Christmas is upon us and we haven't sent a single Christmas card, written a Christmas letter or taken a family Christmas photo to mail out. I had good intentions. Maybe next year.
I also had good intentions of writing a journal but haven't made a single entry since Sam's birth. I'm thinking the blog kind of counts as a journal so I'm going to write a few of those things that seem common place now but in a few year's I'll wish I could remember more clearly
We'll start with Max who is the life and soul of the Lassen party. I often say that the most joyful sound and the most dreaded sound in my life is Max's voice. There is nothing more wonderful than the sound of his highly contagious giggle, or the first time he says a word you didn't know he knew, or when he says please (peethse)thank you (co-cou)- and seems like he means it. On the other hand, there is nothing so fearsome as hearing that yell from upstairs when you were sure that nap time should not be over yet. Max is a force to be reckoned with at the best of times but if he wakes up early from a nap there's real trouble.
Max has a funny little vocabulary. He doesn't name off animals (though he does like to make animal noises) or names of people he knows. It consists mainly of things he is interested in us getting for him. He can say most of his favourite foods and drink- pickle, pepper, milk (meek), juice (oosh), ice, cookie, bacon, chocolate (coco), chips (cyip), candy, popcorn (co-con) and our favourite "millions" (miyons) - candy from England that are like mini Mentos. He also likes saurkraut but hasn't managed to say that yet. When we go to Costco he eats about two bites of his hot dog and the entire pot of saurkraut. He is also a huge fan of fizzy drinks. So you can see that our little guy has a strange and not overly nutritious taste. We have to hide any candy or pop from him or he won't stop asking for it. We now realize the wisdom in not letting kids try junk food so they won't realize what they're missing. We can't chew gum around him any more either as he continually asks for some. We try to sneak it in the car sometimes but he always catches us chewing and starts yelling at us.
Some of Max's other words are Richard (ichad), baby, (beebe or a-beebe), Santa (easily confusable with dada except for the fact that he is pointing out of the window to our neighbour's huge inflatable Santa), candle (cagguw - usually accompanied by a blowing sound), ball, ball, ball,
outside (eitze), shoes (ooesh - similar to juice), Max, computer (puta), hat (at), keys (eeys),
He is always coming out with things we didn't think he knew - last night he yelled over to us "stuck" - Matt went over to him to find that he actually was wedged between the toy basket and the couch. The toy basket is a loose term as it rarely contains toys - it could more accurately be termed a step stool as it is carried around as a means of getting to hard to reach places. As soon as Max sees we've cleaned up and put the toys away in his step stool he tips the whole thing over and drags the basket away.
He also says "urtz" for hurts and "ouch" which originally got him much attention so now he greatly over uses them.
Max loves the Christmas tree. We decorated it one Sunday afternoon and undecorated it on Monday afternoon. Glass decorations and Max's obsession with balls are not a good combination. This year our tree is simply decorated with colored lights and popcorn and cranberry chains. For the first few days we had the tree Max would get up in the morning and come to find us making a blowing sound (which means light as well as candle). The he would lead us to the tree and show us that the lights weren't on yet. Now he doen't even bother to ask us - he goes downstairs and squeezes behind the couch to plug them in himself.
The winter doesn't suit Max very well. During the summer he is as happy as a clam playing outside in the dirt and sand, driving his trucks around and climbing. He loves walks to the park and playing in the garden with Richard. Since winter has arrived we have a ard time keeping Max happy and occupied. As Max doesn't feel we do an adequate job of entertainment he finds his own. He is constantly emptying cupboards and drawers and smashing the odd plate or glass that he reaches off the counter. He is still spilling Richard's water and eating his food.
Here are my top 5 favourites from the past couple of weeks.
5- Max and Rylee disappeared upstairs one day to play. I didn't realize that they were playing in Sam's room. When I went up to see what was happening I found them dancing and jumping on a huge pile of clothes and baby supplies. The had unloaded every draw in Sam's closet and pulled out all the lotions and shampoos as well as emptied a big crate of clothes that I'd been sorting.
4- We now need to hide every pen in the house. At first Max would just like to bring us paper and draw but the other day I found that he had heavily decorated one of the dining room chairs with a ball point pen - and I mean heavily.3-Whenever Max is quiet we know there is trouble. After a particularly blissful 20 minutes of peace on Saturday morning we decided we should probably check on the reason for the quiet (though we were reluctant to break the quiet). We found Max in our closet waist deep in clothes. Every item on the lower rack of the close was on the floor - not a single solitary item remained on a hanger. Several hangers were broken and the drawers were all empty. Matt laughed as his clothes are up high out of the reach of grabby hands. Wait, it's not over - two days later I went upstairs to find I had left the bedroom door open and Max was back in the closet pulling clothes to the ground. To add insult to injury, I opened the closet door to find Max grinning at me with my brand new toothbrush in his grubby little mouth (the reason it was a brand new tooth brush was because he has used my last one to clean the floor).
2-I hear a scattering sound coming from the kitchen - I go in to find the entire box of multigrain cheerios spread over the whole floor. He had reached it off the kitchen counter and spun around shaking the box upside down. It was one of a string of frustrating things he had done while I was feeding Sam (he seems to take advantage when he knows I can't get up fast). I put him in time out (which, incidentally is our downstairs toilet) and then made him help me pick them up and put them in the box. We had almost finished when Sam needed my attention in the livingroom. Foolishly I left Max finishing the job. The next thing I hear is that same scattering sound back in the kitchen. This time I just sat down on the couch defeated while Richard ate all the cheerios his stomach could hold and Max jumped up and down in cheerios crushing them to pieces before trapsing them through the entire downstairs. I turned on the TV and prayed for Matt to come home early.
1-Max asked me for a chocolate pudding one morning. As I wasn't quite ready for the day I thought it would be a good chance to keep him occupied while I went to finish. I put him in his high chair with his pudding and a spoon knowing that I would have to sponge him down when I came back but thinking that it was worth the 10-15 minutes it would afford me. On returinig however I found that it wasn't just the boy that needed sponging down but the walls, the floor, the table, and the entire bookshelf complete with books. That will teach me.
Now for our Sam
Sam is a sweet boy. He was a very mellow newborn and easy to please. Were it not for the fact that he had his days and nights switched for the first 6 weeks of life he was almost the perfect newborn. From the first few days of life Sam has liked to stretch and stand. He could not be swaddled as he brke right out of it with his legs. Now I know why he hurt my ribs so much. We usualy call him Bam or Sam Bam - not sure why actually but it seems to be his lot - maybe it will wear off. We also call him Max quite frequenly as he looks almost identical to how Max did as a baby. Max sees pictures of himself ans says "aaah, bee-be". We can't really tell the difference in baby pictures except that we remember taking them. That's about it for Sam - 3 month olds don't really do much of interest to report.
