Summer Fun

What happened to July? And can it be that we are inching towards the half-way point of August? The summer is flying by, and that is partially due to the fact that it didn’t feel like summer for much of June and July, with unseasonably cool weather and A LOT of rain. August has come in like a lion, though, and we’ve finally had a chance to go to the pool and actually stay in the water without turning blue (or running for cover from lightening!).

I’ll provide a (detailed, of course) recap of our last few weeks, and then devote the end of this post to “baby book” stuff – things that I’ve been meaning to write down to capture Max’s amazingly fun age. And, I’ll never know if you skim through the text with an eye to the photos alone! :-)

At the end of June, we participated in our community’s 4-mile run/walk, which raises money for cancer research. It happened to be one of the few hot days that month, but Glenn braved the temp and ran the 4 miles. Max, Aunt Kathleen and I walked it instead, which gave Kathleen and I a great chance to catch up on so many things. Max is still quite the patient and happy passenger in his stroller, and he chimes in to the conversation frequently. His speech continues to improve, but when he speeds things up beyond five words or so, it’s all gibberish to us. He’s starting to figure that out, and you can almost see his little brain working to slow things down, and to choose words that we do understand.


Max then participated in the “kids’ run” – a 25-yard dash for the 2-3 year old group. Of course, before the race, when we had to keep him busy for awhile, he ran up and down the sidewalks and through the parking lots, and was seemingly unstoppable. When it came time to leave the starting line for his race ----- forget it! He finally agreed to stroll the 25 yards, with Glenn holding his hand and me running ahead to take photos.

Notice that there are NO 2-3 years olds BEHIND him.
Alas, even the last place finisher gets a medal!

Max had his 2 ½ year medical check-up on July 1st, which was almost exactly one year after our return from Kazakhstan. He’s made great strides in both weight and height in his year at home. In this first year home, he’s gained 9.5 pounds and has grown 5 inches! All with questionable eating habits! (We credit the Carnation Instant Breakfast and iron drops … hee hee). While trying not to focus on growth charts – and Max’s pediatrician is great about downplaying these things – he has jumped to the 40th percentile in both height and weight metrics, from 10th and 5th respectively. Max’s eating is still really erratic – he’ll eat a man-sized breakfast one day, and then will manage one bite of oatmeal the next. Lunch during the week is always an unknown, because he eats at school (or should we say, he “should eat” at school.). They do what they can with him, but he never eats more than 4 or 5 bites of food for lunch. So, you can imagine how fun the first few minutes at home are every night with a cranky hungry toddler. (This almost always falls to Glenn, as I am usually still at work). Then, we have a bit of a Catch 22 on our hands – default to something quick and easy that we know he will eat (e.g. mashed potatoes) or take a bit more time to make him something that he may or may not eat, during which time he is very likely to start wailing from hunger and crankiness. While there are moments of stress, I wouldn’t describe the situation as stressful, because he eats when he is hungry, and he is growing. So, we do our best to introduce new foods to him as often as we can (and probably not as often as we should), and that’s that.

My mom came to visit for the 4th of July weekend, and we were happy that we front-loaded our activities into the beginning of the weekend, because it was rainy for much of the latter half. We watched the “hot air balloon glow” and fireworks at Cincinnati’s Coney Island on Friday, and we went to a parade in a very eclectic part of town (Northside) on Saturday.

Looking at the hot air balloons. He loved looking, but the hot air balloon burners were loud!

Enjoying ice cream before the fireworks.
He always loves fireworks, and has never really been fearful of the noise.

Acting goofy at the parade.

We borrowed Ellie for a Friday night, and Glenn and I walked with both kids to a neighborhood church festival. We were practicing what it will be like to have two toddlers! The picture doesn’t do it justice, but Ellie loved the rocket ride and was screeching with joy, and Max was really scared. He put on a good front, holding back the tears – is it possible that he already knows to try to be a big boy in front of his cutie-pie BFF?!


Max and I spent one Sunday afternoon in late July just strolling along the Ohio River. Glenn was golfing, so I packed a picnic lunch, and Max and I sat by the river for our lunch, watching the boats go by. Just another AMAZING day with my son! I dreamed of these moments, and these dreams are coming true!

This is Max's first performance on the ampitheatre stage! HA!
Obviously there was nothing scheduled on the stage that day, and he had so much fun singing and dancing. He loved the echo effect.

Two other BIG happenings in the last two weeks: First, the MLB (Max’s Little Brother) dossier was FINALLY submitted! We are officially a waiting family!


And, secondly, Max changed schools. There wasn’t one specific thing that led to the change – more like multiple things that just all seemed to point to making the change. We’re now in our second week at the new school, and all signs point to this being the right decision. Max is in a “group” with 6 other children, and they are part of a class of 18-20 kids. They “change rooms” every 45 minutes, with each room designated to a particular set of lessons/play, including “preschool curriculum” and of course, outside play time. Max is so resilient, and he has seemingly seamlessly transitioned into his new school with new teachers and new friends. He is officially going full-time now – not necessarily what I’d had in mind from the moment we got home, but it’s working out best for our entire family, all things considered.

If you’re still reading, here’s a detailed snapshot of Max at 31 months old:

Independent: “I do by shelf (self)”. Everything takes a lot longer, but he insists on doing a lot of things by himself – dressing/undressing (this takes help), carrying his dishes (yea), opening/closing doors, etc.

Potty-trained: Not so much. It's coming along. Maybe next month. :-)

Loving: “I yub you”, accompanied by flashing his hand signal for “I love you.”

On the go: He’ll run out of the room to get something real or imaginary (most often the latter), and it is always announced by “Be right back!”, which is accompanied by holding up his index finger, and adding “back (in a) minute.”

Well-mannered. “Bless you, mama.” “Thank you.” “Pleeeeeeeez.” “Nice (to) meet you” (while shaking your hand – he is really into shaking hands right now). He also says, “No tanks” almost any time that you give him an offer of food, but now he tends to add, “Too messy.” So, even if you are offering him something that could potentially be nice and neat, if he doesn’t want it, he says “No tanks, too messy”, and waves you off with his hand. We think he gets that from school, because we never say “too messy.” (Besides, isn’t EVERYTHING messy with a toddler, so what exactly is “too” messy?)

Sensitive: When he’s trying to wriggle his way out of something, such as a diaper change, he’ll say, “Ow, you hurt Max”, even if you barely touch him! He also says, “No do touch Max.”

Joyous: Unprovoked, he’ll look up at you and say, “I so happy. You so happy?”

Invisible: If you shout out, "Where are you?" or otherwise pretend that you can't see him, he’ll come running, point to himself, and say “I right here!” He is just starting to really get into "Hide and Seek" and his fave spot is under his crib, because the bed skirt hangs to the floor and it's a great hiding spot! (Yes, he is still in his crib. Big boy bed and potty-training, all in due time).

Animal lover: Whenever we leave the house, he always waves to the cat and the dog, and says, “Bye pets.” He also tries to give kisses, which the cat and dog rarely tolerate.

Child after my own heart. Unless he is overtired, he loves his bed, and we have to wake him most mornings to go to school. Most mornings, as I gently wake him, he says, “Morning, Mama. I stay (in) bed.” I can SO relate to this child!

Shapes and colors: We are finally makeing progress, and he has really taken a liking to circles. Take a toddler who’s all about circles to Meijers (which prominently features a blue circle in all of its point of purchase and branding displays), and you will hear “Look, Mama, Seeercle” three million times. He is finally starting to discern colors, but here-to-fore, everything was blue.

Numbers: We finally have 1-2-3 in the appropriate order, and he can consistently count things, up to 5, and count along with you to 10. He likes to point out objects, and tell you how many there are – “Two cups.” “Tree peoples.”

So You Think You Can Dance? Max love music, and asks for “nusic” every night. He falls asleep to various CDs – some toddler stuff, some our own choices. He also loves to dance, and he is often times shaking his booty in stores when he hears the overhead music. He always announces it first – “DANCE!” – and then he gets his groove on.

Complimentary. He’ll just toss out the compliments in the most unexpected times. I can pour milk successfully into a cup, and I’ll get the shout-out: “Way to go, Mama. Yay, Mama!”

Caring: From the time he came home, I’ve been in the habit of saying, “You okay back there?” to Max when we are driving around in the car, and I love hearing the resounding, ‘YEP!” Now, spontaneously, he’ll shout up to me, “You okay up dare, Mama?” and he giggles when I shout out, “YEP.”

Brave: In many ways, Max seems fearless. He dives from chairs and tables, jumps up and down from any surface he can find, races up the stairs one foot after another without holding on to prove he can do it “by my shelf”, and toys with the very-much-still-has-his-claws cat in ways that I wouldn’t dare. He has tumbled frontwards and backwards off of various horizontal surfaces too many times to count, and he (knock on wood) is always able to shake it off. He’s had a black eye (kicked at school), a bloody lip (fell head first onto a step stool that he was trying to carry), and a gazillion bumps, bruises, and scrapes. He still gets blood drawn a lot (still sorting through iron challenges), and he stares at the needle without flinching and then runs to select his band-aid.

Not-so-brave: But he has a healthy fear of some strange things. Like golf carts. And tractors. “I (s)cared golf carts” is one of his most uttered fears. I trace this back to the family reunion, when one of his uncles who he didn’t know scooped him up and took him for a ride on a golf cart (which happened in a blink of an eye, before I could really say anything.) Now, if he sees anything that looks remotely like a golf cart -- including riding lawn mowers and ATVs -- he cries out, “I (s)cared golf carts!”

Predictable cranky behavior: Max thrives on routine, especially eating (even if it is only milk) and sleeping. He is extremely predictable when we fall out of whack with his schedule (which we try not to do, but life sometimes intervenes!). He becomes incredibly cranky and even downright belligerent, and he will scream and cry and totally melt down. His latest addition to his tantrum repertoire is to shout “NOW” at the top of his lungs, as in “I want to take shower NOW!” or “I want go downstairs NOW!”. But, it comes out more like NEEEEEEEOOOOOWWWWWWWWW” and he is usually shaking his finger and stomping his foot as he is shouting it. Of course, I correct him, and tell him that we don’t talk to each other like this, but it is always when he is exhausted or tired and it’s really not worth debating with him at that moment in time. It is always remedied with sleep or food, and we always get our sweet little Max back soon thereafter. But YOWZA, it can be loud and a little upsetting for all of us.

Time Out: Max doesn’t misbehave often (except as described above), but he has developed a stubborn streak and he has been spending his fair share of time in time out for not listening. The time out routine is, well, routine. We sit him in one of several designated spots in the house, we tell him he is in time out, and he bursts into tears and cries “Mommy, Mommy, Mommy” for the entire two minutes. Then, when we tell him that time out is over, he stops crying (he can turn it on and off like a spigot!), dries his eyes with his shirt, and toddles over to say, “I sorry for (enter infraction here).” Then, I say, “I forgive you”, and he says, “You gagive Max?”, and I say “Yes’ and then he says, ‘You happy now?” and then I say “Yes”, and then we hug and say “I love you” over and over again. I’m not convinced that he really gets that he is apologizing, but he certainly understands the process and the system. Not sure that’s such a good thing, but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt until he turns 3. :-)

Videos: I shamefully admit it. We have a child who loves videos, and we are entirely to blame. I currently rationalize the entire thing and say that it’s how we will all travel sanely for 36 hours on our way to Kazakhstan next year. He loves all of the Leap Frog stuff, and the typical Noggin and Nick Jr. stuff. But, he REALLY loves Madagascar (he calls it “Gascar”) and Cars. He giggles out loud throughout both movies. Glenn and he recently had boys movie night and Max sat through the entire Madagascar, snuggled on the couch with his Papa.

I close with a few more pics of our Max. We’ll catch up again soon, with info about our August trip to Lexington (SO MUCH FUN) and the remainder of our summer adventures.