Busy Weekend

Lincoln Park (West Seattle)

Discovery Park

Got Milk?

Summer Fun


Birthday girl Jen and Danielle


Elana, Taryn and Noah


This past weekend was a busy one for us. On Saturday Charles played at the West Seattle Art Fair and our good friend Jennifer turned 40. On Sunday we had a playdate/get-together at our house with 5 kids and their parents.

I totally missed the boat on taking pictures and missed some great photo-ops. I'm bummed about this.

One reason that I didn't get many pictures is that Max is still in his pushing/not sharing phase. Charles and I feel that he needs to be shadowed around other kids (more than usual) because he isn't quite grasping the concept of being gentle. We don't want any accidents! We are absolutely confident this is a passing phase so we are just dealing with it right now.

We are teaching him as best we can about sharing. It was especially good having kids over for Max to share all of his personal toys with on his own turf. It was also fun for us being with other parents. We'll be doing that again.

We continue to be happy with Max's daycare. He says daycare! daycare! on the way there and doesn't want to leave at the end of the day. What a complete turn around.

I credit them for teaching him please and thank-you.

Some of our favorite phrases right now are:

More milk pees

Mama/Dada help pees

bubbles bubbles ehrwey wer

ahh wahh u ( the ultimate heart melter)


Max is parroting so much of what we say and using new words everyday. We are having so much fun with our little man these days!

The chatty little man

Daddy here checking in ... thought I'd say a few words about Max's surge in development and some of the cool things he's doing.

Just a month ago, we were writing down his new words every day, thinking we could keep track, and we did up to about 50. Now, it would be an impossible task. Nearly every word you ask him to say, he'll try it and often he nails it. He remembers so many things and every day there's a new phrase or word he just blurts out. He knows his name, he says "Mats"; doesn't quite have the X down yet. Some of my other favorites lately are: sweet potatoes, weedeater, lawnmower, hammer, saw, mud, dirt (see the pattern here ...?) Yes, Max loves tools (the only 'kid stuff' he really gets into is Bob the Builder) and some of my favorites anecdotes lately revolve around his fascination with digging, hammering, etc:

• The other day we were driving along and he saw a big yellow backhoe on a trailer and he pointed and said "dig hole!"
• One thing he does alot lately is say "help dada"or "help mama"' when we're putting away his toys or clothes. I was fixing the storm doors to the basement and had to dig a little trench so the corner of the door would lay right. He saw me doing this and started saying "help dada" over and over and he ran across the yard to the shed and grabbed a big shovel and came over and started digging. He can actually work a shovel, I need to get a picture of it, it's priceless.

• Max is very tuned into music. He loves rock, the Beatles, Jason Isbell, My Morning Jacket. He likes to "pay" guitar along with Daddy and actually holds his little red guitar right and picks the strings, smiling and looking at daddy. And he has a drum and we'll be playing along together and I'll say "drum solo" and he'll start flailing away like John Bonham.
  
• When you say I love you, he says it back to you, kind of like "Ah whu yoo" and he gets a big grin on his face. And he's starting to get into drawing with his crayons and chalk, "daw" as he says.
  
• He's doing quite well at his new daycare, ELDC, and is almost getting to the point where we think he actually likes going. The first day I picked him up, one of his teachers, Kim, told me that he's very chatty and that none of the kids his age (21 months) are talking as much.


• One of the coolest things is that Max loves positive affirmation. He loves to impress you. When he does something cool and we say "Yes! Nice job, Max!" he gets the biggest smile on his face and usually giggles.
  

Of course, he gets frustrated more often than we'd like, is still fairly cautious at the playground and doesn't find contentment for very long in any one thing. But we're hearing more and more from teachers, parents and reading online that that is a sign of intelligence, that he has the capacity to think about multiple things at once but hasn't yet developed the basic skill of focus, which will come. And his cautiousness shows that he has the ability to think about the potential consequences of throwing himself headfirst down a slide or climbing too quickly up the ladder. Max has never been content to sit and stare at the TV for more than about 3 minutes, and although it would be nice to have that temporary baby-sitter sometimes to get some things done, it's a good thing to know he's not being conditioned to think that's what he needs to be entertained ... at least for now anyway. The days of Wall-E, Xbox, etc. are not that far off ...

Beckler River (Our first camping trip)

Max on daddy's back. My new favorite picture!



Max and momma cuddling in the tent.




Max and momma.



Max and Daddy sitting on a log.



Max loves to throw rocks in the river!


Although it rained on us most of the time, we had fun. Max loved sleeping in the tent, cooking chicken hot dogs on the fire and finding slugs.

With summer finally here we've been spending a lot of our time at parks and in the yard. Max loves to dig and make mud. Lately he's also been into coloring and drawing on the chalkboard.

Max has a full blown obsession with Bob The Builder. The books, the toys, the song, all of it!

Lake Forest Animal Farm was definitely a hit. Max loved to get up close with the goats and get wet under the water fountains. I tried to get a picture of Max and Malik together but couldn't get it. Toddlers!!!

There are two areas that Max is doing really well in these days.

1. Sleeping. This has been good for a while (except when he's sick) but it's been especially good since we bought him his new bedding. We went all out for the organic cotton bed and sheets. It was sort of expensive but not that bad. Since he sleeps so well on it we aren't complaining.

2. Talking. I think the only thing that is holding Max back from being able to converse with us is muscle development. He is trying to say several new words everyday and we just need to decipher them. He is also putting words together and using his signs with talking.

From birth until now his development has seemed like a slow moving train that made a lot of stops. Now it's like I'm sitting on the train looking out the window watching the scenery pass by. It's not stopping. It's chugging along with or without my help.

In public, however, Max is hit or miss. He may talk, smile and laugh or he may cry, push and be clingy and introverted. Yes, he pushes. Usually at kids his own age. It's embarrassing. We're working on it. At this point Max isn't showing the kind of social behavior toward other kids that we'd like to see.
His friend Malik, the sweet boy that he is tries to hug and hold Max's hand and Max won't have it.

But we know what Max is like at home and we know he's a lovey, huggy bear. He's just not quite ready to show it to the rest of the world yet!

Our Weekend

This is Max and Mason at Mason's 4th Birthday party. Mason is our across the street neighbor. He really loves Spiderman!
Charles is in St. Louis this week so it's just me and Max. Boo.

What We've Been Up To

This weekend we took the bus with Max downtown. We walked around for a while but it was really cold so we didn't stay for too long. The thrill is in the bus ride for Max. Every time the driver makes a stop Max says "more, more".

Max is done with his Amoxicillin and he seems to be fine. It really sucks that we seem to have run out of luck with Max being a good eater. We used to brag about his huge appetite and his willingness to eat all kinds of vegetables. Now we have to force him to eat. Could it be his age? Daycare? I don't know. He still eats fruit and meat so I guess it's not all that bad. I'm going to have to get more creative with the vegetables if he doesn't get back on track.

On Saturday night Charles and I had Jordan, a worker at Max's daycare come over so we could go see Indiana Jones. I was reluctant to do it but we let her put him down after we left. So far Max has only been babysat while he was sleeping so this was a big step for all of us. Max cried really hard when we left and kept calling for mama. Totally heartbreaking.

It was hard to get into the mood for a date when he was so upset but I loosened up after a while. I even resisted the strong urge to call and check on him.

Jordan said he calmed down shortly after we left and went down really quickly with only a small amount of crying. I felt better hearing this.

So I hope it works out for Jordan to sit for us more often. She lives close by and is saving money for college. Maybe we'll all be better the next time we try it.

Update

Max rallied very quickly once on Amoxicillin. I've been monitoring his breathing at night and he doesn't sound like he's straining to breath. This leads me to believe he doesn't have pneumonia. The doctor agrees but he'll need to be checked if things change. He seems to have his energy back but he is very clingy and isn't eating much. He's coughing less but it still sounds pretty chunky when he does.

The cold/ear infection combo is a nasty beast. I don't want to revisit this anytime soon.

Charles is still feeling miserable but I'm much better.

The house has seen cleaner days and the weeds are making themselves right at home but I've got a long weekend ahead to catch up.