Max – 19 Months

I have more pictures to add to this post, but they are still on the camera.  Rather than procrastinating, I’ll just post now & add the pictures later.  Otherwise, you won’t see this post until October ;)

Max turns 19 months tomorrow.  I don’t know what happened to my baby – he’s all little boy these days!

This little boy is a BUNDLE of energy and activity.  From the moment he wakes, it’s go, go, go!  He fears very little - climbing, running, jumping, and diving from anything that  looks fun.

When I dropped him off in toddler nursery at church last Sunday, Max ran straight to the little slide.  The nursery worker took him by the hands and helped him climb and go down the slide correctly.  I smiled and said, “Just so you know, he’ll probably be going down head-first or jumping off the top before nursery is over!”  When I picked him up, she told me she thought I was kidding until she watched Max do it.

Max so badly wants to do the things his big brother does.  He wants to sleep in Alex’s twin-sized bed.  When we tell him it’s bedtime, he will sometimes run straight to Alex’s bed, climb up, and pretend to go to sleep.  When they’re playing outside, he wants to ride the big tractor.  Keith pulled out the little battery powered 4-wheeler, and Max is enjoying that…but he doesn’t understand the foot pedal yet.  Poor Max gets SO frustrated when he can’t make it go.

Max does have his calm moments.  He enjoys climbing up in a chair with a book, then paging through it for 5 – 10 minutes.  He likes to sit on the floor with his stacking cups and build wobbly towers.  He enjoys playing with our bin of fuzzy pom pom balls (or “polka dots”, as Alex calls them).

Max likes TV.  He really doesn’t care what’s on, although he definitely enjoys his big brother’s favorites – Caillou and Curious George.  Max will contentedly sit on our laps and watch the news, Amazing Race, or whatever is on.  There’s rarely a day when they watch more than one hour of TV, but Max would probably enjoy sitting there all day if given the option.

He’s very into cars, trucks, and tractors lately.  He calls them “Dotsies”.   We have no idea how he came up with that word, but it means any wheeled vehicle that catches Max’s attention – particularly tractors and construction vehicles.

He loves to EAT!    I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating – this little boy can eat more than his Mama!  We’re in big grocery bill trouble when Max is a teenager! ;) 

There are very few foods that Max doesn’t like, but mashed potatoes are a definite DISLIKE for Max!  He always tries a bite, but he always spits it right out!

His favorites are definitely CARBS!  He would live on bread, I believe.  (Or “beb”, in Max-speak) He also loves meatballs, orange chicken, ham, yogurt, and all kinds of crackers.

Max is still not a big talker, but his vocabulary is growing…provided you can understand what he’s saying!  He’ll sometimes put two or three words together now.  (“Bobby see Dotsie?”)  He also loves to jabber in completely non-English sentences and paragraphs.  He’ll tell us great deals of information, but unfortunately we can’t translate it! ;)

Here’s a list of his most commonly used words.  I’m sure to forget some, but these are the ones I hear regularly:

• dottsy (tractor, truck, etc)
• ay-plee (airplane)
• bye-bye
• Daddy
• Ah-leex (Alex)
• Bobby (Mommy, sometimes Grandma)
• Boppa (Papa/Grandpa)
• Hi! (always with great enthusiasm)
• eat
• seez (please)
• up
• hep (help)
• bopper (diaper)
• see? (when showing us something)
• zee zoo (thank you)
• dee, dee, dee, DOH!  (3,2,1, Go!)
• digh-dight (nigh-night)
• ball
• uh-oh (used VERY often lately!)
• dod (dog)
• boo (moo, for cow)
• ish or ush (fish)
• beep (cars, timers, microwaves…)
• Amen! (and he folds his hands to pray, too cute!)
• up, up, UP!
• down
• uh-huh
• ah-dee (all done)
• dooce (juice)
• up (cup)

Max will also attempt many words when we ask him, but he doesn’t consistently use most of these words…and the attempts are often waaaay off from the real word!

He and Alex have just recently started playing together.  There are lots of “fights”, if you can call it that.  Alex often steals toys right out of Max’s hands, and Max’s reaction is to SCREAM!  Oh, how I cringe at that scream!

It’s so cute, though, to watch the two of them chase each other through the house on their ride-on train and 4-wheeler.  They’ll try doing a simple puzzle together, build a block tower together, and Alex even tried teaching Max how to play a board game last week.  (No surprise, Max didn’t comprehend the rules…) 

Now that we trust Max on the stairs, we’ll let the boys go upstairs and play independently in the playroom once in a while.  They think that’s a great treat!  Often, they will play with totally different toys.  There are times, though, that they’ll try playing together.

He’s losing his “baby-ness” really quickly these days.  With his baby curls cut off, he looks so much bigger!  (Happily for his Mama, the curls remain – they’re just not straggly baby hair curls.) He’s sitting in a booster seat at the kitchen table, sleeping in a toddler bed, facing forward in the car, and not nearly so snuggly as he used to be. 

At naptime or bedtime, he’ll choose his own story.  (It’s usually a book about tractors or trucks, but sometimes he’ll ask for Dr. Seuss’ I Wish That I Had Duck Feet…and he’ll sit through the whole thing!)  He’ll let me sing him a song or two, but he’s not very cuddly.  And then he’ll climb off my lap and put himself in bed.

Yesterday at naptime, though, he was feeling really sleepy.  He shook his head no when asked to pick a story, snuggled into my arms, and I was able to sing him to sleep.  If I didn’t need to go put Alex down for a nap, I probably would have sat in that rocking chair with Max all day!

Speaking of naptimes, we’re down to one a day.  He could still handle two naps a day…if he was in the crib.  He’s just not sleepy enough at either naptime or bedtime to settle down quickly in his toddler bed, though, so I spend an hour putting him back in bed every time he gets up.  SO….one nap it is.  He usually has to push past his sleepiness around 11 AM, but it’s worth it.  If he gets a nap around 1:30 or 2 PM, then bedtime at around 8 PM, then he’s VERY good about going straight to sleep without playing.

When he wakes, you’ll hear the cutest little knock on his door.  If you don’t come right away, he’ll start calling, “Bob?  Bob?  Bobby?”   Then, when you open the door, he’ll give you a huge grin and say, “HI!!!!!!!!!!!”

We still need to move the toddler bed into Alex’s room.  Oh, how we dread it.  Since we use the nursery almost right away with a new baby, there’s no waiting.  We claim we’re putting him in Alex’s room tonight…but we’ve made that claim a few times already without following through! ;)

He’s very fascinated with shoes these days.  And I’m very tired of hunting the house for two matching shoes before we can head out the door!  When I’m THINKING, I’ll find matching shoes for everyone at night after the kids are in bed, put them on top of the dryer, and be ready to go.  When I’m not thinking (which is most of the time…) we go through the Great Shoe Hunt every time we try to leave the house! ;)

In spite of his spunky personality, Max is usually a pretty obedient boy.  He often obeys the first time he’s told.  Nine times out of ten, he’ll obey when you give instructions and count to three.  We work hard to keep him obedient…hopefully it’ll pay off, at least for a few years! ;)

Next time Max has his own blog post, he’ll be a big brother!   He was very, very jealous when I held a friend’s baby at church on Sunday.  We’ll see what happens when there is a baby living in his own house.  The next few months should prove interesting!

We love you, Max, and we’re so glad that you’re YOU!   Thank you for filling our days with laughter and excitement.  You’re an absolute treasure, and we thank God for you every day!