I can't believe it's been so long since I did a Max update! He's one of the greatest joys of my life and the cutest thing ever, so I gotta write all about him so I can freeze him in my mind just as he is right now.
- He is super talkative and articulate. He likes to be understood and to communicate. He's very literal. I love spending my days with him telling me stories, asking me questions, telling me what he thinks about.
- He's quite the little romantic. His "true love" (as he calls her) is Avery, this darling girl in our ward and in his preschool. He's always giving her gifts--once he brought her a flower to church without telling me, he made her a message in a bottle in Hawaii, etc. Apparently he's kissed her at school, but I didn't find out until much later because it was no big deal to him. He says she tasted kinda like lotion, ha ha ha. He randomly went up to Avery's grandparents (who he doesn't know) at school event and said, "I gotta tell you something. Avery's my true love." Then he just turned away, super matter-of-fact. He really his so funny.
- He's super silly and lives to have fun and make jokes. Especially jokes about farting, poop, or anything bathroom related. He has the best giggle. Andy makes him laugh.
- He's been playing soccer since the spring. I wouldn't say he's the MVP, ha ha. He's just there to have fun and is usually distracting the other kids at practices with some game he's come up with. They gave him his participant medal a week before the other kids because we were going to be out of town when they handed them out to everyone. He really took it to heart and still talks about it. "I can't believe I won!" And then he talks about how he must have won because he's so fast. I wouldn't call him the fastest on the team. ;)
- He measures things in sleeps. As in, "Only 2 more sleeps until we go to Hawaii!" It's the cutest. He's done it for about a year.
- He loves school. He goes Tuesday-Friday each week at Ridgeline. He's so excited to go to Andy's school. His teachers are Miss Chris and Miss Beth. His friends Ella, Graham, Warren, and Avery are in the class and he's made friends with lots of others too. He's always glad when it's a school day.
- When he gets his mind on something, he'll work on it for intently for a long time. I see this a lot in art projects. He'll sit and scribble an entire blank sheet of paper until it's completely full of pencil. He does what he sets his mind to.
- He's super into art! He colors every day. He draws a lot of interesting pictures. They always crack me up. Some are pretty creepy...lots of monsters, aliens, and scary things.
- He continues to love blocks and legos! He still builds with duplos almost every day (always making dragons, cheetahs, and other intricate animals and structures), but is also into "real" legos now and loves building those.
- Max started piano in October and is doing awesome. I was seriously nervous to start him...I didn't see it going well and I worried he wouldn't be very motivated. But he's really done GREAT! He does drag his feet many days, but he's progressed really well. His hand position is awesome. He likes doing his books the most. And he gets really excited when he gets to learn something new. He's very good at rhythm. One thing about Max--he doesn't like when he doesn't know how to do something. He doesn't want to have to practice something to be good at it--he wants to instantly be good at it or he doesn't want to do it at all. We're working on this concept. :) We practice about 30 minutes together most days.
- Max is very social and loves playing with friends. He plays with Nash next door all the time. They fight a lot, but they're best buddies too. They did a singing class together in the fall. He plays with Warren a lot too. And he plays with Ella Avarell a couple doors down. He also likes playing with Graham and Ella Kelly. He begs me to go to someone's house every afternoon.
- I'm always amazed at how brave he is. He's happy to sing a solo in primary and doesn't get scared. (And it's the cutest thing ever. I'll always remember him singing Gethsemane as a solo." He sang a solo for his singing class and he went first out of all the kids because he's so brave.
- He's turning into an awesome reader! He does upstart every day (a computer program) and it's really helped him. He's moved from pre-reading into real reading now! It's so fun to see his confidence grow and see him progress.
- As sweet as he is, he has quite the little temper too! When things make him mad he screams. He's kind of outgrown this the past few months (luckily), but there are dents all around his door because he used to throw things when he was mad. Big things too---like his rocking chair!
- He loves travelling and doing things. He always wants to know where we're going each day. When we're on trips he never wants to leave and always says he wants to stay there forever.
- Max is quite the dresser and always mixes crazy patterns. He also loves to dress up in costumes and has quite the collection! This was a full year ago, but in case I forgot to document it somewhere--last winter he wanted to wear summer clothes all winter, but since I wouldn't let him he'd pull his pants and his sleeves up and try to turn them into shorts and t-shirts. He seriously did it for 4 months. I was impressed with his stubbornness and determination considering it was pretty hard for him to walk around and keep his pants up ha ha.
- Rachel just had her wedding, and Max was super thrilled to get and wear a belt. It was all he could talk about. It's just so him....to be so excited about something so random. He always makes me laugh.
- I always say Max is like an old man. All he wants is good food and to sit in a hot tub.
I don't have the words to express how I feel about this sweet boy. He truly is the sweetest blessing in my life and I love hanging out with him all day. He's just fun to have around and to go places with.
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| Max with one of his may cheetahs he builds. |
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| A collector of many items. And quite the dresser. |
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| He went fishing a lot this summer and loved it. |
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| Very first piano lesson with Grandma Jean! |
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| How I adore my sweet boy. |
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| I accidentally bought him baby sized pajamas, and they're his favorite. He insists on wearing them. |
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| He knew he looked SO handsome this day! He loved wearing his jacket and thought he looked "like a daddy." |
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| Costume lover right here with his army costume he got for Christmas. |
