today max and dad spent the morning practicing sitting up (propped with a pillow), playing with the earth beach ball and reading books; then we went for a long walk through the neighborhood and bought some tea. max slept for a 2 hour nap after putting himself to sleep, then woke and slept on dad for 2 more hours. he is doing very well with the sleep habits and hopefully will be trained in time for the trip to his blood home in mid-december.