Max at 18 Months
We’ve been saying this a lot lately but the last few months have been the most fun yet. Max has his own sense of humor and loves making Aaron and I laugh with his mischievous smile. He picks up things so quickly, climbs on everything and continues to impress us everyday.
The most heartwarming thing Max does right now is give kisses. When he is in a really affectionate mood he locks eye contact from 2 feet away, slowly leans in, closes his eyes and plants an open-mouthed, slobbery kiss on our faces. It feels like the awkward end-of-date kiss from an 80s rom com, but we absolutely love it.
Biggest toy obsession right now are trains, or “choo choo’s”. The first time he made the magnetized ends of the trains connect he gasped in amazement. But he is equally frustrated when the trains are in the wrong orientation and won’t connect. Despite the love-hate relationship, Max loves going to Barnes and Noble to play with the train table, and could stand there for hours rolling the choo choos around the track. Our least favorite part is the tantrum that ensues as soon as we try to leave. Luckily, Aaron and I have gotten smarter and now we bring a bag of incentives (i.e. snacks, toy trains from home) to lure him out. It’s not a perfect system, but there are significantly fewer tears.
These days life with Max starts promptly at 4:30am. He is a total early bird and is happiest when he wakes up in the morning. We’ve been taking advantage of his early schedule and going for long walks before the summer heat kicks in. Max still loves his wagon, but his most recent set of wheels is his tricycle which we got from our awesome neighbors (hi Katherine!)! His legs are still a little short for the pedals, but we can already tell it’s a toy he is going to love in the upcoming months. We’ve also started making regular trips to the pool, which he loves. He’s most excited when he sees other kids splashing around. Despite the hour prep time it takes to get to the pool, Max usually only lasts for about 45 minutes before he looks utterly exhausted from floating.
Another big change is that Max moved to the toddler room at Daycare. I felt surprisingly emotional about the transition because 1. I loved his young toddler teachers (hi Mrs. Donna and Ms. JaVonne!) and 2. it struck me that our little boy is growing up so fast. But Max has been doing great in his new environment with teachers he loves (hi Mrs. Jeanne!) and a new big kid playground. He has already picked up so many new words and is becoming quite the chatter box. Most recently he added the word “no” to his vocabulary. Unlike some of the other words he says, his annunciation of “no” is crystal clear and confident. But by far his favorite thing to say is “what’s that”, which sounds more like “was tat”. No matter how many times he asks “what’s that” (and it’s a lot) Aaron and I love answering him.
We struggled with solids at first, but these days Max has become a great eater. We do our best to incorporate greens into his diet and are successful some days while other days we just let it go. Mostly our success depends on how well we disguise the vegetables since he is skeptical of any food that is green. Max weaned off of his nighttime bottle a few months ago but still takes 1 bottle in the morning.
Max is a dancer. Whether it is the jingle from the ice cream truck passing by, a commercial with an especially catchy tune or his playlist of favorite songs, Max loves to dance. He even has song-specific moves - he get’s low to Flo Rida’s “Low”, he turns circles to Hap Palmer’s “Rolling” and he does an arm spin to Wee Sing’s “Risseldy Rosseldy”. There are even times when Max is upset, but will hear his tunes and gets up in an almost robotic way to start dancing. Aaron and I love this little boy so much and it’s such a priveledge watching him grow up. Here are some of his stats along with a few of our favorite moments from the past few months.
Max stats
- Weight: 23.75 lbs (~45 percentile)
- Height: 33″ (~72 percentile)
- Head circumference: 19.5″ (~95 percentile)
Memorable moments:
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Our living room lights can change color. As a fun way to teach Max colors, we taught him to point to the lights, say a color and Aaron would change the lights accordingly. It is the cutest thing to see Max point to the ceiling and say “geen”. Of course the obvious flaws in the game include 1. we always have to be prepared (which we aren’t) and 2. Max thinks he can point to any light and magically change it’s color (which he can’t). But for now it is one of our favorite games to play.
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My in-laws got me a J.Crew gift card for my birthday. The card had a J.Crew model on it and when Max saw it he pointed to the model and repeatedly said “mama, mama”. I have never loved that child more!
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Max’s spatial distance needs work which is apparent when he turns to go down the stairs. Most times he turns WAY too soon and ends up needing to pedal backwards quite a distance before reaching the start of the stairs. On a few occassions he was so far off that he ran into the wall, completely missing the stairs!
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Max has finally outgrown his duck bathtub and is loving the freedom of the full bath.