

First video is Max dancing, second is him playing with his buddy Pikow. Yep, pikow. As in, Kipow, but backwards. :)

New pics on the shutterfly site.

Quick Hi!

Hey guys! So sorry I haven't posted in a while. My computer has basically died, and just got a new one yesterday. Haven't transferred pics or anything yet, still working on getting everything set up. Hope to be done in a couple of days and I'll do a real post.

Max is doing great! We had a wonderful time in Vardaman last weekend - soooooo good to see everybody! Unfortunately I didn't do a good job of taking pictures, so there aren't many to post. :(

Good news is I'm downloading my camcorder software onto my new computer as we speak, so it should be easier to upload videos in the future. Hopefully one of them will be up soon.

Hope you're all having a fantastic week! More soon...

Settling into a routine

These last 2 weeks since I've been back to work have been exciting and tiring at the same time. Max has become super active in the past few weeks. We haven't been able to catch him rolling over on camera, but we know he does it becuase we find him in his crib most times either all the way on his tummy or almost there with one arm under him. He also turns circles in the crib while he naps/sleeps. We'll put him down laying in one direction, and he's usually 180 degrees and across the crib from where we laid him down. He's definitely a little mover and shaker! :)

The very exciting thing that happened in the last week is Max is finally sleeping through the night!! We thought he was ready to do it the past couple of weeks because more often than not he wouldn't eat well for his first 1-2 bottles each day. He had just gotten in a routine of waking up between 2-3am, and we just fed him because we didn't want him to get so awake that he wouldn't go back to sleep. Last weekend when Aunt Em was here to help, we decided to let him try to go back to sleep without eating that 2-3am bottle. Aunt Em was in charge of that feeding, and she heard him wake up through the monitor around 5am. He stirred quite a bit and she thought he was about to start crying, so she went to fix his bottle. By the time the bottle was ready, he was sound asleep again! So she went back to bed. When I woke up about 6:45, I asked her how well he had eaten, and she said "He hasn't!" We were hoping it wasn't a one-time thing brought on by a very busy day the day before...and it wasn't! We haven't had to feed him in the middle of the night in the last 7 nights! It's so exciting!! He usually goes to bed between 7:45 - 8:15, we wake him up for a quick bottle at 11pm, then he sleeps till 7am! Usually around 3:30 and again about 6:00am, he'll wake up and chatter for a few minutes, but he goes right back to sleep!

Max is also doing much better at Ms. Wanda's during the day. He always gets 3 naps that are at least an hour and 20 minutes to 2 hours. He's also eating much better there now that he isn't so stuffed from that middle of the night feeding! The only nap we struggle with is his 5pm nap. Some days he'll sleep from 5-7 and we'll have to wake him up to eat, and others he's wide awake at 6:00...which makes for a long rest of the evening! Luckily this is the nap that most babies drop around 4 months, so maybe we won't have to worry about it much longer! We feel so blessed to have him on this routine - it may not work for everybody, but it is very comforting to us to know what to expect each day, and to be able to plan things around his routine. We had our friend Rhonda come to babysit Friday night while we went to dinner and a movie, and she was so surprised that he slept, ate, played, and went back to sleep at almost exactly the time we told her he would. Very rarely now do we have to "make" him do anything - he knows when it's time for bed or a bottle, and he happily does it. Obviously there are still times/days that he gets a little off schedule, and we're OK with that. We know he'll pick it back up quickly and easily.

More pics are on the shutterfly site. I'm not taking as many as I'd like these days - hard to when I only see him awake for about an hour and a half each day! I'll try to do better on the weekends! Have a great week!!

Our favorite activity! Getting Max to talk back to us! :)

This is probably right after he pulled my glasses off - another of his favorites!

With Jiggs and Oma

Bumbo Seat - and not very happy about it! :)

Trying to roll off his boppy pillow

Back to Work!

This week I went back to work.....

The first day there was tons of crying, second day - not as much, third day - almost no crying...but enough about me. Max did great! :) No, I actually just had a little breakdown Sunday night before we went to bed, and didn't cry at all the next day. I just keep telling myself it's 1 day at a time. If I think about it being every day, every week, I can't handle it. Max did great at Ms. Wanda's. The first day took a little adjusting for him, but since then he has been napping and eating very well. I am exhausted after a full week of working, but it's not so bad. I still wish I could be home with him, but since that isn't an option we'll just make the most of it!

Max is getting so big and active! The video is our first attempts in "helping" him roll over. We think it won't be long before he does it on his own! In the video, you'll see Tip Top - I believe he made an appearance in my last post. Tip Top is quickly becoming a very important member of the family. If you look closely toward the end of the video (around the 52 sec mark) Tip Top falls off the ottommon and Max's face is pretty funny.

Max's Oma, Jiggs, and Aunt Em are here this weekend. He has had a great time showing them all of his new tricks. I'll try to post another video soon of him mimicking the sounds we make. So cute! :) Today we're going to have our first mall outing with Max...we'll see how that goes!

Hope you all have a wonderful (hot!) weekend!

The Family That Travels Together

Happy Hump Day! Hope you all enjoyed the pics from Max's first professional photo shoot. We thought he did a great job and were very happy with the pictures. For the Vardaman folks, my mom will bring a selection of the pics home next weekend for you guys to pick from. They can also be ordered from the shutterfly site if you don't find one that you want in the prints. He turned out to be pretty photogenic...surprising given his Dad's problems with taking pictures. :)

We went to Gatlinburg/Pidgeon Forge last weekend with Josh, Lindsay, Stacia, and Charlie. Had a great time! The cabin was big and had a wonderful view. The decor was slightly outdated, but Josh and I felt at home because of the tons of fake Magnolias throughout the cabin! The balconies were great - we could have sat out there the entire time - if it wasn't so hot! It was definitely interesting traveling with Max for the first time (besides going to Vardaman where we knew it wouldn't be much different from home). Max has decided he doesn't like to sleep very much in his car seat, which presented a challenge during the 4 hour trip each way. He did pretty good sleeping in his pack 'n' play in our room...we were a little concerned about it, but he slept almost as well has he does at home. All in all, he was a pretty good traveling companion (the others may say different of course...we're a little biased!). :)

Back at home, Max is settling into his eating and napping schedule pretty well. He typically takes three 2-hour naps a day, give or take 15 minutes. The fourth nap (5:00pm) is the one we have problems with. I've read that a lot of babies have a "witching hour" in the late afternoon and have trouble napping. We probably haven't helped this any because this has always been the time that we go somewhere if we're leaving for the day so he hasn't had consistent naps in his crib. He will usually sleep for a little while, usually while being held for this nap only. I can't say I'm very upset about it...I don't think I'll mind coming home and holding him for an hour or so while he naps after I get off work!

Speaking of work, I will be starting back next week! I can't believe these 12 weeks have gone by so fast! Part of me is ready to go back to work, but mostly I wish I could just stay home with Max all the time!! I know he'll love going to Ms. Wanda's, but we'll miss him so much during the day! It will definitely be an adjustment. Keep us in your thoughts next week as we all adjust to the new situation!

Here are a couple of pics from last weekend. Enjoy!

Max playing with his giraffe "Tip Top". He loves Tip Top!!

The view from the top of the sky lift mountain in Gatlinburg. So pretty!

Josh, Max, and Lindsay

The view from our front porch. We loved it there!

Portrait Innovations

Hi all! Quick post to let you know I just posted our pics from Max's first professional photo session today on the shutterfly site. We got lots of prints to distribute, but wanted you to see them as soon as possible.

Enjoy! :)

Fun with Family

Happy Sunday all, from a very tired Greer family. We've been back and forth to Lebanon quite a bit this week hanging out with Zack, Misty, and the girls from Texas, along with Adam, Bri, Caitlin, and Gamma and Poppy. Lots more pics are posted on the shutterfly site. Sorry for so many duplicates...wanted to make sure Misty and Bri get a chance to pick the ones they like to have printed. As you'll see, cousin Reagan is a big fan of Baby Max. She always wanted to hold him and help change his diaper. She will be a great babysitter one day!! Isabella loves Max too, but I think she is a little over babies - she's had to deal with them in her house for the last 4 years almost! :) Caitlin and Delaney are always excited to see Max too, as long as their mommies aren't the ones holding him!

Max has also had a big week because we have been focusing on getting his nap schedule down before he has to go to Ms. Wanda's in a few weeks. Currently, he eats every day roughly at 7am, 10am, 1pm, 4pm, 7pm, 11pm, and sometime between 2-4am. We're working on getting him to take 1 1/2 hour to two hour naps between each feeding (at least 1 hour after he eats, of course). So far, so good. It's a work in progress. However, we have managed to break him of needing the paci to go to sleep this week. It was a long couple of days at first, but he caught on VERY quickly, and now we put him down while he's awake, and he soothes himself to sleep with his thumb or fingers. He typically wakes up about 45 minutes into his naps. Most of the time, he'll soothe himself back to sleep. Very rarely we'll have to go in and either get him up or talk to him for a few minutes until he goes back to sleep. He is such an amazing baby. I know we've had a lot of skeptics about our methods, and we understand that we're doing things a little differently than most. But I hope eventually everyone will understand why we chose to follow the BabyWise schedule when Max is a well-behaved little boy. I know Max's cousin Maddie is a great example of how well BabyWise can work for baby and parents...she is such an wonderful little girl and I know her little brother Rivers will be the same. By the way, Welcome Rivers!! Click on the Frantz blog to the left to see pics of their new addition to the family. We can't wait to meet him!!

The new pics also include some of Max hanging out on his changing table - I tried really hard to get a good pic of just his feet, but as you can tell I pretty much failed miserably. :) We also got the camera out this morning for Max's bath. He really has started to love bathtime...you'll see what I mean in the pictures! Finally, if you're wondering who the other little boy is in the pics amongst all the girls, our friends Rachel and Nathan had their little boy Jack over with the rest of the family last night. Jack is 5 days older than Max, and they weigh almost exactly the same. He's a cutie!

Have a great week!

All the Greer men

Gamma and Poppy with all the Grandchildren. Believe it or not, this was the best pic! :)

Max LOVES bathtime!!

New Pics

Hi all! Just letting you know new pics are on the shutterfly site. Max's cousins from Texas are in this week and I wanted to go ahead and share some of them. More to come after the weekend!


Max with Gamma and Delaney (22 months old) with Aunt Misty




Reagan (3) with cousin Max. She LOVES baby Max!


Belle (6), Reagan (3), and Caitlin (22 months)
They LOVE Poppy's 4-wheeler, and even have their own!

Thanks Oma!!

First of all, thanks for all the thoughts and prayers during the last week. A big thanks to Oma for taking a week off to help us out and to Gamma and Poppy for watching Max during my surgery so my mom and Matt could be there. We are so blessed to have such an amazing family.

This past week has certainly been eventful for us. Oma came in last weekend to stay for a week and help during my surgery and recovery. My surgery on Monday went really well. I was in and back home in just a few hours, and I slept most of the day on Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday and Thursday were pretty rough, but finally by Friday I was feeling a lot more like myself. It was so hard not holding Max all week! Tuesday I was going to take a nap and went to kiss him on his cheek, and his face screwed up into the most pitiful pout I've ever seen. I think he missed his mommy as much as I missed him!

Max is starting to show so much personality these last couple of weeks. The video is of one of our favorite activities - Show Me Your Tongue. After Max eats, he is always in such a great mood, and he will laugh and play and stick his tongue out usually for about an hour. It's my favorite time of day.

Here are a few more pics from the last week. He is getting so big...I have to remind myself to take pictures all the time so we can keep track. More pics are on the shutterfly site (link to the left).

Such a pretty baby!

With Oma and Jiggs

Big Smile!

Hope you all have a great week! Love you!

Fun in the Sun!

Max has had a great weekend with Oma outside in the sunshine. Daddy bought a kiddie pool on Friday, and Max has had a good time splashing around in it.

Last weekend Max got to spend some time with Josh & Lindsay, and met his possible future wife Dylan at our friends Kellie & Davy's.

More of these pics are on the share site.

Some of mine and Matt's favorite times are on the weekends when Max comes to hang out with us in the bedroom as we're waking up (the absolute best is after I've gotten to sleep a little late on the weekends, of course!). He is such an amazing baby, and we treasure these moments when he loves hanging out with Mommy and Daddy...we know they won't last forever!!

Hope you all have a great week! I may be out of commission for a few days with the gall bladder surgery...keep us in your prayers! :)