Happy Birthday Max!

Two years ago, Max tricked me, which now that I know him seems appropriate. With Harry arriving three weeks early, I was sure this baby would arrive early as well. And, fittingly, we had amazingly real "early" labor starting a month early with Max, so real-seeming that we called doulas and doctors, and sent Harry to friends and family certain that a baby would be arriving early. BUT after weeks of serious labor pains, my due date of May 3 came and went with no baby. Then once he had made it PAST the day he was expected, Max decided it was time. On May 4th, Mom's labor didn't stop this time. We sent Harry to Beth's for the third or fourth time. Rob called work and said "It has to be for real this time." And it was. Although, like he does everything else, Max followed the lead of brother, and turned his head at the last minute to make for a difficult delivery, but we were so so happy to greet this little guy two years ago today.






And after two years of Max, we know the following:


--You are so handsome and charming. You have lucked out with Daddy/Grammy's long, long eyelashes, brother's cheeks, and beautiful brown eyes.

--You have such dramatic/comedic expressions, but are prone to devilish ones. You take great glee in getting away with something or doing something that prompts Mommy or Daddy to chase you.

--You LOVE trains and rocketships. Your mind is often in space, even when eating.

--You love "E-ya. Be-ya." or Ella Bella, which is Mommy's longtime pet name for Ella the cat. If you ever break loose from anyone's sight, you are found standing next to Ella, petting her or trying to feed her a puff, or hand her a lego.

--You are very smart. For months, you have been able to identify Saturn, Earth, Jupiter, satellites and other planets. We suspect Brother has something to do with this.

--You choose the path of most resistance for everything.

--You have great rhythm and love to sing "Life is a Highway."

--You are very serious about playing three things : "Mah-kers" or markers, Legos and puzzles. You will sit down with paper and washable (of course) markers and make impressive pictures. You will also sit for quite some time with Legos and build "rockets" or "towers." You and brother get very serious about putting together our space puzzle, and I'm so amazed by how much you do yourself. One time, after you whined for help, Ana told you that you could do it yourself, 10 minutes later you emerged with a finished section, so proud. From my office, I heard you say "Yook! Yook! Ana! Puzzle!" Then you said "Show Mommy!" A few seconds later, my door burst open and you said "Yook Mommy!" and you had indeed put together a whole section of the puzzle, way earlier than I ever expected.

--The most influential person in your life is Bru-yer. If he makes an expression, a noise, a move, you imitate it. He sometimes encourages you to do things you shouldn't because he knows you will do it. But you have taught him a lot too. You've taught him to rebound from things better. He laughs the most and hardest because of you.

Simply put, you see things eye to eye:


When you had to go away to the sleep center for an overnight sleep study, brother had overheard enough to know what was happening. And when the time came for you to leave, Brother burst into tears. He couldn't tell us exactly why he was crying, but finally when we said "are you worried about Max?" he nodded and seemed to be able to vent out his emotions. When you were at the sleep center, and had wires attached to you, the first thing you said to me was "See bru-yer?" Ugh. You two fill my heart. We came home and Brother woke right up and ran out to see you. You are his best friend.

Your "guys" have grown over the past year. The first year it was puppy and froggy. But in the past year, we have added Big Elmo, Blankie and other Froggie. Although both froggies are pronounced as "Shoggies." And the whole crew is referred to as "Need Puppa, shoggie, bankie, elmo, and oder shoggie" all without pause.

When you wake in the morning, you try to carry all of them with you out of the crib, which is quite a feat.

You like sweets, well maybe LOVE sweets. We gave you a milkshake at the train restaurant we went to for you birthday. Once you had one taste, your mouth did not lift from the straw, for fear, I think, that someone might take it away. You drank the whole milkshake without once removing your mouth from the straw. Rob was very concerned about an ice cream headache, but it didn't seem to be a problem.

Riding the train at the choo-choo restaurant.

Did I mention that Bru-yer, Japes (James) and Mommy were also on the train car?

You love the Happy Birthday song.

Cousin James and Harry riding another train.

After the train restaurant, we went to the old train park and got to climb on them with Papa.

These are not real train tracks, but a real freight train passed on those tracks behind us, which was VERY exciting for the boys!

Max on his new big wheel.

Happy Birthday Max! We love you!

Grammy's House

We headed down to Grammy's house recently, and Harry and Max had a blast, as evidenced below.

We broke up the trip with a stop at the dairy farm tourist trap that we pass about two hours into the drive. Oh, how Max loves "chock-lat"! Harry, of course, declined all offers of ice cream.

Harry getting a push from one of his favorite people, cousin Cameron. Max is a big fan too. After Cameron left, Max asked us: "Cam-ron com-ing?"

Working the "bob the builder" tools at Grammy's park.

Syd and Max at the park

I suspect this hat is a hand-me-down from Sam T. Looks very "aussie" to me.

Max trying to flip his big brother off the teeter-totter at the children's museum.

Inside a bubble

Daddy had to try it out all alone too.

Making bubbles. This was really fun. I highly recommend a visit to Columbus, Ind. It's a very cool place in an unexpected location.

Gleeful

Sorry for the absence....

We've been painting, decluttering, and cleaning in preparation for listing our condo. We just had the photos taken for our listing, so I sit now in a perfectly clean and staged house. That will be over in exactly two minutes, when the boys are due to wake from their nap!

First Real Haircuts

Max got his first real haircut, and he looks like a little boy now! Wah! Where's my little baby? I've cut Harry's hair since he was 1, so this was his first real haircut too. The stylist lured him into the truck seat/styling chair by playing Toy Story 3. But then she started spraying water at him. He didn't like it, but suffered silently.

Look how much he loved his first haircut.

Max's "before" shot.

Max's turn. Their different personalities showed through in their reactions to the hairdresser. Harry freaked out silently. Max gave a bunch of dirty looks, then pointed to the door and said "OUT!"

He's growing up so fast. Now he's wearing Daddy's shoes!

Sharing a Room!

Yes, Harry and Maxwell now share the same room! They both love it. In fact, Max goes to bed so much easier that we wondered if maybe part of his longtime sleeping issues had to do with just feeling kind of lonely in a darkened room by himself. We ultimately were pushed into combining them into one room because we are putting out condo on the market and thought that the potential buyers looking at this place most likely were not going to have two kids already. Better to show one room off as an office or something similar.

When we asked the boys if they wanted to share a room, they danced around and paraded through the house gleeful at the idea. Harry told us "I'm so excited!" Max was all about it until it came time to actually lay down in his crib, then he seemed a bit confused about why it was in Harry's room. But he laid down and we closed the door. As soon as we did, we heard Max say "Hi Bro-yer" and they burst into giggles. The first night required several interventions from Mom and Dad, but eventually they settled down. Max woke up a couple times in the middle of the night and just seemed kind of disoriented.

It's gotten better since that time, and been hilarious to watch them. Max now just lays right down in his little corner of the crib with his "puppa," "shnoggie," and "bankie." (Puppy, Froggie and Blankie) He doesn't require quite as many "sogs" (songs). Harry's biggest concern is "Max is going to talk!" One night after putting them to bed, we heard some noise. I opened the door and they both looked so guilty. Busted! Max's crib was filled with toys, and Harry was dancing in front of Max's crib. They both laid down immediately. So cute.

The roomsharing has forced a reshuffling of the bedtime routine. They both now go to bed at the same time, which means Harry goes to bed slightly earlier and Max slightly later.

I don't have any photos yet of the new bedtime, but here are the brothers in action.

This is called "boxhead." And they will play this for a very long time together, walking through the house with the diaper box on their heads.

Max's handiwork while I was in the bathroom. Remarkably, I got this out!

The Cookie Detective

Last night, after I put the kids to bed, I snuck a piece of chocolate chip/M&M cookie. A few minutes later, I was called back into the boys' room to retrieve Puppy for Max. He wanted another little hug, so I gave him a hug and a kiss and said goodnight. Wrong move.

He grabbed my face and have me a knowing smile.

"Cookie!"

Apparently he smelled the cookie on me.

He so loves making cookies that he now has the recipe down. He will tell me: "Sug-ah. Salt. Fower." And most importantly, "Chips!"

Adding/smushing butter into the bowl.

Harry enjoys making cookies too. As we made this batch, he said "I want to hatch the egg!" Then when we cracked it and added it to the bowl, both boys made high-pitched tweet noises and said "oh, baby chickie!" This could get more complicated once they start asking questions.

Mixing the batter. But be sure not to actually touch it! :)

Their favorite part: Eating chocolate chips.

Happy Birthday Harry!

I look at this beautiful face and I still see this:



Harrison Clifford on Day One

Harry at Four:

--is incredibly focused. This has been a personality trait since birth. If he is interested in something (cars, trains, states), he wants to know everything about it. Example: Space. "I want to read everything I can about space! Look Mommy, my sandwich is a space cookie. I am blasting off! I am drawing the solar system! I have memorized all the different kinds of galaxies! I only want to watch History Channel documentaries about the planets!"

--has found his imagination. Sometimes directs us to refer to him as his favorite characters. Currently that would be Dino Dan or Chris or Martin Kratt from the "Wild Kratts."

--is an adored older brother, but often has to be reminded to not sit on, crush, push, hit or pinch his younger brother. At the same time, on his birthday, he asked if he could put his baby brother to bed. Harry read Max three stories in the rocker, sang him a song, then gave him a kiss and a hug goodnight.

--loves preschool, his friends, and his teacher, Ms. Linda.

--sometimes criticizes our parenting skills by asking Rob: "Can you keep an eye on Max?" when Max is getting too close to Harry's toys. Or saying "How about that applesauce?" when Mom forgets it during a run to the kitchen during dinner.

--is very sweet. When he wakes up in the morning, he is just the sweetest, happiest thing.

--is a major staller at bedtime. Will ask whatever question he can think of just to keep you in the room. "How many minutes until I can wake up?" Or will have nonsense excuses for why he is still awake. "I can't sleep because there is a bowl on the table!"

--loves to close out his day by looking ahead. Each night, he says "let's talk about the fun things tomorrow." Then we have to go through the schedule for the next day, especially the "fun things!"

--has taken on some teenagerish traits. Suddenly, getting dressed "is too hard!" Also, he doesn't like to change out of his pajamas until he has been up for a few hours.

--still hates cake, cupcakes, frosting, and most candy. As in, he recoils if presented with a birthday cupcake at school. But will accept chocolate chip cookies.

--likes to play "Hide and Zeek." (You be the Zeeker, Max!) Still says "Firty" for "Thirty" and "Liling room" for "Living Room."