Marvelous Mr. Max

I was talking to Savannah the other day and Max was talking in the background.  She commented how grown up he sounded.  I agreed.  He is talking up a storm, learning new words and phrases like crazy.  He will count with you or help spell his name and uses several words to make his point. The funniest part is how he talks about himself in the third person,"Max going swimmin.'" Another funny thing is how he answers, "yes," to questions instead of yeah or anything else.  or says yes please "peas" if you ask him if he wants something.  My favorite is how he says truck, he replaces the "tr" with an "f" and makes me laugh every time.   

You can reason with him, ask him to do things and he has even begun to tattle on his siblings.  A few weeks ago I had packed him a snack and a drink for his Doctor appointment.  When we got there I noticed both were empty.  He informed me that Brayden ate and drank them.  Jerry and I laughed about it later and told the kids to watch out, an informer is in the house.  Last week the informer struck again when Brayden was trying to sneak in the house for snacks for him and the girls.  Max took Jerry to the pantry and said, "Brayden, hiding."  Gotta love an honest heart.   

Having a two year old  is an experience like no other.  It means giggles and screams both in delight and frustration.  It means little feet running through the house, something Max managed to do even in a body cast.  Everything is a new experience and every day means learning new things. It means messes too!  The other morning Mr. Max managed to lotion the carpet while I was packing our swimming bag, dump the Lego's while I was sorting laundry and chuck the dog food while I was getting him a snack and milk.  He redeemed himself on all counts because he helped clean up.

He's becoming more independent and comprehends a lot of what you tell him.  He remembers what songs he sings during swimming, like, "motor boat," and he knows that when he gets up from his nap it's time to get the "guys." and sometimes our neighbor, "Ty."  When Jerry gets home he often tries to tell him a story about what happened that day, his little words and attempts at sentences are very cute.  He loves to play outside and knows how to open doors and even the lock on the front door.  Jerry had put chain locks on both, so that is what we use now. 

He loves swimming.  I have addressed this fact more than once, but he really does.  He gets excited about it and talks about it.  He jumps full bore in the pool and when I tell him to swim like the Olympics, he paddles and kicks with flourish.  We're still working on blowing bubbles, but he will go "up-down" while holding onto the wall, although he doesn't quite go under water.  He loves the songs and high fiving his teacher after she takes him for a lap by himself, without mom. 

He loves to run, explore and go to his sister's soccer "sah-care" (french accent) games and Brayden's football games.  He likes to go to the beach and throw rocks.  He loves rides at Wild Waves, is a dare devil and laughed like crazy when his sisters and I rode the little roller coaster with him at Fright Fest last Friday.  He gets that from Saxton.

He loves plains, trains and any truck.  When we came home from Mt. Rainier with my cousin, we saw a real steam engine and he was just besides himself.  He no longer says, "beep beep" for trains which is kind of sad or "bee" for plain, but he still gets excited to see them.  Last Thursday at Chambers he saw a train and a sea plane almost at the same time and didn't know what to look at, he was so happy to see both!

He was excited to go to the movies, but ready to leave after a half hour.  This is funny story actually that I must tell.  So going to the movies last Friday fell through (went to Fright Fest instead) so we planned on going yesterday.  I picked up the girls, then Brayden and we headed to Target for treats.  We got to the movie just before 4:20 (start time), got our tickets and went in and sat down.  The movie, Hotel Transylvania, had already started which surprised us because we assumed there would be previews and the plot didn't quite make sense.  A half hour later it was "The End."  We had gone in the wrong theater and missed half the movie.  Silly us (silly momma).  After realizing what had happened, the nice manager gave us movie passes for another time.   

He reminds me so much of Savannah.  She was my little escape artist.  I remember when she was right about Max's age she was napping and I was mowing the lawn.  All of a sudden, there she was on the little front patio.  She had managed to unlock her screen in her window and take it out and then unlock her window and open it and climb out.  Thankfully we only had a one story and she was fine.  She was quiet and didn't choose to talk until after she was three, but I wasn't worried about that, I knew she was plenty smart.

This morning the girls had a dentist appointment and then I went to their school to help with the book fair.  Max was super cute.  There was another little girl, Martha who was playing with him and they were looking through the books and even trying to read them.  They also were having fun running around and hiding.  He had lunch with his sisters and had the pick of their food.  He can get them to do just about anything by looking at them with his big blue eyes.  Then came the mouse costume.  Sage decided to dress up in this character suit and Max freaked out and clung to me like a little monkey.  He was in a tizzy between crying and laughing and being amused and terrified.  He went from high fiving the mouse to wishing he would go away.  Sage tried to show him it was her, and he sort of got it and would call the mouse Sage, but was still really not having it.  Clifford got a little better reception, but not a high five.  After that and three hours of excitement, I took him home for a nap. 

Max wants to be a big kid and do homework and write, "I write, homework."   He likes to read, especially when we sit down to help Brayden.  He repeats like a little parrot so I have to watch my truck driver language.  He tells us that he poops, but isn't interested in potty training yet.  He sings and likes "songs."  He says, "do it adin (again)" and wants to "help."  He likes his bear that Sage and Savannah got him at the St. Vincent De Paul in Fargo for a dollar.  He loves "dum" (gum) but still swallows it.  (I'm still waiting for some horrible product to be produced but so far things make it from point A to point B okay.)  He's still sleeping in his crib (we put it back to a full crib when he broke his leg.) and likes his blankets "Seahawks one."  He has this leap frog house that says all sorts of things that he used to play with every night, but thankfully is kind of done with it for awhile.  Jerry and I are glad because it sort of freaked us out when it talked through the monitor in the middle of the night.  He likes to talk on phone, especially to his "Naan."

My favorite time is bedtime, when he goes and says his good nights to his siblings and we say our prayers.  Then Jerry and I hold him in a group hug and he puts his little arms around both of our necks and kisses us both, back and forth, back and forth.  He likes to "kiss" and hhhhug."

Life with a toddler is hectic, as is life and the time is flying by.  This blog post is a sort of diary entry to myself so I can recollect what this time was like and think back, remember and smile.   After all, I still recall bringing Savannah in her snowsuit years ago to swimming at the YMCA like it was yesterday, she was just a baby and now she is a freshman in high school.  I love my marvelous Max like I love all my babies, just as he is.