Maverick: Seven Month Update

This is Maverick's 'Angry-Happy Face.'

Our big (read: little) man is officially seven months old! He thinks I'm hilarious 100% of the time, which has elevated him to best friend status...ahead of Josh, since Josh doesn't think I'm as funny as Maverick and I both agree I AM.

Maverick loves...
1. Mommy and daddy.
2. Straps. On anything...the Bumbo, stroller, Target cart, high-chair...if it has a strap, he will find it and put it in his mouth.
3. All varieties of water. Bath water, hot tub, swimming pool, warm water, cold water, drinking water out of a cup. He loves going under and isn't swallowing or sucking in water anymore!
3. Walks in the stroller, sitting and facing out like a big boy.
4. Having someone to play with.
5. When whoever is holding him has a shirt with zippers and/or strings.
6. Singing and dancing.
7. Watching videos of himself.
8. Reading (read: eating) books.
9. Being bounced and going 'AHBOOMBOOMBOOM.'
10. Watching cars go by our house.

Maverick hates...
1. Being put down.
2. Being in his car seat/stroller/shopping cart and not MOVING.
3. Getting out of his bath/hot tub/swimming lesson.
4. Being left to play on the floor for too long...he demands to be rotated between his high chair, stroller, Bumbo, play mat, bouncer during his awake time or he gets bored.
5. LOTS of stimulation. People in his face, a loud environment scare/stress him out.
6. Being rocked or cuddled.
7. He's starting to dislike hats. Which might be a problem, considering the amount of time I plan to spend at the pool this summer.
8. Being in his bouncer for *too* long (he's getting better at sticking it out in there for longer and longer every day).
9. Sleeping at Nana and Papa's house (he literally sleeps perfectly everywhere else...I cannot figure it out).
10. 7:00pm to whenever he eats for the last time before bedtime.

That was our month in a nutshell. I'll expound a little more so I have a reference the next time I have a seven month old. :)

Maverick is still in 3-6 month clothes...comfortably. Not sure when I'll be breaking out the next size. I'm hoping soon because the weather is changing! He's finishing up my stash of size one diapers, but wearing size two at night. He kept waking up after 12 hours with a nice poopy back, and upping his size has solved that laundry problem. He's still generally happy and 'easy' by most people's standards, but definitely starting to get a LOT more opinionated. He YELLS alllllllllll the time and he does it with a fair amount of attitude. This makes it nice and easy to tell when something is actually wrong...or when he's just being a crank-pants. The majority of the time it's the latter.

Rolling from front to back and back to front got a lot more regular last month. It's slowed down a little since then, but it was common for me to see three or four rolls in a row out of him. No sign of teeth yet, though he is happy to taste and gnaw on anything that comes his way. A few nights here and there he was sleeping on his tummy, but that has also stopped and I find him on his back now after naps and most nights/mornings. He sleeps in a little zipper sack with both arms out and I think that's made him a better sleeper...getting the hang of rolling has helped too. There was a week where he would get 'trapped' on his tummy at 1 or 2am and have a FREAK out until I fed him. I put up with that for three or four nights, and then just started flipping him and letting him cry-it-out to fall back asleep in the night instead of feeding him. So his nights were kind of 'all over the place,' but overall I think it was a successful month and he's getting more consistent with every day.

We're still doing it up Babywise in this house...following a schedule but bending it once or twice a week (usually Sunday's for church) to accommodate stuff we have going on. His 'normal' is awake to eat at 9...nap from 11-1, eat...awake from 1-3...nap from 3-5, eat...awake from 5-8:30 when we start bedtime routine, he eats one more time, and is in bed by 9. He's still usually up at 5/6/7am to eat, but then goes back down until it's time to get up for the day at 9. And I'm pretty happy with that. He's small, so I don't think I'll try and 'force' him to stop eating early in the morning aaaanytime soon. And his naps were FABULOUS last month...I got a taste of what it's like to put the baby down and have two straight hours to get stuff done...and then it happens again in the afternoon! Nap time is my favorite!

We made it through 'Leap 5' last month which is apparently a big growth spurt, and after that was over I noticed a ton of changes. He had a bad week sleeping at night, a picture perfect week, a super crabby week, and then kind of a mixture of everything. It's crazy how much he changes and as soon as I think we've made it through a rough patch...something else falls out of whack. I don't think there is any way I could handle having babies close together. It would be constant growth spurts, teething, and colds, on repeat for like...six years straight! I don't think this mama is built for that.

Maverick is SOOO much more aware of everything now. He scopes out new surroundings and people very closely. He loooooves watching the traffic in front of our house, or I'll hold him by the kitchen door so he can watch his daddy get ready to leave for work in the morning. Whenever I miss Josh or wish he was home to see something, I send a picture or a video and then kiss Maverick and say, "Do you know your daddy works so hard? You're daddy loves you so much Maverick! Daddy works hard so mommy can stay home and play with Maverick!" I want him to grow up appreciating how hard his daddy works and how much he loves him, even if we don't see Josh much from April to September. So even though he doesn't know what I'm saying now...soon he will. :) We cheer when Josh gets home and if he's working in Ames, try and buzz to visit him for a kiss whenever we can.

When I say he gets mad when he's put down...this right here is what I mean.

My favorite part of our days together is waking Maverick up in the morning or after a nap. He's pretty perfectly scheduled so he's usually awake on his own at the 1.5-2 hour mark...but I open the door, peek in, and say, "Good morning Maverick Boersma!" and he. is. thrilled. He stretches and pokes his big (read: little) belly out and does what Josh and I call...the 'Angry Happy Face.' It's when he is so excited that his eyebrows frown and his nose wrinkles, but he has the biggest smile plastered on his face. He got this particular look from his mom...everything else this month in the looks department has gotten more and more like his dad. Eyes are bluer...lashes are longer...hair is blonder.

I'm still breastfeeding Maverick but vow to be done with that by his first birthday or when he gets teeth and starts being naughty...whichever comes first. He's happy to keep eating that way, and I'm happy to keep feeding him that way as long as it's easy and he's happy. :) We have a good balance...it's almost like he knew I wasn't going to put up with any crap and since he WILL NOT drink formula, he know she better keep it together. I might have mentioned this last month, I started offering a couple ounces of formula before or after he ate to try and fatten him up...to no avail. He hates it. He'll start drinking it and as soon as he's downed a few swallows and realizes what it is...turns his head back and forth and fusses and cries until I give up. He's so easygoing in almost every other area that I sort of thought this would be a piece of cake. I figured I could get a little more flexibility in our schedule when we have things like church or when it would just be easier to give him formula if we're out and about because he's so much faster at a bottle...No luck.

Maverick plays with toys more and more, but he's not quite ready to sit up 100% on his own and have me leave his side to play...so he tends to get frustrated when he throws/pushes all his toys away and then can't get to them. He'll play on the floor for quite a long time if I stay close to push his toys back up to him. He has a couple toys that Jamie likes to give him, but then she gets frustrated when, "He's not playing with them right!" This is classic Jamie. She also hates this new little pursed-lip annoyed face Maverick does...especially when I remind her it is VERY similar to a baby-Jamie look we used to get on a regular basis.

So that's what's up with our little Mav-wardo this month. He's changed sooooo much from his newborn pictures (when he looked like me for a hot minute) to the little baby boy he is now (that looks soooo much like Josh). He's so much fun and I have yet to get sick of kissing his face a flobbity-gillion times a day. I love that raising him is my job.

MmB