The MAX Factor

A request for "spiky hair"
- and he's looking at the camera and smiling!

So much is about Lola all the time, which is to be expected and really when Max is around I can hardly get a thing done, let alone take pictures or write a blog post. But that boy Max is living up to his name, MAXimo. He does everything to the MAX, depending on the moment. He is sometimes lovely to the MAX, funny to the MAX, and horrible to the MAX. I'm sure some of this comes with the age and having to readjust to being "top dog" in the house, but we're really curious as to how this boy is going to turn out!He is very opinionated and when he's having a bad moment, it's not nice and he frequently spends time in "time out" cooling down. He has a certain way of doing things and if he's pushed, because we're in a rush or he doesn't get to do it his way, it's sometimes a full-on war. We have to be careful not to give him what he wants all the time just to avoid the fight, but sometimes that is hard for me on very little sleep when we're trying to get out the door, especially when we have a small window between Lola's feedings.
But enough of the yucky stuff. We have a feeling he'll be a handful his whole life, but he's worth it.

Max still so into his trains - especially his Thomas roundhouse and track and the Shinkansen set they have at his school. He plays for hours with both. Sometimes after finding him playing with the trains at school, he'll come home and play with his trains. We're going to be sad when he's done with them. We figure we have another year left or so.
His imagination is huge! He is forever getting us to eat the imaginary food he's handing us (or as he shoves his hands in our faces).

"Daddy, do you want some m&ms?" he says with closed fists.
"Sure"
"Do you like m&ms?"
"Yes"
And sometimes the m&ms are nuts or cookies or carrots or fish or sushi or whatever... spiders sometimes.

I remember when my brother, Tim, used to say how much my older niece used to (and still does) talk. I remember him saying that when Maximo was little and I couldn't wait for all that talking. Whoa. This kid talks from the minute he wakes up until the minute he drifts off to sleep. Sometimes to us, but most of the time, concocting stories up about his trains and a lot of times him just reciting WORD FOR WORD his favorite t.v. shows. It's quite funny, especially, when you get to hear this:

"Feces? Yes, feces. What are feces? Poop. Pooop. No way. Feces are poop." (At least he's learning about scientific terms on Dinosaur Train.)

and what might be better than that is after he's watched Charlie and Lola and he slips into a British accent for a while. We've been trying to get this on tape for weeks (along with the feces bit), but he won't perform. It is hilarious.
"I will nevah, eva, eat toe-mat-oes!" (He actually loves tomatoes and we were afraid he was going to stop eating them because on the t.v. show Lola is a bit of a picky eater and lists about a hundred things she won't eat, but it hasn't seemed to affect his eating.)

He still loves reading and we have read so many of his book thousands of times that he likes to read them to me before bed quite frequently and does a good job with it. He's really getting ready to read (I'm not sure how soon). He recognizes his name and points out other letters then will say something that starts with that letter (and sometimes not). I've been running my finger along the words as I read them and he's starting to do it too. We're still working on the lower case letters - he struggles with the ones that look different from the upper case. He regularly confuses b,d, and a. And lately he likes making letters with his body. like Big X and little x with his arms and then fingers. And lately he's been making Ls with his thumb and pointer finger. He's definitely a smart little thing. We're curious to see how he's going to do in a classroom setting.
He's into "5 more minutes" lately. We try to warn him when he has to stop doing something that he likes, to prevent the meltdown. So we'll tell him "5 more minutes", then he'll go, "No, 4". Okay, bud, whatever you want. Really he's just into the number 5. He wants 5 pieces of mango or 5 pieces of sushi or 5 trains.

He still eats really well. Some days is better than others, and he doesn't eat well when there's a lot going on, like we're at a party or there are other kids running around. But this kid amazes me with what he eats and loves: sushi (not California rolls, raw fish), nori (dried seaweed), cumin salmon and will eat just about everything we eat. I love that he gets a hot lunch every day at daycare and gets to eat Japanese food regularly. He's more courageous than us with some things! And he loves fruit & vegetables. He's been wanting to snack more, and of course likes to be very independent, so we've let him get fruit out of the fruit bowl whenever (except right before dinner) he wants. He loves fruit - each day, he must eat at least 3 pieces of fruit.

He has this funny thing he says when he's happy.

"Fun-a-jellyfish"

He says it all the time. Why, you may ask? He went on a jelly fish ride at the Little Mermaid section of Disney Sea this past summer, so that is what he says, because it was the coolest thing he's ever done and we haven't topped it yet. We can't believe he still says it 7 months later, but he does.

He's gotten so big lately, he went from being in 18 month bottoms (he's got the Wood's short legs/long torso) to 3T pants in 3 months.

Okay, enough of my shameless carrying on about our kid, but he deserved a post all to himself. Unfortunately I can't seem to get him on video lately, so you can see him live in action. I've actually taken a bunch, but he stops performing once I turn the camera on. I'll keep trying.