My Max

There are so many things I've wanted to record about Max, and I keep putting it off.  Just like all my kids, he is growing so fast and learning so many new things every day.  He is our most independent child, always playing with whatever he can find or getting his own food when he is hungry.  In fact, I have to keep an eye out to make sure he isn't scavenging off the floor, leaving the fridge door open, or pulling things out of the garbage (yikes!).  He LOVES playing around with Luke and Audrey.  They love to play "chase Max", where they chase him around while he screams and laughs uncontrollably.  His favorite toys are cars ("vroom vroom" and "McQueen") and trains ("choo choo's"), balls of any kind, and push toys (like strollers, wagons, and bikes).  He also loves playing with things he isn't supposed to touch, like rolls of toilet paper, feminine supplies, and the toilet in general.  Oh, and I can't forget to mention his aptitude for electronics.  He wants his own iPhone or "foam" as he calls it.  If you have received an early-morning call or text from him already, you know that he knows his way around any program or ap.  He also loves wreaking havoc on our computer and my kindle.  It is amazing how he can find and reach an electronic no matter where I hide it!  He is so cute and fun, that Luke and Audrey ask all the time when we are going to have another baby.  They love to play with him and run around with him.

He is talking more and more, and it is such a fun time.  His vocabulary list is growing quite large, but here are a few words he says off the top of my head:  basketball, football, car, choo choo, bird, dog, fishy, plane, stinky, drink ("deen"), dad, mom, yes, no, hi, buh bye, grandpa, mcqueen, swing, Luke ("guke"), Audrey (od-dey"), night-night.  He babbles nonstop, and sometimes we are amazed when it comes out making complete sense.  The other day he was at one of his many doctor's appointments lately, and the nurse was trying to do a tympanogram on his ear.  Every time she put the device up to his ear, he would scream and say "Ow! Ow!"  She finally turned to me and said, "I'm starting to wonder if he is really saying 'Ow' because it hurts.  Let's have the doctor look at those ears."  Sure enough, bad ear infections in both (again).  He knows what he wants and tries very hard to communicate it, even when it involves a severe temper tantrum in public.  But, hey, we have to take the bad with the good.

He is in the nursery now at church, and he hates it.  We can't figure out why, because it has all of his favorite toys and snacks and really nice leaders who he knows and who give him lots of attention.  He is used to me leaving him since he goes to the gym for an hour every day, but for some reason he is having separation anxiety right now.  Oh well!

And, as previously mentioned, he is having tons of problems with his ears.  He is on his 7th ear infection in a row (one every month), and they just keep coming back.  We are hoping for tubes soon to end the suffering!

And one more story about Max:  he had his first visit to the ER to other day.  Audrey was carrying him around the house, and she accidentally dropped him.  He landed face down on the hard floor, and his chin split right open.  It looked big enough for stitches, and the urgent care wouldn't touch a face on someone so young, so I took him down to the DMC Children's Hospital in downtown Detroit (Clay's stomping grounds).  It was awful.  To make a long story short, after 5 very painful hours, they glued it shut and sent us home.  I'm just going to do it myself next time!  But, Max is okay, and we are hoping for minimal scarring.  He was quite a trooper.

We love you, Max!