Five - Oh - Five

Okay, I promise this won't be a marathon post, even though we have a lot to report. I should be posting every day, because everyday Maximo is experiencing something new and is changing so quickly. Right now, our days our full and I'm asleep about 20 minutes after Maximo goes to bed, so posting at the end of our day is impossible. I'm trying to squeeze in this post before he wakes up.
Well, 5:05... this is the time we've been waking up! Yipee! Don't want to miss a minute of vacation. In Peru, the sun rises at about 6:00 am and sets around 6:00 pm, with only a few minutes of change throughout the year since we're so close to the equator. Unfortunately, Maximo's internal clock is set to this darkness and light schedule. The sun has been rising at about 5:00 am, hence our early wake up!
Max has been traveling really well, even though we've totally been screwing up his schedule. He's been eating dinner with us at the table which has been fun. He's boycotted the baby food (out of the jars), so the first few days were a little rough and he increased his milk and formula intake. Now, he's eating a little of the jarred food and we're supplementing with as much "people food" as we can - mostly chicken, sweet potatoes, fruit, and anything else we can put into small pieces or mash. He's devouring Cheerios too! We think he'd eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner if we let him!
Maximo has LOVED the water. We're right near the ocean, so he loves sitting on the shore kicking his legs in the water and playing with the shells. We've also gone to the lake with his cousins and he really loved that (it's a little bit warmer than the Atlantic). He went in a little floatie for a while, but enjoyed us holding him and splashing with his hands and his feet.
Lastly, before this turns into another 1000 word post... the Pediatric Physical Therapist came yesterday and evaluated Maximo. She was really pleased with all he's doing - CRAWLING (yes, really crawling now!), transitioning between sitting and crawling, and sitting up unassisted. She said he's average for a 8 month old (his adjusted age) and is even low on the charts for a 10 month old. It was very reassuring to speak with her. She's going to come back on Monday to show us some activities to do with him.
We'll try to post pictures (in other words, if he stays asleep another 15 minutes, I'll download them). Max received a cute little Old Navy bathing suit - short and a surf shirt. With his little Old Navy hat, he looks like a baby model for one of their advertisements.