Max's best quotes {taken only from lunch time today!}

"Cucumbers are so juicy that they are really like a drink instead of food. Let's call these a drink and not food now and forever all the times."

"Mama, I didn't have a vitamin yet today so I'm really tired. If you don't give me a vitamin, I will still be so tired, but if you make a good choice and do give me a vitamin I'll be juuuuust right. You know what you should do."

"Well, this is awkward." (said after a teeny 3 second pause in conversation where it was completely quiet and no one was talking. Dude can't handle his silence.)

"I just farted in my chair a little. It smells like poop stink. You'll smell it in a minute, Mama and it will make you want to puke."


Max: "When I grow up I don't want to be a police officer."
Me: "Why not?"
Max: "They can't swim and if I have to get away from bad guys I might have to swim."
Me: "Police officers can swim, Buddy. Why did you think they can't?"
Max: "I never saw them swim before so I know they can't. If I saw them with my little eyes and they swimmed then I would be a police officer because that would be fun. I like catching bad guys."

How to fight monsters

Max gave me a complete rundown on how to defeat different colored monsters this afternoon. Given his record of never losing a monster battle, I'd say he's quite an expert and it's worth a listen.

White monsters are easy peasy. You just bam them.
Blues you have to punch in the face. Really hard.
Purple has to be knifed.
If its orange, you have to get another good guy to fight with you because they are very strong and fast.
With yellows, you have to pull your leg all the way back and then kick them in the foots.
If you ever see a spotted-dotted one, you have to run and get your dad. Those are so tricky and serious.


And now you know. 

Jesus on the cross

Max can't sit still for a whole meal. He can't help it. He's a wiggler. We often have to give him 30 second jumping breaks halfway through a meal just to help him focus on finishing what's on his plate. While we have a "bottoms in your chairs" rule during mealtime, it's not unusual at all to see him bopping up and down in the kitchen while the rest of us eat calmly. It's just how my Max was made. 

On night he was in the middle of a jumping break, when he caught our attention to show us how "he can be Jesus". I melted. That dude drives me bananas sometimes, but he is so stinkin' sweet and cute when he wants to be. 

"I'm Jesus on the cross!"

Max and Monkey

Shoe shopping

There's nothing like fall time to prove to a parent just how much the kidlings have grown over the summer. Jeans look more like capris and toes are all crunched up in the ends of sneakers. It's not pretty. 

Max grew a nice, normal amount over the summer. He's filling out his cold-weather clothes a little more than he was last spring, but not to a Hulk-ish degree and he's gone up just a half size in shoes. Not bad. But David, who has been eating everything in sight all summer long, jumped a full size in clothes and TWO shoe sizes in just 3 months. We don't keep track of height growth around here, but I'm positive he grew a solid 2 inches this summer. When trying on his brand-new-to-him size 5 jeans he excitedly shouted "Mama, look! My ankles don't even show in these ones!". Proof that the littlest things in life can make you the happiest sometimes. 

With the weather turning colder and wetter, we knew it was time to get on the new shoe thing. Sandals aren't going to work for much longer. Off to the shoe store we went. We immediately realized David is beyond the point of velcro shoes. I don't know if I saw a single pair in his size. And if I did, they were dopey looking, I'm sure of it. He immediately spots a Perry the Platypus pair with laces and falls in love. I have to admit, they are pretty spiffy looking. He tried them out, took a little walk and we decided he could have them. Next step: teaching him how to tie them all by himself! 

With David taken care of, we headed off to Max's section. Not a Perry shoe in sight. I knew he'd be upset about not having cool Perry shoes like David so I grabbed a pair of bright red shoes (his favorite color) and tried to figure out every way possible to talk them up and make them as cool as platypus shoes. That's not easy. I also found some white shoes with blue stripes. Super cute and super grown up looking. They look just like a mini pair of something Daddy would buy. Uber cool no matter how you look at them. At first he wasn't thrilled with either pair, but he was open to trying them on. 

He walked, ran and skipped up and down the aisle in both pairs. Then, it was decision time. David and I agreed that both pairs fit well and would be a good choice so we were going to let Max choose which ones he wanted. I knew he liked the grown up looking pair of white ones best, but being a mom, I knew their bright whiteness only had a life span of about a week so I started rethinking the "let Max choose" plan. Let's face it, two year old boys are dirt magnets. He stood so quietly and patiently in his cool white shoes listening to our conversation. Right about the time he knew Mama and the red shoes were winning, he gently tapped my arm and said "Mama, I'm gonna say Dear Jesus and Amen [pray] about these shoes now". Then he sat down in the middle of the aisle, folded his chubby little hands, squeezed his eyes shut and prayed the most heartfelt prayer I've ever heard in my life. 

"Dear Jesus, thank you Mama and Daddy go shopping for new sneakers. 

I like white shoes. Jesus, please give me white shoes so I can wear them. 

That makes me be happy. And Jesus...white shoes. Amen." 

And then he opened his eyes, smiled at me and waited.  GAH!! Why does he have to be so cute?! Needless to say, after all that the grown up looking white shoes totally won. We packed them back in the box and he proudly carried them up to the check out so Daddy could pay for them. We got just outside the store and stopped so the boys could put on their new shoes. They didn't stop running for the rest for the night. New shoes make you run faster, you know. And stomp harder, jump higher, skip skippier and zig-zag even zig-zaggier. True story. 

The prayed for white shoes

David's first pair of lace-up shoes

Max

Holy moly. Max. Brace yourselves, people. 

Being with Max is what I imagine it's like to stand in the middle of tornado. 

It's loud, it's messy and there's a lot of debris from broken stuff strewn about when it's over. 

This kid is fearless. He'll try anything. Anything. If you can eat it, ride it, throw it, poke it, smell it, climb it or jump off of it, he's interested. Especially the jumping part. Thankfully, the Lord gave him an incredibly high pain tolerance and a go-with-the-flow attitude to help him cope. 

He is passionate about life and having fun. He wakes up every morning jazzed to be alive. 

Nothing gets him down or upsets him. He is super outgoing and loves people. He loves to make people "be happy again" by singing silly songs, telling what he thinks are hilarious jokes or doing crazy stunts. 

There is just one volume and it's loud. There's just one speed and it's as fast as humanly possible. He's energy in human form. 

He loves his brothers dearly. I think as he grows up he's going to really like his position in the middle of the family. He adores looking up to David and is quite happy to be his sidekick, but he also loves getting to be a "big guy" and do what Titus can't. He loves moments when he can help Titus reach a toy or get more snack. 

He's got such a tender heart too. It really upsets him to see others go without. He would gladly break his animal crackers in half for you or give up the last slice of bacon on his plate so you could have some too. He's the first to pick out one of his own matchbox cars for you to play with and he's the one most likely to take off his superhero mask so you can pretend to fly too. 

He's very independent. He's the type that would rather run headlong into a mistake than let someone "control" him by telling him what to do. "No, I do it", "No help" and "I can do it! I'm a man!" are common phrases around here. 

Row, row the boat

Aunt Ashley, a.k.a. the best babysitter of all time, came over last night to hang out with the boys while Dave and I went out. Max says she taught him this song "so he could be happy". 

....And it went on like that for 5 more minutes before he ended with "....and go somewhere!". That kid is too much sometimes. I love his hip sway when he sings. And that squeaky little voice he uses when Monkey is singing! Gah! So stinkin' cute! I'm so glad this memory made it to a video. I needs to be saved forever.

Sick Babies

How do you make a lil guy sleep when he's hurting from cutting teeth and a miserable ear infection? 

One part car seat and a bajillion parts prayer. 

Thank goodness for well rested Daddies!
I was so tired that I never would have
thought of the car seat on my own! But, DUH!,
it hurts to lay flat when you have an ear
infection. Mama's arms are good, but
he LOVES his car seat! 

My sweet Titus is sick. Really sick. This is probably the worst illness one of my babies has ever had. I haven't heard so much crying since dealing with colicky baby David - and that's saying something because that child screamed at the top of his lungs for a minimum of 6 hours straight every single night when he was a baby. 

He's been a little under the weather since last Tuesday, but the worst of it began Friday night. I knew he was feeling super yucky when I put him to bed at 8pm, but I had no idea what the night would hold for him and I. He slept for just an hour before waking up. He nursed, but didn't settle right back down. It took a while to soothe him, but he did go back to sleep for me. He slept just one more hour before waking again (just as I was preparing to go to bed myself) and this time he wanted nothing to do with nursing or being comforted. He fussed his way through the next 2 hours before passing out in my arms as I rocked him. I waited about a half hour, until I knew he was good and asleep, before attempting to lay him down. His chubby cheek no more than hit the sheets before the screaming began. It was now well after midnight and I was beyond tired. I tried everything I could think of to get him to sleep after that - I even conceded to sleeping upright in a chair all night with him in my arms if that's what it took. 

But nothing worked. Nada. No sleep. Zilch. Titus' screams woke Dave around 3am and he got up to check on us. He made me some food and got me a drink before heading back to bed. The crying continued on...

Finally, nearing 5am as Dave's alarm was going off for work, Titus gave way to sleep. Restless sleep, but sleep nonetheless. It lasted a miserably short 2 hours before he woke up and started crying again. :( There was no question now whether we needed to call the pediatrician now. Thank goodness for Saturday hours!! They confirmed what we already knew - he had an ear infection - and wrote him a prescription. The day continued on in much the same fashion as the night before....lots of crying and little sleep. Saturday afternoon we tried tugging on his ear. It didn't make a huge difference, but it did help some. It cleared things out enough that pain medications helped now. Previously, they hadn't made a bit of difference. He got some good rest Saturday night and was somewhat happier on Sunday. We're hoping now that the worst is behind us. *fingers crossed*

But now I spy an ear infection starting in Max. We're headed to the doctor this morning with him. :/

UPDATE: My little Max-a-roony has ear infections in both of his sweet little ears. :(

Summer time

Summer time, summer time, GLORIOUS summer time! 

There's never more opportunities to play than in summer time. We've been super busy. Nothing important; We're just taking every opportunity to get our wiggles out. We've been swimming and pool splashing at one Monga's house and four wheeler riding and wrestling at the other Monga's house. We've taken walks, we've seen fireworks, we've run circles around the backyard. We spent a week at VBS and we've taken day trips to the zoo. We've barely been home! 

I always love how easily the kiddos pass out at night when we're this busy. Their eyes are shut almost before their bodies have stopped moving. This mama loves an easy bedtime. It's heavenly. :) After a few particularly crazy days last week, I checked on Max before I went to bed for the night. This is how I found him. No lie. He fell asleep right in the middle of trying to cause trouble! He couldn't even see the mischief through to the end before he conked out for the night. I had to scoop him up and tuck him back in. 

Thank you, summer time, for being so awesome. :)

Can you tell he knows there's always stray toys under the bed?

a good idea

Right now, Max's very favorite saying in the whole world is "I have a good idea" which is, on it's own, one of the cutest things ever, but he doesn't stop there. No, sir. He adds his teeny little finger in there. He points his little finger at you, looks all excited like and happily shouts in your face "I have a good idea!". Often there is no plan behind it. It's more of a conversation starter. Once you give your full attention (which is what he's really after) and ask "what's that, honey?" he just looks at you with a blank stare for a moment then quickly makes something up. 

Here's one of his calmer, quieter moments where he just wanted to stare at the bush for a while. 

(Ignore Titus crying in the background. He was unhappy about a diaper change.)

:)

Jesus

Man, am I tired this morning! Yeesh. Pass the coffee. 

Max woke often during the last half of the night meaning - you guessed it - Mama was up often during the last part of the night. Being a mama isn't for the faint of heart I tell ya. When I just couldn't bear his restless sleep and little fusses anymore I sent up a very desperate prayer to the Lord asking begging for some peaceful sleep. Soon after we both settled in and slept until morning. 

Cut to this morning...

Max came walking out of his bedroom still half asleep and looking groggy. I tried to say good morning and give a hug, but he wasn't having it. He just stared around the living room as if he were looking for something. Finally, when he couldn't find what he was after, he gave me a puzzled look and asked "Where Jesus go? He just here." I was confused...and touched...and I had no idea what to say. Yeah, I just stared at him. I had expected "good morning, Mama.". This threw me off. 

As I fumbled for words and tried to figure out where to take the conversation from there, David took over. Just as matter-of-fact as can be he looked at Max and said "Silly Max. Jesus lives in the sky. And in sunshine and butterflies." Max thought about it for a second, still looking a little puzzled, then asked "In the sky?" like he just wasn't buying it. David was quick to confirm it. Max let out a little "Oh" then moved on to asking for chocolate milk. 

I don't know what happened last night or what Max saw, but it made an impact...and not just on him. 

A Sleepy Max

How can a mama resist a perfect booty-in-the-air photo opportunity? She can't. 

This is one of those moments I hope to remember forever. 

Lord, when he gets older and refuses to eat his broccoli, when he fights with his brothers just for the hey of it, when I no longer enjoy the smell of little boys, when he thinks I'm uncool, when he resists doing his homework at all costs, when he starts chasing after girls {and especially when he starts catching them}, when sports, friends and hobbies take priority over giving me snuggles and being with family please remind me of this moment when he was young and sweet and still sucked his thumb and slept with his booty in the air. Because this was a good one. 

Hide and Seek

The boys and I are playing hide and seek this morning. Max is "hiding" by the front door. :)

Sooo sleepy....

It's not even 7:30pm and I'm ready to tuck myself in bed for the night. Max hasn't slept through the night in over a week (so neither have I). Why is cutting 2 year molars such a process? I have an unhappy, can't-sleep-through-the-night boy and that darn tooth still hasn't broken the surface yet! Yeesh. 

A boy in a basket

For your Sunday morning viewing pleasure....

The curtain incident

I heard a commotion and went to get Max out of his crib. It seems having two usable arms again has made him mischievous. The first thing he said to me was "I see outside". Yeah, that happens when you rip the curtains off the wall. :/

Cast Removal

Max's cast removal went very well. He did cry when he heard the cast cutting saw turn on, but the nurse assured us that was normal...she even said he did better than an 11yr old she had in the other day! The cuts weren't pretty and they ran right through his choo-choo and signatures so I didn't keep his cast. On top of that, summer casts don't smell awesome after being worn by a sweaty kid for a few weeks so I'm not sure I'd want the thing laying around anyway. I did take lots of pictures yesterday and even got a video of him in his cast so he could see it all later on. 

After removing his cast and letting him stretch for a minute (which he LOVED!), the nurse sent us down to the x-ray room. This time, Daddy came along with us to hold Max. Though he cried, I think this time wnet better than the first x-rays. Having Daddy there to hold him seemed to help. While the x-rays processed and were sent to the doctor we went back to our exam room to wait. Max was being such a trooper and holding up so well that he got a treat. Can I just say how much I love Dum-Dums?! Woot Woot!

The doctor came in soon and reviewed the x-rays with us. He's fully healed now, as expected, and is released to go back to normal. As long as nothing new comes up there's no need for any more check-ups. Yay! We're done!!

His teeny little hand bones make me melt.
Seriously now, could they be any cuter?!?!



The bone on the right was broken. You
can still see the dark fracture line near the top.
The darkest (and crooked) sections of that
 bone are old. The lighter section (on the left side
filling in the dip) attached to it
is all new growth since wearing his cast.



The Cast {how we make it work}

Keeping an adventurous and curious 17 month old little boy from getting wet or messy is no easy task! I've had my work cut out for me. He doesn't seem to mind that it's there most of the time, but he is really missing his splash time in the bathtub. It's quite the challenge to keep the plastic bag on and get him clean all at the same time. Bath time is by far the worst part of this whole ordeal.

It took him a few days to get used to sleeping with it and not eating with that hand, but he's way past that bothering him now. He's been moving on with life as usual. 12 days down...8 more to go!!

We trap his arm under his high chair tray for mealtime

I cut the elastic band off the top and the toe off the bottom
of a men's tube sock to make a cast protector. It keeps the
cast from scratching anyone/anything and it can't get
messy this way.

But he's still a happy boy. I told him to say "cheese"
for Monga so......"Cheese!"

His very most favorite thing right now is trains so I
drew a choo-choo on his cast for him. :)

The X-Rays

(You can click the photo to make it larger)

Max Updates

This morning started bright and early for me. So early, actually, that it wasn’t even bright out yet. I try to avoid 8am appointments at all costs, but this time it wasn’t left up to me. I felt surprisingly awesome though. Both boys slept all night without waking which is something that hasn’t happened in nearly two weeks now. I got just 7 hours of sleep last night, but still bounced out of bed wide awake when the alarm went off. That is Jesus, folks. Pure Jesus. This pregnant mama likes her sleep. I don’t remember the last time I woke up and was instantly awake like that – especially after only 7 hours of sleep. I seem to be requiring much more of that these days.


Grandma Sager came to stay with David while I took Max to his appointment. I didn’t want to have to worry about David getting into things or being scared while I had my hands full with Max. David was super stoked about having his Monga play with just him so it was a win for everybody.

Max handled the appointment really well. Check-in and registration went smoothly. He ate some delish looking Apple Jacks while we waited to be called back. We met with Dr. Woznick and went over his x-rays from yesterday. She said without a doubt he’d be needing a long arm cast (to properly immobilize it and to prevent him from simply slipping out of a short, straight cast). The nurse was called back in to apply his bright green cast from his knuckles to his bicep. He didn’t love having to lay down and be still and REALLY didn’t love her wrapping his arm in padding and gauze, but he calmed down enough to watch her put the green part on.

He is not to get his cast wet or messy. If I choose to put him in a tub of water for a bath I need to cover his arm with a plastic bag. Swimming is out for now. I need to cover his hand with a rubber glove or pin it under the high chair tray for mealtime. Food could easily get stuck in the rough surface of the cast or worse yet it could get underneath the cast and be moldy and smelly. The doctor understands what a challenge all this is with a 17 month old, but it’s what is necessary.

We go back on August 2nd to get his cast removed. They are going to take more x-rays to make sure it’s healed correctly and completely then he’ll be released to go back to normal.

Ready to head into the hospital

They had a basket of animals and cars waiting for him
in the exam room.

Also in the exam room - a super fun hand
chair!

We got to pick our cast color

Getting his cast put on

nearly finished!

The finished product

It does not affect his ability to watch
TV in any way. :)