Fall Time with Max (16-18 Months)

Well, in a couple days Max will be 18 months old! He'll be a whole year and a half old, and we can't quite believe it! We have a lot of fun taking him places (you'll see in the pictures that we visit quite a few animals) and spending time with friends. He loves to run all around the house! You can hear the boom, boom, boom of his footsteps coming at you when he hits the wood floor. Max has quite a few words he says and some words that are "code" for certain things. For example, "dees" means his blankie, "yai" means outside, and "emo" mean Nemo. He asks to watch the movie Finding Nemo daily, and loves watching parts of it if we put it on! Actually, a couple weeks ago we started a list of his words (I know - first time parents!) and by now he has 60+ words he says. He now has 4 teeth - his top two middle and bottom two middle teeth. It's funny to actually see him use his teeth to bite food, but unfortunately there are no teeth in the back to help him grind up certain items. Lately he's been really into flopping on pillow (and Dad if he's around). He thinks it's hilarious and it's fun for us to see his sense of humor! And of course Matt and I have had to start dealing with a few tantrums here and there and discipline issues (like hitting our poor dogs). It keeps you on your toes, but everyone reminds us it's all par for the course. We really love our character Max! Enjoy the pictures and videos!

We started having ducks (really Canadian geese, but we call them ducks) show up in our pond behind our house this fall. Max is basically obsessed with checking for them and quacking at them. It's been a lot of fun!

Oh, poor Max has to go to bed every night, and he would just rather put it off. He's a great sleeper once he's down, but we get a kick out of his "no" to get out of it. Usually Matt puts him down at the end of the night, so then Max tries to go to me to rescue him. When that doesn't work he'll give me a kiss and a tearful "ba-bye" on his way up the stairs. He'll also usually continue to ask for "one more" book hoping to delay the inevitable. It's amazing how quickly they learn to do all this!

Max will definitely try climbing anything he can. On this morning he figured out how he could get up on this chair in our living room.

Here's a little taste of Max's dancing. We never seem to be able to get it on video! He also has his blankie which he adores, points out a box, and at the end asks to go outside (he says "yai" and points towards the garage door - this is something only Mom and Dad understand).

Max loves waking you up if you happen to be sleeping by him. Usually we pretend to be asleep, but this is actually the real thing. Matt taught Max to put his finger over his mouth and say "shhh" for quiet. It happens pretty quick at the beginning of this video, but you might catch him doing it. Max knows he's got to be quiet to sneak up on his dad.

About a week ago Max started jumping, and we get a big kick out of it! He always looks pretty proud of himself when he does it. Usually he gets no air, but there have been a few times (when people are over and he's quite excited) when his feet have actually left the ground.

Summer Time with Max (12-15 Months Old)

Hi Everyone! I know this has been a LONG time coming, but I am finally trying to catch up on Max's blog. Here are pictures from the summer (finishing up our time in Ohio, moving back to Michigan, going on vacation to California, and enjoying the warm weather). It's amazing to look back at these now and realize how far Max has come since he turned one, and I'm sure you'll notice that too with these updates.

Around 12 months Max said his first word, doggie, which was closely followed by his other favorite word ball. He loved pointing out anything that resembled a ball from a grape to a watermelon. He became more and more sure of himself on his feet, and was willing to try more and more new things. Max enjoyed swimming when we got the opportunity, and would even jump/slide into one us from the side of the pool. One of the biggest breakthroughs (literally) was that Max got his first tooth (on the top) in his 15th month! Can you imagine? He went through the first 15 months of his life with no teeth! Grandpa Bob says it's just less time for cavities to form (unfortunately if Max has my type of teeth, the cavities will come anyway). We also announced this summer that Max is going to be a big brother come the middle of January, and right before Labor Day we found out that it's another boy!

Enjoy the pictures (warning - there are a lot of them!) and the many videos too!

One day Max shoved this ball in Matt's mouth and got a total kick out of it. This is back in June pretty close to when we moved into our new house in Michigan.

After moving into our new house in Michigan we had to get blinds for all the windows, so we headed over to Home Depot. Little did we know (or even think about it) that it would take about an hour to cut all the blinds to size. So, what do you do with a 1 year old? Set them loose, chase them, and videotape it - I guess.

Sometime this summer Max figured out he could swing his arms and then clap. He always looks like he is trying to be so cool when he does it - just cracks me up.

One afternoon we realized Max had skipped out of the family room and here's what Matt found him up to. Ah, the joys of new discoveries!

Working on using utensils - key word here is working.

Max actually likes some food items we didn't think he would. He thinks it's hilarious to eat pickles! It's like he likes the taste, but thinks the zing to them is funny.