We're Think We're Going to Like 3!

I don't know who likes the ViewMaster more - Maximo or John

The past few weeks with Maximo have been dreamy. He's been so good and quite funny. John and I look at each other and cackle half the time he says something and even find ourselves quoting him quite a bit when we're on our own (yes, a little sad, we know).
Here are some of our favorite Maximo quotes:

"It's heavy." - He uses this whenever anything is too hard, maybe heavy or he can't do it on his own.
"Bust my buffers." - Straight from Thomas the Tank Engine shows.
"Mmmmm. Scrumptious."
"I fine."


Some of the things we hear all the time and aren't our favorites:
"Maximo do (it)." - Seriously this is about 1,000,000 times a day and which takes us three times the amount of time to do anything, but we're glad he's getting more independent.
"No, it's mine."

He's finally getting the potty thing down pretty well. The "special stickers" seemed to do the trick this summer with his poop - that and the fact that he's pretty regular - and it's usually at a time we're at home. He's been so-so with pee accidents. Usually pretty good, but he often forgets when he's playing. But up until this week, we've had to tell him to go to the bathroom and twice! in the past two days he's told us and two other times he just up and did it himself. Whoa! I don't think I've been so excited since John proposed.

Since I'm finally feeling a wee bit better after almost 20 weeks of horribleness, I decided to make a little educational game for Max. He knows all his upper case letters, but not his lowercase... and why not throw in some words!

He seems a little less aggressive with other kids lately, which is nice because it isn't very relaxing to be out with friends with kids with him. He's had a huge boost in his language this summer, so hopefully he can work out his feelings better and talk about sharing rather than hitting or worse, biting.

We put him in daycare last week for three days so we could start getting ready for school and to get him back into the routine and he did GREAT! He walked there with us and was really happy. The senseis said he did well, which was nice. He hadn't played with children almost all summer, so we were a little worried.

He's just a lot of fun to be around. He's easy to take out, well, as easy as a toddler can be! He loves to run around outside and climb at the playground and does much better overall when he has time each day to be physical. So even with the horrible heat, we've (mostly John) been trying to get him out as much as possible.

John and Max got a fish tank and they're both having fun with it!

I'm going to be sad to go back to work. We've had a wonderful summer together as a family.

But in a less than two weeks, Max turns 3! We're going to have a little party at home. I'm getting all domestic (and excited) planning this one. Here's a sneak peek of the invitation:



Two has been an up-and-down year for all of us! Max has been fun, albeit challenging. There have been a lot of changes: a new country and home. Maximo started daycare. We got rid of pacifers, he moved from a crib to a big boy bed, he's potty trained. Wow! We can't wait for #3 with Maximo and the new baby.