Big Boy Now

I think Max is officially moving into "big boy" territory. Although our initial attempts to go paci-less were not ultimately successful, Max ended up forcing our hand. After our trial "week with no paci" ended up being "week of no sleep," we gave Max one of the new Super Soothies that we had in reserve. Even though this pacifier is made for babies with teeth and supposedly is difficult to bite through, two days later we discovered that the new paci had met the same fate as the original paci. Since we really couldn't let Max continue to bite the ends off of his pacifiers (if that isn't a choking hazard, I don't know what is), we had no choice but to ditch the paci a second time.

The second time must be a charm (hmm, although technically this is the third time, since Max gave them up once when he was small, only to rediscover them later) because Max had no problems and has been sleeping like a champ. Every once in a while I catch him searching his covers for the paci, but he never asks about it. He did discover one of the broken pacifiers in his room the other day and sneakily went and put it back in his bed. I discovered it the next morning and had to remove it again. So, Max is now going to sleep with no musical crib toy and no pacifer -- what a big boy!

Max also had his 2-year well baby checkup yesterday (it was originally scheduled for January, but we had to reschedule due to an insurance gaff at the doctor's office). He weighed in at 30 lbs and is 34 inches tall. That puts him at 30% for height (still), 75% for weight, and 30% for head circumference (although I forget what his measurements were). He checked out fine and is doing all the things that 2 year olds are supposed to do (including having a whiney tantrum at the pediatrician's office because I wouldn't let him play with the stirrups on the exam table). The doctor took another look at his hip tone and said that the tone issues (if there even really are any) are very mild and shouldn't be a problem. She said that it is sometimes hard to tell how much of the "stiffness" is Max fighting having his legs flexed and how much is actually muscle tightness (which is also what his PT had said). So, that made me feel better. Max still has some eczema on his arms and legs, but it is just manifesting as very dry skin and doesn't seem to be bothering him at all. After trying a number of different lotions and creams, we finally got some Aquaphor and that really seems to be helping (thanks Billie!).

We got Max a booster seat, although he has yet to actually eat a meal in it. He's been having so much fun playing with it (both in and out of the box), that we haven't bothered to strap it to a chair yet. Molly is about ready to make her cereal debut, so we need to get him out of the high chair soon or else put Molly in the booster seat. With all the new developments, Max has definitely seemed more "little boy" and less toddler these last couple of weeks. He's been such a funny little guy and has been extra lovey (which Mom eats up). We've been playing lots of silly games and Max has been talking up a storm (even though I can't figure out most of what he is trying to say). He had his last swim class this last weekend. Although he had a bit of a rough start, he was loving swim class by the end of the session -- I had to hold him back to keep him from running into the water. I think he enjoyed getting out of the house and getting away from that attention-hogging little sister. I'll have to look into signing him up for some more classes of some sort -- he'd probably really love a gymnastics class and I know he'd enjoy some of the programs that our public library offers.