Mr. Personality

It turns out that Max is both charming and a hellion, which is actually a pretty good mix. It keeps us on our toes for sure.



Here he is being partincularly charming last week before we left for school. He loves to play with hats and it's fun to watch him entertain himself putting the hats on and off and then trying to get them on Havers.

The terrible two's which the politically correct child developmental crowd now calls "asserting the independent self" are fully upon us. I will elaborate more on that in a later post.

For now, I will be thankful that our little man is still every bit as sweet and adorable as he has been. The difference is that the sweetness has been condensed to be even more intense and serves as a buffer for the moments of flailing legs, arms and screams of we're not quite sure what.



He's hilarious in that understated, straight-man kind of way but he can break into a giggle fit, too. I think this photo is a good example of that. More is coming soon.

Early Morning Cuteness

Yesterday morning when Max woke up he called for me as usual and when I went to his room he looked up and me and said, "All done. Sleeping. All done, Mama." Who can resist? I gave it my best effort as it was 5:30 am. I trudged out to the kitchen, got some milk, brought him back to our bed and wouldn't you know it, we were up by 6.

On a related sleep topic, he's pretty interested in snoring. I taught him the word and the noise while entertaining him on our drive to the Maryland Shore last weekend. It just so happened that I brought a book that ends with Peter Rabbit sleeping and a snoring sound effect. Max thinks that's hilarious. He often asks for the bunny, (who is) sleeping and then he does a snoring sound effect. Such a card.

Hershey Park!

We just got back from our morning constitutional. Max is down for a nap so I thought I'd take a moment to post. A couple of weeks ago we went to Trogue's Brewery in Harrisburg, PA and Herhsey Park with some friends. The brewery tour was great but we spent most of the tour in the back looking at the tanks and an air pump. Max just didn't have it in him to sit still through the brewing process. To be honest, our charming tour guide lost him after about 5 minutes of the history of the company!

After the brewery tour we headed over to Hershey Park for the freebie tour and a stroll through the marketplace. Hello Hershey!



Max had a marvelous time! He is quite the live wire. Always running from here to there and some days you wonder how did such a little boy get filled with so many antics? The world is his playground if only we'll let him play. Here he is trying to climb the fence to the NASCAR, which I think was a Reeses Cup decorated race car.



Then it was off to bite the tables. I'm glad we've given up on being germ-phobe parents. We'd been out of our minds trying to keep him out and off of everything and he'd be missing out on all this fun.



Everyone else had milkshakes but I had a sundae. YUM! Vanilla ice cream with peanut butter swirl, hot fudge and peanut butter sauce and I almost forgot the most important part - reese's cups. A little bit of heaven. You probably won't believe this but I didn't eat all of the sundae or any of the whip cream and gave Dan 3 of the 4 PB cups. I must have been feverish.



Time for head stands.



Shaking the sign.



Run, be chased, roll on the ground. Good times.



They say curiosity killed the cat but it merely led our child to rummage through the trash. He pulled this shiny purple and gold ribbon from the trash can and across the room. Nice.



Jason, the top of Elli-Grace's head and Anna Claire on the chocolate facotry tour. Max was not INTO this at all. I think he was scared. He lightened up a bit once we got to the conveyor belts with all the chocolate bars but even then he was "allllll done."



Photographic evidence that we were, in fact, in Hershey Park.



Hugs from Elli-Grace.



Looking cute. (Duh!) One of the funniest moments of the day was at the end of the chocolate tour. The Hershey Rep says good-bye and offers you a snack size hershey bar. Max was still a little traumatized by the tour so he said, NO to the bar. Dan took one. About 10 yards later, Max looks at Dan and says, "Chocolate. Please?" So cute and Dan could not say no. He LOVED his chocolate bar and had a bunch of chocolate all over his face. He even managed to con a whole bar out of Anna Claire. Lucky for him she's good at sharing.

It's so funny how the language development progresses. As far as we know he hasn't even heard the word chocolate that many times and he certainly hasn't had it more than 5 or 10 times so how did he know what to ask for? Don't know but still we were amazed.



The after party was not nearly as much fun as the trip. He was a very grumpy smurf but the picture is still pretty hilarious.

Happy Birthday Grandma Christie

Dear Grandma Christie,

I hope you have a very Happy Birthday and remember how much we all love you! Please don't be too serious on your big day.



Just kick back and relax. Enjoy what comes.



Don't worry if the candles on your cake start a fire. I'll be there to put it out.



And above all, don't let the monster get you!



All my love and then some. MAX

Summer Fun - End of June

Goodness! It's been a while. The summer has marched on and left my photo behind. I'm still back at June with our family pictures.

End of June was a fun time for our family. After being in Paris through the first half of June, Dan was home and had a reasonable work schedule so we were able to get some nice family time together.



Hooray! Max loved seeing his dad so much.

One major benefit of Dan being home is that Max got to go swimming. (I didn't have a swimsuit until July.)



As you can see, Max loves the water. He loves to be in the little pool - the hot tub without the heat - and wade around the sides, kick his feet and jump to Dan or I.



He's gone from being quite shy of the water to comfortable enough to put his face in. He'll kick his feet and sometimes move his arms a little. He almost let me put him on his back the other week but he changed his mind. We hope he continues to enjoy the water as he gets older and learns to swim.

I have reconnected with a Chris, good friend from Mills, through facebook. Turns out that she lives right here in Frederick about 10 minutes from us. It's been over 10 years but it truly feels like yesterday. Anyhow, we've had so much fun with Chris and Peter and their four kids. I think I've posted a few things with them before. From youngest to oldest the kids are:

Sean



Michael



Rachel



Caitlyn



Max just adores them and so do we. Here's a few from one of our evening with the Kenny's.


Here's our little man on the last day of June being his charming and helpful self before school one morning.



It's amazing to see how much he's grown and matured in the last 2 months. He loves to help with whatever we're doing whether it's walking the dog, cleaning up or sweeping - a huge favorite. He has loved putting things in the trash for a long time but now he's strong enough to pick up bags. Oh to view fun in the eyes of a toddler.



He has changed from a very cautious baby into a pretty adventurous toddler. He likes noise. He loves to go fast and he really like to ride things. Here he is riding his skateboard inside. Dan and I push him back and forth across the living room floor. I see a future luge or skeleton competitor.

Whew! That's an extra long post. I hope to get another up tomorrow with the 4th of July.