15 months!

25lbs 4oz
31.5 inches


This is a BIG post that I've been working on for awhile. It is more for documentation purposes. There are just a lot of little things I want to remember!


Max's Favorite Things:
CARS

-Not only was car his first word besides dada, mama and whoa, it is his favorite toy. I bought four little hot wheel cars at the dollar store and they have been such a hit. He carries them around makes them go on the chair, the wall, the couch, anything. Actually I made it go on the wall by the front door one time, and now he runs back to that spot to make them go there as well. When I first bought them I hid them in the silveware drawer of all places and was going to only bring them to church. But once I was holding him while I opened the drawer and he saw them. I got one out for him, but he knew there was more and kept pointing to the drawer. Eventually I found a place for them with the rest of his toys but for about a week he would point to the drawer every morning saying "car" and insisted they were in there. I had to lift him up and show him they weren't there anymore.

-He really is getting a good memory. He remembers where things are, he LOVES two books that are similar to each other, one is the USBORNE Book of Everyday words and the other is Richard Scary's Best Word Book Ever. I put them up so he won't rip out the pages but he points to where we put them and smiles and gets so excited when I finally bring one down to read. Oh, and of course a page is instantly skipped if it doesn't have a car or truck on it. I'm surprised how many do!

-I've mentioned this before a while back but every morning between about 10-12 two fire trucks and an ambulance are parked just across the street from us because the fireman work out at the rec center which is also across the street. Max could stare and point and them forever from his window, or if we're outside he dashes down the path to check to see if they are there. On Sunday Max and I were ready for church about 30 minutes before it started and Jared was still getting ready so we walked over closer to the fire trucks. Max was in heaven, just pointing away, but he was a little hesitant to get too close.

-If we see a garbage truck or delivery truck in our parking lot he just stares and points at it until it drives away.

- He also likes planes. We live a couple miles from an air port so they fly over us frequently, he stops what he's doing, looks up, and points to the sky. Even when they're in the far distance.

WATER

- I usually go upstairs to get Max's bath ready, and then Jared brings him up. He hears the water turn on and comes running, he starts climbing in the bath tub with his clothes and diaper still on and it's all we can do to contain him and get them off before they're all wet.

- He could stare and point at fountains for hours and it's a dream come true when he can reach and splash in fountains. He finds random puddles of water and splashes in them. When he splashes water on his face whether it's from a sippy cup, the tub or whatever, he just smiles and laughs squeals of delight. He's recently learned that if he's standing in the bathtub he can hold onto the sides and splash with his feet.

- At the beach he could care less about playing with his sand toys, he just runs for the ocean. We just spend the whole time standing and splashing in the waves together. Sometimes he'll go back to the our spot on the sand if I bring a bucket of water for him to splash an dip shovels in for awhile.

- I took him to the Rec Center's pool because kids can swim on Saturdays. It was a little cold, we were there early in the morning. But he has so much fun splashing on the steps, he could've stayed for hours but we went in after 45 minutes because his lips were looking a little blue! We also played in the water table area at a park near by this weekend. Max loved it, he just kept pouring cups of water on himself and cried when it was time to leave.

HUGS, KISSES, TICKLES AND LAUGHS

- one of my FAVORITE things about him right now is that in the past couple weeks he's started hugging his friends! He'll only do it to kids that are about his age and his size and usually only to people he knows, although he has hugged strangers on occasion. Usually it's his way of greeting them when he sees them at the play ground, play group or at church. He just gets this big smile on his face and walks over and gives them a squeeze, and once he decides that he's going to hug them, he's determined to make it happen, even if they are busy playing. Sometimes they'll both end up falling over, sometimes the other kid will start pushing him away, but most often they don't mind or they'll even hug him back! His little friend Sylvia was so sweet the other day and just hugged him right back and smiled and smiled. At the Newport Beach Library story time this week we ran into our friend Annabelle and the two of them just kept giving hugs over and over, she even kissed him on the cheek! It really just melts my heart. I've snapped a couple pictures but haven't really had the chance to get a good video, I'll try!

- He also hugs Jared and I often, he'll just be playing and will decide he wants to walk over and hug us, it's brief but so sweet. He gives kisses to Jared and I and to his relatives. We just have to lean in and he leans back and gives us a slobbery open mouthed kiss, unless of course he's grouchy. He's also learning to make the kissing sound but it's more like "puh" "puh". He knows we give kisses when someone leaves so when he's saying "ba ba" to daddy in the morning he'll start going "puh, puh". He's started putting his had to his mouth too like he's blowing a kiss, I really haven't even been trying to teach him that! One time, and just one time, when Jared was giving me a kiss good-bye Max insisted on kissing me too, oh I can never have too many kisses!

- Two ways to get him to laugh really hard are to surprise him or tickle him. I love playing peek-a-boo from behind things with him because he laughs SO hard. I was babysitting an almost two year old the other day and was trying to get her to laugh the same way, she looked at me like I was crazy. He's also very ticklish, arm-pits, feet, tummy, Jared is good at finding his tickle spots.

MAKING A MESS
- He really loves to make a mess. You know how sometimes you'll walk by something and see that it's out of place and just fix it real quick? Max is the opposite. He'll see something is neat and organized and will have to stop, mess it up, and then keep on his way to his destination. He loves to pull the DVD's out of the drawer and sometimes he'll climb in. He's really not too big into climbing, but he's trying, maybe when he gets a little taller with longer legs.



WORDS

-"Dada" (says this one alot, asking for Jared)
-"Mama" (mostly when he needs something or is trying to reach something or to get a toy to work or to get out of his crib), definitely not as much as Dada
-"Car" (a lot),
-"Truck" (on occaision),
-"Bye Bye" or "ba ba" he says this on his own when Jared grabs his back pack in the morning, Max knows daddy's going to be leaving and walks to the door waving and saying it. I try to get him to say it when we're leaving the playground to whoever we're leaving, it's hit and miss but he'll always at least wave if he's being too shy. His wave is a little backwards wave that sometimes is just him moving his fingers all around and opening and closing them.
-"Ball" he always points out this yellow ball by our apartment that's usually stuck in the bushes somewhere. We also throw/roll the ball back and forth to each other and he finds pictures in his books.
-"Whoa" or "Wow" he now says this often when he's really excited about something, like a little toy truck that someone has pushed across the playground or when I bought him a new army car and was opening the plastic it was wrapped in "whoooa whoooa!". Two 5 year old boys had a large toy truck and I saw Max go over to look at it. When I caught up with him one of the boys told me he kept saying "WOW WOW!" They were really nice and shared the truck.
- "Duck" Just once. There seems to be a lot of ducks in his books so we point to them. But we were a park with Grandma White and we were surrounded by ducks and he just pointed and said it.
- "Jesus" he really said it this morning, the whole thing, and I didn't even ask him to point to the picture of Jesus in his room. Jared was holding him and he just looked at the picture and said it.
-He also reads books to himself and points and makes up words for things, his made up words sound like "chuuga, stis stis, whatis whatis (i think he's saying "what's this"), yugo (i think he's saying "you go" as in "here you go")shooga"

A few other things:

Looks: I get a lot of comments that he is so tan. His Grandpa calls him a warm toasty marshmallow. He's does have nice golden skin. His eyes are dark, brown on the outside and deep blue in the middle. Dark blond hair with little curls over his ears that I can't bring myself to cut. He has 8 teeth, four on top, four on the bottom. No molars or incisors yet, but definitely some bulges and lots of slobber. He is stretching out, no more roll between his wrists and elbows, but still a squishy tummy and rolls at his wrists and ankles and thighs. Round cabbage patch face and a sweet smile, he likes to wrinkle up his nose when he smiles.

Food: Veggies still come mostly in baby food form. He eats lots of fruit, quesadillas, sandwiches like grilled cheese, peanut butter with jelly or ham, pasta with red sauce. 1-2 sippy cups a day of whole milk. We're basically down to just nursing once before bed. Loves TJ's pretzels, multi-grain crackers and cats cookies for snacks as well as Nutri-Grain bars and yogurt covered raisins or pretzels.

Folding his Arms: We've really made an effort to pray with him since his birthday and ask him to fold his arms. It's still hard for him to actually hold still the whole time, but he knows the mood is different when we're praying. Over the past couple weeks he actually will fold his arms! Sometimes it's not until after the prayer is over though. He'll even occasionally make some sort of sound at the end for "Amen!". He folded his arms for both sacrament prayers at church yesterday too and we didn't even ask him to!