milestones

as implied by the last picture, max has been spending a lot of time studying his crib and how to use the bars to achieve his nefarious ends. the day we have long anticipated and somewhat dreaded has arrived.

Tonite he was carrying on quite dramatically after I laid him in his crib to go to sleep. Generally I top off the tank (max's lil pre-sleep nightcap) then lay him in the crib where he kind of curls on his side, finds the thumb and heads to dreamland. Occasionally there is a mild protest which ceases within a few seconds -rarely more than 3 minutes. Tonite, however he went on and on with the screaming kind of cries that sound like some little tiny part of his vocal cord is busting out OR his heart and spirit have irrevocably broken due to our uncaring neglect. Needless to say we didn't last that long, not being a full on sleep trained CIO (cry it out,baby) family. I went in after the first 12 minutes and started the whole bedtime ritual over, topped the tank and laid him down to sleep. After about 3 minutes of silence the whole she-bang started up again , growing worse and worse. We waited and waited and tried to eat our tacos and waited and after 16 whole minutes (it honestly feels like an eternity - especially since it is so rare) the hubby broke down and went to check on him and BANG! MILESTONE!!!!!!!

Max was standing up in his crib at the part closest to the door to his room and seemed unsure how to get down. He can now pull him self up to standing. In his crib. Now we have to lower the sleeping platform AGAIN so he doesn't somehow figure out how to nosedive over the top of the rails. But it was pretty exciting to see him standing there blinking and screaming at us now that the translation had dawned on us.
I'M STANDING UP! I DID IT ALL BY MYSELF! CHECK ME OUT SUCKAS! GIT YOUR BUTTS IN HERE NOW!!! CRAP I CAN'T GET BACK DOWN! I'M FREAKING OUT!!! ITS MAKING ME TIRED, GEEZ! I'M SO TIRED! SOMEBODY HELP ME! and so on

how did it all end,you ask? Did max ever find the secret to knee bending and safely lowering himself to a seated position then rolling gently onto his side and snuggle up for sleep. Heck no. His pops laid him down and calmed him then left him to fall asleep. There were a few mild peeps then radio silence. Back to normal except for he major milestone my genius baby hurdled today.