Maxisms

• He loves to sing songs.  One of his favorites is 'who put the bop in the bop-she-bp-she-bop.'  When you do the two lines with 'who put,' he says 'me, Max put it.'  And then when you say 'who was that man?  I'd like to shake his hand,' he says 'I am that man.  Max is that man.'  And then he'll shake your hand.
• He's very clear that he is Max.  If you say 'you are a sweetie pie,' he says 'I am not a sweetie pie, I am MAX' as if you were the dingiest ding-dong of all time.
• He loves going to Sunday School!  His buddies are Virginia, Lucy and Walter, and he looks forward to seeing them (and the ladies) all week.
• He's a little ladies man.  We had friends for dinner Saturday night with their 5 year-old daughter.  They were hugging all over each other, and by the end of the night were setting up play dates for themselves.
• The poor thing is starting to have bad dreams.  He was calling out 'I want to go in Mommy's car, I want to go in Mommy's car, please can I go in Mommy's car' around 3 this morning.  I went in and figured out he was still sleeping, so shook him and said 'Max, wake up.'  He said 'I don't want to wake up, Mommy!' and was quite happy when I told him he could lie down and go back to sleep.
• He's really good at polite words, but doesn't quite have the phrasing/use patterns down.  EVERYTHING begins with 'please can I have...' So, if you say 'what is the polite way to ask Mommy to get your book?' he answers with 'Please can I have Mommy go get my book.'  
• Potty training is coming along.  He got TWO stickers yesterday for using the potty twice in one day.  It's slow but seems to be clicking in its own way. 
• He's very into making up characters.  Lately, he becomes 'Mr. XYZ' very easily.  All weekend, he'd put shoes on his hands and then say 'I'm Mr. Shoes' in this goofy voice, then shake your hands.
• Ah, the lobo.  Lobo is the Spanish word for wolf.  One of his friends's nannies tells her kids that if they don't do what they are supposed to, the lobo will come get them.  So during dinner, Max will often say 'lobo is coming so we have to eat our dinners,' and then shoves as much food in his mouth as he can, as quickly as possible.  It's hilarious.  Lobo apparently lives in back yards, though we also found his house in the crawl space under the church.  It's funny to see where lobo pops up!

Progress!

Max got his fire coat in April for Easter.  It has involved full-on panic just to be in the same room as the coat since it arrived.  Saturday morning, he walked right up to it, demanded it be put on, then added the hat and boots and asked to look in the mirror.  He's been in and out of it ever since!

Unfortunately, firemen don't stop moving when they're helping people, so getting a picture is not easy!

Sick puppy

Poor Max came down with a short stomach bug yesterday.  He and I spent a lot of time sleeping between tummy trouble times.  He kept saying 'I'm a little bit sick' and 'I hurt my tummy mommy, give it kisses.'

 Then all of the sudden, he woke up at 6:30, started demanding pretzels, and was in a healthy, good mood.  He still went to bed on time and slept until 7:30.  Even sick, he's a sweetie.

Swimming Lessons

Max loves to talk about swimming lessons.  He has a teacher and practices kicking, making his arms like he's pulling water, and blowing bubbles.  He shows off his new skills in the bathtub and is very proud of himself.

He does not so much love the cold pool water (nor does Ian).  He'll have blue lips for about 2 hours after class!

With his pals

Miss Maria is on vacation this week, so Max is spending the days with Sophie, Lillian and their nanny, Pamela.  The girls are so happy to see him, and he loves getting to play with them!  Fortunately, they live just around the corner so they walk over to pick him up every day.  Today, they're making cup cakes - fun times!

They're just sweet

I'm sure our loyal readers are sick of Max-and-Daddy-read-at-bedtime pics, but they are just so sweet that I can't stop taking them!  Max thought 1 Fish, 2 Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish was heeeeeee-larious!

BBQ Time!

Ian cooks out a LOT in the summertime.  And Max likes BBQ chicken a LOT.  It makes a mess but also a happy boy!

Made Cookies to the Fireman

Tuesday night, Max and I made cookies for the firemen.  Last night, we delivered them.  So long as we made it about the firemen - and NOT the fire truck - we were in good shape.  The first picture is what happened when they said 'do you want to go see the truck?'  Max took off for the door!

 But he loved the fireman and fire lady!  There were lots of hugs and high-5s before we left!

 Then home to tell Daddy all about it!

Getting Ready for Bed

Max has quite the bedtime routine - take viteys, brush teeth, 'monkey cup' and then jommies, books and bed.

 He loves his pre-bed routine!

Morning Fun

"Helping" me brush my teeth by looking for the toothpaste.

 Seriously Mom, enough with the camera thing.

 Oh look, we finally hung the art in Max's big boy room!

 THERE's the sweet happy face he makes when the camera is not in his face.  Such a happy little guy!

Goodnight, Moon

Another cutie of the boys in pre-bedtime mode.  They love to read together before getting in bed to 'tell about our days.'

Movie Monday

It's been a while since we've posted videos of Max in action. He's a total character these days - enjoy!

"My outfit"

Steve and Tricia went to China this spring and bought an outfit for Max.  When I (finally) asked him if he wanted to try it on, he was very excited!  He was able to put the shorts on all by himself.  Apparently American kids have bigger heads than Chinese kids (though Max's is exceptionally large) because I had to cut the top open a bit to get it over his noggin.

We took a couple of warm-up shots with Baby to remember that we like the camera.

 And then were ready to pose!

He's gone off to Miss Maria's in the outfit today.  According to Maxie, it's "very cool"

Garbage Truck Joy

Little causes the pitter patter of little feet through our house quite as effectively as the garbage truck's arrival Wednesday mornings.  Watching the guys out the front window, we get to see them do three stops - the houses on either side of our, and ours/across the street.  The joy, excitement and anticipation of Wednesday mornings is one of the most adorable things Max shares with us.  Even better, he gets to see more trucks at Maxie's house - their garbage guys don't come until the afternoon!


 

Funny Maxisms about garbage day:
'What do the garbage men take, Max?' 'They take dirty DIAPERS!' 
'What does the recycling truck take?' ''luminum plastics paper glass' (from his book 'I Am a Garbage Truck)

Night night Daddy

Ian and Max have a special bedtime routine.  They read books, then get in bed and Max tells Ian all about his day.  Max really likes it - he usually starts saying 'read books and tell me 'bout your day?' when we start putting on jommies.

They usually talk about Max's day and anything new or exciting coming up, then go through several rounds of Max asking 'do you liiiiiike...... fire trucks?  do you liiiiiike..... garbage trucks?  do you liiiiiiike... lamps?  etc, etc., etc. before bed.  It's a very sweet time.

Family Vacation

Not sure why so many of these are sideways, but c'est la vie...

We took a family vacation to Baltimore last week.  It was a lot of fun!  We rode the train up Wednesday night, had dinner that evening, and then got up early Thursday to go exploring.  We started with a wander through the Inner Harbor area, where Max found giant anchors to climb.

Then it was on to the aquarium.  It was pretty neat, though unbelievably crowded to be a day staff were referring to as 'light.'

You'll of course notice the fish shirt for the visit to the fishies.  This was Max and me getting ready to watch the dolphin show.  He was pretty impressed, and can now jump like a dolphin (generally involves throwing himself at the ground head first).

Then we headed back across the Inner Harbor to check out the 'pirate ship' - a boat used in the slave days.

We were VERY into being the captain and driving the boat.

That evening, we took the water taxi over to Fells Point for dinner and exploring.  It was very peaceful out on the water!

Max LOVES to give big, sloppy kisses.

We saw a shark jaw at the aquarium.  This is Max's interpretation of 'skeleton faces.'

Friday, we took the bus out to Fort McHenry.  For the record, we learned that it is really inconvenient to rely on public transportation BUT it is super-duper-awesome to ride on if you are 2.

I looked all over creation in 2006 for a fence like this for Bredesen's commercials.  Only one in town was on his property.  Lo and behold, Fort McHenry is surrounded by 'civil war-style fences.'

They had rehabbed an old jail cell from the fort.  Max wanted to 'go in the jail.'

I feel like I made this face a lot as a child:

Then we found some awesome stairs and played fire trucks while Daddy finished checking out the grounds.

One of the park rangers made Max and honorary Jr. Ranger.  He was VERY proud of his badge and still asks for it.

Then it was back on the bus and headed to the Baltimore Industrial Museum, which was surprisingly interesting and kid-friendly.

There were wheelbarrow boxes throughout the museum filled with kids' activities.  Very popular with us!

We put on safety goggles to watch a demonstration of a machine that cuts the adapters for fire man hoses.

And then we got to PLAY with a real fire man hose.

Which was the highlight, until we found the puzzles, trucks and Legos in the children's activity room.

While waiting for the bus back, a tow truck pulled up to take a car away.  It was a great way to pass the time!

Riding like pros by now.

Then it was back to the train station for the ride home.

What a great trip!