At two months, Max is already starting to show some of his personality.  He is smiling more and more each day.  Within the last two weeks he has started to show some interest in his toys and will contently play on his exercise mat for up to thirty minutes at a time.  The cooing and noise making has begun, although he doesn’t do it all the time.  If you are talking with him he will often talk back.  He still hates being on his tummy and cries almost the instant you lay him on it! 

Max is starting to get in somewhat of a routine.  He will wake up about 6am, eat and take a short nap.  Then he will eat again, play for a bit before taking a long morning nap.  He has been taking this nap in his swing because every time I lay him down in his crib he wakes up!  After he wakes up, he eats again and then plays for a bit before falling asleep for his afternoon nap. This is the nap that I usually have to hold him for.  He will sleep if I am sleeping with him or holding him in my arms or on my chest.  Eventually, I would like for him to take all his naps in the crib, but don’t want to wish away the moments that he will let me hold him!  After this nap he will eat and play for a bit before I have to start supper.  During dinner prep and dinner he will either take a short nap or cry.  Most of the time Ben or I end up holding him throughout the meal because all he wants to do is cry if  you put him down.  He will play and eat off an on throughout the evening until he usually calls it a night about 10 or so.  For the last few nights he has been sleeping longer stretches and only waking up to nurse 1 or 2 times!!  We even had one night where he slept for five hours!

Have I mentioned how much this kid loves to eat?  When awake, he wants to nurse.  I am talking like every two hours or so!  It is exhausting, but well worth it in the end.  Whenever he is crying around one of the Swazi staff they tell me he needs to eat, even if he just got finished nursing!  I guess that is their solution for crying.  All his eating is paying off because he is getting quite chunky.  When we took him in for his 6 week check up he had already gained 1kg, over 2 pounds, since birth!!  All of the Swazi’s comment about what a big baby he is.  One staff member even said he looked like he was five months old!  I don’t know about that, but he is a big boy!

Max’s neck is getting stronger everyday.  He can hold it steady for long periods.  He still enjoys being held often and hanging out in the baby carrier (where he spent most of his time last week during camp).  Speaking of camp time, the hostel staff is in love with Max!  They "fight" over who is going to hold him.  He is also known as Simo at the hostel to most people.  This poor kid isn’t going to know his name!  Ben and I call him Max, Mikayla often calls him Maxwell and most of the Swazi’s refer to him as Simo.

Zodwa, a hostel employee, and Max at the dam during camp!

Mikayla absolutely loves her brother!  Sometimes too much!  We have had to have several talks with her about picking him up when an adult is not nearby.  Let’s just leave it as we have had a few close calls!!

Max still has the three birth marks mentioned here, but the one on his forehead is starting to fade.  The one on the crown of his head is still very red and gets bright red when he is mad and screaming.

Bath time is becoming more enjoyable with Max.  He is actually starting to enjoy this time, rather than screaming through the whole thing.  Although I have to be honest, he does not bathe as much as Mikayla did at his age.  We are having a hard time getting into a bathing routine with Max for some reason.