Waking up (at 5 AM) is hard to do....

Last night was crazy. Between Bailey needing to get up to go outside due to the MASSIVE amounts of water she drank because of her medication and Max getting up to eat, I was up every hour from 2 AM until Mr. Max decided we should get up for the day (5 AM). I think Max has been talking to Sam and Nathanael....

After Max had been crying at one point for about 20 minutes and I was about at wits' end, I put him beside me in the bed and picked up my iPhone and checked my emails. I had one new email. It was from me. One year ago today I composed an email to myself on futureme.org. Check it out - it's very cool. You can email your future self. The email couldn't have been more timely. An excerpt:
"I'd love to know what the situation is a year from now, on the day you receive this email. I hope you have come through this and are stronger and happier...and have a child or have one on the way in some form."

After reading that, I really couldn't be upset about Max's screaming and crying at the pre-dawn hour. I was reminded how long I had wished for this screaming little boy and I was able to look at the screaming from a different perspective :) So, I went ahead and fed him, even though he shouldn't have been hungry, and then he calmed down and became Happy Max. I thought maybe he would go back to sleep after this feeding, but this was the response I got when I said "Max, can we PLEASE go back to bed?"

So I gave up on sleeping, and decided we would start our day (except for Bailey, who stayed in bed - lucky dog). Luckily Max was in a great mood - I decided to read him a book, "Waking Up Is Hard To Do", by Neil Sedaka and illustrated by Daniel Miyares, who was one of Ben's best friends growing up.



Max seemed to enjoy listening to me read, but he disagreed wholeheartedly that waking up is hard to do.




Later on was playtime.



After that, Max, Bailey, and I went for a long walk...it was perfect weather. Chilly when we started and warm when we finished. Bailey and Max were both pooped after about ten minutes, but I walked for well over an hour.



After Max ate his lunch, he decided that he would try to stow away in Pop Pop's suitcase for a trip to Egypt. After I explained to him that he doesn't have a passport quite yet, he was rather disappointed.



Next we took some pictures on the front porch at Mimi and Pop Pop's. Aunt Lympi wanted Max to get in her jack-o-lantern...as you can see, he didn't quite fit. Oops, crying baby - have to end this post with these pictures... (Mimi did want it to be pointed out that she and Pop Pop had just ridden their bikes for 16 miles...)