And then there were two.

Something new seems to happen every day when you have a baby. It must be amazing to be learning so many things all at once. It really is true what everyone tells you, "Don't blink, or you'll miss something!" It really feels like we've been making up for lost time these last three months. Max was essentially a 3 month old when we brought him home and it really felt like, in a lot of ways, that we had missed that newborn stage with him. Sure we spent time with him, but it's hard to fathom how difficult it is to feel like a parent when your child has never left the hospital unless you've tried to do it. Now that we're home we appreciate every moment a little bit more.

Had Max been born on his original due date he would be 6 months old today. It's hard to believe. It seemed to us that Max was fairly on-track developmentally for his corrected age. We had an appointment with occupational therapy last week that confirmed our suspicions, and it was nice to have the professional nod of approval. There's a fairly wide range of "normal" when it comes to developmental milestones for babies, but Max is well within that range. It's amazing considering where he started. Max is tolerating, and even sometimes enjoying tummy time; pushing up on his arms, rolling over, and trying really hard to get onto his knees. He's very close to sitting on his own and still loves standing - he's taking all his weight on his legs, and just needs help balancing. He's grabbing at toys, making lots of noise during play time, and recognizes his name. We're beginning to wish that a couple of teeth would make an appearance, as Max is a drooling, gnawing, ornery little boy lately - soon, perhaps!

On the eating front, Max has been doing very well. We've been offering him rice cereal once a day and he's doing really great. He seems to love the taste and gets very excited about the whole experience. He still doesn't seem to really understand the mechanics of eating, but ends up inadvertently swallowing some anyway. We're more concerned with building positive associations with his mouth and eating right now and the mechanics can follow. We even tried some pureed pears today, and while he wasn't too sure about the taste and texture he was eventually opening his mouth for more tastes. Certainly a bold effort - we're very proud.

In other health news, the dreaded cold has found our house. For a home with a preemie it might as well be the plague. On the plus side it is Rafael that is sick, and not Max, but we're pretty nervous about having him in such close quarters with cold germs. Rafael has been camping out in the living room and sleeping on the couch and Max and I have been sequestered to our bedrooms. We occasionally wave at each other if I'm in the kitchen, but that's been the extent of our contact. It's been a little rough not having an extra set of hands occasionally throughout the day, and Rafael misses Max terribly, but we're hoping to get through this unscathed. I'm hoping that Max being breastfed makes a difference and will protect him from any wayward germs as we all cross paths throughout our apartment.

We're becoming desperate for winter to be over. Hurry up spring!