Bedtime Giggles for Mr. Chocolate Pudding Face

These photos were from last Sunday - March 1st. Bedtime for Max is either a crash and burn situation or a long ritual full of much clowning around and attempts at avoidance. We're still working on a smooth transition.

This is an example of bedtime avoidance. Here he is rolling in the hallway but not a bit tired. Can't you tell?



Dan is running the bath and Max is trying to convince us that we've got much more important stuff to do...



...like play ball.



OK. OK. I surrender.



Just rolling around the hall while I wait for my bath...but I'm still not tired.



You can't undress me if I duck and dodge.



He gets so ticklish when he's tired. Those belly laughs are the best noise ever.



Bathtime = Lots of singing, splashing and throwing balls



If you enlarge this picture, you can see how BIG his molars are.



Concentrating on figuring out this brush. Dan brushed Max's hair and then Max wanted to brush Dan's. Every so often he'd take a break to examine the brush. I love how his tongue is sticking out.



All done and ready to get wrapped in a towel.



Now it's time for a story and singing and some milk and cuddles and then night night.

Climb Every Mountain

Until last week Max had been quite a cautious boy. He was always sure to observe and assess every situation before taking a go. This held true for the various skills like sitting, crawling, walking, etc. We never really saw him practice. It was like he observed until he thought he knew what to do, tried it a few times and *voila* he could do it.

Last weekend all this flew out the window. Our little man threw caution to the wind and started climbing his little heart out. He has no regard for danger, height, falls or any of it. He just loves moving and seems to see all objects as a challenge to be summitted. I managed to catch a few of his antics on tape. Look at me - photographing when I should be saying, "No, that's dangerous." We're more likely to say, "Be careful." Even so, it's so darn fun to watch him feeling more confident and taking a more active role in exploring his environment. He is just having so much fun.

Here he is climbing his chairs (and table!) that we just got for him at IKEA.



As you can see, he uses the table for leverage to get up and over the couch.



He will also push his little chair around as a means to midpoint between the floor and a seemingly unattainable height like the hutch in the dining room. He's a thinker that boy.

Finally, one of his more impressive moves involves the acrobatic required to get up on our dining room chairs.



He puts his feet on the bottom support rung then flings himself over the arm and slithers onto the seat while on his stomache.



Then he rotates and stands up while trying to shimmy up the spindles of the chair back. Smart and determined. We better watch out.

February 15 - That was good!

Happy Valentine's Day - A Little Late

We had a great Valentine's Day! I knew Dan was going to be in Chicago for work so I decided to host a little get together with the girls and a couple of our cuties. Our Valentine's Visitors included Kristi, Sam and Chloe; Brenda and Drew and Sarah.

Here are all the kidlets gathered up for a photo in the beginning.



It was nigh on impossible to get everyone looking in the same direction at the same time so we thought this was pretty good. Sam and Chloe were ready to go as soon as they got here. Max and Drew spent a few minutes checking each other out and then ZOOM they all got moving.

Chloe



Sam



Drew



Max and Chloe



Chloe and Sam brought Valentine's Bags for the boys and Max thought he needed both! Drew was very understanding. Eventually Max surrended the 2nd bag to Drew, its rightful owner and contented himself with his own bag. Sometime during the afternoon he found the real treasure - Brenda's pink bag! He carried that bag all over the house. He hung it on his arm as if he were shopping at the market.



Chloe and Sam had a great time with the exercise ball.



Max rode the zebra and spread goldfish cheer ALL over the living room. Drew got in on the goldfish action and even Havers came out of hiding to have a few.



Storytime



We had a nice dinner where the girls ate many, many cresent rolls - their favorite and Max and Drew played with their food and each other.



Brenda and Drew left after dinner but the rest of us decorated cupcakes. The creativity and dedication to using every drop of icing and speck of sprinkles was outstanding. The girls had a lot of fun and Max enjoyed watching. He didn't exactly jump at the chance to decorate but he had a ball destroying his cupcake. He even got a little icing in his mouth!

Auntie Sarah Comes to Town

Dear Miss Crumb came to visit mid-February while Dan was on business in Chicago. It was so great to see her. It had been such a long time since we'd last had a visit. She had lots of catching up to do with Max, but he had to wrestle with Hoover for her attention. Hoover, like most pooches, loves Sarah. She was, as you can see, in heaven.



We spent the days hanging out with the critters and the Max Factor and we talked until the wee hours of the morning. As often happens, we both needed a vacation from Sarah's vacation so that we could get back to "real life".

Max had a lot of fun playing with Sarah. They read books, horsed around, built stuff with the blocks and generally had a good time. He thought she was pretty hilarious.



We had a chance to visit Chris, a Mills friend, and her family for dinner one night. Caitlyn and Rachel loved Sarah and had a ball playing Princess Concentration among other noble games. Here she is in her crown and with the girls.



Michael and Max playing together.



Chris and Sean



Michael



Finally, it was Valentine's Day and we had a whole house full of kids and grown-ups playing, eating and making mischief all day. (More V-Day pics later) Here is Sarah with Sam and Chloe who were having a ball on the ball.



Sarah with her cupcake creation. The didn't actually turn out that great and no amount of sprinkles and brightly colored sugar crystals could make them yummy. (Believe me when I say that Sam and Chloe spared no amount of decoration on their cupcakes.) So sad...But Sarah is no quitter and she ate the whole thing.



Finally, it was Sunday and we were up bright and early to take Sarah to the metro. Max did not want her to leave but she had to be in New York for Amy's birthday!