Max turned two in January and it’s now April, but I can’t let this time pass without posting about what he has been up to lately.
Max talks constantly these days, and I guess the novelty hasn’t worn off because I could listen to him all day. He is hilarious. He loves to ask questions, “What’s this?” “How did THIS get here?” “Where is my truck?” Also, he is a toddler, so he enjoys saying what he wants, “I wanna watch BLAZE!” “I want cheese crackers!” and what he doesn’t like “I don’t like that.” He also likes saying “I’ll show ya!” I also love his expressions, he says “OooooH NO!” and “Oh BA- Goodness!” and “That’s CRAAAAAZY!"
His new thing is, he sets up all of his trucks to watch his favorite truck show (Blaze and the Monster Machines) on the iPad. Then he says, “Fire truck, this is Blaze” “Blaze, this is fire truck” like he’s introducing them.
He also has full conversations with me about what he did at school that day, what he wants to do, people he knows, books he has read, etc. It’s crazy to think just a few months ago when I wanted to keep him awake in the car, I’d have ask what noises animals make to keep him talking. Now, we can talk about so many things. A few weeks ago we took him and my friend’s daughter to a farm to see baby pigs (and other animals). Max loved them but he kept talking about how the “Mama pig is SAD!” I told him, she’s not sad, just tired and I swear since then he’s been using the word tired when he first wakes up, ha ha.
Max loves to play with his toys. This winter was infinitely easier than last winter, and it wasn’t just that the weather was better (though it was!) Max was also totally fine with playing inside this winter. He loves to play with his many trucks: fire trucks, cement trucks, dump trucks, tow trucks and more. He also enjoys his train and play kitchen. Lately he likes to cook Eric and I soup and ice cream, both of which he cooks in his play microwave. He went through a phase where he would constantly leave his real milk in his play fridge. We usually found it and by some miracle when he found it, he would always say “old milk!” and give it to me.
He plays by himself sometimes, but he also enjoys playing with us. He enjoys having us build towers for him (especially with some cool foam blocks my mom got), then he counts them (1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 10, 12…) and then he knocks them over. He also loves a game called “Seeka Boo” that one of Eric’s friends got for him for his birthday. It’s similar to memory but a little bit simplified.
I’ve probably said this in every post since like 6 months, but Max still LOVES books. He has a ton of books memorized and can read them on his own, but he mostly likes when we read them and leave out words that he can fill in. His current favorite books are: Pete the Cat, The Truck is Stuck, It’s Not Easy Being a Bunny, Where Do Diggers Sleep at Night? Curious George books and all the Llama Llama books… he also loves a book about a fire station that we got at a random bookstore in Portsmouth NH.
It’s funny to read back to some of his month updates because I mentioned more than once that he would eat anything. That is definitely no longer. He favorite things to eat are “MILK AND BAR!” Bar, being those Trader Joe’s “fruit” bars. He will occasionally eat what we are having for dinner if all veggies can be picked out, that is. Otherwise, he mostly like snack type foods: cheddar bunnies, graham crackers, nuts, etc. Fortunately, he will eat both peanut butter and sunflower butter (for school because they can’t have nuts) sandwiches so he eats those a lot. I’ve calmed down a lot about his absurd eating, and realized that if that’s the only negative thing I ever hear from school “he didn’t really eat any of his lunch today”- that’s not so bad!
Fortunately, his sleep is better than his eating these days. He went through a very rough sleep patch around November/December. He learned how to climb out of his crib, I’m not sure how. But the first time, he climbed out, grabbed a book, knocked on our door at 3AM and said, “READ IT!” Once that child is up, getting him back to sleep is near impossible. Luckily, after a few week freak out and terrible sleep, I ignored all the advice about keeping kids in the crib as long as possible and listened to my best friend who told me take off the side of the crib and put a gate up. Yes, re-sleep training on Christmas Eve was not fun, but it has led to much better sleep ever since. Honorable mention goes to the amazing toddler sleep clock. Max is very serious about sleeping when the light is red and “WAKE UP!” when the light is green.
Max continues to go to “school” while we are at work. He loves it and does really well there. His favorite activities are listening to books and playing with all the many cars and trucks that the school has. Max also really likes painting which they do a lot. He loves to say, “I paint it!!!” They tell me after the summer he will officially be in “preschool” (still in the same school, just a different classroom). I can’t believe it!
He still changes so much every day, so I hope I can remember to update before he’s 3 this time, ha ha!
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