He's so full of spunk and giggles. A bit mischievous and a bit less mindful (of us) than Jack was at this age, but for the most part he's a lot of fun and I think rounds out some of our sharper edges a bit. He's just what this family needed...he makes us laugh a lot and reminds us that life is meant to be enjoyed to the fullest!
For a long time, he couldn't say Max, and if you asked what his name was, he'd say Maps Lion. It's kind of stuck. We probably call him Maps Oliver more than anything else. One of his teachers said he called himself Maps because he was going places. She might be right.
His name is perfect for his personality. I'm not sure if we knew he'd be so full of spunk or if he felt pressure to live up to his name, but either way, it's a perfect fit.
He LOVES sand. He could dig in it for hours.
His hair used to be normal and a few months ago went a bit crazy and sticks straight up all over the place. I have tried most everything and nothing seems to tame it. It kind of fits him though.
He says a lot of words in a funny way, just because he's 2. But it makes us laugh, of course. He calls oatmeal opaneal and watermelon is walamelon. Elephants are elenucks. Big is beeg and always accompanied with him raising his shoulders and curling his hands up into his armpits. We have no idea where that motion came from. If you ask him why he did something he will say "betuz", meaning because. When the boys are all watching Liverpool play soccer, he will yell "Go Liverpoopool." We tried to get him to cheer for the VCU Rams and it came out "BUU Gramps!" Then Kenny and Jack tried to get him to cheer for the USA Soccer team and were chanting "U-S-A, U-S-A!" but when Max tried it, it came out "B-U-S, B-U-S!"
He LOVES to look at pictures and videos of himself.
He loves books. He often wakes up begging for someone to read him a book.
He also loves Dora and Diego.
He loves fruit. Any kind. He will eat it by the truckload. Watermelon and berries are probably his favorites. He will eat most anything if he's in the mood. He prefers it to come off my plate usually and doesn't mind it being spicy. He has a few texture issues at times, but for the most part is not a picky eater at all. He does NOT want to sit down at the table and eat and stay there. That's probably our biggest challenge but I remember Jack going through that as well so I know it will pass. Though in all honesty, I don't think Jack sits well at the table either. He would prefer to stand next to his chair for some reason. Anyway, family dinners are a priority of mine and we sit down together almost every night. Some nights it is a nightmare just trying to get some food in them, but most nights it's a treat for us to hear about their day and talk about whatever is on their mind. Max will get the hang of it one day I'm sure.
Recently we left the kids at Grams and Gramps for date night and just before leaving we asked Max if he was going to behave. He stopped what he was doing, considered the question, and then looked right at us and said "no."
He sleeps great - close to 11 hours at night and then on the weekend, he'll take a 4 hour nap. During the week he only gets 2 hour naps at school, which is hard on him I think, so he makes up for it on the weekend. Jack always has and still does the same thing.
He does pretty well with time out. You just have to tell him to go and he marches right over to the step and sits a while and then will announce "All done." It works fairly well. I wouldn't say it's the perfect disciplinary action at this age, but then again, I don't know what is! We never used time out with Jack. He frankly never needed it. He responded well to a stern voice. But we also had more time to stop and deal with whatever was going on and to cater to what he needed before he melted down. Time out doesn't solve all our problems, but it does re-direct him usually, which I guess is also what we did with Jack, in a slightly different manner. Max is undoubtedly more defiant though. He will push the limits just for the sake of seeing where they are.
He loves to sing. He especially loves the days when Miss Elva comes to school for music class. Sometimes he'll ask me to sing to him at night. His favorites are "Hail to the Redskins" and "abc's".
Most nights when we tell the boys to head upstairs for the nightly routine he'll say "No take a baf night?" And we say yes...take a bath night! But once you get him in the tub, he doesn't want to get out! But you can usually convince him by telling him it's time to go get his paci. He still gets the paci, but only when he's sleeping. So many nights he's so excited that it's paci time, he'll give up the bath.
He fell about 6 months ago maybe, on the tile floor in the kitchen and knocked his front right tooth a bit loose. There was blood and a lot of tears. He even got to go to the dentist! The dentist said it would basically either get worse or get better and time would tell. It turned a little gray and I was pretty worried we were going to have a snaggletooth but it didn't last long and is white and normal looking again. Thank goodness.
Just like Jack, Max's favorite thing is for friends to come to his house. They get soooo excited if someone is coming over for dinner or to hang out. I love that they love being home and sharing our home with others.
He can count to 15 or so really well...after that sometimes he gets a few wrong and then starts to do well again at 18. If he can't figure out the next number he'll look at you and say "next letter?" He recognizes most of his letters as well. I'd say he struggles with maybe 8-10 of them. He's doing really well.
He got a great report at his 2.5 year checkup! He was 30.5 lbs and 37 inches tall. Just over 50% for height and weight. He drinks more watered down juice than she (our wonderful pediatrician) would like, so we are tying to switch some of that over to milk and it's going pretty well.
Anytime there's an unexpected noise, like my phone vibrating or something creaking in the house, he'll stop what he's doing and say "hear that noise?" Then you have to tell him what it was and he'll move on. I don't think he's scared really - just curious.
He never took to a blankie like Jack did but has carried this little white baby tiger around for quite some time. Grams and Gramps bought it for him at the circus last year I think and sometime this winter he became attached. We took "baby ti-gair" on a walk to the library one day and unfortunately he didn't make the trip home. We re-traced our steps and talked with the library folks to no avail. Fortunately Grams and Gramps found another one on the internet and saved the day. In the meantime, Max became attached to "Momma ti-gair" who was a much larger version (i.e. harder to manage since she's about half Max's size). So now he often needs Momma ti-gair and all of his "babies." He has a baby lion, a baby bear from Barbados, Curious George and Max from Where the Wild Things Are. Every night I put him in his crib and he tells me he needs all his babies to go night night too. I have to pile them all up around his pillow before he can sleep and every morning Kenny has to carry Max and all of his babies downstairs. He also still sleeps with a bandaid. Every night. It must be an Angry Bird bandaid too. He just holds it and plays with it. Moves it from one spot to another. So strange. I hope they don't stop making them any time soon. I've tried to substitute other kinds to no avail.
He loves his big brother and most of the time, they play really well together. But let's not forget Max is two and often wants to be in charge. Jack tolerates it most of the time, but definitely gets frustrated at times. But Max is lucky to have a big brother like Jack...the other night we went to Chick-fil-A for dinner and afterwards, they were playing in the playground there. It's a giant climbing maze that ends in a slide and Max isn't quite big enough to navigate it alone. It's not big enough for parents to get in, so we have to rely on Jack to boost him up to the next step and guide him, which Jack gladly does. But after a few minutes, a rambunctious bunch of older kids came in to play and were barreling up the maze. Jack was trying to help Max get to the top when they came in and Jack grabbed Max, got him out of their way and told the big kids, in no uncertain terms, "Watch out for the little kids, guys. He's only 2. Be careful." Once they'd passed, he let Max go and went back to helping him up the maze. I might have gotten a little teary in the Chick-fil-A playground.
We love you Maps Oliver and love learning more and more about who you will be every day! Thanks for being ours!
