14 Months

Somehow, 13 months just passed right by without a blog post.  Oops!

Max is becoming more of a little boy every day.  He jabbers, “vrooms” toy cars across the floor, has opinions, understand willful disobedience, and is constantly interacting with us. 

He loves to walk behind push toys and cruise along furniture.  He’ll let go and stand on his own for a few seconds, and he loves walking around the house while I hold his hands.

Max can certainly climb!  He’s not an expert (yet…) but he surprises me with the places he can reach.  He’s often sitting on top of Alex’s train table and other unusual spots.

He just took his first steps on Friday night, but that’s a post of its own…as soon as I can get the video to load!  Grandma & Grandpa Schurman were here for Max’s first steps!

He loves ride-on toys.  He sits on the Bounce & Spin pony several times throughout the day, and he giggles and jumps for quite a while!  He climbs on and off easily from the toy train and 4-wheeler, and Alex even let him ride the little tractor in the garage today.  Max doesn’t get far on his own, but Alex is always willing to climb on behind him and “zoom” Max around the house.

Max LOVES snacks!  I’ve heard from many nursery workers at church that Max could just eat for the whole hour he’s in there.  He’s on a Goldfish cracker kick right now, and (thanks to Aunt Deb) he’s probably tried every flavor they make.  He also likes any other type of cracker, teddy grahams, and even (sadly…) the dog’s food.  He’ll drink any kind of juice, is starting to drink plain white milk (rather than milk mixed with yogurt), and loves it when Mommy shares a sip of lemonade from her straw.  He hasn’t quite gotten the hang of sipping through the straw yet, so I have to do the finger on the straw trick to drop it into his mouth.

Max eats whatever we eat at mealtime, but his favorite is CARBS with veggies as a close second.  Most meats (except for ham) require a bit of encouragement.  His favorite breakfast is a big pile of dry cereal and some small chunks of fruit.  He ADORES pizza and garlic bread.  He also loves when Mommy feeds him soup – especially broccoli cheese soup!

We’re all done with baby food except at for fruit & cereal at bedtime.  Since he’s no longer nursing, Max needs a little something on his tummy overnight. 

I shouldn’t say Max is no longer nursing, as I still let him nurse for a few minutes in the early morning.  He goes to bed around 8 PM, usually sleeps all night, and he wakes at about 6 AM.  I’m not ready to be up for the day, so I offer him 5 minutes of nursing and he’ll sleep until around 7 AM.  At some point, I’ll have to give that up…but it’s just so convenient right now!  If he wakes during the night, he gets a quick kiss and cuddle, then gets put back in bed.  He’ll usually cry for a few minutes and then go back to sleep.

He doesn’t talk as much as Alex did at this age, and he certainly doesn’t use as much sign language as Alex did.  In fact, Max will NOT watch the Baby Signing Times videos.  Flat out refuses.  His only sign is “all done” when he’s finished eating.

His short list of words:

Amen
dance
daddy
hi
bye-bye
seez (please)
I see!
bup (up)
dot (hot)
mmmm (if something looks good to eat)
whassat? (what’s that?)
and possibly…ba-ba (dog)

There are a few other words (birdy & tree, for example) that Max has repeated, but he doesn’t use them on his own yet.  And yes, he DOES say dance and knows what it means.  It’s adorable! ;)

His favorite way to communicate is still screaming and shrieking, but he’s starting to jabber a lot of nonsense sentences as if he’s telling you something. 

Max’s favorite video is an old “Kids Sing Praise” VHS cassette.  He loves to watch the children singing.  Other than that, he watches what his big brother watches…and we only do TV before breakfast and before dinner…or 20 minutes of the praise video while Mommy takes a shower.

Favorite toys?  Whatever Alex has…cars, trucks, tools, trains.  He likes the musical table, Bounce & Spin Pony, and he loves to play with puzzle pieces.  I often catch him putting dog food down the floor vent.  (Sigh.)  He also loves to turn the TV on and off, dump all the kitchen towels from the drawer onto the floor, push all the buttons on the living room telephone…you get the picture ;)

Other “stuff”

• using his big boy carseat, but still rear-facing
• an excellent sleeper, although he sometimes fights his morning nap…usually he sleeps from 10/10:30 AM until 11/11:30 AM and then again from 2:30/3 PM until 4:30/5 PM…with a bedtime of 8:15 PM
• loves to play with Alex in the bathtub
• thinks his Daddy is just amazing
• won’t say Mommy’s name, but his favorite person is definitely Mommy
• doesn’t really snuggle except at bedtime…and then he climbs up my lap, buries his head on my shoulder, and wraps his little arms around my neck while I sing to him   
• insists on a Bible story whenever I put him in bed – naptime, nighttime, whatever…he points to the book and say “seez, seez”.
• loves having a small blanket to cuddle in his hands as he sleeps – usually uses a super-soft minky “taggy” blanket that my aunt made for him, but any small blanket will suffice
• has a little “game” with Daddy when Max is in the high chair.  Max looks right at Daddy with a cute little grin, makes this funny little grunt while tensing his whole body, and waits for Daddy to do it in return.  They go back and forth with this during dinner.
• is getting interested in using a fork, but it usually ends up getting tossed to the floor after about 5 minutes. 
• while in the car, plays the same “game” with Daddy that Alex used to play.  Max will call out “Dada!” and Daddy replies with “Max!”  This is all done in a growly voice.  It’s so cute!      
  So, that’s Max at 14 months.  I started this post about 2 weeks ago, and I’m thinking that – finished or not – I’m posting it now before he gets any older! ;)