February update

(Photographs are coming - I'm aware that Christmas is not even posted yet)

Sam and Max are becoming fast friends. Max, much to our relief and pleasure is a wonderful big brother. He spends much of his time dancing and chattering in front of Sam. Sam loves to watch Max play and gives him more smiles and giggles than anyone else - which suits Max perfectly. Sam is also showered with Max kisses throughout the day. Max is very interested in where Sam is at all times and gets very concerned if we ever go anywhere without him. He points to the spot where Sam's car seat should be and continually asks "Baby?"


Whenever Sam spits up or does something Max believes he shouldn't Max shouts "oooooh, baby" He is yet to call him Sam, it's always baby. here's a typical exchange
Mum: "Max, say Sam"
Max:"baby"
Mum: "no, Sam"
Max: "baby"
Mum: "no Max, say SAM"
Max: "tam"
Mum:"good, who is this?" (pointing at Sam)
Max:"baby"


Max's current obsession is tools. He watches Matt whenever he works with his tools and just loves it. Matt put up some racks in the kitchen about 3 weeks ago and every day he still points to them and says "daddy" or "too" for tools. When people come to visit he takes them to the kitchen to tell them about his dad's handy work. Because of his interest, and the fact that he hoarded any of Matt's tools that he left lying around, we bought him a small tool kit for Christmas. Though they weren't quite as fascinating as the real thing he still loved them. The problem was that he would collect all his tools together in his tool box and then ask "more, more?". For Valentine's day we got him a huge tool set with a working drill and saw - when he first saw it he squeeled with absolute disbelief and joy - I have never seen such an expression of pure delight. Now whenever we are planning on going out he grabs all the tools and starts stuffing them in to the daiper bag, knowing that we never leave the house without it.

Max likes Sam to be next to him when he is "fixing" things with his tools. He directs Sam by pointing to where he believes he should be. His favorite thing to do the last couple of days has been to fix the kitchen cabinets - he will do it for a long time which would be fabulous if he would fix the bottom cabinets, and leave me alone for a whole. However, he needs to stand on the counter and fix the upper ones. So, if we are feeling particularly tired of fighting Max's demands, Sam and I give in and stand dutifully watching Max while he shows us how to screw and hammer.

Max is going through that really trying stage when he will say the same word over and over and over until you respond to him. The worst one he does is "more". For those of you who are familiar with the seaguls in Finding Nemo, subtitute the high pitched "mine, mine, mine" for "more, more, more" and you've got it. The other problem is that he expects you to know what he wants more of, whether it be pickles or puzzle pieces but when you ask him what he wants more of he thinks you are asking him to use his manners before you will give it to him so he says please. Of course you are no closer to knowing what he wants and he is frustrated because he's being as polite as he knows how. The daily conversation goes much like this:

Max: "more, more, more, more"
Mum: "what Max?"
Max: "more, more, more" (getting closer and closer in your face as he says it - staring right in your eyes)
Mum: "more WHAT"
Max: "peeeeeeeeeeeeeeese

Another thing that Max frequently does is mix up syllables in his words

Sleeping is Peesin: "baby peesin, shhhhh" (as he puts his finger to his mouth)

Unfortunately his sippy cup is not sippy but "pissy"

One of his friends whose name is Gaby is called "Baggy"

Chips are "pich"

I know there are more but can't think of them right now.


More Max-to-English translations:

uf=dog, cuc = truck, goc=sock, rue=screw, wawa=screwdriver (which he says alost as frequently as more), wawa, Go?=where did the real screwdiver go? ( he says this while searching for Matt's screwdriver that we confiscated from him. He gets up in the morning and empties out all his tools on the floor, searches through them saying "wawa, wawa". When he can't find Matt's real one he goes looking under all the couches and then follows me around questioning "wawa, Go?". It makes me really sad and I used to give it back to him every day because I couldn't stand to see his sad confused face. Finally I've come to terms with the fact that his pleading face is not as heartbreaking as a pierced face would be if he fall on the wawa, or worse, fell on Sam.

Both boys had a cold and a bad cough a couple of weeks ago - it was so sad to hear Sam barking. We took them to the doctor and thankfully it was no more than a cold. At the appointment Max weighed in at 32 pounds and Sam at 21 - he wasn't even 5 months old. My poor back.
Sam is not close to crawling yet but he can get the whole length of the living room by rolling. It's quite the skill and gets him where he wants to be.

The winter is long and we are longing for the spring when Max can run and play outside without coming in with mud all over him and blue lips. We are also beside ourselves with excitement about our upcoming trip to England- or at least I am. My mum and dad treated us to plane tickets so the wee boys and I will be going for a month and Matt will be with us for the first 10 days.