Night night!

He said it! Also said "trash" (we were being good citizens and collecting trash at the park and putting it in the trash can) and, believe it or not, "owie zowie." I particularly liked it when he said that. Hee hee.

Crazy kid

Sometimes Max has giggle fits that last forever--he laughs and laughs hysterically and I have to remind him to breathe. It's fun to watch him laugh like that.

*****

Max officially loves the "kiss it and make it better" mantra. Anytime he bumps his head or runs into something, he immediately runs to me to kiss it.

For what it's worth, that makes me feel needed.

Words Max is saying now (18-19 months)

hello, hi, bye, mom, dad, up, on, doggie, duck, bug, pee (for poop), crash, bear, ick, clock, block, ball, Pippi, shirt, shoe, what's this, hold that, uh-oh, yum, bite, no, bad, hot, baby, see, Santa (at Christmas time), car, truck, thank you, bubble, ear, fish, banana, bless you, water, olive, bowl, juice

There's probably more, but that's all that comes to my head.

Now, the words he knows and comprehends but does not articulate--that's a few hundred at least.

addendum (6 Feb): Berries, applesauce

New blog

I have started a blog to detail my training for a half marathon:

ontherunagainfordad.blogspot.com

I hate cancer.

For the past three months, I have been struggling to somehow deal with my father's diagnosis of cancer. I am certain that I am not alone in saying that the past three months have been the most emotionally difficult time of our entire family's lives. I need to write--writing has always been a part of me--and yet it just hurts too much to write about it right now. Just writing this, I think, is a big step for me.

While I will never call cancer a gift, as I have heard other cancer patients and their families call it, I cannot deny that cancer is now making me look at life much, much differently. I realize now how important it is to be happy, and not just happy, but truly, truly happy because everything can change in an instant. I realize now how essential it is to love and be loved and to not let a day pass by without telling your loved ones you love them. And I realize how important it is to take care of yourself.

Each day is a struggle for me and I feel guilty for saying that because I can only imagine how difficult it is for my father. Each day something reminds me that my life just isn't the same anymore and it never will be again. I know how cliche it sounds, but I just keep thinking that one day I will wake up and find out this has all just been a really, really bad dream.

One can wish, right?

Why Max is smarter than you

10. He knows what a zebra, giraffe, elephant, monkey, and whooping crane are.

9. He is able to distinguish between Lucy, Pippi, and Shelley. Brandon and I tested him on this today and he passed. We gave him a toy and told him to give it to Pippi and he did, then Shelley and he did, etc. I was very proud!

8. He can push the buttons on the tv, dvd player, and computer so that I can't work it anymore.

7. He understands the importance of going green; he turns off the lights when he leaves the room.

6. He knows that if he just asks Momma then he'll get it.

5. He recognizes the commercial jingles we sang to him in utero. For real. We sang the Schnucks song, Empire Carpet, and Shop-n-save jingles. Every time these commercials come on the telly, he stops, smiles at us, and dances. He does not really do this to other jingles. Freakkkkkkkkkkkyyyyyyyyyyy........

4. He can feed his babies.

3. He can pick up the phone when it rings and hand it to Momma.

2. He points to his booty when he pooooooops.

1. He's way cuter than you will ever be.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Max acquired a great deal of loot this Christmas:

--14 books
--2 pairs of pants
--4 shirts
--3 sets of pajamas, one of them Superman
--1 pair of tennis shoes
--giant jumpy center with balls
--shopping cart
--2 toy cars
--magnadoodle
--bowling set
--Build-a-bear with Grandma and Grandpa Ice's voices
--crazy spin thing
--dump truck with blocks
--stuffed dog
--3 puzzles
--stocking stuffers--crazy bath colors, conditioner, chocolate, football, squishy ball, mardi gras beads

We all had a very nice day and we wish everyone else a merry Christmas.

Top Ten things that make Max just plain weird....

10. He is perhaps the only known child to eat olives, grapefruit and rice cakes.

9. He puts his face in one dog's face and won't move on to the next dog until he gets a kiss.

8. He runs around with nothing on but his baby panties, Mardi Gras beads and a smile.

7. He sleeps with his azz in the air.

6. He wears our underwear on his head.

5. He talks into Mama's cleavage as though it were a walkie-talkie.

4. He pretends anything and everything is a phone.

3. He knocks over all the shampoo, conditioner and body wash bottles into the tub without fail every time he enters the bathroom.

2. He continually plays with a toy cement truck that he is afraid of.

1. He tries to feed macaroni to his toes.

We never realized...

how much fun it is to post embarrassing pictures of our child.

till now, that is.

Catching up

So my mother informed me that I have not posted in a while, and this is true. I think it is fair to say that we all have had a lot on our minds lately and posting here, unfortunately, has taken a backseat.

And yet in the midst of all of this, Max has become more important to me than ever. Max is the one person in the world that can make me smile, no matter how much I am still desperately trying to make sense of it all. I still shed a few tears every day--I can't help it--but Max somehow makes me feel better.

Perhaps it is because he is so completely ridiculous. He has been "running" for a while now, and when he runs, it just cracks me up. He gets his knees very high and he just looks.....stupid. And then he runs in place when I ask him if he wants a snack--that's how excited he gets for a snack, I guess.

And the foods he loves are so strange. He loves olives. The kid could eat an entire can of black olives if I let him. He tries to open the refrigerator to get the olives I keep in there. He's also discovered the beauty of ketchup. On top of that, he enjoys pepperoni. Ick.

One of the other things that Max has been doing lately that just cracks me up is wearing bling. We have several Mardi Gras beads and he puts them on as he runs around the house. When he can't find the beads, he puts dog leashes on or electrical cords and treats them like necklaces. Crazy kid.

And let's not forget the fact that Max has decided to wear underwear on his head. For real. We had a pile of laundry on the couch last week, and Max took a pair of my underwear and put it on his head and laughed about it.

That's enough to make anyone smile.

Max's vocabulary at 16 months

Max can understand a ridiculous number of words; it's crazy how we can talk to him and knows exactly what we are saying. We give him commands and he follows them and we ask questions and he "answers" (for example, if I ask him if he wants a banana, he goes to the table and points to the fruit bowl).

But when it comes to actually saying words, he is right now saying just these:
-ass (for "crash").
-uh-oh
-da-da
-ma-ma
-doggy
-duck
-yum

I am certain other people might hear other words from him, but these are the legitimate words we know he is saying and can understand.

Nothing makes me sadder...

than Max acting like he doesn't even need or want me.

I am getting so heartsick lately--when I come to pick Max up from the sitter's lately (past 2 weeks or so), Max has completely ignored my existence and continued to play.

Just breaks my heart.

Little intellectual hippie baby

Brandon and I joke that Max is such a little hippie baby. We figure he'll be in elementary school sipping an espresso and reading some Kerouac while everyone else is drinking juice and playing video games.

The evidence we have produced a little hippie intellect:

--When wet, his hair practically touches his back. We have no plans on giving Max a haircut anytime soon. Hasn't had one yet--those curls are just too cute!
--He does not watch tv (and neither do we, really) and reads about 20 books a day.
--He tills the earth.
--He only eats fruits and veggies. Not a big meat-eater (yessss!!!!!!!!!!! Mom is secretly happy her child might end up being a vegetarian like herself!).
--He walks around barefoot all day.
--He likes the feel of the grass between his toes.
--He likes to conserve energy (by turning off the lights for us).
--He's in touch with Mother Nature in more ways than most people are; namely, he eats mud.
--He loves animals and would never hurt one. Loves to hunt for bugs.
--Loves classical music.

There's a wolf in the woods

really, though, a coyote, but stillllll spoooooooooooooooooooooooooky. I almost got eaten by it last night.

We're good parents. Really.

Max ate some mud today.

And we watched.

And paused to take a picture.

********

Max had fun with the grandparents this weekend.

Mr. Max: A Day In The Life

6:00 AM. I think Momma is drinking her baby milk right now (they call it "coffee," but I know it's really baby milk), and I know she would think it were a really funny joke if I were to wake up right now while she's drinking her baby milk. I'll think about it....

6:01 AM. WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.

6:02 AM. Momma comes in and says "good morning" and gives me a hug and a kiss and picks me up and exclaims, "Whoa! Super soaker, dude!" and then changes my baby panties.

6:05 AM. I get carried in style out to the living room. The doggies kiss me. I immediately start tearing the house apart.

6:30 AM. Momma is running around frantically trying to get all her stuff ready for work. She's crazy. I don't know why she doesn't get it ready the night before.

6:40 AM. I play with the buttons in Momma's car for a few minutes and then wave bye-bye to Momma.

6:41 AM. Ick. Now it's just me and dud. Guess he's got to feed me some breakfast. He tries, but it just ends up on the floor (no idea why) and the doggies eat it.

7 AM: Dad hoses me down and then he picks out some really lame-o outfit for me to wear so I can get beat up by Mr. Brendan.

7:45 AM. I shove Dad out the door upon arriving at Ms. Lindsey's. See ya later, alligator. I used to cry, but now I don't and literally shove him out.

From around 8-3, I am a calm, peaceful baby. I do what I am told to do and say "please" and "sorry." I do not do bad things like go up and down the stairs.

3:00 PM: Momma's here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SQUEALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! RUNNING AROUND HOUSE IN EXCITEMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! For the next 20 minutes, Momma chats with Miss Lindsey and I run around getting into crap and I pant with excitement. I go up and down the stairs at least 23 times even though Momma says "no" and I make her chase me and then she starts to sweat and pant like me.

3:30: Snack time. Momma gives me a snack, usually milk and fruit.

4:00-4:45: Play time outside. We explore the cul-de-sac and hunt for squirrels. I keep going in people's driveways and Momma tells me "no." We chat with the neighbors and everyone tells me how cute I am. Duh.

4:45: Dad's home. Sometimes we eat dinner and then walk the dogs or sometimes we walk the dogs and eat dinner. Afterwards, they hose me down.

6:00: Crib time. I get into my pajamas and Momma reads me 3 books. They're lame, but I secretly like them.

6:30-6:45. Good night.

We finally have a new camera......

so no more bitching about how we don't post pics!

Many thanks to B's parents for the new camera!

What a little boy

Brandon and I were discussing how it really seems that most of the "baby" is on its way out, and what we have now is a little boy. If it weren't for his pacifier and for that baby hairline of his, Max would be a total boy.

We took Max to the park right next to the house yesterday and let him play. We played "ball" for a little bit--and by "ball," I mean kicking the ball at Max and laughing at him as he picked it up and ran with it. Afterwards, Max decided to explore a bit and then found a nice spot under a tree and proceeded to play with the dirt. Literally. He flung it around, tried to eat it, you name it. And all the while I was watching him thinking about what a little boy he's turned into.

It's nice having that park right next to us; we go there a lot during the week and chase squirrels and play with leaves. For some reason he really likes the texture of leaves and is always trying to pull them down. He's running really good now and he has lots of fun running around the park.

Home Sweet (but not really) Home

Before I begin my rant about our terrible, no good, very bad day, I did first want to say thanks to my parents and Brandon's parents for having us over. It was nice to see everyone, especially Great-Grandma Vivian for the first time since Max was born. We had nice visits and Max had lots of fun--he clearly is a ham and enjoys it when everyone's attention is focused on him.

But.................all good things have to come to an end, and today was just plain awful.

First, we got the dogs from the kennel. Of course, they STANK, but before we could bathe them of the kennel smell, they hopped on our bed, so I had to wash our bedding (remember that detail--it will be important later). We began washing the dogs and once done, somehow all of the dogs ended up in my kitchen. As a result, my kitchen and entire house smelled not just of kennel smell, but of wet dog. For those of you in-the-know, wet dog smell is not a pretty scent, so I had to mop my wood floors with cleanser and then febreeze the entire house as well as vacuum all the carpets and rugs with that sprinnkly stuff. I lit 545784039572340957234 smelly (good smelly) candles for good measure.

After we did our grocery shopping, Brandon decided to go looking for a new tv for the basement (our anniversary gift to ourselves). I was rocking Max to sleep when he left, and literally as soon as Brandon left, the electricity flickered off but came back on like 1 second later. I thought nothing of it. But when I set Max down, I realized the air conditioning was not on.

Fortunately Brandon did not find a tv during his hunt because when he came back, I told him about the air conditioning. We immediately began calling ac people but nobody was able to come out today.

At that very moment (after like the 3rd phone call), we saw an AC man go to our neighbor's, so Brandon ran out to ask him to look at our unit.

When Brandon came back, I suggested the idea that maybe it had tripped a circuit, and lo and behold, that was what it was. He ran back to tell the AC guy not to bother.

Meanwhile, I am putting our bedding in the dryer and it is drying for maybe 10 minutes when it goes off. I tell Brandon that the dryer has somehow turned off and suggest a tripped circuit, but that's not it. Our dryer has died. It is a 1000 year old dryer, so it was bound to happen. I had to stick my bedding outside. Classy.

Minutes after discovering the death of the dryer, the AC goes off again. And this time it's not a tripped circuit. So, Brandon goes to the AC man next door and asks him to stop by (again).

AC man stops by and inspects our unit and discovers that everything appears to be fine and offers a few suggestions, so now Brandon is off hunting down something to clean the coils, etc. Hopefully that will work.

So, anyway, this has been a grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreat day, and tomorrow is our anniversary, and so instead of getting a new tv, we will be treating ourselves to a happy anniversary dryer.

Happy anniversary to us!

OMG.

My parents have Nelly Furtado's "Say It Right" on their IPOD and it is playing right now.

OMG.